webodec3ARCHIVEPreview
Open in TheBrain

Students for Liberty

---

see libertycon

ASHLEY ST CLAIR?

==

koch funded:

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/global-warming-and-energy/polluterwatch/koch-industries/

 crypto use of weed legalization?

Koch Industries Climate Denial Front Group
Students for Liberty

On this page

$48,500 received from Koch foundations 2009-2011 [Total Koch foundation grants 1997-2011: $48,500]

Students for Liberty (SFL) is an arm of Charles Koch's numerous recruiting, training and networking operations to develop professionals who operate under his "culture" of Market Based Management and ideology unrestrained corporate power. SFL chapters are established on campuses across the United States or partner with existing campus groups with similar ideological goals.

SFL groups have screened Not Evil, Just Wrong, a movie attacking Al Gore and consensus climate science and have repeatedly hosted career climate denier Patrick Michaels at their conferences and campus events.

Students for Liberty campus groups gain access to employees and resources from the Koch-founded and heavily funded Institute for Humane Studies, the Charles Koch Institute and numerous think tanks funded or governed by the Koch Brothers (including the Reason Foundation, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Cato Institute). The 2012 International Students for Liberty Conference received a $10,000 sponsorship from the Cato Institute, $5,000 each from the Atlas Network and the Institute for Humane Studies, and $2,500 each from the Charles Koch Institute and the Foundation for Economic Education (more Koch-funded sponsors helped foot the bill as well).

SFL is part of the State Policy Network.

---

Students For Liberty has partnered with the Advocates for Self Government to equip students with free Operation Politically Homeless kits. Operation Politically Homeless empowers libertarian activists with everything they need to easily set up eye-catching outreach booths that entice passers-by to take the World’s Smallest Political Quiz and encounter libertarian ideas. The quiz is designed to help students without a political affiliation find out where they fall on the ideological spectrum. Surprisingly high numbers turn out to be more libertarian than they originally thought.

Drug Policy Resource Kits

Following the huge success of our first two themed resource kits, SFL is very proud to announce that applications for our Drug Policy Resource Kits are now open to pro-liberty student leaders.

ORDER YOUR KIT HERE!

Kits will include:

---

==

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/01/google-facebook-and-microsoft-sponsored-a-conference-that-promoted-climate-change-denial/

Google, Facebook, and Microsoft have publicly acknowledged the dangers of global warming, but last week they all sponsored a conference that promoted climate change denial to young libertarians.

All three tech companies were sponsors of LibertyCon, the annual convention of the libertarian group Students for Liberty, which took place in Washington, DC. Google was a platinum sponsor, ponying up $25,000, and Facebook and Microsoft each contributed $10,000 as gold sponsors. The donations put the tech companies in the top tier of the event’s backers. But the donations also put the firms in company with some of the event’s other sponsors, which included three groups known for their work attacking climate change science and trying to undermine efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

Among the most notable was the CO2 Coalition, a group founded in 2015 to spread the “good news” about a greenhouse gas whose increase in the atmosphere is linked to potentially catastrophic climate change. The coalition is funded by conservative foundations that have backed other climate change denial efforts. These include the Mercer Family Foundation, which in recent years has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to right-wing think tanks engaged in climate change denialism, and the Charles Koch Institute, the charitable arm of one of the brothers behind Koch Industries, the oil and gas behemoth.

In the LibertyCon exhibit hall, the CO2 Coalition handed out brochures that said its goal is to “explain how our lives and our planet Earth will be improved by additional atmospheric carbon dioxide.” One brochure claimed that “more carbon dioxide will help everyone, including future generations of our families” and that the “recent increase in CO2 levels has had a measurable, positive effect on plant life,” apparently because the greenhouse gas will make plants grow faster.

In a Saturday presentation, Caleb Rossiter, a retired statistics professor and a member of the coalition, gave a presentation titled “Let’s Talk About Not Talking: Should There Be ‘No Debate’ that Industrial Carbon Dioxide is Causing Climate Catastrophe?” In his presentation, Rossiter told the assembled students that the impact of climate change on weather patterns has been vastly exaggerated. “There has been no increase in storms, in intensity or frequency,” he said. “The data don’t show a worrisome trend.”

He insisted that when he hears the news that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are rising, “I’m cheering!” That’s because, he said, carbon dioxide “is a fertilizer” that has made Africa greener and increased food production there, reducing human misery.

[google was a platinum sponsor, ponying up $25,000, and Facebook and Microsoft each contributed $10,000 as gold sponsors.

Rossiter also claimed that carbon dioxide emissions correlate with wealth and that the greenhouse gas “improves life expectancy” because poor countries that start burning fossil fuels have a more consistent power supply and can then clean up their water. “I’m happy when carbon dioxide is up, because it means poverty is down,” he declared.]

I come not to bury your carbon but to praise it,” he concluded.

Rossiter’s presentation puts him on the far fringes of the climate denial world. Not even Exxon is trying to make such arguments anymore. And it’s a long way from what Google, Facebook, and Microsoft have said about the dangers of carbon dioxide; all three companies have committed to reducing their own carbon footprints. Microsoft has pledged to cut carbon emissions by 75 percent by 2030. Google claims to be committed to a “zero carbon” future and is aggressively pursuing renewable energy sources for its operations to reduce its carbon footprint and help combat climate change. And Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg criticized President Donald Trump after he announced that the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate accord, writing, “Stopping climate change is something we can only do as a global community, and we have to act together before it’s too late.”

The presence of the tech sponsors at a libertarian conference is not itself unusual, as governments around the globe move to try to regulate social media and online privacy. Tech companies see libertarians as natural allies in the fight against regulation. Indeed, Google sponsored two different sessions at the conference, one on why “permissionless innovation” needs to be defended and another on whether the government will “continue to let the Internet be awesome.” But the companies’ underwriting of a conference with a climate denier on the schedule shows the hazards of trying to advance a policy agenda through interest groups without also supporting their fringe elements.

The CO2 Coalition wasn’t the only group sponsoring LibertyCon that is known for its work undermining efforts to combat climate change. Along with Facebook and Microsoft, the Heartland Institute was also a gold sponsor of the event. Heartland is a longtime player in industry-funded efforts to undermine climate science and fend off efforts to reduce carbon emissions. The conservative Heritage Foundation, which pushed the Trump administration to withdraw from the Paris climate accords and has long featured experts who argue that global warming is a myth, was also a sponsor.

A Facebook spokesman responded to questions about its sponsorship of LibertyCon by sending a link to its political engagement page, which says, “Sometimes we support events that highlight Internet and social media issues” and features a long list of third-party groups it has worked with in the past. He noted that LibertyCon met its criteria for support and cited the number of sessions unrelated to climate change.

A spokesperson from Google defended the company’s LibertyCon sponsorship, saying, “Every year, we sponsor organizations from across the political spectrum to promote strong technology laws. As we make clear in our public policy transparency report, Google’s sponsorship or collaboration with a third party organization doesn’t mean that we endorse the organization’s entire agenda or agree with other speakers or sponsors.”

On Wednesday, Microsoft said in a statement, “Our commitment to sustainability is not altered or affected by our membership or sponsorship of an organization. We work with many groups on technology policy issues and do not expect or anticipate that any organization’s agenda will align to ours in all policy area...

==

ref

https://www.wired.com/story/google-and-facebook-backed-an-event-denying-climate-change/

google, Facebook, and Microsoft have publicly acknowledged the dangers of global warming, but last week they all sponsored a conference that promoted climate change denial to young libertarians.

All three tech companies were sponsors of LibertyCon, the annual convention of the libertarian group Students for Liberty, which took place in Washington, DC. Google was a platinum sponsor, ponying up $25,000, and Facebook and Microsoft each contributed $10,000 as gold sponsors. The donations put the tech companies in the top tier of the event’s backers. But the donations also put the firms in company with some of the event’s other sponsors, which included three groups known for their work attacking climate change science and trying to undermine efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

The WIRED Guide to Climate Change

Among the most notable was the CO2 Coalition,a group founded in 2015 to spread the “good news” about a greenhouse gas whose increase in the atmosphere is linked to potentially catastrophic climate change. The coalition is funded by conservative foundations that have backed other climate change denial efforts. These include the Mercer Family Foundation, which in recent years has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to right-wing think tanks engaged in climate change denialism, and the Charles Koch Institute, the charitable arm of one of the brothers behind Koch Industries, the oil and gas behemoth.

In the LibertyCon exhibit hall, the CO2 Coalition handed out brochures that said its goal is to “explain how our lives and our planet Earth will be improved by additional atmospheric carbon dioxide.” One brochure claimed that “more carbon dioxide will help everyone, including future generations of our families” and that the “recent increase in CO2 levels has had a measurable, positive effect on plant life,” apparently because the greenhouse gas will make plants grow faster.

In a Saturday presentation, Caleb Rossiter, a retired statistics professor and a member of the coalition, gave a presentation titled “Let’s Talk About Not Talking: Should There Be ‘No Debate’ that Industrial Carbon Dioxide is Causing Climate Catastrophe?” In his presentation, Rossiter told the assembled students that the impact of climate change on weather patterns has been vastly exaggerated. “There has been no increase in storms, in intensity or frequency,” he said. “The data don’t show a worrisome trend.”

He insisted that when he hears the news that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are rising, “I’m cheering!” That’s because, he said, carbon dioxide “is a fertilizer” that has made Africa greener and increased food production there, reducing human misery.

Rossiter also claimed that carbon dioxide emissions correlate with wealth and that the greenhouse gas “improves life expectancy” because poor countries that start burning fossil fuels have a more consistent power supply and can then clean up their water. “I’m happy when carbon dioxide is up, because it means poverty is down,” he declared.

“I come not to bury your carbon but to praise it,” he concluded.

Rossiter’s presentation puts him on the far fringes of the climate denial world. Not even Exxon is trying to make such arguments anymore. And it’s a long way from what Google, Facebook, and Microsoft have said about the dangers of carbon dioxide; all three companies have committed to reducing their own carbon footprints. Microsoft has pledged to cut carbon emissions by 75 percent by 2030. Google claims to be committed to a “zero carbon” future and is aggressively pursuing renewable energy sources for its operations to reduce its carbon footprint and help combat climate change. And Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg criticized President Donald Trump after he announced that the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate accord, writing, “Stopping climate change is something we can only do as a global community, and we have to act together before it’s too late.”

The presence of the tech sponsors at a libertarian conference is not itself unusual, as governments around the globe move to try to regulate social media and online privacy. Tech companies see libertarians as natural allies in the fight against regulation. Indeed, Google sponsored two different sessions at the conference, one on why “permissionless innovation” needs to be defended and another on whether the government will “continue to let the Internet be awesome.” But the companies’ underwriting of a conference with a climate denier on the schedule shows the hazards of trying to advance a policy agenda through interest groups without also supporting their fringe elements.

The CO2 Coalition wasn’t the only group sponsoring LibertyCon that is known for its work undermining efforts to combat climate change. Along with Facebook and Microsoft, the Heartland Institute was also a gold sponsor of the event. Heartland is a longtime player in industry-funded efforts to undermine climate science and fend off efforts to reduce carbon emissions. The conservative Heritage Foundation, which pushed the Trump administration to withdraw from the Paris climate accords and has long featured experts who argue that global warming is a myth, was also a sponsor.

Microsoft did not respond to requests for comment. A Facebook spokesman responded to questions about its sponsorship of LibertyCon by sending a link to its political engagement page, which says, “Sometimes we support events that highlight Internet and social media issues” and features a long list of third-party groups it has worked with in the past. He noted that LibertyCon met its criteria for support and cited the number of sessions unrelated to climate change.

A spokesperson from Google defended the company’s LibertyCon sponsorship, saying, “Every year, we sponsor organizations from across the political spectrum to promote strong technology laws.As we make clear in our public policy transparency report, Google’s sponsorship or collaboration with a third party organization doesn’t mean that we endorse the organization’s entire agenda or agree with other speakers or sponsors."

==

==

Movie screenings are a cost-effective way to educate your campus community about various pro-liberty issues in a relaxed and fun way. Check out some of the opportunities below as possibilities for your next.

Free or EqualFree or Equal is a documentary hosted by Johan Norberg and created by the Free to Choose Network. Travel with Norberg around the globe on an intellectual journey — one taken by Milton Friedman thirty years ago. How much has changed? Are we better off? Are Friedman’s insights alive and well?

Like Friedman, Norberg asks us to consider perennial questions about free markets, prosperity and the trade-offs between individual liberty and income equality.This is a great film to show at one of your campus meetings to get some good discussion going about Milton Friedman and his economic philosophy. A preview of the film can be seenhere. Get a free copy of the film to show to your campus by signing up here and listing Students For Liberty and your student group name in the “Organization” field.

Flex Your Rights:Flex Your Rights offers two films that raise awareness on your rights in a police encounter. They can be purchased for $15 or viewed on YouTube at the links provided below. Flex Your Rights also offers a great page with tips for hosting your screening.

_

_

In an entertaining and revealing manner, BUSTED illustrates the right and wrong ways to handle common police encounters and pays special attention to demonstrating how you, the viewer, can confidently protect your rights and yourself. You can watch the film on YouTubehere.

Indoctrinate UIndoctrinate U is a compelling and relatable film about the rampant bias, politically correct language, and speech codes enforced on college campuses today. The Moving Picture Institute sponsors free screenings of this film on college campuses so if you’re interested email Stacie Fulcher at stacie@thempi.org.

The Moving Picture Institute features many other fantastic movies that focus on liberty specific issues. Some of their bigger name films require fees to screen so if you have any questions about a particular film contact Stacie Fulcher, email above. In addition, MPI has an internship program for those interested in learning even more about movies that promote liberty. Direct questions on the internship program to Stacie Fulcher as well.

==

wiki

Students For Liberty (SFL) is an American libertarian non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to provide a unified, student-driven forum of support for students and student organizations dedicated to liberty."[6] Formed after a meeting where students exchanged ideas from their own experiences with liberty advocating student groups, SFL quickly expanded with new programs and a growing network of affiliated student groups.[3][7][8][9] Gene Healy with the Cato Institute includes the organization in the limited-government movement.[10]

The organization hosts an annual international conference as well as various regional conferences.[7][8] The organization has experienced growth since its inception in 2008.[8][9] The 2012 network includes 699 student organizations around the world.[8][11] SFL's expansion is encouraged and supported by current students involved in the Campus Coordinators program.[12]

:{SFL seeks to raise awareness of the benefits of liberty and civil society with programs that focus on student rights events, lectures, literature, an academic journal for student work, and an alumni network.^

[9][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][1][25][26][27]}:

Contents

History

Origin

Students participating in an Institute for Humane Studies Koch Summer Fellowship got together on July 24, 2007 to discuss successes and challenges faced by libertarian student organizations. In 2008, Alexander McCobin and Sloane Frost decided to organize a conference for 40 students who were involved in libertarian student organizations.[7] As more students contacted the planners to participate, more students joined the planning. The first Students for Liberty conference was held at Columbia University from February 22 to 24, 2008, with 100 students participants. The perceived success of the conference encouraged the planners to form Students For Liberty to provide continuing support to student groups.[7][28][29]

In the news

SFL co-founder and executive director Alexander McCobin opened his remarks on the February 19, 2010 panel “2 Minute Activist: Saving Freedom Across America” at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) by thanking the American Conservative Union for welcoming GOProud as a co-sponsor of the event. Ryan Sorba, California Young Americans for Freedom's chairman and author of The "Born Gay" Hoax,[30] followed with harsh words for McCobin, SFL, Young Americans for Liberty’s Jeff Frazee, and the American Conservative Union.[10][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]

In 2010, Mark Ames and Yasha Levine wrote an article accusing Koch funded charities, including SFL, of inventing the public outcry over security theater. The article addresses the Transportation Security Administration's purchase and deployment of scanners that cost far more than metal detectors. Ames and Levine argue that patriotism is more important than leaked revealing images and concerns of doctors over possible increased risk of cancer. Critics argue that enhanced pat down searches are used to forcefully encourage travelers to submit to the scanners to justify the purchase when security experts consider them ineffective.[38][39][40]

Programs

Conferences

SFL hosts an annual international conference. The inaugural international conference brought 100 students from 42 schools in three countries to New York City. The second annual international conference brought 153 students from 13 countries to George Washington University.[41] The third annual international conference took place February 13 and 14 at American University in Washington, DC and had more than 300 students in attendance. The fourth annual international conference, covered by ReasonTV, returned to George Washington University on Friday, February 18 and continued until Sunday, February 20, 2011, this time with 500 students participating.[42][43][44] This international conference included a taping of Stossel, which aired March 31, in which John Stossel and Cato Institute Vice President David Boaz spoke to students about the ideas of liberty.[45]

During the fall semester, SFL hosts regional conferences on campuses across the country. In 2008, SFL ran three regional conferences at the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, and the University of Michigan. In 2009, SFL held seven regional conferences. They were hosted by libertarian student groups at Drexel University, Harvard University, Arizona State University, University of Texas at Austin, Wake Forest University, University of Chicago, and Columbia University.[2] In 2010, SFL held nine regional conferences at the same schools (except Wake Forest) as the 2009 conferences (listed above), while adding three new schools: Pepperdine University, Kennesaw State University and University of California at Berkeley.[3][8] On November 18 to 20, 2011, SFL hosted the first European conference at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Leuven, Belgium with over 200 students from 25 different countries attending.[2][11]

Free Books Project

SFL, in association with the Foundation for Economic Education, provides libertarian student groups with select free books. Books available have included works by Frederic Bastiat, Henry Hazlitt, and Ludwig von Mises.[1]

Journal of Liberty and Society

SFL publishes an annual academic peer-reviewed journal.[25][26] The Prometheus Institute sponsors awards for the top paper and two honorable mentions based on clarity of thought, originality, intellectual skill, and connection of liberty to important social or theoretical issues as well as offers to all award recipients to join the Prometheus Institute staff for a semester.[25][26]

Student Rights Week

To assist student groups in advocating for civil liberties, SFL distributes pocket Constitutions from Cato, copies of the Guide to Free Speech on Campus from the FIRE, and the movies 10 Rules for Dealing with Police, Busted: The Citizen's Guide to Surviving Police Encounters, and Indoctrinate U.[13][14] One Students Right Week project is the establishment of temporary “free speech walls” where community members are encouraged to express their opinions by writing comments that will be left in public for several days.[46][47][48][49][50][51][52]

E-Leadership Series

Since 2009, SFL hosted an E-Leadership Series of seminars that utilizes web conferencing.[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] Held weekly during the academic year, the webinars tend to focus on career advice, economics, history, law, leadership, philosophy, public policy, public speaking, and statistics. Past guest speakers include Jeffrey Miron of Harvard University, Bob Ewing of the Institute for Justice, John Hasnas of Georgetown University, Larry Reed of the Foundation for Economic Education, Jim Lark of the University of Virginia, Radley Balko of The Huffington Post, David Friedman of Santa Clara University, LGBTQ activist Zach Wahls, and Tyler Cowen, Bryan Kaplan, and Peter Boettke, and Chris Coyne of George Mason University.[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]

Campus Coordinator Program

Campus Coordinators work with campus group leaders within a designated regional area to form and support student groups and to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of programs.[12] The 2010–2011 school year saw the inaugural year of the program.[12] Training is provided by the full time staff as well as executive board members. The 2011–2012 class of coordinators included 60 students from the United States, Canada and Venezuela.[12]

Alumni For Liberty

Alumni For Liberty is a network of working professionals interested in supporting students and student organizations dedicated to libertarianism.[8][53] The program is open to all adults interested in supporting the student movement, whether or not they were a member of a liberty oriented student group.[8][27] The project provides ways to remain involved in supporting the student movement for liberty with monthly updates describing opportunities such as networking events, job openings, training sessions, leadership dinners, options for financial support of alma mater student groups, speaking to student groups, and mentoring of students interested in related careers.[53]

Organizational structure

SFL is a 501(c)(3) organization that supports student groups advocating libertarianism. SFL is run by five full time professionals at its headquarters in Washington, DC.[1] Direction of the organization comes from the executive director, the board of directors, and the executive board (entirely composed of current students). Alexander McCobin serves as executive director. McCobin, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, is currently a graduate student in Georgetown University's Department of Philosophy.[54] In 2009, McCobin was sued by Perspectives Debate Inc., a nonprofit organization he had founded while a student at the University of Pennsylvania, for allegedly breaching his fiduciary duty by misappropriating funds and allegedly withdrawing more than $37,000 from the organization's bank account.[55][56]

Europe

In 2011, SFL established a board to expand their programs into Europe.[57] On November 18–20, 2011 SFL hosted the first European conference at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Leuven, Belgium.[2]

Finance

Incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization completely funded from private donations from individuals, foundations, and participation fees, SFL does not solicit or accept any government contributions.[58][59]

===}:

2011-2012 Alumni For Liberty Board