Iowa Libertarians to livestream presidential forum

Libertarian Party of Iowa to host presidential candidate forum - KCRG TV9:

December 27, 2019 - "In February the Libertarian Party of Iowa will host its first ever presidential candidate forum during their annual state convention ... slated for February 28th at the Grand View University Student Center in Des Moines.

"The candidate forum will include Kimberly Ruff, a political activist; Jacob Hornberger, the founder of Future of Freedom Foundation; Rep. Max Abramson for the state of New Hampshire; Daniel Behrman, a podcast host and entrepreneur; Ken Armstrong, a former NATO Base Commander; and Jo Jorgenson, [the] 1996 Libertarian Vice Presidential Nominee.

"The forum will be live-streamed by the Libertarian Party.

"The convention will also include party business, electing their 2020 State Central Committee, and keynote speakers. They include former Governor of Rhode Island Lincoln Chafee, Greene County Attorney Thomas Laehn and Libertarian National Committee Representative Joshua Smith.

Read more: https://www.kcrg.com/content/news/Libertarian-Party-of-Iowa-to-host-presidential-candidate-forum-566514171.html

U.S. cannabis reform stalled in Senate

Legislative Losses for Cannabis This Month - Slog - The Stranger - Josh Jardine:

December 24, 2019 - "In 2019, optimism was in short supply no matter the subject, save cannabis. Numerous blogs, columns, and discussions revolved around how this was the year things were going to change.... Except [they] didn’t, and likely won’t, at least not anytime soon. While incremental progress was made ... the potential victories hoped for at the federal level failed to manifest in a big way....

"The Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act (SAFE Act). ... passed [the House of Representatives] with surprisingly strong bipartisan support in September gaining 91 Republican votes. SAFE would allow banks and financial institutions to work with the cannabis industry, which would be of tremendous value to both the cannabis and banking industries..... Except...

"Last week, the Chair of the Senate Banking Committee Michael Crapo (R.-Idaho) announced that he isn’t down with the SAFE Act as it stands, and suggested some less than stellar potential changes which would effectively gut it. Per Marijuana Biz Daily: 'The Idaho Republican is considering a 2% THC potency cap on cannabis products for businesses to be eligible for financial services, substantially below current levels of 12% or more typically seen on retail shelves in state-legal markets.... Crapo stated that he remains opposed to federal cannabis legalization, interstate cannabis commerce and Idaho establishing a regulated cannabis program.'

"The Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement Act, or MORE Act became the most comprehensive piece of cannabis legalization legislation to ever gain traction.... Last month the House Judiciary Committee passed it, sending it to the full house. But many believe its chances of getting to the Senate, much less gaining Senate support remain next to nil. That’s in large part to the current Senate majority leader ... Mitch McConnell.... Last year he told reporters that 'I do not have any plans to endorse the legalization of marijuana'....

"In fact, the most recent legislative actions ... had numerous cannabis-related amendments removed. Those included prohibiting the Feds from interfering with states with legal cannabis programs, and helping to protect banks which provide financial services to cannabis businesses. The Senate opted not to include these into the bill, and also added language to keep the District of Columbia from establishing a legal cannabis sales program using its own tax revenue....

"As Marijuana Moment notes 'These spending bills, which were released on Monday, are the latest losses for cannabis reform in the appropriations process. Defense authorization legislation released last week also saw two House-passed veterans-focused marijuana provisions scrapped by bicameral negotiators. Those measures would have protected veterans from being denied home loans from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs due to their employment in a state-legal cannabis business and allowed the heads of military branches to grant reenlistment waivers to individuals convicted of a single, low-level marijuana offense.'"

Read more: https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2019/12/23/42373161/legislative-losses-for-cannabis-this-month
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Colorado Libertarians celebrate Festivus

GoLocalProv | Former Governor Chafee Celebrates Festivus with Colorado Libertarians:

December 16, 2019 - "While many Christians were celebrating Christmas on Wednesday and members of the Jewish faith are enjoying Hanukkah this week, former U.S. Senator and Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee was recently in Colorado at a Festivus celebration with the Libertarian Party.

"'Festivus is a secular holiday celebrated on December 23 as an alternative to the pressures and commercialism of the Christmas season. Originally created by author Daniel O'Keefe, Festivus entered popular culture after it was made the focus of the 1997 Seinfeld episode "The Strike." which O'Keefe's son, Dan O'Keefe, co-wrote,' according to a definition on Wikipedia....

"Chafee ran for President as a Democrat in 2016. Now, he is a Libertarian candidate in 2020 for President."

Read more: https://www.golocalprov.com/politics/former-governor-chafee-celebrates-festivus-with-colorado-libertarians
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A Christmas cartoon

I'm sure that we're all too busy for writing and reading blogs today; so here's a cartoon, courtesy of Dan Mitchell's International Liberty weblog:

AZ Libertarians appeal to SCOTUS to get on ballot

Libertarian Party tells Supreme Court state law keeps its candidates off ballot | News | tucson.com - Mamta Popat, Tucson Star:

December 21, 2019 - "The Arizona Libertarian Party is making a last-ditch effort to quash a state statute that it says was designed to keep its candidates off the ballot. In filings with the U.S. Supreme Court, attorney Oliver Hall from the Center for Competitive Democracy said the law pushed through the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2015 sharply increased — sometimes by a factor of 30 — the number of signatures needed for Libertarian candidates to qualify for the ballot.

"That wasn’t by accident. In fact the record shows that J.D. Mesnard, then a GOP representative from Chandler and now a state senator, told colleagues that Republicans would have been elected to two congressional seats had it not been for what he said were Libertarian candidates in the same race siphoning votes that otherwise would have gone to the GOP contenders. 'I can’t believe we wouldn’t see the benefit of this,' Mesnard said during a floor speech....

"Only one Libertarian qualified for the ballot in 2016 — and none at all in 2018. 'Arizona has relegated the Arizona Libertarian Party to a state of electoral purgatory,' Hall wrote. 'The party is ballot-qualified under Arizona law, but it cannot place its candidates on the ballot'....

"So far, Hall’s arguments have failed to sway federal judges. They concluded the wording of that 2015 law, strictly speaking, treats all parties equally in how they get their candidates qualified for the ballot. But it’s the way the system actually works that is behind the litigation.

"Prior to 2015, candidates for recognized minor parties could get on the ballot simply by submitting petitions with the signatures of one-half of 1% of those registered with the party. In 2018 for the Libertarians, a statewide candidate would have had to collect around 160 names.

"That year, the Republicans who control the Legislature lowered the requirement for all parties to one-quarter of 1%. But they engineered it so the figure was based not on party registration but on all who could sign a candidate’s petition. That added political independents to the base, who actually outnumber Democrats and run a close second to Republicans.

"So in 2018 the minimum signature requirement for a Libertarian running statewide was 3,153, about 10% of all those actually registered as Libertarians. Meanwhile the numbers for Republican and Democrat nominations remained close to what [they] always had been: 6,223 signatures for GOP candidates and 5,801 for Democrats, both a small fraction of each party’s voter registration."

Read more: https://tucson.com/news/arizona_news/libertarian-party-tells-supreme-court-state-law-keeps-its-candidates/article_d6f9288e-2251-5639-9c4a-9af705e75e0c.html
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Amash promoted for impeachment manager role

Opinion | A Voice of Conscience - The New York Times - David Leonhardt:
December 18, 2019 - "In the history of impeachment inquiries, members of the president’s own party who criticized him played a big role. They were often held up as voices of conscience whose criticism underscored the president’s wrongdoing.... So count me among those who hope House Democrats choose Justin Amash — the conservative Michigan congressman who recently switched from Republican to independent — to be one of their impeachment managers. Amash is evidently interested in the role, and several first-term House Democrats are pushing party leaders to select him.

"If they do so, they would be giving a high-profile role in the Senate trial to a politician who can’t easily be portrayed as just another partisan Democrat. Trump and his enablers will still try to do so, of course. But Amash increases the chances that a small number of Trump supporters and swing voters might be persuaded.... For more:

• "Susan Hennessey, Lawfare: 'This would be a very shrewd choice. Not only is Amash a conservative, he is a very effective questioner and has a gift for rooting his analysis in core constitutional concerns.'
• "Jamil Smith, Rolling Stone:... '@justinamash has been articulating the strategy for impeachment better than most, regardless of party. That is the best argument for this.'
• "Marcy Wheeler, a national security journalist: 'I’m a constituent of Justin Amash … And I’m solidly in support of the idea — floated by thirty freshman Democrats — for Amash to be among the Impeachment Managers presenting the case in the Senate.... It is critical to have a voice making the conservative case for upholding the Constitution. … Well before queasy Democrats in swing districts came around to the necessity of impeaching President Trump, Amash left his party and took a stand to defend the Constitution.'
• "Ben Mathis-Lilley of Slate on Amash:... ''His existence is a reminder that ... the case for removing Trump does not require one to hold a left-of-center belief system and is, in fact, supported by many non-Democrats. There’s no better answer to the Republican talking point about how zero Republicans support impeaching Trump than to draw attention to a person who would still be a prominent Republican if the party didn’t have a Trump loyalty requirement.'"

Libertarians eye Amash for 2020? Party chair says impeachment role could boost ex-Republican | Salon.com:
December 17, 2019 - "Adding Amash  'to the team of House impeachment managers would strengthen the presentation of evidence in the Senate trial and would be a smart move on the part of Speaker Pelosi,' Libertarian chair Nicholas Sarwark told Salon by email Monday.... Sarwark added, ... 'Libertarian Party delegates could be impressed if he does well in such a role, and it may increase calls for him to seek the Libertarian Party nomination next May at our national convention in Austin.'

'Of all the members of Congress, his positions seem to most closely match those of the Libertarian Party, so he would likely have a base of support within the party if he joins the contest that will be decided in Austin next May,' Sarwark told Salon by email in July. Amash has not ruled out the possibility."

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/opinion/trump-impeachment-justin-amash.html
Read more: https://www.salon.com/2019/12/17/libertarians-eye-amash-for-2020-party-chair-says-impeachment-role-could-boost-ex-republican/
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The five worst Christmas songs

The Five Worst Christmas Songs (And Scathing Rebuttals) - Squiggly Line Guy, Libertarian Republic:

December 3, 2019 - "The Five Worst Christmas Songs (And Scathing Rebuttals)

I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus
"Listen up kid, you could have starred in your own feel-good Original Hallmark Movie about saving your parents’ marriage on Christmas. Instead you wrote this ridiculous song. You could have tipped your father off without making a complete fool of him on the radio. I’m sure you’re sitting there wondering what’s taking him so long to get back home with that pack of cigarettes he went out for....

Last Christmas
"You whiny emo douchebag.... Did it ever occur to you that there is more than one day a year? It’s rather insulting to not pay attention to someone the other 364 days and then act like you’re the 2nd Coming of Jesus on Christmas. But the very next day it was back to playing video games and watching sports ALL THE TIME. Who could blame her for junking that? Get over yourself, and quit making her out to be the problem. This has been happening to you every year since 1984....

White Christmas ...
"A good Christmas song needs to be universally applicable. Southern states don’t even get snow. The concept of dreaming of a White Christmas doesn’t even make sense to people in the South. [Correction: We have been informed by David Duke that dreaming of a White Christmas makes perfect sense to people in the South]

The Christmas Shoes
"Look, I know that we’re trying to be as inclusive as possible here … but the whole Mommy got cancer for Christmas [thing] is seriously jumping the shark....

You're a Mean One, Mr Grinch ...
"Did you all ever think that maybe The Grinch is the way he is because every five minutes someone is singing a song about what a piece of [crap] he is? Look, there’s only so much that someone can take. Maybe he didn’t hate Christmas. Maybe he hated The Whos and their stupid moobs that stick out past their bellies and their dumb songs and Mitt Romney look-a-like mayors.... Like, ... I could have been taking a nap with the Lorax but instead I’m stuck in a snowy cave having to hear all the Noise Noise NOISE?"

Read more: https://thelibertarianrepublic.com/the-five-worst-christmas-songs-and-scathing-rebuttals/
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