Charlie Koch’s Angels, three young women, one a cybersecurity expert, one a martial arts instructor, one a former homicide detective, go to work for an agency that hacks the intelligence community, disappears statist lobbyists and campaign staffers, and exposes shady dealings of establishment politicians.
To see these and other photos by Judd Weiss of the libertarian movement, go to his photo album.
New libertarian TV shows scheduled
14 MarGary Johnson and Students for Liberty 2016
28 FebStudents for Libertarian 2016, the 9th annual international Students for Liberty, felt a bit smaller than the 8th, which had nearly 2,000 attendees from every inhabited continent.
Held, like last year’s conference, at the Wardman Park Hotel in Woodley Park between the National Zoo and downtown Washington, D.C., there seemed to be fewer students from African and Asian chapters than in 2015, though eastern European and Latin American chapters were well represented, and activists and chapters and events from Latin America were nominated for and won many awards.
Friday night began with an excursion for gay libertarians to a local gay disco, a panel on the election with columnist George Will and reason magazine editors Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie, as well as an interview with a founder of the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot, who wore a Bernie Sanders T-shirt and asked the attendees to support Bernie Sanders.
The Koch brothers partially funded the conference, donating $100,000 toward its budget. So in a way, besides Charles Koch’s recent op ed on how Bernie Sanders is right that the system is rigged, ISFLC16 represented a kind of donation from the Kochs to the Bernie Sanders’ campaign.
The pro-Bernie theme continued during the annual taping of a John Stossel show at ISFLC. Stossel’s show (to air this coming Friday) will be much more lackluster than usual, with 5 segments, with a mainly female guest list, most discussing the campaign including Sanders. One, Jerry Taylor of the not-so-popular, “liberaltarian” Niskanen Institute, will be promoted in teasers as a libertarian endorsing Bernie (there is such a person, Terry Michaels, a former DNC spokesperson and contributor to reason). But Taylor really argued that libertarians should give up being principled and should become advocates of an expanded welfare state combined with a reduced regulatory state, like northern European countries that now outrank the U.S. on the various indices of economic freedom. In another segment the glamorous Emily Eakin (PhD) discusses poling results, millennial voters, and Sanders.
Overall ISFLC was somewhat muted. Besides Will, the major dinner speaker was P.J. O’Rourke. Other speakers included imprisoned internet entrepreneur Ross Ulbricht’s mom Lynn, NSA whistle blower Thomas Drake, Vermin Supreme, and the Prince of Lichtenstein. (Previous year’s speakers or Stossel guests included Mexican President Vincente FOX, shock jock Ann Coulter, civil liberties martyr Edward Snowden, and film maker Oliver Stone.)
Presidential straw poll fail – Students for Liberty 2016
28 FebTaking a page from libertarian clicktivists themselves, Trump supporters, among others, started voting before the 9th annual international Students for Liberty conference began, with a result that Trump was in the lead.
ISFLC2016 organizers then deleted all the votes and reset the poll to begin when the conference began this Friday evening (in Washington, D.C.) and end today at noon as the conference ended.
Outsiders continued to vote and the results were: Governor Gary Johnson 3rd, former FOX Business assistant producer Austin Petersen 2nd, and Senator Ted Cruz winning first place.
At other points in the convention at happy hours and informal events, the minority of older (40+) libertarians in attendance had post mortems of the Rand Paul campaign, concluding that Rand’s campaign was done in primarily by a lack of funding, in part because the Koch brothers, insulated by a bubble of long term senescent toadies, refused to donate significantly to the pro-Paul PACs or urge their donor network to do so, and in part, as one non-student libertarian opined, because Rand Paul can sometimes be a “thin skinned little bitch.”
Big money in politics – the Empire Strikes Back
14 NovCharles and David Koch have announced that they have no plans to endorse or fund any of the GOP candidates before the primaries – even as they have finally upped their charm offensive, appearing on FOX and MSNBC shows so voters can see who they are, in contrast to a decade of smears by the “liberal” media and leftover blogosphere. Meanwhile, their counterpart in the Democratic Party, George Soros, is not holding back.
Besides funding #BlackLivesMatters and other protest groups through as much as $33 million in grants from his Open Society Foundation, Soros is also donating to a variety of political action committees involved in the 2016 campaign. (No one seems to have investigated whether this funding is involved in the current “Mizzou” agitation or that on other campuses.)
- Soros is funding alleged labor-unions which transfer money to Republicans.
- Soros is raising money from Democratic circles and this money is legally laundered through D.R.I.V.E. [Democrat, Republican, Independent Voter Education PAC] over to Republicans.
- Establishment Republicans and Democrats are using money straight from Soros to take down more radical elements of the GOP.
- Large corporations, either wittingly or not, feed into this as well.
Daniel Schulman On the Koch brothers
10 JunGarbo speaks! Charles Koch addresses the smear campaigns against libertarian philathropy
3 AprKoch: I’m Fighting to Restore a Free Society
Instead of welcoming free debate, collectivists engage in character assassination.
The reclusive Charles Koch on FaceBook
28 MarWe all friended him. Me. My campaign manager friend in central Virginia. An academic in southern California. Etc.
I was pretty sure it was a fake account, especially when he accepted my friend request.
It has been deactivated.
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Catholic University Koch brothers gift draws protests
17 DecGratitude isn’t a Catholic virtue.
But these academics are trained to squawk and smear if anyone funds something independent. Almost no one outside of DC takes these street walkers seriously anymore. People are openly laughing at Obama, Jay Carney, etc.
Nefarious Koch brothers feed Poor
14 OctRFD
810 7th Street NW
Washington DC
6:00 – 8:00 pm
The Charles Koch Institute and Liberty on the Rocks DC are working with the Salvation Army to collect canned goods for the local DC offices this Halloween season. Join two of your favorite organizations for a great cause and have a good time with friends in the back room at RFD in Washington, DC! Anyone who brings at least one canned good will receive a free drink ticket!*
The liberty-lover who brings the most canned goods will receive an extra drink ticket and a Halloween surprise!
The drink ticket will be good for:
-$3 Miller Light Draft
-$4 Rail
-$5 House Wine
*Please note, you are more than welcome to bring multiple canned goods, but you can only receive one drink ticket for the evening.