Queens’ own Larry Sharpe, the 2022 LPNY candidate for Governor, was presented in person with this year’s Thomas Stevens National Libertarian Award by QL at its Annual Holiday Luncheon on December 10. Retired professor Robert Luster received the Local Libertarian Award for his series of talks on international and geo-political liberty issues given over the past year. Sharpe’s tireless campaigning and fundraising throughout the state has deeply raised the standard of practice for Libertarian candidates running for statewide office in New York, even in the face of ridiculously unfair changes in the election law that deprived the party of permanent ballot status.
Sharpe made several points about the campaign and the legal battle, to address “what went wrong?” sentiments, and to indicate the future path of the party going into 2024 and beyond. He has agreed to discuss these ‘lessons learned’ issues in fuller detail at QL’s February 11 meeting, where several motions and housekeeping matters will also be gone over. Members (current and future) are encouraged to join or renew their involvement by paying the $20 dues needed to be able to vote on the business items. Until then, to all in advance, Happy New Year!
Former LP Vice Presidential candidate Wayne Allyn Root’s take on rapper and eccentric controversialist Kanye West (or ‘Ye’), and the psyop aspects of the story about his Mar-a-Lago dinner with former President Donald Trump. Comic commentator ‘The Salty Cracker’ concurs:
“…the liberal media hates Trump. They have tried to slander him, frame him, demonize him, and destroy him thousands of times. They love Obama. The way they treated Obama vs Trump is like night and day.
Last week, Trump had dinner with a celebrity acquaintance (Kanye West) and a stranger (Nick Fuentes). The media, Democrats and the RINO establishment GOP are trying to destroy Trump over a brief dinner. With a stranger.
The story is a scam. It’s gaslighting at the highest level. Kanye West set Trump up. Kanye is clearly mentally disturbed. He wanted to create a media firestorm that would fuel his own insane political ambitions. Trump was just eating dinner and expecting to give career advice to a billionaire celebrity acquaintance.
What makes it “gaslighting” is Trump’s background and record. Trump himself is a Jewish grandfather- his own grandchildren are orthodox Jewish. Trump opened Mar-a-Lago to Jewish members- the first club to ever do that in Palm Beach. Trump was Grand Marshal of “The Salute to Israel Parade” in New York City.
And then there’s his record as president. I once called Trump “America’s First Jewish President.” Compare all of that to Obama.
As a Jew, I will state unequivocally that I continue to support President Trump. He is the greatest president of my lifetime. I appreciate what he did for the US economy, jobs, stocks, real estate, small business, inflation (there was none under Trump) and the great American middle class. The man was great for America First…and for Israel second. I look forward to his second term in 2024.”
From LPNY’s post-election release:
The Election is Over. Now What?
Fellow Libertarians:
The 2022 election is now over and behind us. Unfortunately, our statewide candidates were not on the ballot, but Larry Sharpe continued to run a write-in campaign to give voters another choice. At the present time, we do not have the full results of the write-in campaign as the Board of Elections will be working to tally and certify the results over the next few weeks. As soon as we have some numbers, we will notify everyone.
This election season has been one of the most trying in the Libertarian Party of New York’s history: the increase of the ballot access thresholds for parties in 2020, the lockdowns hindering the ground campaign of our Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates in 2020, and legal challenges lost from the decisions of duopoly appointees.
In addition, there was a bill introduced in the state legislature to reduce the thresholds back to pre-2020, but it failed to reach the floor for discussion and consideration. Assemblyman John Salka and Senator Phil Boyle should be applauded for their efforts to bring this to the legislature. Unfortunately, neither will be in office next session.
This year, our statewide slate of candidates led by Larry Sharpe amassed over 42,000 signatures, less than 3,000 shy of the necessary 45,000 signatures needed. Kathy Hochul, who won the election, required 0 signatures to get on the ballot. Not counting Zeldin’s attempt at third-party lines, he only needed 0 signatures to get on the Republican and Conservative Party lines. Of the 11 candidates who ran for Governor this year, including Hochul and Zeldin, Larry Sharpe received the most signatures in the petitioning drive, and yet was not allowed on the ballot.
Through our efforts to fight within the system, through the judicial process, the meeting the arbitrary petitioning thresholds, and lobbying for legislation, the political machine in New York State is stronger than ever and was successful at keeping third parties off the ballot this year for the first time since 1946.
While we will continue to fight all on avenues, it is time to turn our efforts to promoting a state of defiance, which refers to methods of political activism that offers a change in strategy from conventional politics that shifts our reliance on politicians, judges, lawyers, and the state to individuals through mobilizing a grassroots movement that goes beyond electoral politics and promotes non-compliance, non-enforcement, repeal, and removing oneself from reliance on government through networking, coalition building, and promoting ideas such as homeschooling, homesteading and self-sufficiency, defense training, volunteerism, and more.
Building this new strategy is going to take time. At the present time, we are working on establishing an infrastructure and a leadership team. There will be more updates as we progress over the next several months. Elections only last less than two years; but we need to play the long game, and setting the Libertarian Party of New York for success for the long term is essential and is going to take time. We will be reaching out on next steps over the next few months and calling for volunteers for new initiatives.
Thank you for your continued support for the LPNY and for liberty.
In Liberty,
Andrew Martin Kolstee
Chair, Libertarian Party of New York
QL President John Clifton’s quick observations about the election:
1- Note that (according to the NY Post tabulation) there were only 9600 write in votes for Governor in 2022. The strategy of writing in Larry Sharpe for Governor has apparently failed. Even a long-planned write-in campaign would probably not produce the over 130,000 votes needed to get the LP candidate over the hump to get regular ballot status. One silver lining is, at least we now have a real world number to reference from, to show why it is unlikely to accomplish something statewide via a write-in effort.
2- The gap between Hochul and Zeldin was about 300,000 votes. It is reasonable to suppose that a strong minor party showing, by the LP and/or Green candidate could have been in the hundreds of thousands of votes, and thus would have affected a tight Dem-GOP race. This may have been another reason why Gov. Cuomo changed the rules to effectively prevent true independent third parties from being able to achieve ballot status.
3- LPNY and the national LP will need to devise a better means of organizing and raising funds to run a successful independent petition drive for the Presidential candidate in the 2024 cycle, or else the party may have to forego having 50 state ballot status in that year. This does not count the organization also needed to enable the LP candidate, if put on the ballot in New York, to get the votes required in the election to secure permanent ballot status under the current rules.
4- Were there election integrity issues in New York, or the 2022 midterms in general? Well, there are signs somebody monkeyed with the voting transmission in Suffolk county, where Zeldin’s base is, to potentially suppress his vote from that region. The same “drop and roll,” indefinite stall and delay tactics in tabulating the votes seen practiced in 2020, were not only in evidence again in 2022, but were concentrated in the same states as last time (in NV, AZ, GA, MI, PA, WI), suggesting the same culprits are at work again. According to journalist Emerald Robinson:
“My rule of thumb is simple: if you’re a Trump-aligned Republican and your election results were not released within 24 hours of Election Day, then you’re toast.
The entire point of “slow-rolling” vote-counting is that it gives the cheaters the necessary time to count how many ballots they need to beat the Republican candidate and then to manufacture those ballots — or to disappear the necessary number of GOP ballots by “adjudication.”
Didn’t the GOP learn any of these lessons from the 2020 election? Of course not…
Why would anyone believe such things after living through the 2020 election? Why did the electronic voting machines stop in at least 5 states on Election Day this week? What do they think is really going on?
It’s almost like they don’t understand how cheating works.
Do they think the machines malfunctioned and the vote-counting stopped in Arizona, California, and Nevada by accident or something?”
5- Finally, MSNBC’s revised estimate of the House outcome now say it is 99.5% certain that Republicans will end up with 219+ seats, or a majority. The GOP unexpectedly won 5 Congressional seats in the Long Island area, perhaps as Zeldin’s coattails. The fact that most of the 2022 cheating happened in the same 5-6 states as in 2020, points to the steal being centered out of a handful of blue metro areas (Philadelphia, Atlanta, Detroit, Phoenix, Las Vegas). It’s NOT a nationwide phenomenon, and may not even be a majority of blue areas.
I will speculate that the Democrats were out to cheat their way into retaining a majority in the House, but did not count on losing 5 seats in NY, plus other upsets. Those flips ruined their math for ending up with about 221+ seats. They were too confident they had cheated enough, or else didn’t have their steal system set up in the upset races. They’re probably kicking themselves for letting their kept media call those races for the GOP too early.
Below is the Tuesday LP/Green Party Gubernatorial Debate, streamed and hosted by NY comedienne, podcaster and libertarian Chrissie Mayr. Thanks, Chrissie!
Also, don’t forget to write-in Sharpe for Governor on Election Day! Sample directions:
Note: QL members are testing out different locations for our monthly meetings, to decide on the best one to continue with in 2023 onward. Join us on Saturday, November 12, 2022 at 12:00 pm (noon). The meeting will be at the “other” OBA Grill at 104-02 Metropolitan Ave in Forest Hills, with the same cuisine as the one in the Queens Blvd area (Mediterranean Grill). Topic will be “Authoritarianism and Democracy” by Robert Luster, which features his exploration of ideologies, and his view as to why libertarianism never seems to arise in countries like China or Russia. Location can be reached by the Q54, and the Q23 bus (two blocks away). Details and Directions
From a recent release by new LPNY Chair Andrew Kolstee:
Write-In Larry Sharpe for Governor!
Could This Be the Last Chance for New Yorkers to have a
Nationwide Libertarian candidate on our ballot in 2024?
Fellow Libertarians:
Larry Sharpe earned over 30,000 petition signatures and nearly 100,000 votes for Governor in 2018. According to New York State law at that time, that should have been enough for the Libertarian Party simply to assign him our party line on this year’s gubernatorial ballot.
But then-Gov. Cuomo and his machine devised a plot to deny him and us that earned right. Now it appears we have lost all our court challenges and appeals to keep Larry Sharpe’s name on the printed ballot. This also limits our ability to have a Libertarian candidate for President on the 2024 ballot.
At this point, almost the only way to restore our ability to get the nationally-chosen Libertarian Presidential candidate on the New York ballot in 2024 is if Larry Sharpe gets a minimum of 130,000 write-in votes, likely more to reach the 2% threshold, in the coming month.
This would be a record number of write-in votes by any candidate, but not by much. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska exceeded 100,000 write-in votes in her successful re-election campaign in 2010. And last November, Mayor Byron Brown of Buffalo won his re-election campaign with over 36,000 write-ins.
Having spent so much money on our ballot-access court battles, we don’t have much to promote Larry Sharpe’s write-in campaign. So we will hope that you, our members and friends and allies, will step up—not with money but with a bit of your time. Just spread the word about this write-in campaign by forwarding this email to as many of your friends as you think might be open to hearing about it.
And who wouldn’t be open to writing in Larry Sharpe for Governor? For the first time since 1946, and the second time since 1872, New Yorkers have only two candidates for Governor to choose from on their printed ballot. The incumbent candidate would continue the wasteful spending, over-taxation, and single-party rule that has driven millions to leave New York. The other candidate supports fraudulent election claims by a former President, and he was willing to tolerate his own campaign’s fraudulent photocopying of 11,000 petition signatures, so as to put him on multiple party lines and thereby crowd out any real third choice on the printed ballot for Governor.
In contrast, Larry Sharpe and Libertarians have consistently fought for you and everyone to have a chance to vote for a variety of minor parties—not just our own. We partnered with the Green Party (very different from us in policy preferences) in a lawsuit to roll back Part ZZZ of Cuomo’s 2020 state budget, which the Legislature approved without committee hearings or debate, and which blocked ballot access for us and the Green Party and numerous other minor parties.
So please, use the sample ballot below as a guide, and share this email widely.
In Liberty,
Andrew Martin Kolstee
Chair, Libertarian Party of New York
Reminder– QL is again moving its monthly meeting venue. Join us on Saturday, October 8, 2022 at 12:00 pm (noon) at Eternity Halal Indian Restaurant, 120-35 83rd Ave by Lefferts Blvd in Kew Gardens. Topic will be “Growth Hacking Liberty 2.0” by John Clifton. He will review creative techniques for political movement growth he introduced in remarks on the same matter four years ago, with comments on subsequent events and current new wrinkles. Summary of his previous “growing liberty” concept presentation is on his blog here. QL ball caps will again be available for new attendees. Details and directions.
Excerpted from another recent gun email discussion, where libertarian philosophy meets gun safety considerations:
Mark Glogowski:
It is a fact of human nature that people will live up to society’s lowest expectation, because society’s lowest expectation is what the average person will enforce. Our society’s lowest expectation, when it comes to the use of guns, is that some people will commit mass shootings. Since that is the lowest of society’s expectations, adults stand by, helpless, and just let it happen over and over. It will not be until society says enough is enough and adults are allowed to intervene on behalf of would be victims that such shootings will stop. Increase the restrictions on people preventing them from intervening and all you are accomplishing is lowering still the expectations of society.Steve James:
Mark, you say: “It will not be until society says enough is enough and adults are allowed to intervene on behalf of would be victims that such shootings will stop. . . So, let’s bring guns back into schools . . ” Do you have evidence to validate your assertion? Do you know teachers who are willing and able to comply with your suggestion? I think the US could learn a lot from the Australia and New Zealand’s models: “It is illegal to carry a gun or any weapon in public in Australia, concealed or otherwise.” (Google)
Australia confiscated 650,000 guns. Murders and suicides plummeted.– https://www.vox.com/2015/8/27/9212725/australia-buyback
Gun control: New Zealand shows the way.– https://www.ibanet.org/article/3e4700a8-8a7b-4766-b7cc-f59474f4a894
The Second Amendment is antiquated and does not do what gun fetishists say it does. It is a militia amendment intended to enable states to respond to slave rebellions and Indian uprisings. It needs to be repealed and a serious gun debate needs to take place. I agree “enough is enough.” “Reuters/Ipsos poll of 6,800 Americans in February 2019 found that 69 per cent of respondents supported strong or moderate restrictions on firearms.” (See ibanet article referenced above.) Let’s let democracy handle the issue instead of the Supreme Court, gun lobbyists, and a corrupt Congress.
John Clifton: