Nobel Peace Prize goes to anti-Maduro activist

This year's Nobel Peace Prize is being given to Venezuelan anti-Maduro activist Maria Corida Machado, who has been funded by the U.S. National Endowment of Democracy. 

The Nobel (War Is) Peace Prize | Ron Paul Institute | Ron Paul: 

October 13, 2025 - "When it comes to destroying your brand, Norwegian Nobel Committee is the Bud Lite of peace prizes. After all, back in 2009 they gave the Peace Prize to a President Barack Obama who then went on to bomb at least seven countries, set the Middle East on fire, and even conduct drone strikes on American citizens! Other awardees have had similarly suspicious records as peacemakers. They even gave a Peace Prize to the likes of Henry Kissinger.

"This year has proven to be no different. Last week the Nobel Committee announced that the 2025 Peace Prize would go to Venezuelan politician María Corina Machado. Machado has a long history in the Venezuelan opposition including support for and participation in the US-backed, 2002 coup against then-president Hugo Chavez. 

"She is likewise a strong opponent of current Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, and in 2018 even wrote a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asking for Israel’s assistance in overthrowing the Venezuelan government.

"Shouldn’t we be cheering anyone seeking to overthrow Maduro’s authoritarian style of socialism that is hardly helping the people of the country? Perhaps, but what Machado is seeking is very different from working for change in her country’s system of government. She has long worked with and been paid by the US government’s “regime change” apparatus, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

"NED was founded under President Reagan to do openly what the CIA has been notorious for doing in secret: overthrowing foreign governments that Washington doesn’t like. Scratch any of the “color revolutions” of the past 30 years and you will find the participation of the National Endowment for Democracy.

"Nowhere have these coups and revolutions promoted and funded by NED (and the CIA itself) been even remotely successful. They have only produced broken, ravaged, burned-out shells like we have seen in Libya and elsewhere. They produced chaos and called it freedom and democracy. They even helped put al-Qaeda in power in Syria!

"No, you don’t have to love Maduro or his style of governance to be critical of outside attempts to oust him. In President Trump’s first term, he set his neocons loose on Venezuela and the result was the almost comical rise of the political nobody Juan Guaido. I say 'almost comical' because Trump’s neocons wasted untold millions of our dollars on the farce.

"Is the Nobel Peace Prize just another deep state, soft-power tool intended to boost the US global military empire? The timing of the award going to the relatively unknown Machado is suspicious. President Trump has parked an armada of warships off the Venezuelan coast as his aides openly talk about 'decapitation' strikes on the Venezuelan government. After the extrajudicial killing of some 20 civilians in his attacks on at least four boats off the Venezuelan coast, President Trump is openly bragging that no one dares launch a boat in the area.

"The 'Peace Prize' endows Machado with a new sense of moral authority and gives weight to any 'green-light' she may again give to outside militaries to attack her own country.

"What’s wrong with heeding Machado’s calls to 'liberate' her country? President John Quincy Adams said it best, America 'goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.' We should leave Venezuela alone."

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GBD co-author wins 2024 Zimmer Medal

Great Barrington Declaration co-author Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, an outspoken opponent of coercive public health measures and controls on scientific speech, has been awarded the 2024 Robert J. Zimmer Medal for Intellectual Freedom by the American Academy of Sciences and Letters.

Stanford’s Jay Bhattacharya Awarded 2024 Zimmer Medal; Brian Conrad Awarded 2024 Barry Prize; Six Stanford Scholars Honored in Total | Hoover Institution (news release):

October 24, 2024 - "Stanford University’s Jay Bhattacharya was awarded the Zimmer Medal, and Brian Conrad was awarded a 2024 Barry Prize, by the American Academy of Sciences and Letters (the Academy). The Zimmer Medal, which honors outstanding courage in the defense of intellectual freedom, was awarded to Sir Salman Rushdie last year.... The awards were conferred last night by Academy President Donald W. Landry of Columbia University and Board Chair Sanjeev R. Kulkarni of Princeton University in a ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C....

Jay Bhattacharya in 2020. Photo by 

American Institute of Economic Research. 

CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.

"'Last year we were delighted to honor Sir Salman Rushdie alongside other top minds of our time, and this year we are delighted to honor Jay Bhattacharya and a wonderful group of outstanding scholars,' said Academy President Dr. Donald Landry, M.D., Ph.D., who is also the Hamilton Southworth Professor of Medicine at Columbia University. 

"'Like other academies, we honor intellectual excellence, but our Academy is distinguished by a special accent on intellectual courage. All our new members this year reflect the independence of mind we strive to honor.'

"The Robert J. Zimmer Medal for Intellectual Freedom is presented annually to a public thinker who displays extraordinary courage in the exercise of intellectual freedom. The award is named in honor of the late University of Chicago President, who led the creation of the Chicago Principles, the gold standard of academic freedom that has been adopted by 110 colleges and universities. 

"In 2023, the inaugural Zimmer Medal was awarded to Sir Salman Rushdie, in recognition of his extraordinary leadership in the struggle for human freedom....

"Jay Bhattacharya is a professor of health policy at Stanford University and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economics Research. He directs Stanford’s Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging. His research focuses on the health and well-being of vulnerable populations, with a particular emphasis on the role of government programs, biomedical innovation, and economics. His recent research focuses on the epidemiology of COVID-19 as well as an evaluation of policy responses to the epidemic. His broader research interests encompass the implications of population aging for future population health and medical spending in developed countries, the measurement of physician performance tied to physician payment by insurers, and the role played by biomedical innovation on health. He holds an MD and a PhD in economics, both earned at Stanford University....

"The American Academy of Sciences and Letters promotes scholarship and honors outstanding achievement in the arts, sciences, and learned professions. It encourages the fruitful exchange of ideas within academia and society at large by sponsoring occasions for scholarly interaction and providing platforms for the presentation and dissemination of scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering. An independent 501(c)(3) non-partisan organization, it offers public programming, supports promising young scholars, and promotes traditional liberal arts ideals and standards of intellectual excellence."

Read more: https://www.hoover.org/press/stanfords-jay-bhattacharya-awarded-2024-zimmer-medal-brian-conrad-awarded-2024-barry-prize

Will Hammer wins LP's Patrick Henry Award

Local Libertarian candidate earns national award from party - The Daily Progress: Politics - Bob Stuart:

June 30, 2016 - "Staunton [Virginia] resident Will Hammer is the recipient of the National Libertarian Party's Patrick Henry Candidate Award for his work in two campaigns for political office.

"Hammer ran as a Libertarian candidate against 6th District Rep. Bob Goodlatte in 2014, and House District 20 Del. Dickie Bell in 2015..... Hammer garnered 12.3 percent of the vote in 2014 when running against incumbent Rep. Goodlatte. In 2015, Hammer received 24.1 percent of the vote in his bid to unseat Bell.

"'It's an honor to have my hard work recognized,'' Hammer said of the Patrick Henry Award. "But I really couldn't have done it without the volunteers working behind the scenes."

"Volunteers assisted Hammer in getting on the ballot for both of his campaigns, and in the actual campaigns. The release detailing his award also speaks of how Hammer spent one sleepless 40-hour stretch in the 2014 congressional campaign traveling to events, speaking and mounting yard signs between Lexington and Front Royal.

"The former candidate said he is hoping for the Libertarian moment. He describes that moment as when a Libertarian 'actually gains election to local or state office. Hammer said he is encouraged by the recent showing of Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson in the polls. The most recent Quinnipiac University poll gives Johnson 8 percent of the vote....

"The Libertarian philosophy is one of empowering the individual and making government as limited as possible, Hammer said. He said Libertarians are fiscally conservative and socially tolerant.

"Hammer, 29, co-founded the first Libertarian group on campus while a student at Hampden-Sydney College. The group was known as the Hampden-Sydney Classical Liberals. A graduate of Hampden-Sydney, Hammer works as a realtor and entrepreneur."

Read more: http://www.dailyprogress.com/townnews/politics/local-libertarian-candidate-earns-national-award-from-party/article_834a2338-3f23-11e6-9037-33574d006225.html
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Edward Snowden wins Sam Adams Award

Snowden Accepts Whistleblower Award by Ray McGovern -- Antiwar.com:

October 11, 2013 - "National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, from his asylum in Russia, accepted an award on Wednesday from a group of former US intelligence officials expressing support for his decision to divulge secrets about the NSA’s electronic surveillance of Americans and people around the globe.

"The award, named in honor of the late CIA analyst Sam Adams, was presented to Snowden at a ceremony in Moscow by previous recipients of the award bestowed by the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence (SAAII). The presenters included former FBI agent Coleen Rowley, former NSA official Thomas Drake, and former Justice Department official Jesselyn Radack, now with the Government Accountability Project. (Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern also took part)....

"Coleen Rowley, the first winner of the Sam Adams Award (2002), cited some little-known history to remind Snowden that he is in good company.... She noted that in 1773, Benjamin Franklin leaked confidential information by releasing letters written by then-Lt. Governor of Massachusetts Thomas Hutchinson to Thomas Whatley, an assistant to the British Prime Minister.

"The letters suggested that it was impossible for the colonists to enjoy the same rights as subjects living in England and that 'an abridgment of what are called English liberties' might be necessary. The content of the letters was so damaging to the British government that Benjamin Franklin was dismissed as colonial Postmaster General...."

Read more: http://original.antiwar.com/mcgovern/2013/10/10/snowden-accepts-whistleblower-award/
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Pirate Cinema, Cryptonomicon win 2013 Prometheus Awards

2013 Prometheus Award Winners Announced - Libertarian Futurist Society (press release):

July 20, 2013 - "The Libertarian Futurist Society has announced the Prometheus Awards winners for Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame), to be presented Friday Aug. 30, 2013 at LoneStarCon3, the 71st Annual World Science Fiction Convention in San Antonio, Texas.

"Cory Doctorow won the award for Best Novel for Pirate Cinema (TOR Books). Doctorow also won the Best Novel award in 2009 for Little Brother. Doctorow explores themes of artistic freedom, Internet freedom and peaceful social change while shedding light on issues of copyright and government surveillance in Pirate Cinema, an optimistic young-adult novel about a young pirate filmmaker whose Internet activity threatens his family with government reprisals and who learns to fight back against outdated forms of control.

Cryptonomicon, a 1999 novel by Neal Stephenson, has won the 2013 Prometheus Hall of Fame award for Best Classic Fiction. Set during World War II and during the early 21st century, Stephenson's novel explores the implications for a free society in the development of computation and cryptography....

Also recognized as Best Novel finalists for the best pro-freedom novel of the past year are Arctic Rising, by Tobias Buckell (TOR Books); The Unincorporated Future, by Dani and Eytan Kollin (TOR Books); Darkship Renegades, by Sarah Hoyt (Baen Books); and Kill Decision, by Daniel Suarez (Dutton - Penguin)....

"Also recognized as Hall of Fame finalists: 'Sam Hall', by Poul Anderson (a short story, published 1953 in Astounding); Falling Free, by Lois McMaster Bujold (a novel, published 1988); '"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman', by Harlan Ellison (a short story, published 1965 in Galaxy); Courtship Rite, by Donald M. Kingsbury (a novel, published 1982); and 'As Easy as A.B.C.', by Rudyard Kipling (a short story, published in London Magazine in 1912).

"The Prometheus Award, sponsored by the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), was established in 1979, making it one of the most enduring awards after the Nebula and Hugo awards, and one of the oldest fan-based awards currently in SF."

Read more: http://lfs.org/releases/2013Winners.shtml