WA Supreme Court strikes down death penalty

Washington state Supreme Court strikes down the death penalty | News | The Pacific Northwest Inlander | News, Politics, Music, Calendar, Events in Spokane, Coeur d'Alene and the Inland Northwest - Wilson Criscione:

October 18, 2018 - "The Washington Supreme Court unanimously struck down the death penalty last week, ruling that it is 'imposed in an arbitrary and racially biased manner.' In doing so, Washington becomes the 20th state to end capital punishment. The ruling commuted the sentences of eight men currently on death row to life in prison.

"'The death penalty, as administered in our state, fails to serve any legitimate penological goal,' the ruling states.

"It's the third time the court has declared the state's death penalty laws unconstitutional — the prior rulings taking place in 1972 and 1979. None of those, including last week's decision, hold capital punishment as inherently unconstitutional. The court left open the option that the state Legislature could enact a statute for capital punishment, as long is it doesn't create a system that offends constitutional rights....

"Fifteen states have abandoned the death penalty through court order or legislative act in the last 15 years. Washington has not executed anyone since 2010, and in 2014, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee — a one-time supporter of capital punishment — imposed a moratorium on the death penalty. He said last week in a news conference that he would veto any bill that would reinstate the death penalty. "'Today's decision by the state Supreme Court thankfully ends the death penalty in Washington,' Inslee says in a statement....

"Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who introduced legislation in 2017 to abolish the death penalty, says in a statement he will try again to remove capital punishment from state law, 'once and for all.'  'Next session, I will again propose legislation repealing the death penalty, replacing it with life in prison without the possibility of parole,' Ferguson says."

Read more: https://www.inlander.com/spokane/washington-state-supreme-court-strikes-down-the-death-penalty/Content?oid=13540743
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Sharpe achieves ballot status for NY Libertarians

Libertarian Party of New York Achieves Ballot Access - Binghamton Homepage:

November 7, 2018 - "Libertarian candidate Larry Sharpe made history today by tallying 90,739 votes in the New York State Gubernatorial election. New York is now one step closer to changing the two party partnership in Albany that enjoys the political benefits of offering favors with our tax dollars. Mr. Sharpe made inroads with disenchanted Republicans and Democrats, Independents and new voters by offering a message of hope rather than employing the fear factor tactics of the old parties.

"By surpassing the 50,000 vote threshold, the Libertarian Party of New York (LPNY) secures New York State ballot access for the next four years. Recruiting principled libertarian candidates to challenge big government incumbents in local elections begins now. We enthusiastically welcome those who defend the rights of the individual and want to challenge Albany’s use of force to achieve political and social goals to join us.

"LPNY Chairman Jim Rosenbeck said 'We view today’s results as much more than the snapshot of a single election.  Today’s outcome portends a larger political revolution in New York State. The LPNY will build on this momentum. Those who came to us for a great candidate in Larry Sharpe are encouraged to stay and work together to promote the only political ideology that consistently defends your right to pursue happiness with minimal interference from the state.'"

Read more: https://www.binghamtonhomepage.com/news/up-to-the-minute/libertarian-party-of-new-york-achieves-ballot-access/1579495921
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People's Party organizing in Saskatchewan

Maxime Bernier's People's Party of Canada gaining support in Sask. | CBC News - Chelsea Laskowski:

October 25, 2018 - "Maxime Bernier's Saskatchewan supporters say they're well on the way to hitting their leader's big goal for 2018.

"When Bernier filed the Elections Canada paperwork seeking official party status for his new People's Party of Canada in early October, he told reporters he wants to set up associations for his new People's Party of Canada in all of the country's 338 federal ridings. It was a big ask for a party that just got its name in September, only a month after Bernier shocked conservatives across Canada by announcing he'd be leaving the party to create his own....

"Saskatchewan already has nine out of 14 set up, including one in each of the six combined ridings in Saskatoon and Regina. Efforts are underway [in] all of the remaining ridings. Rural areas are lagging behind, according to Ethan Erkiletian, who has been key in forming PPC riding associations in the province. All ridings are pending registration under Elections Canada.

"The party claims to have signed up more than 22,477 members nationally but told CBC it won't be sharing regional membership statistics until November at the earliest. South Saskatchewan PPC field organizer Nigel Sharp said Regina's biggest riding association has nearly 100 members right now.

"With Bernier's headquarters in Gatineau, QC housing only four paid PPC staffers, the heavy lifting — and credit for membership growth — lands on the shoulders of Bernier's loyal supporters, most of whom supported his failed Conservative leadership bid....

"For now, Saskatoon-University remains the core. 'That's where our groundswell of support is up here. All of this, remember, is quite spontaneous and quite self-actualized. So as we've seen support spring up it's really just completely self-motivated,' Erkiletian said....

"Bernier would like to drop immigration levels down to Harper era numbers, around 90,000 less than current projections for 2020.... Erkiletian said people online have called him everything from xenophobe to a white supremacist. 'When you do draw yourself into the public debate people will resort to these tactics, especially if you are part of a movement such as Maxime Bernier's which is trying to speak openly and honestly about issues of contention,' he said....

"Erkiletian said he's just received a letter from Elections Canada to confirm that he is a party member. It takes 250 confirmed members to officially be declared a party. For now, members are willingly taking on expenses like booking meeting rooms and travel with no promise of being reimbursed until the party is official."

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/sask-peoples-party-canada-bernier-1.4877562
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U.S. military spending endangers American liberty

The Military Industrial Complex’s Assault on Liberty | The American Conservative - Michael Shumer:

June 22, 2018 - "Last week, the House Appropriations Committee advanced a lavish $674.6 billion Pentagon spending bill for fiscal year 2019. That means Congress is preparing to spend even more on defense, which isn’t at all shocking. To even marginally decrease defense spending, according to its champions, would be disastrous....

"America’s military has over 800 bases worldwide, more than any other nation or empire in history. In order to staff, equip, and maintain this body, the U.S. spends more on defense than China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United Kingdom, India, and France combined—to great effect. According to the Credit Suisse Research Institute, the strength of the American military exceeds that of all other countries, based on factors that include its quantities of soldiers, tanks, and aircraft. If any nation is prepared to brave the whirlwind of geopolitics, it is the United States. Yet legislators still claim that the military is experiencing a 'readiness crisis,' which necessitates further fattening of the defense budget.

"This 'crisis' is often exaggerated or confused by its proponents because 'readiness' is an ambiguous term that hints at urgency without ever specifying a threat. In that vein, arguments often focus on the health of particular programs while failing to contextualize them within clearly defined geopolitical aims. Whether a certain squadron of pilots is getting enough flight hours is a very different question than whether the U.S. is ready to maintain its current commitments abroad or hold its ground in a world war. Emotion, not genuine geopolitical insight, drives popular support for inflated defense spending, and, in the words of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, 'the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear.'

"When World War II ended, defense spending fell significantly. President Truman was left wondering how to persuade Congress to fund various geopolitical projects.... Senator Arthur Vandenberg forthrightly advised him to 'scare the hell out of the American people,' and so he did with great success. Later presidents followed suit throughout the Cold War and, together, they funded an extravagant arms race that lasted until the Soviet Union fell....

"Shortly, however, new demons were conjured up from the Middle Eastern sands and the defense budget has been distended ever since. If this cycle of inflated spending and fearsome rhetoric were some sort of perverse exercise towards geopolitical predictability, perhaps it would be pardonable. But it isn’t. In addition to our scruples, it costs us our liberty.

"In his famous 'Cross of Iron' speech, President Eisenhower said, 'Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed.' Even worse, excessive defense spending is an assault on liberty. In the words of American political philosopher Lysander Spooner, 'the only security men can have for their political liberty, consists in their keeping their money in their own pockets, until they have assurances…that it will be used as they wish it to be used, for their benefit, and not for their injury.'

"In a capitalist economy such as ours, money is the fuel of freedom. To take so much of it away from taxpayers to fund military bloat, which is neither necessary nor beneficial, is to not only deprive them of some good or service, but to deprive them of their choice, which is the essence of liberty."

Read more: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-military-industrial-complexs-assault-on-liberty/

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Third libertarian Republican elected to U.S. House

Libertarian Republicans excelled in the midterm elections - Jack Hunter, Washington Examiner:

November 7, 2018 - "On Tuesday night, Democrats took the House and Republicans kept the Senate. Expect to hear opinions and analysis of what this might mean for President Trump and the 2020 election in the weeks and months to come. But how did the small but enduring libertarian faction within the Republican Party do?...

"The most high-profile libertarian Republican in Congress, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, was not up for re-election. The next-most high-profile libertarian Republicans in Congress, Reps. Justin Amash of Michigan and Thomas Massie of Kentucky, both won re-election by double-digits.

"Amash, who represents a purple district, has been openly critical of Trump, and his independent streak appeared to pay off for him Tuesday. Massie represents a deep-red district, hasn’t hesitated to criticize the president, yet simultaneously has been more sympathetic. Massie predictably defeated his Democratic opponent in a blowout.

"Republican novice Denver Riggleman won his race for Virginia’s 5th Congressional District. 'Riggleman, a newcomer to politics, ran a positive campaign based on libertarian ideas,' reported National Review's Jibran Khan. But Khan also noted what the libertarian-leaning Riggleman was not: 'His victory, which came on the heels of Corey Stewart’s failed run for the Senate, should be a message for the Virginia GOP'....

"The soundly defeated Corey Stewart represented not only some of the worst aspects of today’s Right in his racist appeal, however intentional or unintentional those appeals were, but his competitive GOP primary opponent Virginia House member Nick Freitas was a libertarian Republican....  Even if he wouldn’t have beaten Democrat Tim Kaine, it is easy to see the libertarian Freitas having significantly more appeal to a larger swath of voters than Stewart. Hopefully this is a lesson Virginia Republicans remember.

"A similar message was sent in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, where Republican Katie Arrington was defeated by Democrat Joe Cunningham. Arrington defeated incumbent Rep. Mark Sanford in the Republican primary by touting her pro-Trump credentials.... [A] Democrat hadn’t won [there] in 40 years.... Arrington’s defeat shows that there are limits to merely hanging your hat on Trump, even in red South Carolina. It goes without saying that the libertarian Sanford would have had far more appeal.

"Another libertarian victory of sorts actually came from the Democratic side, where Colorado’s Jared Polis became the first openly gay governor. Polis is the sole Democratic member of the House Liberty Caucus founded by Justin Amash.... This is not to say that the new Democratic governor will always act along liberty lines, but the one Democrat arguably most sympathetic to libertarian ideas and issues got a big win Tuesday.

"The biggest losses for libertarian Republicans were the defeat of Rep. Dave Brat in Virginia’s 7th District, and Eric Brakey, with a failed Senate challenge to Maine’s incumbent Angus King, an independent who overwhelming votes with Democrats. Brat, also a member of the House Liberty Caucus, made waves when he defeated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in 2014 — and his loss Tuesday was razor-thin. Brakey, a popular two-term Maine state senator, is only 30 years old, a thorough libertarian Republican in the mold of Rand Paul, and hopefully this won’t be the last we hear from him.

"Overall, Tuesday showed ... that libertarian Republicanism not only endures, but prevails, and could be the brand best positioned for future GOP victories."

Read more: https://gdspoliticalanimal.blogspot.com/2018/11/third-libertarian-republican-elected-to.html
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Texas Libertarians receive record votes

Tippetts Sets Libertarian Vote Record in Governor Race — The Amarillo Pioneer:

November 8, 2018 - "On Tuesday night, [Mark] Tippetts won 140,015 votes, making for the largest vote total for a Libertarian candidate for Texas governor in history. While Tippetts won around 2 percent of the vote, the number marks a significant move forward for Libertarian voters in Texas.

"Tippetts was not the only record setter among Libertarians Tuesday. Court of Criminal Appeals candidate Mark Ash set the record for largest vote total ever received for a Texas Libertarian, earning 1.6 million votes. Richard Carpenter and Matt Pina also set records for best vote totals for Libertarians in their respective statewide races.

"With Ash’s showing on Tuesday, Libertarians also earned ballot access through 2020.

"For information on the Libertarian Party, please visit www.lptexas.org."

Read more: https://www.amarillopioneer.com/blog/2018/11/8/tippetts-sets-libertarian-vote-record-in-governor-race
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Libertarian state reps defeated in NH, Nebraska

Libertarian State Sen. Laura Ebke of Nebraska Loses Re-Election Bid - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Brian Doherty:

November 7, 2018 - "Nebraska state Sen. Laura Ebke won office in 2014 as a Republican, but switched parties to Libertarian in 2016 because of her dislike for lockstep discipline in a party that she didn't think hewed to consistent small government principles. After coming in second in a three-way nonpartisan primary in May, with 33 percent for Ebke and 44 for Republican Tom Brandt, she lost to him tonight, 57-43.

Ebke was extraordinarily well-funded for a state legislative race in Nebraska. Due largely to big-money contributions from out-of-state libertarians, she raised nearly a quarter million, huge by Nebraska standards and more than twice Brandt's take....

"The Libertarian Party didn't put a lot of effort or time into Ebke's race, which seems fine with her. She wasn't stressing the party connection much in her campaigning or messaging; unless a voter directly asked her, she wasn't apt to bring it up.... Her campaign manager, Asa Bryant, agreed in an interview last month that trying to sell a voter on the entire L.P. package was less useful to them in a local campaign than just trying to sell the candidate. So he advised Ebke not to stress the party label and not to use the term libertarian in her promotional material."
Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2018/11/07/libertarian-state-sen-laura-ebke-of-nebr

Party-Switching N.H. State Rep. Brandon Phinney Gets Slaughtered as a Libertarian - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Matt Welch

November 6, 2018 - "Brandon Phinney was a model for one genre of elected Libertarian: The party-switcher. The New Hampshire state representative, elected to the 400-member body in 2016 as a Republican, switched to Libertarian in June 2017 after watching the machinery of allegedly small-government Republicanism up close.... He targeted archaic laws to be stricken from the books, helped effectively legalize visiting bands drinking beer on stage, and prepped for his first election wearing the 'L' right there on his sweater....

"He got trounced.... 'After two years of voting to protect personal freedom, control spending, provide transparency and after two years of proposing legislation to do the same (with two bills as a prime sponsor signed into law),' Phinney wrote on his Facebook page, 'my district rewarded me with 377 votes.... The Democratic candidate, who barely campaigned, received 1,548 votes. The Republican, who did NOTHING but put out yard signs, received 1,720 votes'....

"In another post, Phinney complained that 'voters care more about party than literally anything else and that's the biggest problem in this country.'" "
Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2018/11/06/party-switching-nh-state-rep-brandon-phi

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