Dave Champion continues to champion the truth about the limited number of people who the income tax actually applies to:

Join us for LPQC/QL’s open discussion of the upcoming petition drive and 2026 campaign matters on April 11 at noon. It will be held at our Astoria location, Stamatis Greek and Mediterranean Restaurant at 29-09 23rd Avenue (in the back area, menu details at stamatisrestaurant.net). You can travel there by taking the N subway train to the last stop at Astoria-Ditmars Blvd, or taking the nearby Q69 bus to 31st St (in both cases walk 1 block to 23rd Avenue).

Dave DeCamp, editor of Antiwar.com on the real-or-faux ceasefire “agreed to” by the US and Iran on April 7. It appears neither side was directly negotiating (sit down, in person dialogue) to be on the same page on terms, and Trump may not have even read the 10-point deal  Iran proposed before announcing his approval of it. Perhaps the point was for both countries to agree to a “framework” while each spun it as a “victory.” Either way, we need a final PEACEfire, not another “pause before a new round of war” ceasefire at this point:

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Wednesday that a ceasefire deal with the US must include a halt to Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, which have dramatically escalated since President Trump announced the truce on Tuesday night.

“The Iran-US Ceasefire terms are clear and explicit: the US must choose—ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both,” Araghchi wrote on X. “The world sees the massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the U.S. court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.”

Iranian media reported that Iran has halted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz in response to Israel’s continued bombing campaign in Lebanon.

“The passage of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz has been halted following Israel’s attacks on Lebanon,” Iran’s Fars news agency has reported.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who mediated the US-Iran ceasefire deal, said in his initial announcement of the agreement that it would also include a ceasefire in Lebanon, a point reaffirmed by Iranian officials. But it has since been denied by both the US and Israel that Lebanon was part of the deal.

“The two-week ceasefire does not include Lebanon,” the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote on X. On Wednesday morning, Israel launched a massive bombardment across Lebanon, killing and injuring hundreds of people, as part of a new escalation it dubbed “Operation Eternal Darkness.”

President Trump was asked if the ceasefire included Lebanon and called it a “separate skirmish” that was “not included” in the deal. “Yeah, they were not included in the deal,” he said. “Because of Hezbollah. They were not included in the deal. That’ll get taken care of, too. It’s alright.” Read More

Liberty Vault goes into the 1960’s attempt to destroy the reputation and freedom of MLK, the Panthers and other civil rights figures:

Reason asks the question unreconstructed adherents of Libertarian philosophy still hold firm to, on principle— why do we need a TSA bureaucracy at all? Or DHS, for that matter? And can’t the INS suffice for immigration law enforcement, instead of ICE? Hey liberals, remember when we had civil liberties and an expectation of privacy (for ourselves and our effects) at the airports? Hey, small government conservatives, why do you support, or gotten so used to, all these big bureaucracies and laws? There were only 3-4 federal crimes identified in our original constitution—treason, piracy, and counterfeiting (then later, kidnapping over state lines). But now, endless thousands, and endless fed jackboots running these bloated programs. Stop the madness, shut them down, and keep them closed!:

Mayor Zo remains oblivious to the bad impact of his pending tax hikes on middle class access to home ownership and free markets, as this episode at the Allen AME church displays. From the New York Post:

Zohran Mamdani has a problem with the black political establishment, as well as the black middle class.

And he knows it, hence his pilgrimage to Greater Allen AME Cathedral in Queens on Palm Sunday.

It was no accident that he was seated next to Rep. Gregory Meeks, the boss of the Queens Democratic machine, and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards.

But proximity to establishment leadership does not make up for the lack of a working political relationship — or bad ideas.

Greater Allen AME, and in particular that section of Queens, is home to New York’s greatest concentration of the black middle class — professionals, civil servants, corporate workers, Democratic operatives and, most importantly, homeowners.

These are the people Mamdani addressed on Palm Sunday about the evil of . . . city tax liens sales and how those sales force black New Yorkers out of the city.

Surprisingly, the mayor didn’t attempt to quell concerns about his own two tax proposals, which directly threaten their ability to own their homes or to pass on the wealth generated by those properties to their heirs.

Feeling robbed

Mamdani didn’t dare speak about his threatened 9.5% property tax hike or his push to lower the “death” tax threshold, the state’s estate-tax exemption, from $7 million to $750,000, and tripling the top rate to 50%.

The median sale price for a home in Southeast Queens is fast approaching $750,000… See More

Forget Zohran, he’s just a kind-hearted socialist ideologue, perhaps in over his head. The real statist local bad guy/gal is Governor Hochul, who still harbors a desire to exile anti-government folks out of New York, yet also wants them to come back, so she can tax their socks off. Salty Cracker responds:

The current course of events speak for themselves, but listen in:

In this case, civil liberties lawyers are teaming up with a Bronx pastor. As the good old free speech advocates at the Institute for Justice report:

For years, New York-based nonprofit Upsolve, Inc., trained volunteers to give basic legal advice to New Yorkers facing debt-collection lawsuits under the protection of an injunction holding that this kind of advice was protected free speech. Upsolve’s program was successful, and in recent years other states have increasingly recognized that trained nonlawyer volunteers can offer valuable and necessary help to people who can’t afford lawyers—which is most people. But yesterday, a federal district court dismissed Upsolve’s lawsuit, holding that the First Amendment provides no right to talk to people about the law without a license. The Institute for Justice (IJ), a nonprofit, public interest law firm that protects the First Amendment nationwide and that represents Upsolve in the lawsuit, promised to appeal.

“The First Amendment protects your right to talk to people about their lives, their problems, and even the law,” said IJ Attorney Betsy Sanz. “Realistically, New Yorkers get this kind of advice all the time from bartenders, barbers, and even chatbots. The only difference here is that Upsolve wants the advice to come from people with some relevant training and experience.” More

In local Libertarian news, a changing of the guard has occurred. At our humble LPQC convention on March 14, our current slate of officers were reaffirmed, with the major change of Francisco Olvera accepting the position as county Chair, as off and on long time chair John Clifton retires from local and state LPNY related officer roles. Olvera will also continue his work as primary online media promotion person for the county committee, while the position of Vice Chair will be vacant for the interim.

Clifton will continue to contribute to the website and some social media promotion activity. He says “I intend to pursue other projects such as a general speaker campaign, to discuss various liberty topics, and explore developing a NY political action committee to help keep the party on the ballot going forward.” He noted to his fellow QL members, “It has been my honor to serve the LP in official local and state roles for decades. I hope Queens is stabilized enough at this point to be left in your capable hands going forward.” The meetings of QL/LPQC/LP Queens will continue at our monthly luncheons at Stamatis Restaurant in Astoria, held on the second Saturday of each month at noon.

Legalized kidnapping may be back in business, courtesy of the NDAA. As Thomas Knapp puts it, “It’s a power play. It’s a way to remind us who’s in charge. It’s a threat. At any moment, the threat implies, our lords and masters can change our status from “tax serf” — generously allowed to make a living (so long as we hand over a substantial cut of every dollar earned), travel (so long as we “show our papers” and submit to groping on demand), etc. — to “military slave,” obligated to shed others’ blood and perhaps our own on command, at risk of death should we obey and on pain of death should we refuse.” Kim Iversen breaks it down below:

From Larry Sharpe’s latest press release:

Our campaign to rebuild New York continues to grow stronger every day.

Today, We are proud to announce that Michael Carpinelli will join our campaign as our candidate for Lieutenant Governor of New York. Update: Carpinelli is Sharpe’s pick in the GOP primary race. Due to a conflict with party rules, LPNY voted to instead nominate Mark Braimum at its March 8 State Committee meeting.

Michael is a longtime public servant and law enforcement professional who has spent decades serving and protecting New Yorkers. He understands the challenges our communities face because he has lived them, and he shares our vision of restoring opportunity, affordability, and local control across our state.

“Michael understands the challenges everyday New Yorkers face because he has spent his career on the front lines serving our communities,” I said in announcing the ticket. “He shares our commitment to rebuilding New York by empowering local communities, restoring economic opportunity, and bringing common sense leadership back to Albany.”

– Larry Sharpe

Michael is equally committed to this mission.

“I’ve spent years serving and protecting New Yorkers. During that time, I’ve watched our state decline under decades of establishment Democrats like Andrew Cuomo and Kathy Hochul. I’m proud to join a ticket that is ready to change that and turn New York around.

Larry Sharpe has the ability to build the kind of coalition that past Republican candidates couldn’t. He brings together people from across the political spectrum who simply want a better future for this state. I’m honored to stand with him as his Lieutenant Governor running mate. Together, we will focus on restoring local control, making New York affordable again, expanding opportunity, and rebuilding strong communities.”

— Michael Carpinelli

One more video update on the Iran mess, again from an amazing AI analytical source. Another in a month, when things get really, really bad:

Yes, it’s already a mess, as well as a steep stack of betrayals and contradictions, by a President who was supposed to be better than this. How is killing a religious leader, and launching a bombing campaign on a Muslim nation twice in 8 months any way to get to peace? BTW, don’t blame end times believers for this, blame the war hawks who misuse religion to argue that we must use force to make God’s prophecies come true, instead of letting the Almighty take care of things. As usual, there is no free speech afforded on cable media to any constitutional-minded critic who might object. Two anti-war voices cry out in the midst of the droning FOX wilderness:

LP  National Chair on the more statist than ever annual speech celebrating Big Government and more federal force: