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Libertarian Party of San Francisco News

  • 5 Practices For Being An Effective Libertarian Activist

    Starchild's picture
    Submitted by Starchild on 18 September 2019 - 6:02pm

         Here are a few insights I've found in my time as a libertarian (pro-freedom) activist which I consider valuable and thought I'd share in the hope that others may find them useful...

    • If you find yourself debating or arguing with someone (in person, online, or wherever) whose stance in the conversation is more pro-freedom on the particular topic or issue being discussed than yours, change the topic or leave the conversation. If you want to debate that issue, go find another conversation in which the person or people you're debating are less pro-freedom on it than you are. In this way, you can ensure that your advocacy is on the side of freedom, not against it.

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  • Libertarian Solutions to the Housing Crisis: End Greenmailing

    Thomas Busse's picture
    Submitted by Thomas Busse on 23 August 2019 - 10:31am

    Housing affordability impacts all San Francisco residents. In our official opposition argument to Proposition E's "Affordable Housing" proposal, the Libertarian Party of San Francisco suggested reform of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) as an important to address the current housing crisis.

  • San Francisco Diary: Black Eggs, Black Ops, Tail of Two Headless Torsos, Broken Beams, Broken Dreams, and Don’t Forget the Lucky Dog!

    Thomas Busse's picture
    Submitted by Thomas Busse on 1 June 2019 - 1:46pm

    SAN FRANCISCO ­– Passing the bustle and grime of Fifth street with its soot wafting down on the dingy Hall of Justice and its asbestos-ridden caves of crooks and cutthroats and where idling autos queue to sail past a plaque marking the end of the Eisenhower Interstate and Defense Highway System, one turns past a sketchy former SRO now unoccupied by residents but having something-to-do with a Carlisle Group affiliate called the Community Housing Partnership. I peered inside and did not see much housing, let alone community, so unfearingly I turned onto Clara street – more of a slot than a street by San Francisco standards. After all, before it was “South of Market,” it was “South of the Slot,” but it retained the Bay Windows characteristic of Oz.

  • Confucius, Sprint & The State

    Starchild's picture
    Submitted by Starchild on 28 May 2019 - 9:56pm

    The philosopher Confucius was reportedly once asked what he would do if he were a governor. He responded that he would first "rectify the names" to make words correspond to reality, for "If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success, proprieties and music do not flourish."

        I'm not precisely sure what the ancient Chinese sage meant by that, or what examples he may have had in mind, but I've thought one possible interpretation of this quote is that language must not be allowed to be abused in such ways that speech grows full of dishonesty and contradictions, or else there won't be a basis for efficient human action. Perhaps a kind of social equivalent to how free market economists talk about State central planners not being able to efficiently run an economy because they do not have access to accurate price signals.

        These thoughts were provoked by an ad for Sprint cellphone service that I heard earlier this evening. In the ad, a man comes on and says something along the lines of, "Oh great, another wireless ad. You're probably sick of all these phone ads with all their confusing terms about their networks and offers and blah blah blah. But Sprint is going to do something different." Then he quotes a monthly price and basically says if you don't like it after a month you can have 100% of your money back, guaranteed. A few more details are conveyed in a similarly reassuring tone.

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  • Libertarians Condemn Raid on Independent Journalist, Support Press Freedom and Government Transparency

    Libertarian Party of San Francisco's picture
    Submitted by Libertarian Par... on 14 May 2019 - 7:13pm
    Responding to press reports about a joint SFPD-FBI raid on Bryan Carmody, a local journalist, today, the Executive Committee of the Libertarian Party of San Francisco, as authorized by its members, passed a resolution in support of journalism, freedom of the press, journalist shield laws, and government transparency.
     

  • The Right to Tweet?

    Nick Smith's picture
    Submitted by Nick Smith on 4 May 2019 - 12:03am

    Free speech is crucial and must be defended.

    The founding fathers recognized this and gave us the first amendment as a guard against tyrannical government, so that we are free to spread ideas even when those ideas are not popular with those in power.

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  • Where Good Ideas Go To Die

    Starchild's picture
    Submitted by Starchild on 29 April 2019 - 2:34am

    It's common knowledge that San Francisco has thousands of homeless people living on the streets and a shortage of not just housing, but even temporary shelter space. San Francisco also has a government-run school system that includes over a hundred schools occupying public space, each with multiple buildings that are vacant and unused at night.

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  • Dissecting SF Media Propaganda: Development Impact Fees

    Thomas Busse's picture
    Submitted by Thomas Busse on 28 April 2019 - 9:49pm

    Ida Mojadad’s wretched March 28th San Francisco Weekly article on San Francisco’s “Development Impact Fee” is so factually erroneous that it deserves to be deconstructed for the propaganda it is. Far too often, reports in San Francisco are P/R repeaters, and I have noticed this type of fake news seems to crop up quite often when Supervisor Matt Haney is cooking up a kickback.

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  • When History Repeats Itself

    Thomas Busse's picture
    Submitted by Thomas Busse on 23 April 2019 - 9:06pm
    The “Alibi Clock” still ticks away, now on the Vallejo waterfront.

    On a warm Summer day in July 1916, over one hundred thousand residents descended on Market Street in San Francisco to witness a parade for civic “preparedness” – an ostensibly grassroots and patriotic movement for American involvement in War in Europe, the Pacific, Mexico, or all three organized and funded by the “Law And Order Committee” of prominent California industrialists. As leaflets depicting babies on bayonets rained down, suddenly at 2:05 PM an explosion rung out in front of the shop of Tobacconist John Clifton at Steuart and Market streets. Six people lay dead or dying: George Lawlor, Lea Lamborn, Dr. George Painter, Mrs. Hetta Knapp, Arthur Nelson, and Civil War veteran Adam Fox. Four more would die in the days ahead. Forty were maimed – some crippled for life.

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  • San Francisco Libertarians File an Election Contest to Invalidate November's Proposition A Election Due To Violations of New Law

    Libertarian Party of San Francisco's picture
    Submitted by Libertarian Par... on 5 April 2019 - 1:59pm
    “The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law.”
    - Aristotle
     

    There has been an ongoing problem of collusion between government officials and municipal bond advisors who often actually write the bond bills for profit. And then deceptively work with government to sell them to an unsuspecting public. To address this issue, the California State Assembly passed AB-195 which was approved by Governor Jerry Brown and on January 1, 2018 became Law. Sections of that law governs the way local governments can present bond measures on ballots:

    1. Measure shall be a true and impartial synopsis of the purpose of the proposed measure,
    2. and shall be in language that is neither argumentative nor likely to create prejudice for or against the measure.
    3. If the proposed measure imposes a tax or raises the rate of a tax, the ballot shall include in the statement of the measure to be voted on the amount of money to be raised annually and the rate and duration of the tax to be levied.

    Section 18401 of the California Elections Code says election officials who allow non-compliant ballots to be put before the public are criminally liable.

    As this complaint clearly shows, Proposition A was enormously non-compliant. The Libertarian Party of San Francisco (LPSF) was designated official Opponent of Proposition A by the SF Dept. of Elections. LPSF members called attention to these issues before the Ballot Simplification Committee. They were ignored.