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Movie Review: Sherpa, a Documentary

by Carla Gericke
written by Carla Gericke

Since I was little, I have been interested in mountaineering, and Everest in particular–thanks Reader’s Digest, one of the few “international” news sources available in South Africa under sanctions. Louis and I hiked to Annapurna’s base camp in 2002 (world’s 10th highest peak), a spiritual journey for me, and I have a deep love for that part of the world.

The documentary SHERPA is definitely worth a watch. It’s like “Arab Spring” at the base of Everest, mixed with people power, passion, capitalism, danger, corrupt government, a simpler time/desires, and greed. It strikes me the lack of clear property rights is what is causing the problems.

Who wants to buy Everest with me (this is probably super insulting to Nepalis, sorry!), and let the Sherpas decide how many people and at what price should climb their god annually? It won’t be cheap… Going rate per climb season is $360 million in total, of which a third goes to the government, Sherpas (about 300-400) receive $5,000-ish each, and the rest, I assume, goes to the western expedition leaders. I say we can do better than that! ? (Pic is Mount Annapurna, and I took it.)

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NH Supreme Court Errs Re Qualified Immunity

by Carla Gericke
written by Carla Gericke

Me, reading the Union Leader: “Goddammit! They [INSERT SOMETHING MORONIC THE STATE IS DOING]! I am going to write a letter to the editor!”

Louis, laughing: “You say that every morning.”

Today, I can’t decide whether it should be a scathing attack on Governor Maggie Hassan’s position on the Second Amendment: “There is no statute or rule that prohibits state employees from carrying a legally licensed firearm in state offices — with the exception of the courts — but according to William Hinkle, spokesman for Gov. Maggie Hassan, ‘The governor strongly discourages state employees from bringing guns to their offices as doing so would make their workplaces less safe’,” or the New Hampshire Supreme Court’s cronyist, idiotic decision yesterday that a warrantless, unconstitutional search and arrest where the PD said: “This is what you get when you fuck with a 30-year veteran of the Concord PD” does not rise to the level of “reckless or wanton conduct” and that the PD is protected by qualified “immunity.”

The state of NH is the worst thing about this state!

EDITED, with LTE:

Dear Editor,

The NH Supreme Court erred in its recent decision upholding the immunity of the City of Concord and its PD. Immunity boils down to this: Ignorance of the law is no excuse, unless you are the /enforcer of the law,/ then you can do what you want (in this case: an unconstitutional, warrantless search and arrest where, according to testimony, the office said: “This is what you get when you f— with a 30-year veteran of the Concord PD”). The court called it a “close case,” but found the PD’s actions did not rise to “reckless or wanton conduct.” I’m curious, what would?

Instead of saying “exposure to personal liability and hindsight review… would undoubtedly compromise effective law enforcement,” the court should have sent a clear message that in NH, the rights of individuals are respected above those of public servants. We /want/ our police to worry about doing things the right way. We /want/ them to worry about the consequences when they don’t.

Every resident should be aware their public officials are held to a LOWER standard of accountability than the people they serve. State immunity is an insidious curse that protects bad behavior. And guess what? When you protect bad behavior, you get more of it. Any public official who violates a person’s constitutional rights should be immediately terminated, without pension. Enforcers, writers, and deciders of the law should not be /above/ the law. Accountability, not immunity, should reign supreme.

Sincerely,

Carla Gericke

Manchester, NH

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Year End 2015 Appeal from the Free State

by Carla Gericke
written by Carla Gericke

We’re ramping up for Liberty Forum, March 5-8, 2015 in Manchester. For the first time, many libertarian think tanks will be in attendance–Cato, Charles Koch Institute, Mercatus, and FEE–a very good sign that shows the FSP is now regarded as a real contender for the future of freedom. I hope you will attend. This would give you an opportunity to meet the community first-hand and see what is transpiring on the ground.

From an organizational standpoint, we are going from strength to strength. Jason Sorens, the founder of the FSP, cofounder of Ethics and Economics Education of New England, and lecturer at Dartmouth College, has rejoined the board, and is now VP. It’s exciting to have him back!

We saw many successes in 2014:

Received 501c3 status, which has allowed us to leverage Amazon Smile and AdWords grant

We expanded the board, and new board members commit to $10K+/year

Approximately 1,200 new signers; 135 new movers (keep in mind no one is obligated to move yet) 

18 Free Staters have been elected to the state house, the most so far. It is imperative that we Trigger the Move asap, so that more activists can run and win 

Released a new, independently made documentary “101 Reasons Liberty Lives in New Hampshire” (23,000 views) and new “It’s Like This Too” mover profiles on the Voices for Liberty Channel 

Strong social media growth, averaging 400 new page likes per week, with almost at 70,000 on Facebook, and almost 62,000 followers on Twitter

Media coverage in The Economist, NYT, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Reason, etc.

Our goal for 2015-2016 is two-fold:

  1. Garner remaining signers (3,666 as of this writing) and Trigger the Move 
  2. Reach out to all past participants and encourage them to move/find signers

Take a look at the draft Strategic Plan I sent the board, which outlines our mission, vision, target markets, current marketing efforts, and identifies new ones. Also attached is a Participant Statistics Monthly Performance Report for November 2014. You’ll note a few things: 1. Our biggest spikes in signers comes from mainstream media coverage (e.g. the jury nullification case, the Concord BEARCAT incident, and when a sitting Democrat said Free Staters are the single biggest threat to the state of NH); 2. the second largest spikes are around our FSP hosted events, Liberty Forum and PorcFest; and 3. the current Trigger the Move date is early 2018. We want to accelerate this. With your support, we can. If we double our recruitment rate in 2015, we will Trigger the Move in early 2016. 

Our current signer acquisition rate is $100 (this increased from the historic $81 due to my transitioning into a full-time, paid position). If we are to Trigger the Move in 2016, we need to raise $366,600 as soon as possible. We are working on a capital campaign which will launch in Q1 2015, where we are asking select donors to contribute at the $25,000-$50,000 level.  

Would you be willing to support 10% of this goal, $36,600? Your tax-exempt donation would directly support the following projects:

1)  A mailing to all signers promoting the move and promoting obtaining new signers (est. cost:  $16,000). We are sending a test mailer invitation to Liberty Forum to 3,125 signers in the identified target areas. This test mailing will provide data to help us determine how to proceed with the larger mailing list. 

2) The balance will spent on online signer acquisition through Facebook, Twitter, and online advertising networks, employing SEO metrics to keep us on target and provide reporting data. 

The Free State Project has the leadership, the skills, and the commitment to make your contribution count. We stand at the cusp of a historic breakthrough. We have already seen the benefits of concentrating liberty activists in one geographic area. Help us reach the finish line!

Yours in peace and liberty,
Carla

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Croydon School Choice Saga Continues

by Carla Gericke
written by Carla Gericke

Life in NH is never dull! Look at this turnout for the injunction hearing in the matter of NHDoE vs. Town of Croydon school board.

Cliff-ish Notes:

The state is arguing that *it* needs an injunction to immediately remove 4 kids who were placed in a Montessori school otherwise *the state* will suffer irreparable harm. Notwithstanding the fact that the children are FLOURISHING at their new school, and despite the fact that the taxpayers of Croydon are actually saving $3,000 per kid.

Said the AG’s office: “Public students with public funds need to be in public schools. Those children don’t belong there [at Montessori]!” The state lawyer asked for an injunction, saying that parents can either pay privately, out of pocket for their children to go to Montessori (double taxed jeopardy, anyone?) or the court must order the kids back to the Newport public school IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SCHOOL YEAR.

This, argued with a statist-straight-tist face after the DoE KNEW about the issue in JUNE DURING THE HOLIDAYS and after this is the second year in which this approach has been taken for kids who need it.

In a June letter to the DoE, the Croydon attorney wrote: “This practice [sending kids to the best school for them] will continue,” and yet, the AG and the DoE did NOTHING…

…Until the school year started to… sue and disrupt perfectly happy kids lives… I smell… let me be gracious… incompetence?

The Croydon attorney, who is a former NH Supreme Court judge, more rationally argued–after saying, “We told them in June, so BRING IT ON, BABY!” (best line of the day)–that allowing the children to go to a school better suited to their needs was better. *Doh.* He went on to say: “The bill is already paid until February 2016. The parents want their kids there. The school board wants the kids there. The kids WANT TO BE there. They are paying less money for a better education.”

BUT NOOOOOOO… the state in all its wisdom wants to kids back in their pre-approved reeducation camp. Must not allow this flight, this, shall we say, brain drain to begin, otherwise, oh, lordy mama, everyone might want to… choose what is best for them, and we can’t have that now, can we???

My money is on the DoE’s request for injunctive relief not being granted, mostly because the state dillydallied and didn’t file the motion during the vacay. If that’s the case, 1-0 for Croydon and school choice. Either way, a hearing will be set on the merits of the case, and this too should be interesting. The AGs office, IMO, overplayed its hand in trying for injunctive relief. But, then, this is the nature of statism: you belong to us. They also underestimated the courageous people who believe in what is best for the individual person.

If the court does the right thing–the order about the injunctive relief will come out in the next 48 hours–then the children can at least see out the current school year at their CHOSEN, CHEAPER school.

This case can have a monumental impact on school choice in NH, where, btw, several other schools already send their kids to non-public schools, like Pinkerton and schools in Vermont. Stay tuned for details as they unfold.

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Update from the Free State, June 2015

by Carla Gericke
written by Carla Gericke

Hope to see you at Freedom Fest in July! Wanted to share a quick update about what we’re working on. We are now almost 85% towards our goal, and 1,755 signers have moved, with more arriving weekly. In the “good problem category,” it’s getting hard to keep apace with all the move-in parties! 

Liberty Forum was a great success. We had a record number of attendees (530+), and for the first time, all the D.C. libertarian think tanks were represented. Relocating the conference to a larger venue in Manchester was the right decision, and gives us room to grow and to showcase all that downtown Manchester has to offer. Next year’s event is slated for February 18-21, 2016. I hope you will attend. 

PorcFest is coming up in a few weeks. FSP board member, Matt Philips and his partner Kristin Wetzel are the main organizers this year. In addition to the usual suspects, we have added a few fresh names to the mix, including Lenore Skenazy, founder of the Free Range Kids movement, Philip Stinson, a professor who runs the largest known police misconduct database in the U.S., and investigative reporter and author of Family of Secrets about the Bush dynasty, Russ Baker. We are expecting another great turnout, and several media outlets, including CNN, Bloomberg, The New York Times, and Maxim will be covering the event. 

We recently had a film crew out from L.A. to interview Free Staters for an upcoming documentary called “Freedom in America.” I hope this will help bring the message of Liberty in Our Lifetime to a new audience. We have also been getting a steady flow of national and international media interest in the Free State Project. 

We launched a new pledge landing page, and have actively been using our Google AdWords grant. This new page, with a shortened form and condensed pitch, is seeing dramatic early results. Interestingly, the AdWords campaign that is getting the most traction is related to Liberland. I did a Google trends comparison between the FSP and Liberland, and it’s hard not to feel a little frustrated–short of declaring Roger’s Campground a sovereign nation during PorcFest–there simply is no way to replicate this sort of global media attention. But, as they say, slow and steady wins the race, and we are winning. 

The most satisfying part of the Free State Project is seeing how pro-freedom successes translate into human flourishing. From the burgeoning New Hampshire nanobrew market where there are now 3 highly successful Free Stater owned breweries (Able Ebenezer, Eagle Brewing, and Area 23) to something as seemingly trivial as being invited to a panel discussion about police militarization with the Department of Homeland Security at UNH, and having students thank me afterwards for opening their eyes. 

Take education. As you know, Patrick Byrne, who spoke at Liberty Forum, is a passionate advocate for school choice. He was thrilled to learn how much progress has been made on this front in New Hampshire, including a recent case from the town of Croydon where Jody Underwood (an FSP board member) is chair of the school board and has allowed students to choose private and religious schools instead of being tied to only one public choice. Of course, the NH Department of Education is pushing back, but it looks like more schools are set to follow suit. 

Or take simply living a principled life in liberty. This past weekend, I attended a joint baby shower for a dozen expecting couples in Portsmouth. Amongst those present were several entrepreneurs, a past PorcFest organizer, a former FSP newsletter editor, the founder of the FreeCoast Festival (started last year with a focus on radical entrepreneurship), and the founder of the innovation hub, The Praxium, where the event was held. These folks are not the ones you typically hear about in the news, but they are the ones who are buying houses, starting families and businesses, writing LTEs, and changing their neighbors’ views by living productive lives extolling the virtues of voluntary relationships.

This liberty revival in New Hampshire is the direct result of the Free State Project. We are the chicken and the egg. All the exciting things originating from here–from Jason Soren’s Ethics and Economics Education of New England project, to Bitcoin businesses, to civil disobedience aimed at blocking the police state–are because we are actively bringing dedicated, passionate pro-freedom people to the “Live Free or Die” state.  

With the first-in-the-nation presidential primary coming up next year, there is an opportunity to aggressively market and inspire more movers before next year’s Liberty Forum. 

To increase our outreach, we now have a $25,000 challenge grant–every dollar up to $25,000 donated will be matched 1:1 through the rest of 2015 by one of our board members, Séamas Ó Scalaidhe, who recently bought a home in Wolfeboro and now spends 50% of his time here. I’m also excited to let you know Howard Kaloogian, a fundraiser at Hillsdale College, recently moved with his wife to Weare, and he will be working with me on some upcoming fundraising projects. 

In the meanwhile, there are a few projects for which I am seeking immediate funding:

  1. I negotiated a discounted Gold Sponsorship for Freedom Fest, which includes 8 tickets. In additional to several board members who will be attending this year, I would like to bring out a team of our best recruiters and ambassadors. We need to cover their airfare, accommodation, and meals, in additional to the sponsorship fee. ($12,000) 
  2. Radio ad buys on the Howie Carr Show, a daily 4-hour peak time syndicated talk radio show. The show airs across New England, and is our perfect target market. ($150 per 60 seconds, blocks of 20, test of 40 blocks = $6,000)
  3. Keynote speaker for Liberty Forum 2016. Based on more than 150 responses to our Liberty Forum 2015 survey, attendees are interested in interactive workshops and learning more about NH-based freedom projects. For next year, I would like to contract with one nationally recognized speaker to help drive ticket sales, and then focus volunteer efforts on creating a program showcasing New Hampshire and the exciting projects Free Staters are working on. (Up to $20,000)
  4. Trigger the Move marketing and merchandise. Design and distribute a new tri-fold and follow up marketing focussed on encouraging signers to move asap. This will be sent in stages: new landing page signers, past 5,000 signers for which we have good data (when I came on board), and then the cleaned data from the legacy signers. ($20,000 for first stages)
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BlogReviews

Review: How to Make It in America

by Carla Gericke
written by Carla Gericke

Watching “How to Make It in America,” a slick, hipster dramedy about two best friends trying to make it big with their fashion line in New York City. Great soundtrack, solid acting (Bound’s Gina Gershon is still hot as hell), and an actual exploration of entrepreneurship. Watch the trailer.

In one episode, when the nightclub shuts down, someone yells: Let’s go! I know a sweet spot in Chinatown.

This reminded me of a killer bash we threw at our loft on East Broadway–DJ mixing, photographer, green room, white room, etc. It was around 4 a.m., and I was ready for the night to slow down. Standing in the kitchen, I realized I didn’t recognize anyone in the room, and then I overheard a chick talking on her cell phone, saying: You should come on over, we’re at the coolest, funky underground club in Chinatown. I told her, “This is my apartment,” asked her and her friends to leave, but deep down inside, I felt pretty chuffed. #howtopartylikearockstar

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The Red Road: A Review

by Carla Gericke
written by Carla Gericke

Who is watching The Red Road? It’s my new favorite show! Set in New Jersey, this drama is darker but somewhat reminiscent of The Sopranos. Let’s say: Gangsters without the smiles. And, when I say “gangsters,” I mean this second season original show is actually exploring, whether intentionally or not, ideas around a voluntary society.

Set in the fictional sovereign land of the Ramapo Mountain Indians and the town of Walpole, 25 miles outside Manhattan, Red Road explores a Shakespeareanly dark relationship between a troubled member of the Ramapo tribe and a sheriff struggling to keep his family together after a cover up on Indian land involving his recovering-alcoholic schizo wife.

It’s a modern day cowboy and Indian story, except the cowboy cops are as corrupt as the so-called, supposed “bad guys.” In fact, the best part of the story is there are no “good guys” and “bad guys,” there are only people, making decisions, good and bad. We all dance with the devil.

The voluntary themes explored so far include: private agreements, helping others without jailing them, jailing others without helping them, environmentalism, tribalism, trust, family, honor, corruption, betrayal, and love. Bonus points? The lead Ramapo character is played by Hawaiian Jason Momoa, the totes fuckable hottie from Game of Thrones, no other than the Dothraki King, “Khal Drogo,” BUT WAIT! it gets better, Lisa Bonet, from The Cosby Show and Angel Heart, is his love interest, and things are hot and steamy and conflicted, BUT WAIT, it gets EVEN better… they are married IRL!

Extra bonus points? The producers of the show were so concerned that Drago and Proudfoot’s energy would be too explosive for the screen, they end up not getting a lot of screen-screw time together, but… would I watch that sex tape? Let the market decide…

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Many Paths to Liberty in the Free State

by Carla Gericke
written by Carla Gericke

“Many Paths to Liberty” was in action in New Hampshire yesterday. I’m pleased to let you know that 52 free- and pre-staters won their primary races: 5 for NH senate; and in the house: 5 democrats; 42 republicans. Other pro-liberty locals ran and won too.

Whenever it is election season, we, as a big tent community, invariably have the debate about what the best way is to achieve more liberty. Is voting immoral? Will we become them? Fortunately, most free staters now see the value of trying it all–whether running for office, or creating new ventures, or starting private charities. The beauty of this approach is every individual free stater can follow his or her own passions, and exert their fullest practical efforts as they see fit. 

Where else do you see self-declared anarchists running for office? Free Talk Live’s Ian Freeman, who ran against Hassan on the D-side, got 4% of the vote. He says: “My goal for the campaign was not to get votes. My goal was to reach people with the ideas of freedom. Mission accomplished, for a measly $102.50. That money bought a decent amount of media coverage. Votes are not an indicator of people you have reached. They could be protest votes against the other candidate.”  

The political porcupines did an amazing job. Merav Yaakov (see a profile about her in the enclosed Free Stater) and others affiliated with the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance proactively recruited pro-liberty candidates in districts where they stood the best chance of getting elected. They have be holding planning and training meetings for more than a year. They devised a “Liberty Ballot,” an easy to use cheat-sheet to print and take to the ballot box. Because so many volunteers from 2012 are themselves running this time, our biggest challenge for the primary was finding enough people to support them. I confess, I am sunburnt after spending a long day in the sun holding signs for my friends at polls in several different towns.  

We need to Trigger the Move! Getting more movers in-state is crucial–especially as we look to 2016, and beyond. With the two year residency requirement here in order to run as a representative, most new movers won’t be eligible to run until 2018, but they will be able to support those who have been elected and those who will run in 2016, learning the ropes of a successful campaign firsthand.  

After another record-breaking PorcFest, the board held a summit in early August. In addition to working on an updated strategic plan, we made Aaron Day–whom you know from The Atlas Society–chairman of the board, and appointed two new board members: serial entrepreneur Matt Philips (he started and sold Right Media to Yahoo), and FSP founder, Jason Sorens. They will be spearheading the FSP Ambassador Program, focussing on two things: 1. training more out-of-state volunteers to attend more outreach events and conferences to promote the FSP; and, 2. finding more in-state “Friends of the FSP.” 

We launched our first issue-specific landing page last week, starting with Bitcoin. Thanks to a generous anonymous BTC donation, Blockchain is running a tongue-in-cheek, cowboy-themed “Get Out of Doge” banner ad that redirects to the FSP/BTC landing page which extols the rich connections between free staters and the alt-currency community. In the first week, we received 268 click-throughs, and the sign-up rate accelerated. Next, we will be doing a gun rights page, followed by marijuana legalization. 

Based on an analysis of where signers are coming from, I have identified the surrounding New England states as the best bang-for-the-recruiting-buck. Focusing within this region also avoids having to convince the “but it’s too cold” naysayers. We are starting to buy libertarian lists from these states, and would like to start advertising on local conservative radio stations, or perhaps even local NPR stations (e.g. “Marketplace, brought to you by the Free State Project, occupying New Hampshire for more freedom since 2003”).  

I am currently in talks with Morgan Spurlock’s Warrior Poets production company. They are working on a documentary about the loss of freedom in America. I keep trying to convince them to do a feature length movie solely about the FSP. This is something that eventually will need to be made, especially as Libertopia is now a few years old. I’m also working with a new mover filmmaker to shoot mini-documentaries featuring porcupines in their natural habitat, a “Day in the Life” of FSP movers. Upcoming after the November election is the independently made feature-length film “101 Reasons,” aimed at attracting disillusioned voters from across the country.    

One project I am particularly excited about is reaching out to all our past signers. It’s been too long! The goal is threefold: 1. Reconnect and reinvigorate past signers to encourage them to start planning their moves; 2. Encourage them to seek out more signers; and, 3. At a later date, to fundraise. In order to do this, we have to clean our data, prepare an email campaign and a physical mailer, follow up with phone calls, and follow up with a second mailer. We are budgeting $25,000, excluding my salary. I spoke to Michael about this in Vegas, and he mentioned this may be something you might be interested in underwriting.    

Notable recent FSP signers include Bruce Fenton, founder of the Bitcoin Association, who said: “I signed up with the Free State Project because I want to be the change I want to see in the world.” Lyn Ulbricht, mother of the alleged founder of Silk Road, spoke at PorcFest and signed there. She has become a feisty freedom fighter for her freemarketeer son’s rights. She and I are both hopeful that Ross will be out of jail in time to attend next year’s Liberty Forum. 

Liberty Forum is slated for March 5-8, 2015 in downtown Manchester. I would like to invite you to attend. If you are interested, it would be wonderful if you did a talk on self-management. As we attract more movers, many are post-college students eager to start their own businesses. Sharing your knowledge and experience would be invaluable.      

We have surpassed 16,000 signers. We’re more than 80% of the way to 20,000, and more than 10% of signers have moved. Now that we have 501c3 status, a two-and-a-half year uphill battle we finally won, we are stepping up our fundraising efforts in order to increase our marketing efforts. We know the FSP is a winning, proven strategy. What we need now is to get the word out to every libertarian in the North-East. 

Last night, at the post-primary party at the Manchester activist center, I was exhilarated by the conversations I overheard. “What I love most about moving to New Hampshire is there’s real hope here!” “Getting 50+ pro-liberty candidates through the primary would be unheard of anywhere else.” “I can’t believe I won! Makes all of those days knocking on doors feel worthwhile.” “I love this community! Instead of sitting around whining, people here DO things.” “First, New Hampshire, then the world!”

Running for office is one strategy in the arsenal of achieving Liberty in Our Lifetime. Your past donations have enabled me to throw myself headlong into this grand adventure. I am eternally grateful for your support. I will be sending out a comprehensive 2015-2016 strategic plan and budget to our financial supporters soon. In the meanwhile, I hope you will consider continuing to support me now as I attack the next round of projects to Trigger the Move. 

Yours in peace and liberty,

Carla Gericke
President, Free State Project

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