Introduction: Stephen Nass

Introduce Yourself
#1

Hello all,

As way of introduction, here’s a bit about me. It should explain why I’m here.

Politically, I’m an anarcho-capitalist type who’s all about direct action. I’ve been politically active since the occupy movement but recently I’ve been hanging out with the Libertarians. I helped found the Libertarian Party of Dane County here in Wisconsin and until very recently was the VP (then for a few months President) of that group. I also served 2 years as an At-Large position on the LPWI executive committee. I dont vote, but I do help candidates run if it means spreading the good word (Freedom). If you need to gather signatures, I’m your man.

At the end of this month, I’ll be headed to New Hampshire as a Free State Project participant. This is something I’ve been planning and waiting to do for years. I’ll be spending the summer as chef at a summer camp near Hebron, then I’ll head to ???, NH depending on the work that I find and where the political scene takes me.

In my career I’m a chef. I have been managing kitchens and restaurants for a decent amount of time. Lately my focus has been with local and sustainable food sources. The two kitchens I’m leaving right now are an innovative locally focused restaurant (forequartermadison.com) and managing a church kitchen where my primary duty was to create a nice plated dinner for street people. I need to rebuild my network in NH so if you know anyone that works in the industry send them my way :slight_smile:

In my personal life, I’m extremely stoked about hearing that there’s a new Dark Crystal prequel coming to Netflix, I’ll be fully divorced from my wife in September, I got rid of all my furniture so that I could make one single drive with all my possessions in my car to get to NH which is just absolutely a crazy concept, and I’m currently reading the book “Community. The Structure of Belonging” by Peter Block.

Find me on Instagram: http://instagram.com/kitchennass
Find me on Facebook: facebook.com/stephen.nass

I found these forums because someone posted about it on Facebook or something like that.

This is me getting pulled over by the police for not having a front license plate in April:

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#2

I also shoved my possessions into a car and drove to New Hampshire. Looking forward to meeting you, bud.

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#3

luckily LPNH has ballot access in 2018, which means no need to gather petitions!

PS
look forward to meeting you when you arrive

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#4

Right on, Stephen. Welcome in advance.

NH, VT, and ME are the three biggest “localvore” states. You should be able to connect with countless people who are into locally-sourced food up here.

I’d start with the farmers markets - they happen twice a week here in Keene. (And elsewhere throughout the state.)

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#5

Hey Stephen!

Welcome. It’s great to meet you. Thanks for such a colorful description. Can’t wait to meet up in person. There are great restaurants and a very active political community of libertarian party members in Portsmouth. Check it out!

Peace :smiley:

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#6

Welcome Stephen! Come check out Portsmouth the restaurant capital of NH, we’ll show you around the local ancap club The Praxeum and take you to our finest Bitcoin-accepting establishments.

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#7

Welcome Stephen. My partner and I will be moving there next month during Porcfest. And she’s a great Hawaiian cook. I’m good with chili and burgers. Good luck.

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#8

Welcome, I am not in the restaurant management biz anymore but have 20+ years experience in NH and know a lot of people, let me know what your looking for. you sound perfect for a company called Café Services. they handle dining services at places like schools, colleges, companies and summer camps.

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#9

Hi Stephen!

You sound like a person who would be perfect for Keene. You’d fit right in here! There was an incident with someone here the other week for something similar. Driving with a non-government plate I believe on the back of the vehicle. We have another couple of people who drive without drivers licenses and/or on suspended licenses out of principle in Keene and I’m looking forward to a driving without plates protest this summer. I don’t know when that might get organized, but probably around the Somalia Fest or Porcfest time period I suspect. A lot of activists in one place and all that. Anyway- I’ve filmed one trial and a bunch of hearings for one person in NH this past year and Ian filmed another hearing I believe of someone else in Keene for a similar sort of driving on a suspended license thing.

Selling all your big possessions and moving to New Hampshire is absolutely bat shit crazy- and a good sign you’ll fit right in here. My boyfriend and I bought a house in New Hampshire after just 1 trip up here (well, we’d been to a porcfest and liberty forum or two, but other than that) and having only looked at 1 place (found the perfect place for us online- and that was just really good luck- it was not my first time house hunting so… I had an idea already what I wanted… and the house was basically what I’d wished I’d found two years prior when I went house shopping in NJ for my first house). A month and half later we moved in. Same day as the closing. Same hour in fact. Hadn’t even sold our old house (which was only bought two years prior too! didn’t make out well, or didn’t do too badly when I sold it, but it was basically a wasted two years cause of all the costs involved in buying and selling houses).

A few more thoughts… We have the New Hampshire Libertarian Party President in Keene and now the Libertarian Party of Western New Hampshire has been formed as well.

There is a weekly Bitcoin meetup in Keene and we have more Bitcoin accepting businesses in Keene than anywhere else. Check out http://www.shirebitcoin.org/ which is run by somebody in Keene and there is also a http://www.shirebitcoin.com/ that is run by another on the Sea Coast. I believe that person is on the forum :slight_smile: although I won’t reveal who just in case they don’t want others to know they run it.

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#10

I don’t think the LP of WNH was formed - there wasn’t enough interest in officer positions from what I recall. It was too much cart before the horse, IMO.

#11

I love to hear that all this work is being done. The funny thing about my situation: Im actually a dependable solid person. I have been planning on moving to NH since 2008 and only got rid of all my psossesions before the move because my wife recently left me. Getting pulled over for not having a plate on my car: I had recently swapped cars with my wife as per our divorce settlement and she neglected to inform me that the plate had been stolen. My plan has always been that activism in WI is great but I really dont want to risk any serious run-ins with the law outside the free state and the support found there.

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#12

Im curious about Keene. Id love being somewhere that has such an active group. On the other hand, we need to free the state and give the north some love too.

#13

aww- yea- I thought we did get somewhere sort of. Maybe I’m mistaken. Just thought we didn’t really go anywhere besides “we exist”.

#14

The problem with the north is many fold. There aren’t any jobs, people, or money and the movers up in that region don’t even know each other. They simply don’t communicate. The other issue is they are far from the rest of the state and politics. It’s not likely your going to be taking a trip to testify on a bill if your up north. It’s not likely your going to have the networks or the people to get motivated to do something.

To demonstrate this problem I’ll give you an example. This past Liberty Forum we had two people come out to the Bitcoin meetup that were living in the same town up north. Neither of them knew any other movers up in their region nor did they know each other. I tried to get them up and running on Telegram so they could start something- but this example seems to be prevalent as far as the north is concerned.

Given all the issues I’d really suggest looking south- but north of the major cities or towns if you want to be in the middle of nowhere. Keene is in the middle of nowhere- but has a decent size population within its boarder. If you go just north of Keene there are VERY few people. A good chunk of the population in Cheshire county live in Keene.

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#15

Bill from Twin Mountain convenience / gas (they take BTC and have a vending machine that gets a fraction of the business the southern machines get) regrets his decision to invest/move up into the North Country.

#16

I think things might be different in the north if we actually had enough people move to a particular point with the right variety of skills, training, resources to get started, and similar that would enable a community to flourish. Unfortunately achieving such results is probably too much of a challenge and the number of people moving would have to be substantially greater than what we see today. Most people aren’t interested in learning a new trade and there is an investment cost many would have trouble with making.

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#18

LP Western NH adopted bylaws, and elected 2 members of the EC. We however did not submit an application for affiliation with LPNH.
Our next meeting is June 3

#19

Yea- that is what I thought. I got it on my white board.

#20

Welcome Stephen! I have lived in NH most of my life. There are beautiful places here! We have a lot of Libertarians spread all over the state and beautiful vistas that are inspiring. I know a couple organic farmers that you may be able to hook up with - one is a chef who became a full time farmer. He used to hold feasts at his farm where he served salads of edible flowers and other yumminess! Maybe I could convince you to cater one of my campaign events when you get here? I love promoting liberty minded people!

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#21

one time I got pulled over when the cop ran my plate and did a typo
you never know