FreedomFest 2023 was held in Memphis, TN from July 12th through July 15th, 2023.

I met with Don Escaped Texas between while I was in Memphis. I had dinner with him and his wife at a fantastic BBQ place. Don and I also had some beer at High Cotton and Flying Saucer. Don and his wife are good company. Thanks to Don for taking me out.

Anthem Film Festival

As every year, the Anthem Film Festival runs concurrently with FreedomFest. Your pass is good for both. I attended a few showings.

This year the organizers announced a streaming service from the Advocates for Self Government. The streaming service will host movies and short videos with liberty and freedom themes. Membership is free. The platform is donor founded. The plan is to add more films, including everything shown at the Anthem Film Festival.

Calvin Coolidge

A documentary on Calvin Coolidge was the opener for the Anthem Film Festival. I found the full documentary plus an added introduction by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem on the South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s youtube channel.

Unredacted

This is a documentary about a Saudi school for reforming terrorists. Several men held at Guantanamo Bay went there after their release from Guantanamo Bay. The film came under some fire from the usual suspects angry that a white woman made a film about Muslim men.

The film follows a group of men as they go through the school, then their experiences afterwards. There are also interviews with a graduate of the school and a school official. The documentary touches on Mohammed bin Salman’s takeover of power in Saudi Arabia. Mohammed bin Salman changed the school to be used for political prisoners.

Papa Coriandre

This is a short, subtitled film from the Atlas Network about the effects of Burundi removing regulations. The film tells the story of an entrepreneur who moved his business from the informal to the formal sector.

The Broken Boys of Kenosha

A subset of movies at the Anthem Film Festival were on the effects of the lack of a father on children’s development. “The Broken Boys of Kenosha” and its following panel discussion were the showpieces of this theme.

The Movie

“The Broken Boys of Kenosha” (age verification required) Is a documentary about Jacob Blake, Joseph Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber, and Kyle Rittenhouse. When the documentary maker, Rob Montz, went to Kenosha to find out the truth behind the media narrative, he discovered that these four all had absent fathers.

The movie started with the lies and truth of Jacob Blake.  The truth is Blake had an arrest warrant, was trying to kidnap his ex’s kids, was trying to steal her car, was armed with a knife, and was probably trying to stab the one of the responding police officers when the police shot him shot.  Blake’s father had nothing to do with him until after the shooting except for one year where Blake lived with his father when Blake was a teenager. When Blake’s father was making appearances after the shooting, he was claiming to want to protect his kid that he had nothing to do with.

Joseph Rosenbaum had been molested by his stepfather.  Rosenbaum’s stepfather forced Rosenbaum to watch as his stepfather raped Rosenbaum’s younger brother. Rosenbaum’s biological father was not around because he had died in prison when Rosenbaum was very young.

Kyle Rittenhouse’s father was abusive and alcoholic.  Rittenhouse’s parents divorced when Rittenhouse was four after his dad beat his mother.  Rittenhouse’s father’s only interaction with his son during the trial was to leave drunken messages, late at night, on Rittenhouse’s lawyers’ answering machine.

Anthony Huber’s dad tried giving him away, and had nothing to do with him until after Rittenhouse shot Huber.  Huber’s dad sued the City of Kenosha calling Huber ‘a beloved son”.

The Panel Discussion

After the movie, there was a brief panel discussion on absent fathers’ effect on families, especially sons. On the panel were Rob Montz, a man who had been wrongly convicted of a crime who had to parent from prison, and a pastor who works with inner city youth.

Most of what I remember of the panel discussion and Q&A were comments by Rob Montz. Those comments are:

  • He found research showing boys are more sensitive than girls to family disruptions.
  • He talked about visiting the Kenosha neighborhood which has historically been dominated by black owned businesses. BLM riots resulted in the destruction of this neighborhood.
  • He had a lot of people wanting to talk to him because they were pissed at the coastal media’s lies. This included Anthony Huber’s girlfriend who is an Antifa activist.

There was a question for panel if anyone noticed a difference between households where the father died and households where the father was absent due to divorce or abandonment. The pastor answered this question. He noticed that boys and young men whose fathers have died are often much better adjusted than boys and young men whose fathers are absent.

Presidential Candidates, Past and Present, Domestic and Foreign

Tulsi Gabbard

I don’t remember much of Tulsi Gabbard’s talk on the main stage beyond her being the only Democrat who attended a reading of the US Constitution in the House of Representatives. According to her, when she asked her Democrat colleagues why they didn’t attend, their excuses can be summed up as “Reading the Constitution in the House is just a Republican dog and pony show.”

I attended a paid luncheon event where I thought Tulsi Gabbard was supposed to speak. For most of the lunch, I did not see her in the room. I saw her in the room about ten or fifteen minutes before the lunch was supposed to end. She did not speak. She left pretty quickly after I saw her. Others at the luncheon that I talked with also thought she was going to speak. Mark Skousen, one of the organizers of FreedomFest, got up to speak and was apologetic. Had I known this would happen, I would not have paid for the luncheon.

Gloria Álvarez

Gloria Álvarez was running for president in Guatemala despite not being eligible. In Guatemala, you must be at least 40 to be president. Álvarez is in her 30s. Her talk on the main stage was a summary of her platform. She cut the talk short as otherwise she would have run over.

Álvarez’s platform is made up of “non-negotiables” and “negotiables”. The “non-negotiables” are a list of things that she promises to do while she is president. The “negotiables” are a list of things that she plans to put up for a vote. If enough people vote for those things, she will do them. It wasn’t clear to me how she intended to get any of these things done. The only things I remember are that drug legalization, prostitution legalization, and a reduction in regulation were among the list. I don’t remember which list those were on.

FreedomFest took place before the Guatemalan presidential election. Gloria Álvarez did not win.

Vivek Ramaswamy

Vivek Ramaswamy gave two talks. I only attended one. Part of the talk I attended centered on how America is not systemically racist. He used his parents who came to America and built themselves up from nothing as an example that America is not systemically racist.

One thing I noticed about his talk is that some of his mannerisms and way of speaking sounded much like Barack Obama to me.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

I skipped Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s talk. The security lines were too long.

I met a woman at the final banquet who knows Kennedy. This woman used to work for Kennedy at Children’s Health Defense. The woman claims libertarians don’t have to worry about Kennedy on guns, but we need to worry about other things with him. I assumed she meant we need to worry about Kennedy on environmental issues and affirmative action.

Larry Elder

A key point of Larry Elder’s talk was his use of his father as an example of how America is not systemically racist. His father worked his way up from nothing into the middle class.

Talks

Zhittya

Zhittya gave two talks this year. Last year they only gave one talk. Their first talk was a longer presentation in a breakout session. Their second talk was on the main stage and cut short because the head of Judicial Watch significantly went over time.

First Talk

The first talk from Zhittya was an update on their Parkinson’s treatment. Jack Jacobs, Zhittya’s President and Chief Science Officer, described the progress the company has made over the last year in testing its Parkinson’s treatment. Dan Montano, Zhittya’s CEO, finished with a description of their plan to fight the FDA.  They are also investigating if FGF-1, the drug they test on Parkinson’s patients, also works on diabetics.  They think there is a cardiovascular component to diabetes. 

There was a guy in the audience constantly interrupting Jacobs and Montano with questions.  I couldn’t figure out this guy’s purpose.  Skeptical and trying to find out more? Antagonistic?  I don’t know.  He told Montano “You don’t believe in science” when Montano said he was uninterested in peer review. 

Second Talk

Doctor Jacobs gave a summary of what Zhittya is doing, which was a summary of what I head in their first talk. Two of their patients talked about how Zhittya’s treatment helped them. The Zhittya CEO wanted to talk about the FDA. The previous speaker, the head of Judicial Watch Tom Fitton, had gone so far over his allotted time that Zhittya had only a fraction of their time. So instead, the CEO Dan Montano told the crowd that the Zhittya folks would be in the exhibit hall if anyone wanted to talk with them about their treatment, their work, or dealing with the FDA.

Latin America Panel

I only remember three of the names of this year’s Latin America panel: Jeffrey Baldwin, Izabela Patriota, and Gloria Álvarez. I cannot remember the name of the moderator or the other person on the panel. The panel make-up was a bit different than what was described in the program.

The moderator opened the panel with a monologue about Chinese Communist influence throughout Latin America. This monologue went on for a long time. I stopped paying attention at some point.

Here’s a summary of what I remember of the actual panel discussions:

  • Izabela Patriota talked about how the Brazilian Supreme Court is overstepping its bounds with respect to Brazil’s recent election
  • Gloria Álvarez talked about the many variations on Socialism in Latin America. In her opinion, even right wing folks are Socialists. They are Mercantilists, which she sees as a variation on Socialism. She thinks more libertarianism will help Latin America’s problems. She is pessimistic about Latin America’s future because she thinks many Latin Americans like being miserable.
  • Jeffrey Baldwin described how, after he migrated to North Carolina from Guatemala, he motivated the Hispanic community to support education freedom legislation in North Carolina. It was a long effort, but paid off. He thinks the Hispanic community in America is ripe for libertarian outreach, especially in areas like education freedom.

The panel discussion ended with a Q&A session between members of the audience and the panel. Here is what I remember.

  • The first question was about whether or not Objectivism can be a force in the region. Gloria Álvarez answered by saying Objectivism is a hard sell in the region because of how religious Latin America is.
  • There was a question about Nayib Bukele in El Salvador. The panel member whose name I can’t remember answered this question. This panel member knows Bukele personally. He thinks Bukele is not as bad as portrayed.
  • An audience member asked the panel what area in Latin America is the best hope for freedom. One of the panelists, I don’t remember which one, immediately responded with “Miami”. After some discussion, the panel agreed that Uruguay has potential. The government is right leaning with few Socialists. The Uruguayan president has been openly critical of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil.
  • There was a question about prospects for Ecuador. The panel says that they expect Ecuador will make a leftward shift as Marxists are very well poised to take over.

Hong Kong Panel

Li Schoolland, Frances Hui, Simon Lee, Yang Jianli, and Zhou Fengsuo discussed Hong Kong and Communist China.

One of the panelists said that powers running mainland China see the rest of the world and many internal things as threats. This colors how they react to events.

Another of the panelists pointed out that comparisons of Singapore and Hong Kong aren’t appropriate despite both being former British Colonies that superficially appear to have much in common. Singapore is a top-down society. Hong Kong is bottom up. When Deng Xiaoping looked for ideas for opening up mainland China, he looked to Singapore.

The panel discussed Hong Kong’s civil society. Hong Kong has a strong civil society because the British never had total control. The British needed local help to run the colony. This meant that many Hongkongers were trained in a similar fashion to British civil servants. One of the panelists pointed out that China has not been able to completely destroy this society. As an example, the panelists pointed out that in Hong Kong courts contracts still matter.

Steve Forbes Luncheon

Izzit.org is Steve Forbes’ new education initiative.  The idea is that it is not enough to say markets are good. You must show markets are good.  The initiative includes a series of videos on what entrepreneurs do and how they improve people’s lives.  Forbes spent most of his time talking about examples such as Fred Harvey, Frank Woolworth, and Henry Kaiser. There is much more on the website than videos about past entrepreneurs. Topics include business, economics, civics, and history.

Secession Panel

Near the end of the conference was a panel on secession. The panel make-up was different from what was in the program. The actual panel was made up of folks from New Hampshire and Texas. Stephen Villee, who wrote the Club 75 Alliance manifesto, and Carla Gericke were two of the three people from New Hampshire. I cannot remember the name of the third. The two people from Texas were involved in the Texit movement. I cannot remember their names.

The panel talked about the popularity of secession. Texit polled well in Texas in 2022, but according to the Texit folks, many Texans don’t realize this.  The Texit folks say that when they travel the state talking to Texans, many people think they are the only ones in the state that support secession.  According to the folks from NH, secession polls at about 20% approval. The NH secession attempt was a failure, but resulted in lots of media coverage throughout New England such as a series on the Free State Project produced by NBC Boston.

There was talk of Texas v White.  Club 75 Alliance is pushing for an amendment to allow secession to basically kill Texas v. White.

Wrap Up

I attended more sessions than I covered here. I either don’t have notes on those sessions, don’t remember them, or thought they weren’t interesting or important enough to cover here. FreedomFest 2023 was not the best of the three FreedomFests I’ve attended, but it was good. I’m signed up for FreedomFest 2024 which will be held in Las Vegas, NV on July 10th through 13th, 2024.