Conservative, libertarian-friendly Congressman Thomas Massie on how Trump’s embrace of Iran-style regime change interventionism spells doom for the alliance he’s tried to form with LP voters he worked hard to woo in 2024. From his interview with Jimmy Dore:
J
oin LPQC for a lively discussion led by Dr. Philip Schoenberg on the first four US Presidents on February 14 at noon, at our Astoria location, Stamatis Greek and Mediterranean Restaurant at 29-09 23rd Avenue (in the back area, menu details at stamatisrestaurant.net), titled “Four Founding Presidents Who Advanced Liberty.” This address will follow its monthly business session, covering Queens LP planning and subcommittee updates. Details and Directions
Schoenberg describes the talk this way: “America has many Founding Fathers. Many advocated Liberty while owning slaves. Today. We will discuss four Founding Fathers, imperfect as they were, who advanced the cause of liberty. They created a new, the United States of America, based upon the concept. These Founding Fathers had aspirations that the USA would become a shining city on a hill as a shining example of liberty as we Americans all strive to perfect their vision for all.
John Adams, the organizer of the American Revolution, was the Energizer Bunny of liberty who put the right people in charge.
In 1775, John Adams put George Washington in command of the Continental Army. George established the principle of civilian supremacy of the military and gave up supreme power once he accomplished his mandate.
In 1776, Adams drafted Thomas Jefferson to craft our Declaration of Independence that contains the best sentence on liberty that expressed the aim and the ideal of the American Revolution: “We hold these truths to be self -evident that all men are created equal;
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
James Madison was also an Energizer Bunny who was instrumental in the creation of a new framework of government, the US Constitution, and an addendum to preserve and protect our rights, the Bill of Rights, that established the first government to be based upon liberty and democratic choice in a world full of despotic monarchies.
In conclusion, the Founding Fathers were imperfect. But in the course of the revolutionary struggle for liberty of the individual and the nation, their road to liberty may not have been straight-forward as we may have wished but they set us in the right direction. They inspired America to become a better country for all, a nation of liberty, that continues to inspire us all and the world.”
In round 1 of the affordability vs. rights battle, a judge says a slumlord still has private property rights, and the government can’t just take its buildings because it owes fines. Perhaps the repairs weren’t made due to all the rent stabilization government regulations, which have made it unaffordable for landlords to pay to fix things up? City Limits writes:
In an early blow to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s actions on housing, a federal bankruptcy judge on Thursday denied a motion from the administration to put off the sale of 5,000 rent stabilized apartments.
Tenants who live in the 90-building portfolio have been rallying against their landlord, Pinnacle Group, which has failed to make necessary repairs and has over half a million dollars in mortgage debt.
The new mayor asked the judge to delay the sale to give the city time to put together a solution that would preserve the affordable housing. Intervening in the bankruptcy auction was one of Mamdani’s first actions as mayor.
The judge, David Jones, was unmoved by the city’s argument, writing, “having considered the City’s written application and heard and considered the statements of all parties that appeared at the hearing, the Court denied the City’s extension request.”
Tenants were critical of Pinnacle, saying it over-leveraged its properties in hopes of removing units from rent stabilization. Landlords say New York’s 2019’s rent laws, which made it more difficult for owners to deregulate or raise rents on stabilized units, have jeopardized the financial viability of completely rent stabilized buildings like those Pinnacle owns… More
Year end notes: LPQC/QL is pleased to have honored recently Presidentially pardoned, internet free market innovator Russ Ulbricht with the 2025 Thomas Stevens National Libertarian Award at its Annual Holiday Luncheon in December. Brooklyn City Council candidate Matt Morgan received the Local Libertarian Award for his success being the sole LPNY candidate to get on the ballot in NYC in the past year.
LPQC Secretary Phil Schoenberg was the deciding vote on Ulbricht, and he will also be returning to attend our monthly gathering by February 14, to give a holiday presentation on the four initial Presidents and their contributions to liberty. Finally, LPNY 2026 candidate for Governor, and Queens’ own Larry Sharpe reported that in January he will have raised a six figure amount to fund his initial petitioning efforts so far to get on the ballot. He has prepared a comparison chart showing why his campaign is the superior choice in the coming election. Happy New Year!
So, seriously—Is Mamdani the new answer, or the new problem? Join LPQC for a lively discussion about the impact of the new Mayor on January 10 at noon, at our Astoria location, Stamatis Greek and Mediterranean Restaurant at 29-09 23rd Avenue (in the back area, menu details at stamatisrestaurant.net), titled “Mamdani or Trump–Who Will Affect NYC More in 2026?” Who will have more dominant influence going forward in the “Zo” era–Gracie Mansion, Albany, or the White House?
Concerned activists, from civil liberties groups, to immigration advocates, local Libertarians and other New Yorkers get to speak on building a liberty alliance to address the coming war over affordability, urban policy and law enforcement issues in the Big Apple. We also would like more feedback on the LPNY’s 2026 candidates, or future projects in NYC and state. Hope to see you there, and Happy New Year! Details and Directions
Biden/Harris lamely promised to during the campaign, but Trump actually did it. Reducing the scheduling classification will speed up progress in improving the legalization and mainstreaming status of weed nationwide, including for the remaining states reluctant to do so. Yes, it’s a baby step, but it is THE baby step towards ending drug prohibition, as reported by Reason:
“On Thursday, President Donald Trump delivered on his promise to proceed with the reclassification of marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act, a long-awaited step that recognizes the drug does not meet the criteria for Schedule I, the law’s most restrictive category, where it has been listed since 1970. Instead of starting over with a new regulatory review, Trump’s executive order instructs Attorney General Pam Bondi to “complete the rulemaking process” that the Biden administration began last year “in the most expeditious manner” allowed by federal law.
Under a proposed rule that the Justice Department published in May 2024, marijuana would move from Schedule I, a category supposedly reserved for especially dangerous substances with a high abuse potential and no currently accepted medical applications, to Schedule III, which includes prescription drugs such as ketamine, anabolic steroids, and Tylenol with codeine. Trump presented that change as a boon to medical marijuana research with the ultimate aim of making cannabis-based medications legally available to patients who might benefit from them…” Read more
The Libertarian leader on the “promises made,” but not really kept by our politicians, leading to ongoing economic disaster:
…Unless President Trump reverses course, the “Lower Prices Bigger Paychecks” banner that hung behind him at his “affordability” speech this month will be remembered as being to economic policy what President George W. Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” banner was to foreign policy.
According to a Politico poll, many Americans are having difficulty paying for food, housing, transportation, and health care. Thirty-seven percent of Americans cannot afford to take their family to a professional sports event while 46 percent of Americans cannot afford airfare for a vacation.
For an increasing number of Americans, the affordability crisis is compounded by the firing crisis. Last month, approximately 120,000 small business workers lost their jobs — the highest one month decline in small business employment since the covid lockdowns. Large businesses including Amazon, Verizon, Target, and Apple are also laying off workers.
The affordability crisis began in 1971 when President Nixon severed the last link between the US dollar and gold. This removed any restraint on the Federal Reserve’s ability to pump money into the economy, leading to a continuous dollar devaluation. The decline in the dollar’s purchasing power is the real cause of the rise in prices and decline in living standards.
Fiat currency may be bad for the average American, but it is great for the welfare-warfare state and the special interests that benefit from it. This is because the fiat money system enables the Federal Reserve to monetize high levels of government debt via purchases of Treasury securities, thus making possible the explosion in government spending and power we have experienced the past fifty years. The fiat money system is also responsible for the bubble-boom-bust economy that has plagued America…More
Long Island LPNY state committee member Vince O’Neill on one of the chief political issues facing the party in New York right now, namely, how to get back regular ballot status with the Board of Elections so people can vote Libertarian, and be recognized as Libertarians:
…The Democrats did not hold presidential primary debates in 2024, despite the fact, or because, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was challenging Biden for the nomination. (He then became an independent candidate for President.)
The refusal to debate challengers to the status quo is the typical response of the Democrats and Republicans. The most likely reason for this behavior is the fact that neither party has anything worthwhile to offer on any important issue.
Another particularly grievous example comes from New York. For the previous 50 years, a political party was required to have its gubernatorial candidate receive 50,000 votes in order to have guaranteed ballot status for the next 4 years.
This is what happened in the 2018 New York gubernatorial election, and its aftermath. It refers to Libertarian candidate Larry Sharpe.
“On Election Day, Sharpe received 95,033 votes (1.6%) and came in fourth place behind Cuomo, Republican challenger Marc Molinaro, and Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins. Sharpe’s vote total achieved automatic ballot access for the Libertarian Party of New York for the first time in the party’s history.
The 95,333 votes for Governor 2018 Libertarian Party Candidate Larry Sharpe received was MORE THAN 6 TIMES MORE THAN THE PARTY’S VOTE TOTAL OF 15,209 IN 2014.
The Republican Party’s percentage of the vote declined from 40.6% (to Democrat Andrew Cuomo’s 54%) in 2014 to 36.2% (to Democrat Cuomo’s 59.6%) in 2018, a decline of more than 4 percentage points.
In 2019, assorted Libertarian legislative candidates in New York received a total of 37,751 votes. This was a vast improvement over any previous year.
The response of the New York Democrats and Republicans was to retroactively change the requirement to achieve ballot access from the 50,000 votes for governor requirement of the previous 50 years to 130,000 votes every two years, on April 4, 2020 thereby, cheating the Libertarian Party of New York of its ballot access.
In addition, they also tripled the number of petition signatures required to place a candidate on the ballot, from 15,000 to 45,000.
To repeat, this was after the Libertarian Party vote total was MORE THAN 6 TIMES MORE THAN ITS TOTAL 4 YEARS BEFORE WHILE THE REPUBLICAN PARTY TOTAL DECLINED BY MORE THAN 4 PERCENTAGE POINTS.
This atrocity is a typical example of Republican and Democrat behavior.
The “Supreme Court” refused to hear the case brought to address this matter, and the only legislative solutions proposed have attracted little to no support and also fall short of addressing this atrocity. The only acceptable solution is to admit that the Libertarian Party satisfied all requirements for permanent ballot status and to restore automatic ballot status for the next four years, plus any additional time the party has been cheated of automatic ballot access…Read the Rest