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Reprinted with permission from MediaMatters.

Fringe media supporting President Donald Trump have claimed that former President Barack Obama violated federal law and is acting as a shadow president because he has talked to former and current foreign leaders since the end of his presidency. The claims, which have at least partially been parroted on Fox News, are an extension of conservative medias ongoing conspiracy theory that Obama runs a shadow government.

Since Trumps inauguration, conservative outletshavebaselesslyclaimedthatObama is running some kind of shadow government, a conspiracy theory which has since been invoked by aRepublican congressmanand byone of Trumps attorneys. The right-wing hysteria took on a new level of feverishness after Obamametwitha handfulof former and current world leaders, some of whom he worked closely with as president.

Pro-Trumpfake news purveyorswere quick to attack Obama for his post-presidency activities. Several websites, includingAmerican Today,Patriots On The Right,US Postman, andUSA Daily Time, claimed in June that Obama was undermining President Trump while advertis[ing] his shadow government. They suggested that Obama had committed treason and violated the Logan Act, a law barring private citizens from interfering with American foreign policy and for whichno one has ever been prosecuted.The Federalist TribuneandThe Washington Feedalso asserted that Obama would get a lengthy jail sentence as a consequence of the law. Eventually, more fake news purveyors continued to push the false narrative, withMad World News,USA Newsflash,GOP The Daily Dose,The Angry Patriot,Global Politics Now,Freedom Daily,US Advisor,ENH, andBefore Its Newsjoining in.

Additionally,alt-right-affiliatedInfowarsand fake news purveyorsConservative Fighters,TruthFeed, andRed Rock Tribunehyped a Daily Caller piece suggesting Obama was ashadow president.Alt-right-affiliatedThe Gateway Pundit also called Obama ashadow presidentwhomay be breaking the Logan Act.There has also beensomediscussionregarding Obama and the Logan Act on thealt-right-affiliatedforum 4chan /pol/.

According to social media analytics website BuzzSumo, these claims being peddled by the pro-Trump fringe ecosystem, including American Today, Mad World News, USA Newsflash, GOP The Daily Dose, The Angry Patriot, Freedom Daily, Infowars, Conservative Fighters, TruthFeed, and The Gateway Pundit,have drawn numerous Facebook engagements that rise well over the thousands, according to social media analytics website BuzzSumo. There were at least 380 engagements with American Todays article, 41,900 with Mad World News article, 122,500 with USA Newsflashs article, 6,500 with GOP The Daily Doses article, 7,000 with The Angry Patriots article, 48,300 with Freedom Dailys article, 58 with Infowars article, 10,200 with Conservative Fighters article, 8,700 with TruthFeeds article, and 5,000 and 6,900 for The Gateway Pundit articles, respectively.

Some of the narrative has now gained cable news visibility by reaching Fox News, with host Lou Dobbs on July 6attacking Obamafor shadowing and trying to undercut Trump, andFox & Friendsco-host Brian Kilmeade on July 7wonderingwhy Obama was shadowing Trump and wondering whether Obama was trying to swamp him.

The spread of these baseless claims yet again illustrates how the pro-Trumpalt-right/fake news ecosystemhas been used to pushlies,conspiracy theories, andfalsehoods.

Header image bySarah Wasko / Media Matters

The rest is here:
Obama 'Shadow' Presidency Is Latest Conspiracy Delusion - The National Memo (blog)

Remember when it was "never Trump" for Cruz and Paul? Campaign Action

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has elbowed his way in to align himself with popular vote loser Donald Trump on Trumpcare, saying "I think President Trumps absolutely right that we should pass a clean repeal" if Senate Republicans can't come up with a bill that gets 50 votes. But Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) isn't going to let anyone forget that he was the first one to claim credit for what was actually Sen. Ben Sasse's (R-NE) bright ideaget Trump on board with a "clean" repeal. So while he and his senior senator Mitch McConnell are both back home in Kentucky, Paul is pushing hisand Trump'sagenda.

I talked to the president about it. He was very receptive, Paul told reporters in Louisville after a closed-door meeting with national restaurant groups. We havent had any feedback from the Senate Republican leadership.

Paul is carefully nurturingand usinghis relationship with Trump, the guy he called an "orange-faced windbag" not so long ago. For whatever reason, Trump wants Paul's vote on this, and keeps inviting him to the White House to talk about it. It gets Paul what he wantsnational media attention. It's not clear what it gets Trump. Maybe he actually thinks Paul has some kind of influence? Given how little Trump seems to understand about how government stuff works, that's a possibility. Regardless, Paul and Trump "lately [] seem more intent on tearing the law down than building a new one, undercutting McConnells efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act simultaneously."

They're all fighting for something truly awfuleradicating Obamacare and all the protections that came with it. And in doing so, might just save it. At the very least, they're accelerating the splintering of the Republican Senate and doing real damage to McConnell as a leader. None of that is bad.

We delayed Trumpcarefor now. But the GOP leadership is hell-bent on denying health insurance, and is working hard to coerce Republican senators. We need threeRepublicans to stand firm. Call your senator at (202) 224-3121 and tell them NO DEAL. Then, tell us how it went.

Read this article:
Rand Paul vies with Ted Cruz to be Trump's Trumpcare BFF - Daily Kos

Chris Powell, active in the OKLP since 2000 including a term as chairman, is seeking the state's highest office.

OKLAHOMA CITY - The Oklahoma Libertarian Partys most successful candidate to date, Chris Powell, is seeking the nomination for Governor.

Powell, of Bethany, received over 89,000 votes running for county office in 2016, besting Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnsons statewide total of 83,481. He will formally announce at the State Capitol on July 8.

Powell, active in the OKLP since 2000 including a term as chairman, contrasts his greater depth of political experience as compared to the other Libertarian candidates for the states highest office. In regard to those seeking the Republican and Democrat nominations, Powell said, My life is far more representative of the vast majority of Oklahomans than that of the members of the political establishment in those other two parties. I understand the daily problems of regular people in ways those politicians never can.

Powell said he intends to focus on empowering local school boards and teachers, elimination of special interest tax credits, state agency consolidation, criminal justice reform, and working to reduce divisions in the Legislature, all of which will he says will help address ongoing state budget problems.

Each vote I get on Nov. 6, 2018 will be a clear message to every elected state official to put aside partisan differences and enact real solutions for our state, said Powell.

Original post:
Powell enters race for Libertarian gubernatorial nomination - Miami News Record

By Charles Ashby Sunday, July 9, 2017

When the Colorado Legislature proposed and the governor later signed a bill limiting law enforcements use of civil asset forfeiture laws, police, prosecutors and even some county commissioners hit the roof.

They all said they needed the ability to keep such assets to help them fight crime.

Now, a former Libertarian Party presidential candidate who lives in Littleton wants to take that idea one step further.

Steve Kerbel, who vied to be his partys presidential nominee last year, submitted a proposed ballot measure Thursday that would prevent any Colorado governmental entity from the state on down from keeping any money they collect from fines or penalties.

Kerbels thinking is that most of those fines are not intended to dissuade people from doing bad things, but as a means to enrich governments or pad their ever-shrinking budgets.

Im not saying that every fine is for self-enrichment, but what I am saying is that we have given the government the privilege to enforce laws, and they have abused their authority, Kerbel said.

The goal here is to bring forth judicious enforcement based on the real intent of the law, rather than just taking advantage of the letter of the law.

His proposal, which if approved would be on the 2018 ballot, would not limit or do away with fines, but redirect them.

Instead of the fining agency keeping that money, it first would go to reimburse a victim for any financial losses.

If there is no victim, such as in a speeding incident, the money would go to a charity of the fine payers choice.

That way, the fines and penalties that various courts and governments assess could still be used as a deterrent. They just cant be used to fund a government agency, Kerbel said.

Its really destroyed the entire law and order purpose and perception, he said. Removing that credibility from the actions of government is damaging. With this law, the deterrent remains. The fines are still payable, but the government just cant have them.

Kerbel said what hes really trying to do is to remove a conflict of interest that governments have put upon themselves.

That conflict is inherent in any government agency trying to enforce a law, and then financially benefiting from it.

Sometimes, Kerbel says, a local governments only motivation in assessing fines and penalties is as a major funding mechanism for themselves.

He points to a small town in Colorado called Mountain View, a town in the Denver metropolitan area that is only six blocks long and two blocks wide.

It gets more than 50 percent of its revenues from traffic violations, Kerbel said.

Its highway robbery. They are openly and obviously manipulating the system.

Even though his measure still has a long way to go to qualify for the ballot, Kerbel said hes already been approached by people in other states and even Australia about the idea.

People are fed up with this pure abuse of authority, Kerbel said.

And its become more transparent as the years go by. As that transparency increases, people become even more fed up.

Excerpt from:
Libertarian wants end to governments' ability to profit from fines - Grand Junction Daily Sentinel

Theres already plenty of articles about how libertarians shouldnt be as divided as we are and how the infighting will prevent us from making progress, but theres a specific item that I wanted to address in regards to this division between different factions of libertarians.

It has been highlighted to me most recently by the current dispute between some Anarchyball editor, and Jared Howe, and recent debates between anarchists and minarchists. These debates always seem to be end in hurt feelings, or plain ad hominem attacks.

Open borders supporters call closed border supporters fascists, while the latter calls the former communists. Anarchists claim that minarchists need to open their eyes and stop being sheep, while minarchists claim that anarchists are idealists with no real answers.

These are great topics for debate, but libertarians cant let these differences in ideas stop them from the ultimate goal: liberty that consists of individualism, natural rights and property rights.

So, allow me to ask some questions:

Is society at the point yet where it matters if our ideologies lean towards some form of state, or none at all?

Is the welfare state small enough where debating between open or closed borders is relevant?

Are property rights even remotely existent in todays society?

By asking these questions, I am not saying that libertarians shouldnt be having these debates, but it shouldnt become a point of division. Discussions in the theoretical realm of each persons perfect libertarian society can assist in bettering the ideals and maybe converting some to other factions within libertarianism, but the butthurt and shunning needs to cease.

The goals of liberty lovers are so overlapping at this point, because of the massive, intrusive government currently in place, that we should be working together to strip away the power of the state in general.

An anarchist society, minarchist society, or a constitutionalist society will not happen overnight. Libertarians need to think of the long-game, which currently should be about decreasing the amount of regulations, eliminating victimless crime laws, and chipping away at the statist mindset of the general population.

So, lets all fight to end silly regulations within our communities. Lets fight to have marijuana legalized nationwide. Lets fight to create or fund alternatives to government services to demonstrate the inefficiency of the state.

Let us fight for these things and not fight with each other. Until the time comes when it truly matters to debate the amount of government society should have, we should unite.

Thomas Jefferson once said, I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend, and while I may sincerely disagree with anarchists, classical liberals and conservatarians, I still consider each of these liberty-minded individuals a companion and a comrade (and not in the Stalin sense).

The end goal is liberty, and while everyone is going to have a different definition of it, the current predicament in the country should be enough for libertarians to put their differences aside to make some change.

* Luke Henderson is a composer, economics enthusiast and educator in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a budding Libertarian, joining the party in 2016, and has contributed to Being Libertarian and The Libertarian Vindicator, in addition to being an editor for the Libertarian Coalition.

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Read more:
Getting Butthurt in Debates Shouldn't Prevent Libertarians From Working Together - Being Libertarian