The Association of Private Enterprise Education (APEE) holds a prominent annual interdisciplinary academic conference featuring free-market-oriented research.

C4SS has had a panel at every APEE program since 2010. This year’s meeting will be in Cancún, April 12-14, and C4SS is sending Nathan Goodman (C4SS’s Lysander Spooner Research Scholar in Abolitionist Studies), Jason Lee Byas (C4SS Fellow), and Roderick T. Long (C4SS Senior Fellow) to speak at a C4SS-organised panel on the topic “Prisons: Reform or Abolition?”

If you’d like to help us bring the radical libertarian message of prison abolition to the APEE, any contribution would be appreciated; check out our GoFundMe page “Send C4SS to the 2015 APEE.”

Justin Raimondo discusses Hilary’s war in Libya.

William Astore discusses seven reasons why American war persists.

David Swanson discusses the exporting of Sherman’s march.

W. James Antle III discusses the last chance for peace with Iran.

Jacob G. Hornberger discusses aggression and the American Sniper movie.

B.K. Marcus discusses the history of African-American self-defense.

Laurence M. Vance discusses drug warriors.

Jacob G. Hornberger discusses why troops in Iraq and Vietnam were not defending our freedom.

Joshua Keating discusses whether Obama’s drone war helped cause Yemen’s collapse.

Chris Hedges discusses the American Sniper movie.

Paul Edwards discusses the sociopath as hero.

Sheldon Richman discusses the U.S. as James Bond.

Richard M. Ebeling discusses how Yalta still haunts us.

Mateo Pimentel discusses Washingtion’s war on Cuba.

Ramzy Baroud discusses how to lose a ‘War on Terror’.

Gerald Celente discusses Chris Kyle as model American.

Omar Kassem discusses the nightmare that is Egypt.

Ronald Bailey discusses abolishing the intelligence-industrial complex.

Sarah Lazare discuses how to end the ISIS war.

Arthur Silber discusses embalmed dissent.

Sheldon Richman discusses nationalism.

Glenn Greenwald discusses how the American military burns people alive.

William Norman Grigg discusses Chris Kyle.

Lucy Steigerwald discusses whether ISIS atrocity videos teach us anything.

Andy Piascik discusses Henry Kissinger and war crimes.

Kelly Vlahos discusses a Blackwater world order.

Brian Cloughley discusses uprooting peace in Palestine.

Justin Raimondo discusses the lies of Brian Williams.

Paul Von Blum discusses violent self-defense in the Civil Rights movement.

Noah Beriatsky discusses the root of the problem that sex workers face.

Dos 14 textos que publicamos em janeiro em português, 4 deles foram originais — dois escritos por mim e dois por Valdenor Júnior. Minha coluna falando da hipocrisia política após o ataque contra o jornal Charlie Hebdo foi a mais republicada durante o mês (10). Republicamos também a resenha de um livro muito interessante feita por Anthony Ling de Um país chamado favela, traduzindo-a também para o inglês.

Os números de janeiro foram os seguintes:

• 14 textos publicados em português
• 9114 envios para sites e jornais
• 43 republicações
• 3999 curtidas no Facebook (+381)
• 106 seguidores no Twitter (+4)
• 14 seguidores no Tumblr (+14)

Neste momento, precisamos muito de sua ajuda para continuar atuando no Brasil e em outros países de língua portuguesa. Sua doação é o que mantém o C4SS em funcionamento. Portanto, se puder, doe R$ 10 mensalmente e dê suporte ao nosso trabalho!

Erick Vasconcelos
Coordenador de mídias
Centro por uma Sociedade Sem Estado

Portuguese Media Coordinator Update: January 2015

Out of the 14 articles we published in January in Portuguese, 4 of them were originals — two mine, two written by Valdenor Júnior. The article that was picked up the most (10) was my own column on the political reactions to the Charlie Hebdo shooting. We also republished a very fine review by Anthony Ling of the book Um país chamado favela (“A Country Called Favela”), which I translated into English.

January numbers our Portuguese embassy were as follows:

• 14 articles published
• 9114 submissions
• 43 pick-ups
• 3999 likes on Facebook (+381)
• 106 followers on Twitter (+4)
• 14 followers on Tumblr (+14)

At this moment, we really need your help to continue our actions in Brazil and in other Portuguese-speaking countries. Your donation is what makes C4SS possible. So, please do make a recurring $5 donation and support our work!

Erick Vasconcelos
Portuguese Media Coordinator
Center for a Stateless Society

The Center for a Stateless Society would like to formally thank all of our supporters for their generous donations and staunch vocal backing over the last month or so. The Center has had a rough last few weeks but the future looks brighter than ever thanks to you.

The International Students For Liberty Conference is the world’s largest gathering of liberty minded people and for the first time in history the Center for a Stateless Society will be represented at the annual get together. Thanks to dozens of charitable and passionate donators, we were able to reach our Go Fund Me goal of $500 and afford a sponsorship at the ISFLC. This means there will be a C4SS table with all sorts of pamphlets, books, pins, and other goodies in the exhibit hall all weekend!

In addition, a C4SS social is being held on Saturday, to be determined, at Medaterra where over a 100 students are joining together for fun, friends, and free stuff! Every attendee will get a free pamphlet and free pin just for showing up. Furthermore, there will be a raffle to give away a copy of “Markets Not Capitalism” signed by one of its editors, Charles Johnson. Join the Facebook event for the social here! If you have any questions about the event, don’t hesitate to email cmassimino@studentsforliberty.org.

The left market anarchist presence at this year’s ISFLC will be bigger than ever and I can’t thank C4SS supporters enough. Y’all are truly the epitome of a community rooted in common understanding and mutual aid. The Center is unbelievably grateful for all your support, monetary or otherwise, and wants to give back! So join us at the International Students For Liberty Conference and make left libertarianism a force to be reckoned with! We already know the support is there – our existence and increased success is proof of it. Let’s show everyone else!

Sincerely and For Left Liberty,

Cory

Sheldon Richman discusses why Chris Kyle is not a hero.

Michael Brendan Dougherty discusses Hilary and Libya.

Michael Dickinson discusses Winston Churchill.

Arthur Silber discusses the American Sniper movie and Chris Kyle.

Elizabeth Nolan Brown discusses libertarian feminism as an alternative to carceral feminism.

Medea Benjamin discusses why Cuba should be taken off the terrorist list.

Lew Rockwell discusses the libertarian principle of secession.

Sheldon Richman discusses the consequences of liberty.

David Rosen discusses the changing role of the U.S. military.

George H. Smith discusses the relation between religious skepticism and libertarianism.

Michael S. Rozeff discusses the possibility of U.S.escalation in the Ukraine.

Jeff Deist discusses how secession begins at home.

Tom H. Hastings discusses the military’s honoring of the late Saudi king.

Hunter Hastings discusses how free markets increase freedom of choice.

Janet Weil discusses American Sniper

Katherine Hawkins discusses the torture report and memos.

Andrew J. Bacevich discusses Obama’s foreign policy.

Robert Parry discusses the propaganda surrounding Ukraine.

Graham Peebles discusses the danger of being a girl in India.

Mark Davis discusses libertarians, selfishness, and progressives.

Glen Allport discusses the coercive state.

Paul Bonneau discusses xenophobes.

Veselin Topalov defeats Francisco Vallejo Pons.

Veselin Topalov draws with Vishy Anand.

Jacob G. Hornberger discusses U.S. empire and blowback.

Philip A. Reboli discusses Robert Gates memoir.

Stephen Kinzer discusses the consequences of imperialism in the Middle East.

Benjmain Dangl discusses why the U.S. government is the world’s greatest threat to peace.

Jacob G. Hornberger discusses the film, American Sniper.

Ivan Eland discusses the media coverage of the Paris attacks.

Laurence M. Vance discusses the statism of the GOP.

David Boaz discusses Obama’s recent State of the Union address.

Sheldon Richman discusses two kinds of equality.

Jacob G. Hornberger discusses how the troops are destroying our country.

Wendy McElroy discusses America’s growth industry based on parole and probation.

James Bovard discusses America’s fading love of freedom.

William Blum discusses the murder of journalists.

Lucy Steigerwald discusses the U.S. military.

Ramzy Baroud discusses George W. Bush’s plunders.

Nick Turse discusses American shadow wars.

Murtaza Hussain discusses the recent death of the Saudi king.

Sheldon Richman discusses Nathaniel Branden’s advice to libertarians.

Neve Gordon discusses drone warfare.

Sam Husseini discusses Saudi myths.

John Chuckman discusses the origin of terror and crumbling Western values.

Jeffrey Roger Hummel discusses a new book on Lincoln’s critics.

Durante el mes de enero traduje al español “Escape de la bahía de Guantánamo” de Joel Schlosberg, “En memoria de las víctimas de Charlie Hebdo” de Sheldon Richman, “Solo se le llama censura cuando ellos la implementan” de Erick Vasconcelos y “El FBI es excelente para frustrar (sus propios) ‘complots terroristas’” de Kevin Carson.

Como de constumbre, aprovecho para invitarte a hacer una donación de US $5 para C4SS. Con ella nos ayudarías a seguir con nuestro esfuerzo por reflexionar seriamente sobre la idea de una sociedad organizada en base a la cooperación voluntaria y cómo hacerla realidad.

¡Salud y Libertad!

Spanish Media Coordinator Report, January 2015

During January I translated into Spanish “Escape from Guantanamo Bay” by Joel Schlosberg, “In Memory of the Charlie Hebdo Victims” by Sheldon Richman, “It’s Only Censorship When They Do It” by Erick Vasconcelos, and “The FBI is Great at Disrupting (Its Own) ‘Terror Plots’” by Kevin Carson.

As always, I seize the opportunity to invite you to donate $5 for C4SS: your contribution is what allows us to keep reflecting upon and promoting the idea of a society based on voluntary cooperation. Please donate $5 today!

¡Salud y libertad!

Via the Association of Libertarian Feminists discussion group (natch) I found this video by up-and-coming YouTube star Cameron Watt (on Facebook anyway), from his channel Libertarian Socialist Rants (LSR).

His title is “My Thoughts on Feminism”, but as my Tweet on it explains, it’s really about why the hierarchy analysis of anarchism necessitates feminism. The embed is below, but first, to more fully introduce him to the C4SS crowd, I reached out to him via his Facebook page to ask a few questions, which he was kind enough to answer.

C4SS: So first question would be (and I do this too and I’m considering not doing it anymore), “why do you say you’re a libertarian when you’re more accurately an anarchist?”

Also, what got you into libertarianism in the first place, then what got you into socialist libertarianism? Or was it the other way around?

LSR: “Libertarian socialist” tends to evoke a bit of curiosity, whereas saying I’m an anarchist usually causes a lot of eye rolling and comments about chaos and whatnot.

In terms of how I came to libertarian socialism, I started off as a right-wing bastard, then became more liberal, then a social democrat, and then the phenomenon of student debt radicalised me into an anarchist.

So I came from the left.

C4SS: Why did you start your show? Why should people subscribe?

LSR: I started my channel ages ago, not for political reasons but just because I was an angry teenager just looking to let off steam (this was when I was a right-wing bastard). After being radicalised I want to commit my channel to promoting social change of various sorts, by giving theoretical analysis, and in the future I’d like to offer practical advice for people.

As for why people should subscribe, I think the arguments are worth listening to and they need to be spread around rather than be obscured and isolated in a corner of the political debate.

At roughly 5 pm CST (January 22, 2015), Brad Spangler confessed in a Facebook post to the 2004 molestation of a child and expressed his intention to turn himself in to the police. He has not posted anything, nor, so far as we know, otherwise communicated — to the contrary, or for that matter at all — in the intervening time. No other evidence or circumstances have come to light to suggest that his confession was false, fake or coerced.

The Center for a Stateless Society (C4SS) finds his monstrous actions and the way in which he admitted them utterly abhorrent and completely counter to the values C4SS stands for.

There is absolutely no avoiding the elephant in the room: Spangler co-founded C4SS. He was a key builder of its infrastructure. But he has not been a part of C4SS for a long time, either publicly or behind the scenes. His biography on the website erroneously listed him as a Senior Fellow until yesterday; that description should have been changed long ago simply for accuracy’s sake. Due to this oversight, C4SS is working on approving a proposal for identifying and removing associates who have “abandoned” C4SS due to lack of communication or participation.

C4SS has changed substantially over the years as we’ve grown and Spangler does not represent us. Rather than continue to host the writing of a child molester and to make clear our strenuous disassociation we’ve removed his historical posts from our site. At the same time we do not mean to disingenuously “memoryhole” Spangler’s unfortunate legacy and will be archiving his historical content on another site, the Spangler Pensieve.

Spangler’s admission was a heavy blow to us, but whatever discomfort our organization experiences over the coming months is nothing in comparison to the pain the survivor of Spangler’s actions has suffered for a decade, nor the pain that survivor is surely being forced to relive as a result of his selfishness. The survivor deserves the chance to heal. We will respect the survivor’s space, and offer our assistance should it ever be needed or wanted. To further this end, C4SS will be donating $200 from our Entrepreneurial Anti-capitalism fund to generationFive. [G]enerationFive “works to interrupt and mend the intergenerational impact of child sexual abuse on individuals, families, and communities. It is our belief that meaningful community response is the key to effective prevention.”

We would like to close with some quotes from Why Misogynists Make Great Informants: How Gender Violence on the Left Enables State Violence in Radical Movements:

Time and again heterosexual men in radical movements have been allowed to assert their privilege and subordinate others. Despite all that we say to the contrary, the fact is that radical social movements and organizations in the United States have refused to seriously address gender violence [1] as a threat to the survival of our struggles. We’ve treated misogyny, homophobia, and heterosexism as lesser evils—secondary issues—that will eventually take care of themselves or fade into the background once the “real” issues—racism, the police, class inequality, U.S. wars of aggression—are resolved. There are serious consequences for choosing ignorance. Misogyny and homophobia are central to the reproduction of violence in radical activist communities. Scratch a misogynist and you’ll find a homophobe. Scratch a little deeper and you might find the makings of a future informant (or someone who just destabilizes movements like informants do). …

As angry as gender violence on the Left makes me, I am hopeful. I believe we have the capacity to change and create more justice in our movements. We don’t have to start witch hunts to reveal misogynists and informants. They out themselves every time they refuse to apologize, take ownership of their actions, start conflicts and refuse to work them out through consensus, mistreat their compañer@s. We don’t have to look for them, but when we are presented with their destructive behaviors we have to hold them accountable. Our strategies don’t have to be punitive; people are entitled to their mistakes. But we should expect that people will own those actions and not allow them to become a pattern.

We have a right to be angry when the communities we build that are supposed to be the model for a better, more just world harbor the same kinds of antiqueer, antiwoman, racist violence that pervades society. As radical organizers we must hold each other accountable and not enable misogynists to assert so much power in these spaces. Not allow them to be the faces, voices, and leaders of these movements. Not allow them to rape a compañera and then be on the fucking five o’ clock news. […] By not allowing misogyny to take root in our communities and movements, we not only protect ourselves from the efforts of the state to destroy our work but also create stronger movements that cannot be destroyed from within.

[1] I use the term gender violence to refer to the ways in which homophobia and misogyny are rooted in heteronormative understandings of gender identity and gender roles. Heterosexism not only polices non-normative sexualities but also reproduces normative gender roles and identities that reinforce the logic of patriarchy and male privilege.

Translations for this blog post:

• Spanish, Libertad de desvinculación: Acerca de Brad Spangler

Yesterday, a statement was posted to the facebook wall of Brad Spangler, co-founder and former fellow of C4SS. It admitted to molesting a child.

We are floored, dismayed and horrified by this post. If it is genuine, we utterly condemn Spangler’s actions.

We are in the process of confirming facts and composing a more detailed statement.

The Center for a Stateless Society (C4SS) has named Grant A. Mincy its first Elinor Ostrom Chair in Environmental Studies and Commons Governance.

Mincy holds a chair on the Energy & Environment Advisory Council for the Our America Initiative and an Associate editor of the Molinari Review. He earned his Masters degree in Earth and Planetary Science from the University of Tennessee in the summer of 2012. He lives in Knoxville, Tennessee where he teaches both Biology and Geology at area colleges.

Mincy is a fellow of C4SS and has been writing with C4SS for almost two years. He has had commentaries published in many countries and in several languages. He has already published one academic study, Power and Property: A Corollary, with C4SS and is currently working on his second. His work has focused on issues of environment, ecology, commons governance, power of place, climate change, education, communication technology, resilient communities and the importance of anarchism to any social theory claiming justice, peace and prosperity as its values.

This chair is named in honor of the brilliant, prolific and passionate economist and political scientist Elinor Ostrom. Ostrom’s life, work, Workshop (research databases and libraries) and “a 50 year legacy of nurturing young scholars focused on solutions oriented research” demonstrates a powerful commitment to describing a a world beyond states and capitalism. A world where people are not at the mercy of the scarcity facts of the universe or the monocentric institutions desperately presumed as our only means of salvation. A world where people, communities, environments and resources are all important parts of governance problems and their quick-fix “Faustian Bargain” solutions are kept in view, in check, impossible and irrelevant.

We look forward to seeing how Mincy’s research and writing develops and enriches our understanding of Environmental Studies and Commons Governance for a stateless society.

Charles Sevilla reviews a book on drone killing.

Ludwig Watzal reviews a book on dissent in Palestine and Israel.

Wendy McElroy discusses Louis Bromfield.

Peter Bistoletti discusses the state as crime.

Muhammad Sahimi discusses how Western foreign policy empowers Islamists.

Richard M. Ebeling discusses lessons for winning liberty in a world of statism.

Jacob G. Hornberger discusses how the U.S. embargo on Cuba came about.

Patrick Cockburn discusses the cause of the Paris attacks.

James Bovard discusses Obama and censorship.

Chris Floyd discusses airstrikes in Syria that killed civilians.

Bionic Mosquito discusses violent extremism and governments.

Kevin Carson discusses the Koch Brothers and libertarianism.

Cindybiondigobrecht discusses how Obamacare forced her to be dependent on the state.

Chase Madar discusses seven incomplete essays on torture.

Sheldon Richman discusses the motivation behind the Paris attacks.

John V. Walsh discusses the Paris terrorist attacks and colonialism.

David S D’Amato discusses decentralism.

Lucy Steigerwald discusses how victims of war and terrorism lose their individuality.

John V. Denson discusses war revisionism, fascism, and the CIA.

Arthur Silber discusses the Paris attacks and violence.

Sheldon Richman discusses the open society and its worst enemies.

Jacob G. Hornberger discusses the presidential authority to assassinate.

W. James Antle III discusses the GOP becoming libertarian.

Dana Goldstein discusses how liberals helped build prison America.

Conor Friedersdorf discusses how the Iraq War empowered the Iranian regime.

Stanton Peele discusses drug addiction.

Já vínhamos passando da metade de janeiro de 2015 e eu ainda não havia apresentado o relatório referente a dezembro. Então, para remediar essa situação, decidi ir um pouco além e falar um pouco do trabalho que nós desenvolvemos para atingir o público em português durante todo o ano de 2014.

Até eu assumir como coordenador de mídias, o C4SS já trazia textos para português, mas não de modo sistemático e não havia uma tentativa de chegar aos veículos de mídia. O C4SS pediu para que eu fizesse especificamente isso quando comecei no meu posto.

A partir de março, chamei Valdenor Júnior para o nosso time. Eu e Valdenor fomos a cara do C4SS durante 2014, escrevendo a maior parte dos nossos textos originais. Com o tempo, eu também compilei uma grande lista de editores para quem passei a mandar nossos editoriais e alguns de nossos artigos feature (artigos geralmente mais longos que tratam de temas que não necessariamente comentam fatos do cotidiano). A resposta foi extremamente positiva e nós conseguimos ser publicados em diversos veículos da internet e em alguns jornais impressos.

Segue um gráfico que detalha a evolução do nosso trabalho em português, contando quantos artigos originais em português nós produzimos em cada mês, o total de artigos publicados (entre originais e traduzidos do inglês) e o total de republicações em outros veículos:

Os números totais do ano são os seguintes:

• Total de artigos originais em português: 54
• Total de artigos publicados (originais e traduzidos): 207
• Total de republicações: 593

Além disso, começamos uma campanha agressiva de divulgação no Facebook. Todos os artigos que publicamos são divulgados em vários grupos de discussão, o que nos ajudou a atingir uma popularidade moderada em nossa página, que foi criada em 17/02. Os números da nossa página do Facebook são os seguintes:

• Total de curtidas na página até 31/12/2014: 3619
• Média de curtidas por mês: 329
• Total de curtidas na página até 15/01/2015: 3855

Também estabelecemos uma presença no Twitter para o C4SS (@c4sspt) a partir de 31 de março. Nossos números, mais modestos que os do Facebook, são os seguintes:

• Total de seguidores até 15/01/2015: 103
• Média de seguidores por mês: 10,84
• Total de tweets até 15/01/2015: 324
• Média de tweets por mês: 34,10

Neste mês, comecei também alimentar de conteúdo no blog do Tumblr do C4SS em português, interagindo com os usuários, postando nossos textos diários e republicando nossos textos antigos, para atingir novos leitores. Até o momento, já há 28 republicações em nosso blog, com 7 seguidores e mais 21 posts na fila (republicando alguns de nossas centenas de textos de 2014 na plataforma).

Para mim, em particular, tem sido um prazer trabalhar com o C4SS em prol do ideal da anarquia e de um livre mercado radical e revolucionário

2015 será melhor e para isso contamos com sua ajuda! O C4SS só é possível através das doações daqueles que acreditam nas nossas ideias. Então, se você sente que nosso trabalho é importante, não deixe de nos apoiar e faça uma doação hoje mesmo.

Erick Vasconcelos
Coordenador de mídias
Centro por uma Sociedade Sem Estado

* * *

Portuguese Media Coordinator Update: December 2014

We’re almost past halfway through January and I still haven’t presented the December Portuguese Media Report. So, to remedy that situation, I decided to go further and talk a little about the work we developed in 2014 to reach the Portuguese-speaking public.

Before I started as media coordinator, C4SS already brought articles into Portuguese, but it wasn’t a very systematic endeavor and there wasn’t an attempt to reach media outlets. When I started collaborating with the Center, I was specifically asked to do that and try to sprinkle our content everywhere I could.

From March on, I asked Valdenor Júnior to join our team. Valdenor and I were the face of C4SS during 2014, writing most of our content in Portuguese. Over time, I was able to compile a large list of editors to whom I would send our op-eds and selected long form features. We got an extremely positive feedback and we were able to get published in several internet outlets as well as a handful of printed newspapers.

Below I show you a graph I prepared detailing the evolution of our work in Portuguese, counting how many original Portuguese articles we published each month, the total number of articles we published (both translated from English and original pieces), and total pickups from media outlets:

The total numbers from 2014 are the following:

• Total original Portuguese articles published: 54
• Total published articles (translated and original): 207
• Total pickups: 593

I started a rather agressive campaign to spread out our articles. Every article we publish is shared in several discussion groups, something that helped our Facebook page — created on 02/17 — achieve a respectable popularity. Our Facebook numbers are the following:

• Total page “likes” until 12/31/2014: 3619
• Average number of “likes” per month: 329
• Total page “likes” until 01/15/2015: 3855

On 03/31, we opened a Twitter account for the Portuguese C4SS (@c4sspt). The respectable, albeit more modest numbers, are as follows:

• Total followers until 01/15/2015: 103
• Average number of followers per month: 10,84
• Total tweets until 15/01/2015:
• Average number of tweets per month: 34,10

I have also started this month to feed content to the Portuguese C4SS Tumblr blog, interacting with other users, posting our daily articles and republishing our older pieces to reach new readers. Up to this moment, the blog has 28 posts, 7 followers and 21 posts in queue — republishing a few of the hundreds of articles that we ran in 2014 on the newer platform.

To me, in particular, it’s been a pleasure to work with C4SS in promoting the ideas of anarchy and a radical and revolutionary free market.

2015 should be even better, and for that we hope to get your help and donation! C4SS is made possible through the donations from those who believe in our ideas. So, if you feel our work is important, do not hesitate to help us out and send $5 our way today!

Erick Vasconcelos
Media Coordinator
Center for a Stateless Society

Hey, everyone … it’s almost mid-January, and those of you who follow the Center’s media action may be wondering why you haven’t heard anything about December yet. There’s a reason for that, which I’ll explain below, but first the numbers you’ve been waiting for:

In December 2014, I submitted 33,772 pieces of the Center’s English language op-ed content to 2,593 publications worldwide. So far I’ve identified and logged 47 media “pickups” of C4SS English language content in December.

Submissions slightly lagged my goals for December — we had a few days with nothing to publish, which meant nothing to submit. I’m actually pretty happy with the pickup numbers for the month. December’s always been a difficult month for us, especially in even-numbered years. Between post-election commentary of the type we don’t do (“inside baseball” state policy stuff, etc.) and the tendency to go with puff piece editorialism around the Christmas holiday, our pickups tend to drop off a little. They did so this year, but not as much as I had anticipated.

Now, as to why this update is running late:

Whenever there’s a significant question raised on the matter of whether to add or remove a source from our “mainstream/popular media pickups” counting, it requires discussion.

Some time back, there was internal discussion at the Center on whether or not to start counting pickups by Before It’s News. The result of that discussion was the decision to count those pickups. BIN may not be “mainstream,” but it is “popular” (according to the imperfect Alexa rating service, usually among the 2,500 most popular web sites in the world).

Starting late last month, there was again internal discussion concerning BIN and a proposal that we stop counting pickups there. That proposal was driven by two arguments: That BIN is so non-“mainstream” (lots of “conspiracy theory” stuff, etc.) as to not qualify for our pickup tracking criteria, and that it is now (if it ever wasn’t) a non-discriminating aggregator rather than a discriminating site with an editorial policy.

I hope I’ve presented both sides of the logic for counting, or not counting, BIN pickups fairly. If not, I’m sure supporters and opponents of counting BIN pickups will clarify their viewpoints in comments.

In any case, I didn’t want to put out a media coordinator report until this issue was resolved, for the simple reason that if we’re going to take a double-digit dive in monthly pickup numbers by dropping BIN, I wanted to explain why in this report.

As it happens, our policy remains unchanged — for the moment. We are, however, looking into the possibility of a more diverse pickup-tracking operation in which “mainstream media,” “alt media,” “blogs,” “aggregators,” etc. get separate tracking/reporting functions and we can provide our supporters with more information on our media penetration in general. I’ll keep you informed of our progress on that.

I’ll be back next month with another report … hopefully much earlier 🙂

Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
English Language Media Coordinator
Center for a Stateless Society

Ron Jacobs discusses free speech in Manhattan.

Dave Lindorff discusses the Philly cop chief and a newspaper.

Carl Finamore discusses making black lives matter in 2015.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark discusses China in the Balkans.

Bruce Fein discusses abolishing the CIA.

FEE features selections from Max Weber discussing the inherently violent character of the state.

Jeffrey Tucker discusses taking back the word liberal for liberty.

Chance M.E. Davis discusses the private space industry.

Mikayla Novak discusses the great enrichment, network theory, and the liberation of women.

Jacob Sullum discusses whether Obama the drug warrior is becoming the drug reformer.

Jesse Walker discusses a public-private partnership in the service of the War on Drugs.

Norman Solomon discusses a CIA whistleblower.

Gareth Porter discusses the real politics behind the U.S. war on ISIS.

Marjorie Cohn discusses how killer drones are an extension of American exceptionalism.

Patrick Cockburn discusses the war against ISIS.

Ivan Eland discusses what motivates ISIS.

Laurence M. Vance discusses the torture report.

Richard Ebeling discusses a possible New Year’s resolution for friends of liberty.

George Leef discusses making 2015 the year of repealing bad laws.

Wendy McElroy discusses food freedom.

Jacob G. Hornberger discusses conservative hypocrisy on the Cuban embargo.

Charles Pierson discusses the year in drones.

Abby Martin discusses troop worship.

Bionic Mosquito discusses WW2.

James Peron discusses Rand Paul’s response to the Paris terrorist attacks.

Brian Cloughley discusses the nature of the U.S. torturers.

John Chuckman discusses what war looks like.

Lucy Steigerwald discusses the Paris attacks.

Fabiano Caurana beats Ivan Saric.

Fabiano Caurana beats Anish Giri.

Essentially, the tragedy of past revolutions has been that, sooner or later, their doors closed, “at ten in the evening.” The most critical function of modern technology must be to keep the doors of the revolution open forever! –Murray Bookchin

Part of the dissolutionary strategy advocated by C4SS is called Open Source Insurgency or embracing institutional, organizational or technological innovations — low-tech or high-tech — that render centralized or authoritarian governance impossible (or so damn costly as to be regarded as impossible). One of these innovations is Tor. And, so, C4SS maintains an always-on Tor Node. But we need your help.

C4SS has maintained a Tor relay node for over three years. This is our first quarter fundraiser for the project. Every contribution will help us maintain this node until April 2015. Every contribution above our needed amount will be earmarked for our first quarter fundraiser.

We encourage everyone to consider operating a Tor relay node yourself. If this, for whatever reason, is not an option, you can still support the Tor project and online anonymity with a $5 donation to the C4SS Tor relay node.

C4SS maintains a Tor relay node with a freedom friendly data center in the Netherlands. The relay is part of a global network dedicated to the idea that a free society requires freedom of information. Since June 2011 C4SS has continuously added nearly 10 Mbps of bandwidth to the network (statistics). Although we can’t know, by design, what passes through the relay, it’s entirely likely that it has facilitated communications by revolutionaries, agorists, whistleblowers, journalists working under censorious regimes and many more striving to advance the cause of liberty and the dissolution of authority.

If you believe, as we do, that Tor is one of the technologies that makes both state and corporate oppression not only obsolete, but impossible, please consider operating as a Tor relay or donating to support the C4SS node.

The State is damage, we will find a route around!

• Internet Security Is Our Responsibility
• Tor: The Onion Router
• Tor Is For Everyone: Why You Should Use Tor
• 7 Things You Should Know About Tor
• Using PGP Encryption To Communicate Privately
• Keeping Your Cryptocurrency Safe
• Dark Wallet: New Weapons for Old Wars

If you are interested in learning more about Tor and how to become a relay node yourself, then check out our write up on the project: Stateless Tor.

Please donate today!

Bitcoin is also welcome:

• 1N1pF6fLKAGg4nH7XuqYQbKYXNxCnHBWLB

Helen Dale discusses stories vs numbers.

Bruce Fein discusses the AWOL status of Congress on drones.

Kathy Deacon discusses a book on the revolutionary war.

Patrick Cockburn discusses the reason for torture.

Joseph Stromberg discusses command posts and the state.

Patrick Cockburn discusses ISIS.

Jacob G. Hornberger discusses the CIA.

Leonard C. Goodman discusses blowback.

Richard M. Ebeling discusses the new year and liberty.

Anthony Gregory discusses mass killings by Stalin and Hitler.

Uri Avnery discusses the connection between archaeology and ideology in the Middle East.

Jacob G. Hornberger discusses voluntary vs mandatory charity.

Ted Galen Carpenter discusses the opening with Cuba.

A. Barton Hinkle discusses new gun control measures in Virginia.

Scott Beauchamp discusses the bipartisan war consensus.

Deepak Tripathi discusses the Afghan war.

Jack A. Smith discusses the New Year and the ongoing wars.

Noah Berlatsky discusses a book on international human rights law.

Timothy P. Carney discusses the ex-im bank and crony capitalism.

Ivan Eland discusses why hysteria over Sony hacking is unwarranted.

Kent Paterson discusses migrant family detentions.

Kevin Carson discusses a critique of his thought.

Kevin Carson discusses whether capitalism could reconstitute itself with private armies.

Gary Chartier discusses the imperial presidency.

Bruce Fein discusses why the U.S. government shouldn’t promote democracy abroad.

Fernando Teson discusses the uneasy marriage of liberty and democracy.

Miroslav Filip defeats Vaclav Brat.

Miroslav Filip defeats Wolfgang Unzicker.

Murray Rothbard once opined that there were only two “just wars” in all of American history. The wars in question were the American Revolutionary War and the secessionist war of the Confederate States during the American Civil War.

Murray’s reasoning for including, at least, the war of the Confederacy is dubious. To quote his take on what constitutes a just war:

My own view of war can be put simply: a just war exists when a people tries to ward off the threat of coercive domination by another people, or to overthrow an already-existing domination. A war is unjust, on the other hand, when a people try to impose domination on another people, or try to retain an already existing coercive rule over them.

This viewpoint of Rothbard is not the best take on just war. Rothbard uses the collectivist concept of a people rather than the autonomous individual. This can easily lead to a nationalistic defense of state sovereignty as opposed to a radical defense of individual rights. This is not to deny that human beings exist in a social context. It simply acknowledges that consent is ultimately necessary on an individual level.

Even if one agrees with this viewpoint, it doesn’t legitimize the South’s war. The South was trying to preserve coercive domination over black people. And the Confederacy hypocritically denied slaves the same right of secession that the Confederate government was claiming in relation to the Union. The negative libertarian rights and freedoms of the slaves were not acknowledged by the Confederate state.

There is simply no way of reconciling radical libertarian principle with a defense of the so called Southern War of Independence. This doesn’t mean the Union was perfect or perfectly embodied libertarian ideals either. To quote Roderick Long:

When libertarians on one side point out that the Union centralised power, violated civil liberties, committed vicious war crimes, was hypocritical on secession, ignored avenues for peaceful emancipation, and cared more about tariffs and nationalism than about ending slavery, I agree and applaud; but they lose me when they start calling the Civil War the “Second War of American Independence” and portray the Confederates as freedom fighters.

Equivalently, when libertarians on the other side point out that the preservation and extension of slavery was central to the South’s motivations for secession (as seems clear from what secessionists said at the time of secession, as opposed to what they said in their memoirs years later), and that the Confederacy was just as bloated and oppressive a centralized state as the Union, equally hypocritical on secession and equally invasive of civil liberties, once more I agree and applaud. (As I like to say, the Confederacy was just another failed government program.) But they too lose me, when they start calling Lincoln a great libertarian and the consolidation of federal power a victory for liberty.

The proper position to take is one of opposition to both states alike and support for anarchistic abolitionism of the Lysander Spooner variety.

Welcome to 2015! This is Missing Comma, a media criticism and analysis blog project graciously hosted by the Center for a Stateless Society. As with last year, our continuing mission is to understand how various forms of informational media – mainly the news – interact with individuals, and vice versa. Our goal: lay down the framework for an anarchist news organization that not only challenges the existing media landscape, but can ultimately replace it entirely.

To do that, we’ll be looking at the history of journalism, as well as present-day examples of breaches in media ethics and instances where misunderstandings between the public and the media arise. We’ll also be talking with experts in the field of media ethics about various issues from conflicts of interest to press freedom.

We’re expanding our operation this year to include a podcast and DIY educational materials. We’ve got a Patreon page set up here, where you can donate as much or as little as you like to keep us going. We explain where your donations go over there on the Patreon page, but basically, you’ll be helping us to bring on multiple writers to work on the blog and establish a general fund we can tap into for things like printing materials. We’re also expanding our social media presence in 2015 to encompass Twitter and Facebook, and we’ve got a secondary blog over here at Tumblr where we’ll be posting to daily.

This was kind of a short post, but one of our new year resolutions is to adhere to the old adage “quality over quantity” as much as humanly possible. I’m Trevor Hultner, main thing-doer at Missing Comma; you can follow me on Twitter at @missingcomma. We’re also incredibly lucky to have Juliana Perciavalle on the team for a second year as well. She’s about to start her final semester in college, but she’ll be dropping in throughout the year. Thanks for your support, and thanks for reading!

Doug Bandow discusses the U.S. government’s partnership with the repressive Egyptian regime.

Wendy McElroy discusses statolatry.

Michael Brenner discusses the CIA.

Melvin A. Goodman discusses lies and spies.

Greg Grandin discusses how the Iraq War became in Panama.

Johanna Fernandez discusses the anti-police brutality movements.

Justin Logan discusses a new neocon book.

Jesse Walker discusses centralized policing.

Geoffrey Macdonald discusses the uses of the torture scandal.

Ivan Eland discusses why torture is indefensible.

Dave Lindorff discusses vigiliantism.

Jacob G. Hornberger discusses the power of the president to torture and assassinate.

A. Barton Hinkle discusses why Elizabeth Warren is right about the recent budget bill.

George Leef discusses government rigged markets.

Gareth Porter discusses why torture occurred.

Jane Mayer discusses the real torture patriots.

George F. Will discusses overcriminalization.

David H. Price discusses how the CIA sold Obama on counter-insurgency related targeted assassinations.

Kelly Vlahos discuses how Afghanistan is still in trouble.

Joel Schlosberg discusses the Christmas Truce.

Jason Kuzniciki discusses three arguments against war.

Chances M.E. Davies discusses the creation of the Federal Reserve.

Julian Adorney discusses peacekeeping without the police.

Scott McPherson discusses police brutality.

Missy Beattie discusses anti-police brutality protests.

John Laforge discusses the lack of criminal prosecutions for torture.

Rachel Shabi discusses why U.S. torture was not a surprise for the Arab world.

Gareth Porter discusses why Obama won’t make a deal with Iran.

Alex Yermonlinsky defeats Emory Tate.

Ashot Anastasian loses to Alex Yermonlinsky.