Brain-flash: Could the LPMC-guided LNC join forces with the Innocence Project (and similar orgs, e.g. Institute for Justice) to shepherd cause-celebre cases that are clear-cut candidates for liberation up through the pardon process, as a "fast-route" to clearing wrongly-convicted innocents and political prisoners in the US? We have weaponized the Federal government, and this is a problem that is obviously not going to be fixed in just four years (and we only have four years until the Deep State gets another sword-swing), so this is going to be a perennial issue. It dovetails perfectly with what libertarians stand for -- liberty doesn't get any more obvious than freeing the innocent from prison. It does actual good. And it provides energization to the libertarian base to unite around a concrete, tangible good and stop bickering over theory.
That room, which had been filled with boos and jeers, was silent when Trump promised to commute Ross's sentence. I think that's a symbolic portrait of the kind of activism that could actually unite the libertarian party. There is an entire ecosystem of hard-cases out there like Ross, he's not the only one, nor is wrongful-conviction the only way this kind of stuff materializes. One case I think of and pray about often is that of Aafia Siddiqui. Look her up (if you can even find it on the censored Internet). Such an absolute travesty of justice. We have been on an absolute imperial rampage since 2001, the bodies and wreckage of that mad grab for power are strewn all over this nation, and not just in our prisons. I hope that better political heads than mine are thinking about this because I see this as a real bellwether for the LP. If they keep it up, I might even join! Never once in 15+ years of being a small-l libertarian has the possibility of joining the party once crossed my mind. Ulbricht (that is, McArdle) changed that. How relieved his mother must finally be...
