In this week of endless acrimony over the fate of the 2024 candidacy of President “Uncle Joe, he’s moving kinda slow” Biden, it may be useful to look back at this article from the Hill about the possible role the LP played in being the margin of difference in the Trump-Biden battle of 2020. Considering Biden “won” (honk honk, triple asterisk) by a fraction of a percent in at least 3 battleground states that were key to the electoral vote victory, will Chase Oliver play a role similar to the one Jo Jorgensen did last time?:
“If libertarians had voted for then-President Trump last year, he would have won. As close as the 2020 election was, it could have been a lot closer and far more complex — and its outcome reversed. Libertarian voters could have flipped the three closest states and sent the outcome in favor of the House of Representatives and Trump’s reelection bid…
Biden won the electoral vote 306 to 232. Again, a 74-electoral vote difference does not on the surface appear particularly close. Yet, the threshold for victory is 270, so Biden cleared that by a much narrower 36-electoral vote margin.
Combine the popular vote’s impact on the electoral vote and the razor thin separation between Biden and Trump — and victory and defeat — becomes evident. Biden won three states, Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin, by 0.7 percent of the popular vote or less. The combined separation in all three was just 42,918 votes.
Jo Jorgensen, the Libertarian Party candidate from South Carolina, won 1,865,724 votes, just 1.18 percent of the total votes cast. Her campaign received minimal attention and her vote total seems equally insignificant, until its huge impact in Biden’s three closest states is seen.
Had Jorgensen’s votes in each of the three closest states gone to Trump, he would have won all three. Not only would he have won all three, Trump would have won Arizona and Georgia by multiples of the margin by which he actually lost in them — and he would have won Wisconsin by almost the same margin he actually lost it by. The point is: If his actual 2020 margins of defeat in these states proved insurmountable, his margins supplemented by libertarian votes would have proved even more so…” Read more
Long time QL member and political analyst Alton Yee circles back on the June Biden-Trump debate, its effect on the 2024 race, political polls, and a review of the rigged 2020 election that got us into this predicament. Comments adapted from an email discussion:
Are you ready to “circle back after the debate”? I am with my “circle back comments,” of which I apologize for its tardiness. Still, have you gotten your fill of “post Biden-Trump debate” comments? I have, as I think you also have. But since I have a few more “post Biden-Trump debate” comments to make, I like to remind you that, as the old JELL-O ads once said, “there’s always room for JELL-O,” there’s also always room for more of everything else!
Before I get to my comments, I want to add one more comment related to our discussion about online political betting. Namely, a comedian recently joked that he’s all in favor of transgender males competing in women’s sports, as long as he can bet on the transgender male athlete. (“Good joke sound effect,” follows)
Anyhow, as you may know, Biden didn’t do well during the debate. (If anyone somehow missed the debate, “Liberal Hivemind” provides some highlights or “lowlights.”) Indeed, he did so badly that criticisms and recriminations quickly surfaced, and more than a few “elite” Democrats probably engaged in Marxist-Maoist “self-criticism.” Some of my favorites of these criticisms include, MSNBC changes its tune on Joe Biden following ‘trainwreck’ presidential debate, whose YouTube was hosted by “Sky News Australia’s” Rita Panahi who said, “it’s hard to deny what came out of the ‘trainwreck’ presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump…” Read the rest.
Join Queens Libertarians (in its topical event for LPQC) on July 13 at noon, to hear retired professor of American History Philip Schoenberg on the topic of “The Racism of the American Presidents toward Black Americans, from the Founding Fathers to the Present 
Day.” Discussion will be held at our Woodside location at Donovan’s Pub on 57-24 Roosevelt Ave, in the family room area. This address will follow the business session, covering Queens LP planning and subcommittee updates.
Schoenberg goes over the curious, or even scandalous history of actual or claimed racism on the part of American political leaders, by actions or verbal expressions that impacted the liberty of black Americans. He reviews how such views and policies influenced the persistence of chattel slavery, into segregation and the civil rights movement era, and its current implications. Were past Presidents sincere in these beliefs? Or were they cowed by political circumstances of the time into holding them? These and other questions will be addressed. Details and Directions
LP Presidential candidate Chase Oliver will be in NYC on August 12 in a debate about the 2024 race. The key question will be the following: “Among the candidates actively running for President in November, Donald Trump is the best choice.”
NOTE: This is a paid event ($29.16), hosted by the Soho Forum (Sheen Center, 18 Bleecker St. in Manhattan). All details, and buy tickets at:
https://www.eventbrite.com.mx/e/soho-forum-debate-art-laffer-vs-chase-oliver-tickets-920933495877
For the Affirmative:
Dr. Arthur B. Laffer is the founder of Laffer Associates, an economic research firm. Dr. Laffer has distinction in many publications as “The Father of Supply-Side Economics.” Dr. Laffer was a member of President Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board for both of his terms (1981-1989) and was a founding member of the Reagan Executive Advisory Committee for the presidential race of 1980.
For the Negative:
Chase Oliver is an American political activist and nominee of the Libertarian Party for the 2024 United States presidential election. He was formerly a sales account executive and HR representative. Oliver was the Libertarian candidate for the 2022 United States Senate election in Georgia and the 2020 Georgia’s 5th congressional district special election.
From the LPNY Release:
The New York State Board of Elections has declared the Libertarian Party petition invalid at the Commissioners meeting held on June 13, 2024 due to insufficient signatures.
The Libertarian Party of New York filed petitions on May 28, 2024 for the Presidential/Vice Presidential ticket. Larry Sharpe was the stand-in candidate for President and Rich Purtell was the stand-in candidate for Vice President. Stand-in candidates needed to be used on the petition as petitioning took place from April 16–May 28, 2024 while the Libertarian National Convention was held May 24–26, 2024.
On Sunday evening, May 26, 2024, Chase Oliver was nominated as the Libertarian Party’s candidate for President while Mike ter Maat was nominated as the Libertarian Party’s candidate for Vice President. The deadline for filing petitions in New York was thus less than 48 hours after the nominees were determined. Oliver and ter Maat were substituted upon the declination of Sharpe and Purtell. No objections to the petition were ever filed.
However, the Board of Elections has declared that Chase Oliver and Mike ter Maat will not appear on the ballot, which will be the first time in the party’s history in which the Libertarian Party’s candidates for President/Vice President will not appear on the New York State ballot. In 2022, the Libertarian Party’s candidate for Governor, Larry Sharpe, was also knocked off the ballot.
The Board of Elections also invalidated the petition of Green Party Presidential Nominee Jill Stein along with independent candidates Cornel West and Shiva Ayyadurai.
“This is just another blow to third parties in New York State since the change of the law in 2020 designed to kill off third parties,” said Andrew Kolstee, Chair of the Libertarian Party of New York. “This year also demonstrated the absurdity of the petitioning period. While we used to petition during the summer, because the period was moved back, it was before the Libertarian National Convention. Potential signers and circulators do not know who the Libertarian Party’s candidate is going to be until it is too late. Some of our petitioners experienced rejection to sign because we had to use a stand-in candidate instead of the actual candidate–who we didn’t know until less than 48 hours before the petitions were due to be filed.”
From 2020 to 2023, the Libertarian Party of New York and the Green Party of New York fought a long court battle to challenge the ballot law changes in 2020, going all the way to request the case be heard by the Supreme Court, but the request was denied (22-893).
“One thing is clear,” continued Kolstee. “This proves that in New York State, a ballot line is only for those in the political class and those with money. But we will keep fighting. People will still have the opportunity to vote for Chase Oliver and Mike ter Maat–either through getting them on the ballot after a court challenge or in a write-in campaign.”
That and related political issues have been raised in the light of an Ecuadorian migrant now in custody for the rape of a 13 year old in Flushing. Unlike the alien, a dozen real New Yorkers acted as Good Samaritans and converged upon the suspect on the street to hold him for police. From the NY Post:
President Biden’s disastrous open-border policy is to blame for the horrific rape of a 13-year-old girl inside a Queens park, her distraught dad told The Post.
A week after his daughter was allegedly raped by Christian Geovanny Inga-Landi, an illegal immigrant from Ecuador, the father charged “This is what happens” when undocumented migrants are allowed to flood into the US unchecked.
“The open border policy, I have never agreed with, because that just invites a lot of things that we don’t need,” said the 70-year-old dad, whose name is being withheld by The Post to protect his daughter’s identity. “And look what came in. Look what happened to my daughter.”
Inga-Landi, 25 — who crossed the Texas border in 2021 and was ordered to leave the country by a New York City immigration judge last February — was arrested Tuesday for allegedly forcing the girl and a teenage boy into a wooded area of Kessina Park at knifepoint on June 13, tying and gagging them, and raping the girl in broad daylight.
The dad said the family has “been going through hell” since the depraved attack…Read more
Queens Libertarians member Mark Axinn has passed the word on the recent passings of former LPNY Chair Mark Glogowski (cancer), and long time top petitioner for the party Darryl Bonner (stroke). Both were active in supporting Libertarian projects until the end, with Glogowski making extended remarks on the LP National Convention, that were posted here on QL in May. Bonner was actively petitioning for the LP in the Maryland area (despite having an prosthetic leg), and frequently stayed in contact with National Coordinator Bill Redpath, and LPQC Chair John Clifton. Bonner’s loss is also regretted in light of the failure of the party’s petition drive to succeed, in obtaining ballot status for LPNY this year.
A full bio notice and final services announcement for Glogowski has been published here. Information on services for Bonner were not available at the time of this posting. Queens LP mourns the loss of both friends of Liberty.
“I can cite many incidents – from Kathy Gifford to police strikes, to countries going 100% gun free, to prove that an armed citizenry, empowered to use weapons to defend themselves, their families, and their neighbors, will actually produce a more civil, peaceful society than all the gun restrictions in the world. “ –Mark Glogowski
From the point of view of political liberty or peace and prosperity, yup, given his war hawk history and cozying with corporate welfare donors, according to Eric Zuesse on his Substack:
It’s a fact that gets no attention from ‘historians’ and from America’s ‘news’-media, but a consistently established fact nonetheless. As always, for a recent example, the New York Times left it hidden, when they headlined on June 10th “How the Federal Election Commission Went From Deadlock to Deregulation”, as they mentioned only in passing, that “At the center of the shift [to allow unlimited corruption] is Commissioner Dara Lindenbaum, a Democrat who has repeatedly crossed the aisle to vote with her Republican colleagues since President Biden appointed her and she was confirmed by the Senate in a 54-38 vote in 2022.” In other words: on the topic of corruption, Biden supports traditional Republican-Party views that have previously been pushed for by Republican politicians, who get a bigger proportion of their campaign-funding from the rich and their corporations than Democrats do.
On two issues, Joe Biden has, in fact throughout his career, followed through to implement Republican-Party views, instead of Democratic-Party views: the issues on which he does this are his pushing and leading (though only behind the scenes) for more legalized political corruption, and for legal protection of continuing racial segregation — and each of these two issues is a major ‘libertarian’ (for the super-rich) part of Republican-Party viewpoints (which might be called “hyper-capitalism” — and which the Democrtic Party has only in recent decades come to support also).
On 25 October 2019, Lee Fang at The Intercept headlined “JOE BIDEN’S SUPER PAC IS BEING ORGANIZED BY CORPORATE LOBBYISTS FOR HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY, WEAPONS MAKERS, FINANCE”, and he reported that among the billionaires who were planning a PAC to support Joe Biden’s campaign was Bernard Schwartz. On that same day, I headlined “Biden Backer — Former Lockheed Leader — Convinces Biden to Sell-Out”, and I reported that the “Former Lockheed leader” who was leading this effort, was Schwartz, himself, formerly a Chairman of Lockheed Martin, the company that sells more to the U.S. Government than does any other — it’s by far (p. 8) the largest federal ‘defense’ (actually aggression) contractor.
In other words: if Biden does become re-elected the U.S. President, then he will be (as he has been) heavily in debt to the world’s biggest weapons-maker, a corporation whose profits are totally dependent upon selling to the U.S. Government and to its allied governments such as in NATO, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Israel. This is exactly the opposite of what America’s Founding Fathers urged subsequent generations of Americans to do. They were very wise. Joe Biden is not. But he’s cunning about how to serve his megadonors.
Only an uninformed person would expect such a President to be seeking Mid-East peace. Biden would instead be seeking the standard neoconservative’s objective, “Peace Through Strength” — in other words, fear-mongering the public against ‘America’s enemies’, and ‘love’-mongering for ‘America’s allies’ (such as NATO, Israel, Saudi Arabia, etc.). That’s the opposite of what, for example, George Washington urged the American people to do.
Biden’s relying upon people such as Bernard Schwartz to place him into the White House is the worst possible form of selling himself out — selling-out to America’s “Military Industrial Complex” or “MIC.”
But the reason why such people as Schwartz want Biden to become and remain the President is that, consistently, Biden has been precisely such a war-monger or “neoconservative” as they are, have always been wanting — such as when Biden helped to lead Democrats in the U.S. Senate who backed the 2003 invasion of Iraq. That wasn’t a ‘mistake’ by him as he now claims — it was the way Joe Biden has always been. And, the former Chairman of Lockheed Martin knew that Biden still remains that way…More
More fallout over Chase Oliver (who some have characterized as the embodiment of libertarian socialism), and of course Orange man. Podcaster Tim Pool with friends, and former LPNY Chair and multi-time candidate for NYS Assembly Mark Glogowski on Trump’s appearance at the national LP convention:
Glogowski: No one who came to the Libertarian Party was a ‘perfect’ Libertarian when they joined. I joined in 2009, and I brought in a lot of Republican ideas because those were what I was exposed to. It takes time to grasp the fundamentals and to abandon what you once thought were good ideas. In fact, everyone who becomes politically active in the Libertarian Party usually has just one issue that they want resolved and look to become active in the party because the Libertarian Party takes an agreeable position on that one issue.
I would like to point out that Trump, as a businessman, when he became president, continued to seek the best advice he could gather. Unfortunately, that information came from Republicans and Democrats. He made many decisions that, to us, were undesirable and despicable. Unfortunately, the entire political field of opinion was Republican and Democratic. As he got other options and realized he had made bad decisions, he did not hesitate, he quickly changed his mind and embraced those better options.
What I know for sure about Trump is that he embraces, and as president, was guided by the NAP (NON-Aggression Principle), and he displayed that fact in Afghanistan, where he arranged the removal of US Soldiers and the removal of all US military equipment. I believe he 
WILL immediately end the Ukraine war and will stop supplying weapons to Israel. His foreign policy was contrary to the US’s current, and almost 200-year-old imperialistic foreign policy, where the US enters every international trade negotiation with a Win/Lose goal. Trump is continuously looking for Win/Win situations. He capitalizes on the synergy that is created when people trade honestly and openly. Yes, he made some very bad decisions, but I believe him when he says he is leaning Libertarian today. I believe he is a Libertarian. Why do I believe it, because if you look at what he actually did in office, it is phenomenal. Did you realize that tensions between the US, Iran, China, and North Korea went down so dramatically that the North Korean President initiated reunification negotiations with South Korea and some trade agreements toward that end were made?
Biden not only destroyed those steps toward true peace but reversed the entire international perspective to where the animosity that exists has us literally just days away from a nuclear disaster. The entire western nations have their emotions controlled by their amygdala and because they are all either a DEFENDER, CONTROLLER, or ENFORCER, they all share this Win or Lose attitude and facts don’t matter. It doesn’t matter that Putin was 100% within international law and that democratic processes were used to have the people make the decisions concerning annexation. Not one Western nation asked to monitor the democratic election process. We had no intention to defend democratic processes. We are just responding to a bully and siding with the bully in this fight. As long as it is Ukrainian soldiers and civilians who are dying, and Ukrainian buildings and infrastructure being blown up, what does it matter to the US or to Europe? What concerns me is that if we don’t shift our international focus to one of accommodation of market needs, our leaders will take steps that will cross the red line and take us into a nuclear holocaust. Let’s face it: “We can’t let Russia win.” Is a statement that reinforces the move toward a nuclear holocaust.
And if you think we have a chance of winning a nuclear holocaust, think again. The US Republicans are talking about a 1st nuclear strike. It will take over 2 hours for our weapons to get to Russia. It will only take 6 minutes for the Russian nuclear rockets to get to America. NORAD test showed our response time is 15 minutes. Not a comforting thought.
Based on Trump’s speech, he did become an ADVOCATE. If the political field was not so dominated by the Democratic and Republican parties, he would be a full-blooded Libertarian today. (What is an ADVOCATE? Read The Political Primer: Fundamentals of Politics, Mark Glogowski, PhD, Trafford Press 2011)
Every Libertarian shares the fact that they are ADVOCATES as defined in this book. They are not DEFENDERS, ENFORCERS, or CONTROLLERS, yet the DEFENDERS, CONTROLLERS, and ENFORCERS are where all of the ‘international and domestic’ advice came from during his term of office.
I sent a copy of my book to Trump and believe he did read it. I believe he realized he was Libertarian to the core. Now he needs to use the system that is in front of him, the Democratic and Republican political parties and the election cycle and whatever else is thrown up as an impediment, to be elected and to make the changes he needs to make.
Here is our problem: The Libertarian Party seems to be void of advice when it comes to international foreign policy. Can you expound on what we would recommend for international policy for the US? Platitudes such as ‘all humans have a right to be free’ just don’t cut it. Being the strongest imperialist country in the world is not sound international policy. Putin was correct when he said the past 70 years of US international policy, as demonstrated in Israel, have been a complete failure. Our imperialist policies in South America and Africa have not led to any real development in those countries. Our policy seems to be to create strife and division and then move in to reap the rewards.
What we need as a foreign policy is one where people build trust. We don’t need 1 million rounds of ammunition just so we can kill hundreds and thousands of Russians. What we need is 1 million acts of goodwill. You can’t build trust with a bullet, or a bomb. or a threat. It can only be established with genuine kindness without the end goal being “win/lose”.
If the LP were to keep an open mind, one that recognizes the difficulty, time required, and reeducation needed, for people to abandon solutions that they embraced when they were members of another political party, you would begin to realize how solidly Trump is becoming Libertarian. Were he to win the election this year, I believe he would be a solid Libertarian by the end of his term.
To that effect, Vivek Ramaswamy is Libertarian. Only about 2% of the Republican Party is left-over Liberal Republicans (Libertarian) which is why he received such low vote counts. A Conservative Republican will never vote for a Liberal Republican. (This was stated many times by Conservative Republicans on talk shows.) After the VP candidate is chosen by Trump, I believe Vivek can be convinced to join the Libertarian Party Check out the first Republican debate and see if you can find any position Vivek took that is contrary to the Libertarian Principles – other than he supports Trump.
If Trump picks Vivek as his running mate, it will underscore the fact that Trump has turned Libertarian.
Join Queens Libertarians (in its topical event for LPQC) on June 8 at noon, to hear LPQC Treasurer Mark Weinblatt leads an open discussion on the topic of “the Post National LP Convention Action Plan.” Discussion will be held at our Woodside location at Donovan’s Pub on 57-24 Roosevelt Ave, in the family room area. This address will follow its monthly business session, covering Queens LP planning and subcommittee updates. Weinblatt reviews what he observed at the 2024 LP National Convention in Washington, DC., the issues emerging from the nomination of Chase Oliver as the LP Presidential candidate, the leadership status of the Libertarian Party, LP platform changes and other developments.
Attendees will go over the outcome of the LPNY petition drive, and what it means for future petitioning or Get Out The Vote drives in the state. What is the way forward for the party heading into Election Day, in New York and nationally? More ideas and suggested strategies are welcome! Details and Directions