NH Free 2023 - Independence drive begins! Exec summary here

We’ve started a drive to make New Hampshire an independent country via state constitutional amendment. Even “failed” efforts of this kind can have many benefits…look how many concessions Quebec and Scotland have achieved with their “unsuccessful” campaigns!.

Around August 1, 2021, various NH radio hosts hosts offered to reimburse the public for the roughly $2,000 taxpayer expense of placing independence legislation before the state house. This enabled others to contact state reps and ask them to submit such legislation…without forcing all the taxpayers to underwrite it.

NH state reps Mike Sylvia and Matthew Santonastaso then gallantly joined the process,our email list and two conference calls which you can hear in the “radio hosts” link below. Internal consensus favors a proposed amendment to the NH Constitution, mainly because this is the only way to let all New Hampshirites vote on it. Latest wording below; as of late Aug. it constitutes a declaration of independence:
" Drafting the proposed amendment "

You can contact reps here and ask them to back the Amendment: :
" The New Hampshire House of Representatives "

Most of the discussion has been on other soc. media and email. Background details here:
" NH: Beleaguered radio hosts offer to underwrite secession drive - #33 by RidleyReport2 "

A key trigger for this act of hopeful desperation was the excessive and commerce-killing Fed raids on Bitcoin activists around New Hampshire in March. But independence is a Rorschach…you see in it your own grievances. Maybe you see Washington’s torture chamber at Bagram Air Force base or its unconstitutional gun restrictions. Maybe you see its toxic spills turning rivers orange…or its unshrinkable million-page list of mostly-victimless Forbidden Acts. Whatever you see, with your help and a bit more unpopular overstep by the central government…we can remove this list so that it never hangs over our heads again.

Update 8/21: Someone has set up a website for the Independence Amendment: NHexit.us
Pre-existing sites: NHexit.org , NHexit.com, NHindependence.org

Update 8/31: Free ways you can help: " NH Independence Amendment: Free ways you can help "

Update 9/15: NH Rep. Sylvia submits Independence Amendment:
" Historic Constitutional Amendment Filed for NH to Exit United States | Free Keene "

Update 9/24/2021: Unscientific poll on UnionLeader.com frontpage ran in mid September. When the took it off the front page four days days later (September 18), it showed 71% public support in favor of a vote on independence: NH Free 2023 - Independence drive begins! Exec summary here - #30 by russellkanning

Update 10/3/2021: " NH: Pro-Fed rep files bill to prevent public from voting on independence " Office of Legislative Services faithfully completes Independence Amendment wording, returns to prime sponsor for final approval, which is expected: " Legislative Services Approves Constitutional Amendment for NH Independence "

Update 10/19/2021: NHexit activist Terese Grinnell arrested at Governor’s meeting, was there to oppose acceptance of Fed money. Charged with disorderly conduct, I think, possibly for previous speech.
" NH Only State to Reject Federal COVID Bribe Money - $27 Million DENIED "
Independence Amendment now has a more official designation: “CACR 2022-2243” and 8 state reps have added their names as co-sponsors…making a total of 9 sponsors. Maximum allowed is 10, and 9 is apparently considered larger than usual.

Update 11/12/2021: NHexit.com now has a list of about a dozen social media where you can mass-communicate with exiters via Telegram, Matrix, Twitter, etc.

Suggested protocol published for reacting to additional arrests: " Amplifying NH independence from jail "

E-meetings continue each Sunday at 1pm Eastern Time. The public is invited, especially opponents of NH independence: No acct needed:
" https://meet.jit.si/NHIndependenceTownHallMtgAudioTaped "

Update 12/17/2021: The Independence Amendment has received the official designation “CACR 32;” its precise text appears here: New Hampshire Legislative Service Requests (LSR's)
Authorities have assigned it to the “State-Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs” committee, where it should receive its first hearing in early 2022. Meanwhile activists speculate that this represents a new period of danger for the amendment, as committee members may come under “behind the scenes” pressure to fatally change its wording. However, the committee clerk is State Rep Susan DeLemus, whose husband Jerry was SWAT-teamed by the Feds at his home in Rochester, NH around 2015. Considered by many a political prisoner, Washington held him for roughly 5 years in connection with his presence at the Bundy Ranch standoffs out west. Also the cmte. chair Al Baldasaro faced questioning by Secret Service agents after he made inflammatory remarks against Clinton The Second around 2016.

Update 12/28: There is an unconfirmed report that committee member Susan DeLemus (above) has pledged to support the amendment. Also, more media coverage: NH Independence Drive media coverage

Jan 7 2022: Hearing scheduled for Jan 20, some confusion regarding the time, and the hearing is likely to be “continued” to a second date: PUBLIC HEARING for CACR32: Jan 20th, 3:30pm! Alu from LibertyBlock.com is reporting that other folks on the committee have indicated support. One member has penned a long but thoughtful letter against it and sent it to the reps.

Jan 20, 2022: Initial coverage from the demonstration/hearing, turnout appears to have been at least 50, requiring two hearing rooms. Both were packed. Testimony appears to have been overwhelmingly in favor of the Independence Amendment:: “NH Independence demonstration scheduled Jan 20 Concord. Precedes House hearing on "Exit Referendum" - #13 by RidleyReport2

Meanwhile a committee member says he can turn our legislation into a proposed BAN on independence:
" State rep says he has the votes to make CACR 32 into a *ban* on NH independence "

Jan 21, 2022: As I understand it: Committee appears to have voted 21-0 against CACR 32, without amending it…handing NHexiters a partial victory: This means the originally worded proposal likely goes before the full state house, taking us two steps closer to independence than any U.S. state has been in over 150 years. Committee Recommends Killing CACR 32 To Make N.H. Sovereign Nation - InDepthNH.orgInDepthNH.org

Feb 10, 2022: NHExiters announce they have now reimbursed taxpayers for the $2,000 expense of bringing this legislation in front of the state house: Radio hosts re-imburse taxpayers for the estimated $2,000 expense of bringing Independence legislation to state house

Dave Ridley, NHexit.com

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can you make an mp3 of this for podcasting purposes?
maybe you will just have to reference this page or similar for the links
trumpet noises would be appreciated when you get to the exciting parts

ok!

Meanwhile of of the Independence email list participants has expressed concerns that the endeavor would not get enough votes…here’s my response which seems to long to dump into everyone’s inbox. Why this is worth doing even if we only get 20 votes, maybe also if we get banned somehow from having the vote:

The Quebecois were right in 1995 when they said it was a huge victory just to have a vote. This got them a lot of concessions from the Capitol. If we can get something in front of the full legislature, that should mean we have made more progress than any other U.S. independence movement in the last 20 years. Even Texit has only made it to committee. Calexit VP Marcus Evans says he thinks we’ve already taken the lead over Yes California just by having 5 reps discussing it on an email list. And we have an ace up our sleeve which no one else does: Progress on independence should trigger increased liberty migration here, where every person counts a lot more than they do if they move to CA or something. It’s already triggered a lot of new traffic on this forum.

Independence is the hail mary pass that does not have to be caught… Just talking about it among ourselves has already generated a mention in the big press:

Besides easier publicity for our grievances, the other benefits of a “failed” vote would be:

  1. It mainstreams the independence idea
  2. It gets officials thinking (preferably dreaming) about how this would actually be implemented (Slovenija was caught almost off guard by independence and its activists say that cost them a lot of money and opportunities as Belgrade made off with their assets).
  3. It should make the central government more cautious or concessionary in dealing with New Hampshirites… they won’t want to put more gas into the independence fuel tank. If they do put more in with some new outrage , then we can presumably drive further and try to bring it back in the 2024 or 2026 session.
  4. It may give us the chance to issue requests or compromises to Washington which would otherwise be ignored. For example, passage of the Read The Bills Act or some provision on their end forcing all Fed laws to sunset after 10 years.

Here are additional reasons from around 2019…why a failed drive should still be a success:
Why a strong NH independence movement is needed, "successful" or not

On the other hand one thing to keep in mind is that Dan Itse’s independence-oriented HCR 6 drew a crowd of hundreds on the first try in '09… a crowd of about 10 in the 2017 era. Conceivably we only get one bite at the apple. Will there be a better bite than NH Free 2023?

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Someone suggested I should post a list of the talk radio shows that I call into… sometimes to discuss NH independence. It would be nice to have more people making such calls:

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Seems like we should propose the Amendment … no matter how many votes it will get.
There are lots of bills and amendments that never pass each year.

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Will there be a link to a recording of this week’s zoom call, please?

as usual its at http://RidleyReport.com
but normally there is a delay of a couple days

I have been putting most on the podcast too

As you know we have an email list…if anyone else wants to join it or the conference calls i am willing to be removed from either to help make space for you. These things should probably not have more than 12 people or they get too much traffic and swamps the reps. I’ll try to start copying my emails to the list… here.

This is my most recent email, with the link to the call redacted


Reminder: Conference call tomorrow Tues. 8/31 530p

Again I’m tring to limit the number of emails I send to this list and encourage everyone else to do the same except the reps . They are already swamped with email incoming/outgoing probably and we don’t want to overwhelm them.

Alu reports three more reps expressing support for an independence amendment…bringing us to… 8? but I do not know if their support is public and they are not on our email list yet. I’ve asked alu to invite them to the calls.

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I counted 11 people on today’s conference call, which is its largest size to date… it should get posted later. …however only 2 reps this time instead of 3.

Also I’ve set up a thread to which I am inviting activists from U.S. independence movements… It’s an attempt at establishing some sort of public spot for comms among them.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?555594-U-S-independence-movements-communication-thread&p=7056545#post7056545

Apparently close coordination among the Baltic republics was a key factor in their successful independence drives.

If you have a better idea then my head’s covered in ears! But I don’t think it should be shire forums because that is already a potential central point of failure.

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right now it seems impossible to get everyone on one platform … almost everyone in our tight little group is barred or refuses to use one of the platforms
the only thing everyone seems to have is email … but a huge email thread is no good for some people
I am connecting with a lot of other movements on twitter
we have a few people on here, and mewe, and a bunch on fb, and a few on telegram

question: who is pledged to be the prime sponsor and who is/are pledged as co-sponsors? This needs to be locked in…once it is, then it’s something we can usefully publicize to mainstream pressfolk. good thing to bring up on next conference call if i forget or am not there.

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yea after the 2 of them meet and finalize wording on Friday … then we could get this info also

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Based on our conversations this week, it appears @Laconia (Mike) is the prime sponsor and Matt Santonastaso is the co-sponsor.

Per Mike’s email from Saturday morning, this is their decided final language:

[Art.] 7-a. [Independent Nation.] New Hampshire peaceably declares independence from the United States and immediately proceeds as a sovereign nation. All other references to the United States in this constitution, state statutes and regulations are nullified.

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That is first-class language! Adding “peaceably” and keeping it short = excellent.

Really good!

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I am also willing to step aside if needed to make room for others on the zoom calls. It would be nice to know in advance, but not essential.

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seems like if most of us are muted … and many don’t have video running … we could have quite a few without have distractions or bandwidth problems

Elliot Axelman publishes his “73 Reasons New Hampshire Should Divorce DC”

"73 https://libertyblock.com/divorce-dc/

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Got on air WKBK-AM Keene in response to their discussion of NH governor being in hospital. I compared the probable limited and friendly security there to what would have happened if it were a hi ranking US official in the building. I said if something’s wrong, something’s too big and US out of NH! Host seemed friendly, said this was something to talk about and was already starting to get a lot of attention on social media but I have not really seen that yet outside our own circles.

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