FREECAST S03E01: The Unintelligible March For Life

TomThe Freecast

We’re back for season 03! This week we cover March for Our Lives, Omnibuses, blue ribbons for a prison, and more.

Featuring Hosts: Matt Carano, Tom Hudson, and Nick Boyle

Engineered by: Matt Carano

Produced by: Tom Hudson, Matt Carano, and Nick Boyle

News

  • March for our lives 
  • Omnibus Spending Bill 
  • Blue Ribbon Cutting on new women’s prison 
  • NH Politics catch up 
    • The following have passed the house and are in the senate
    • HB 628 FMLA would cause an income tax
      • CACR 16 Relating to privacy. Providing that an individual’s right to live free of governmental intrusion is natural, essential, and inherent.
      • ANTI-LIBERTY: This bill, as amended, creates a new mandate on employers and institutes a market distorting/state-mandated price fixing scheme for family medical leave insurance. Oppose • This bill interferes in the private insurance marketplace by setting a government-selected withholding rate for an insurance product. • It places a new mandate on private employers to provide family and medical leave insurance from a state-approved list of insurers unless self-insured. • There are multiple proposed similar federal programs under consideration. Passing any form of state-mandated program now is likely to incur costs for both private employers and state taxpayers that may well be wasted/duplicate efforts. • This bill is a government-run program where employees can opt-in anytime, but can only opt-out when starting employment and the opt-out requires an onerous use of a notary. In addition the bill would add more than 40 state employees, increasing the size of state government, and spends nearly $10 million over 4 years on salaries alone. • In the prior form of the bill, high-earning workers would have every reason to opt-out since the program would not be financially beneficial to them, contributing to the likelihood of fund insolvency. There was also no provision for fund insolvency; the state and all taxpayers would be on the hook for the mandates that the bill prescribes if the program fails. • The state of Washington passed similar legislation in 2007, which they still have not been able to implement to this day. • This bill will be weighted very heavily on the NHLA annual scorecard. http://www.gencourtmobile.com/2018/HB628
    • HB 1283 eliminating sobriety checkpoints
      • This bill prohibits a law enforcement agency from setting up roadblocks that stop drivers without probable cause. • These roadblocks stop all drivers without probable cause under the pretext of encouraging sober driving, but they infringe upon the liberty of law-abiding drivers. There is no evidence that roadblocks are more effective than policing that focuses on erratic driving to establish probable cause for a stop. • Sobriety checkpoints are conspicuous enough that even impaired drivers can identify the flashing lights far enough in advance to make a legal U-turn and avoid police interact http://www.gencourtmobile.com/2018/HB1283
    • HB 1416 repealing the prohibition on bottle rockets.
    • HB 1425 relative to simple assault
      • PRO-LIBERTY: This bill states that absent any harm or injury, a person who purposely or knowingly causes unprivileged physical contact is subject to a violation instead of a misdemeanor charge. YEA OTP • Under current law, a person may be charged with misdemeanor assault simply because they laid their hand on someone’s shoulder. This bill would require that such physical contact cause bodily injury to result in a misdemeanor — absent this, the contact would be considered a violation. • This bill does not affect the domestic violence statute
    • HB 1477 relative to annulment of arrests or convictions for possession of 3/4 of an ounce of marijuana, or less. (Tom)
      • This bill provides a process for those with criminal records for arrests or convictions for possession of 3/4 of an ounce or less of marijuana to have those convictions and arrests annulled. HB 640 signed in July 2017 reduced this offense to a violation punishable only by a fine.

Events

  • The world’s longest running cryptocurrency meetup is celebrating its 300th consecutive meetup on April 8th at 6pm at Murphy’s Taproom in Manchester, NH.

NH History

  • Gove’s Rebellion
    • New Hampshire split from Massachusetts in 1679 and was governed by a locally elected council until 1682
    • Mason, who owned the charter to NH didn’t like the way the local council was running things and petitioned to the king to have someone come be lieutenant governor and be commander in chief of NH. They chose Edward Cranfield.
    • Cranfield was a wealthy merchant in England and only became governor to enrich himself
    • The council still existed but Cranfield had veto power and was basically a monarch as he could dissolve the general court like the King can dissolve parliament.
    • In early 1683, Cranfield and the council kept trying to push a revenue bill through the assembly who repeatedly vetoed it.
    • Cranfield dissolved the entire assembly, i.e. All the tax paying male citizens no longer had a voice in the government
    • “The dissolution of the Assembly, a thing before unknown, aggravated the popular discontent, and kindled the resentment of some rash persons in Hampton and Exeter; who, headed by Edward Gove, a member of the dissolved assembly, declared by sound of trumpet for “liberty and reformation.” There had been a town meeting at Hampton, when a new clerk was chosen and their records secured. Gove went from town to town proclaiming what had been done at Hampton, carrying his arms, declaring that the governor was a traitor and had exceeded his commission, and that he would not lay down his arms, till matters were set right, and endeavoring to excite the principal men in the province to join in a confederacy to overturn the government. His project appeared to them so wild and dangerous, that they not only disapproved of it, but informed against him and assisted in apprehending him. Hearing of their design, he collected his company, and appeared in arms; but on the persuasion of some of his friends he surrendered.”
    • Gove had been a former councillor from Hampton
    • Gove was charged with high treason sentenced to be hanged drawn and quartered and his estate was seized
    • Cranfield feared he would escape imprisonment and cause an uprising in NH and so sent him to Boston and then to London.
    • He spent 3 years in the tower of London
    • He obtained a pardon from the king with an order to the then president to restore his estate
    • “Gove in his petitions to the king pleaded “a distemper of mind” as the cause of those actions for which he was prosecuted. He also speaks in some of his private letters of a drinking match at his house, and that he had not slept for twelve days and nights, about that time.”
    • Reference: The History of New Hampshire pp 96-99