We've updated the location for this event to accommodate more guests. We'll be meeting upstairs from the Blue Moon Coffee Shop on East Lake Street (for those of you used to going to Merlin's Rest, it is 3 blocks east from Merlin's). Above Papa John Kolstad's business (Mill City Music) in the same building is a spacious loft on the second floor that can accommodate a big crowd. We'll have refreshments and comfortable seating, AND, of course a great group of speakers and topics! Here are the topics:

Many of you know Butler Shaffer who is also a frequent writer on LewRockwell.com. Butler comes to town somewhat regularly and we've convinced him this time to come to our meetup and speak.  His topic is:

Corporatism is not Capitalism

"I will make a clear distinction between the “free market,” and the “business system.”  To most people, these appear to be one and the same.  This is a topic that might be of particular interest to those on the “Left” who, like most libertarians, have figured out that “big business” – when a part of the corporate-state – is as much the problem (perhaps even more so) than federal power.  My approach to this issue focuses on the importance of the inviolability of property interests, something that the late Marxist/Trotskyite Max Eastman came to appreciate late in life."

Bill Butler is one of our local Austrians who has been published on LewRockwell.com, has been a talk radio host, and might consider running for elective office someday. He will be joining the party as well and his topic is:

Gang of Thieves Writ Large: The Reality of the Police State in Minnesota

How can left and right unite to meaningfully challenge unconstitutional forfeiture laws, rogue gang strike forces, probable cause warrants and totalitarian arrest and detention orders?

And as if that isn't enough, LewRockwell.com columnist Karen De Coster is visiting the same weekend and will join with Butler Shaffer, Bill Butler and our own Nik Ludwig for a panel discussion of the presentations.  The panel will also take on a variety of local, state and national issues with the goal of identifying areas where we may find agreement between the various insurgent groups here in Minneapolis and in Minnesota.  If politics is the art of the possible, then it is these areas of agreement that those of us interested in making changes to the entrenched power structure here in Minnesota - from the Park Board on up to the US Congress and Governor -  will find success.