LP candidate for President Jo Jorgensen making the rounds on podcast media, below appearing on Ben Shapiro’s program. VP candidate Spike Cohen has appeared on Kibbe’s show:

On 9/11, remembering the late John W. Perry, NYPD officer and Libertarian activist, among the heroes who died that day in 2001 while saving others. Yes, blue lives do matter.

One Day From Retirement

Officer John W. Perry was preparing to retire from the NYPD on the morning of September 11. He was in the middle of filling out his exit paperwork when news of the attacks arrived, and rather than carry on with his retirement, Perry put his paperwork down and ran the few blocks from 1 Police Plaza to the Towers. He was last seen helping a woman out of one of the towers as it collapsed. Perry’s friend, Arnold Wachtel, told New York Newsday:

Apparently, John was too slow carrying this woman. But knowing John, he would never leave that lady unattended. That was just like him to help people.

Eric July (YoungRippa59) discusses a recent interesting exchange bearing on libertarian philosophy in a Justice League comic on his YouTube channel:

OAN takes a quick look at the controversy resulting from the NYPD union endorsing Donald Trump for President. Local Queens pols like AOC, who has been endorsed by several public unions, only seem to have objected to this when a non-Democrat got the endorsement. Libertarians might ask, should public sector unions even exist?:

QL has recently re-affirmed officers on its Executive Committee, the Bylaws amended from December 2016, and has re-acquired access to its bank account as of August 2020. The 2020 Officers of Queens Libertarians are as follows:

President, Speaker Coordinator— John Clifton
Vice President— Philip Schoenberg
Membership Secretary— Daniel Adler
Treasurer— Samuel Sloan
Secretary— Philip Schoenberg
Toy Drive, Special Events Coordinator— Michelle Yaskel

This independent organization will now be able to resume its mission to continue to be the authentic voice of libertarian views, activism, education and advocacy in Queens since 1994. QL expects its ongoing and upcoming positive achievements and fully active organization will result in a re-merging or restoration of its status and/or members with LPNY, through a future state convention or committee. The Queens Libertarians otherwise plan to complete a conversion into a Political Action Committee going forward in the next year.

Queens Libertarians will host recent candidates Nic Leobold and Sam Sloan, at the Takara Sushi restaurant located at 150-11 14th Avenue, Whitestone, New York on Saturday, August at 11:30 am. They will speak on the topic of “Police and Criminal Justice Reform After Floyd” and the best civil libertarian approach to law enforcement and police brutality issues in the wake of the early summer protests. What new reforms are needed, and what is the most constructive path to obtaining change?

There will also be an update on the ballot status lawsuit of LPNY in light of the recent change in the NY State election laws. UPDATE– Nic indicates he may not appear for personal reasons, in which case host John Clifton will fill in with thoughts on the topic, based on commentary recently expressed in his blog. More details and directions here.

Governor Cuomo’s unilateral reversal of the ballot access gains of the LP is now law. From a LPNY press release:

Albany, New York, July 28, 2020 – The Green Party of New York (GPNY) and the Libertarian Party of New York (LPNY) filed a Federal lawsuit today in the Southern District of New York to invalidate restrictive ballot access provisions passed as a rider to the FY2021 State Budget.

Since 1936, minor political parties in New York have been required to obtain 50,000 votes for their gubernatorial candidate every four years in order to achieve and maintain ballot status. The GPNY achieved ballot status in 2010, and has since maintained it, while the LPNY achieved ballot status in 2018.

In an act of blatant political retribution against the Working Families Party (WFP), Governor Cuomo’s hand-picked “Public Campaign Finance Commission,” led by state Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs, recommended in December 2019 that not only should the requirement to achieve and maintain ballot access be increased from 50,000 votes to the greater of 130,000 votes or two percent of votes cast, but also that the qualifications should occur every two years, at the gubernatorial and presidential elections. At the same time, signature requirements for independent nominating petitions were recommended to be increased threefold. After the legislature declined to modify the recommendations, they automatically became law twenty days later.

Ultimately, the legislature’s abdication of its law-making powers to this executive commission caused a NYS Supreme Court judge in Western New York to declare the commission and all its actions unconstitutional. Bent on settling political scores, and under the cover of the COVID-19 crisis, Governor Cuomo and the legislature subsequently re-enacted the ballot access provisions in Part ZZZ of the FY2021 State Budget, leaving minor political parties in NYS facing an uncertain future…More

John Stossel comments on how consistently wrong the CV-19 brigade has been throughout the pandemic over the first half of 2020:

Libertarian presidential candidate affirms principle of non-aggression. From Jo’s press release:

GREENVILLE, S.C.—July 7, 2020. An article in the Guardian, a British newspaper, featuring a picture of Dr. Jo Jorgensen, attempts to smear the Libertarian Party presidential candidate by associating her with a movement known as boogaloo, because of her appearance on a podcast hosted by some members of the movement. The Guardian describes boogaloo by detailing its most radical elements.

The boogaloo movement has no organization and no leadership. Participants within vary widely, from white supremacists, at one extreme, to those who vehemently condemn both racism and white supremacy. Their unifying characteristic is the belief that citizens have the right to rise up against an oppressive government, and in particular, one that denies their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, or their right to self-defense.

This view is enshrined in America’s Declaration of Independence from, coincidentally, Great Britain. It states that whenever a government becomes destructive of human rights, “it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it.”

The Guardian article fails to distinguish between anti-government and anti-authoritarian government sentiment, the latter of which better describes the views of boogaloo members.

As both the Libertarian Party and the Jorgensen campaign have made consistently and abundantly clear, and as the Guardian‘s journalist surely knows, libertarians vehemently oppose the initiation of force, whether by government or civilian forces.

As Dr. Jorgensen explained to the reporter, the Libertarian Party has a membership requirement unlike that of any other U.S. political party. To be eligible to join, each individual must sign a pledge attesting that they oppose the initiation of force for the purpose of achieving social or political goals.

“I reject violence and bigotry, and I advocate non-aggression, peaceful persuasion, and voluntary cooperation,” Jorgensen said. “At the same time, I and my fellow libertarians reject so-called cancel culture, which denies people their right to free speech.”

A university has joined the “cancel culture” movement, by removing the word “freedom” from its staff and student ID cards. Some students had complained the word was racially problematic:

…Robert Morris University in Pennsylvania will change its student, faculty, and staff ID cards from “Freedom Cards” to “RMU ID Cards,” Campus Reform has learned.

“Gifting us with IDs that grant us our ‘freedom’ is of extremely poor taste.”
The decision follows the circulation of an online petition initiated by student Melanie Hall, who asked the university to rename its ID cards, arguing that the choice of “Freedom Cards” for minority students (who make up 24 percent of students at RMU, according to the petition) was a “poorly named form of identification.”

It “has made minority students (black students in particular) feel like we are being dehumanized. Gifting us with IDs that grant us our ‘freedom’ is of extremely poor taste. Especially coming from a University that is named after a slave owner,” Hall wrote…More

Dr. Schoenberg will speak on “President Donald Trump on Leadership.” The attendees should be prepared to spend at least $10 for food and to practice social distancing as per the arrangements advised by the facility. For further information, you can contact drphil@nycwalks.com Dr. Schoenberg (718) 704-3105.

A very interesting FEE retrospective on the comic and 2005 movie V for Vendetta, and how it has foreshadowed our post-surveillance state and COVID dominated cancel culture:

Queens Libertarians will resume holding its monthly meetings in Whitestone at the Takara Sushi restaurant located at 150th and 14th Avenue, Whitestone, New York on Saturday, June 13 at 11:30 am. Scheduled speaker will be LP congressional candidate Jay Sanchez, as previously announced. The venue staff confirmed it will be open as of the week of June 8. The previous location (the Irish Cottage in Forest Hills) has closed as a business due to complications from the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown.

Attendees should to be prepared to expend at least $10 for food, and to practice social distancing as per the arrangements advised by the facility. Queens Libertarians will continue to meet on the second Saturday of each month, for now at Takara, and welcomes new suggestions for centrally located meeting venues in Queens.

The Libertarian Party has met by various virtual means (Zoom, YouTube, Facebook etc) to hold its 2020 national convention online May 22-24. The party has chosen Jo Jorgenesen as its 2020 nominee for President. Anarchist and parodist Spike Cohen was selected as the Vice Presidential candidate. The body will hold a physical convention July 9-12 in Orlando, to vote for the next LNC Chair and national committee. Below is the Presidential debate moderated by the LP of Texas, featuring seven candidates including Jorgensen, Adam Kokesh, Jacob Hornberger, Vermin Supreme and others:

Larry Sharpe, contender for the 2020 LP nomination for Vice President, interviews Stacey Prussman, contender for the 2021 LP nomination for NYC Mayor, on the “Libertarians Drinking Coffee” program this past week: