Here collected together are the famous 4 campaign videos from my run with John McAfee for the 2016 Libertarian Party Presidential Nomination. We didn’t win, but these videos will live forever, and I’m so proud of them. I’ll also say a few words about the story behind each one.
 

I was stoned one night when I came up with the idea for this 1st video. So excited, I wrote it down immediately. The resulting video is nearly identical to those notes. I was super excited in general, suddenly I’m running with John McAfee as his Vice Presidential choice for the Libertarian Party nomination. John Fucking McAfee. I’ve been a fan of that maniac for a while. A brilliant and bold badass I’ve looked up to for inspiration, and amusement. I needed to quickly show what I’m bringing to the table. And that was this video.

I’m well known in the liberty scene for my photography of the movement. I’m trying to make these nerds look cool. And I’ve gotten pretty good, so I constantly receive offers to fly me around the country and around the world to shoot liberty related events. There are over 25,000 Facebook profile photos out there that are mine. I’ve blanketed the liberty scene with my photography. I’m not a professional photographer, and I don’t have a photography site, I’m an enthusiast, and I just post my photos to Facebook, with some highlights from my archive to Instagram.

This video was transitional. It highlighted the sensibilities I brought to the table with my photography, and allowed me to take them in a different direction with a campaign video. These are my photos, and nearly all of them are from liberty related events. I didn’t want the video to be a slide show, I wanted the photos to fly by aggressively, but the vibe had to be beautiful, and fun. NOT GOOFBALL. Whenever libertarians aren’t in a serious mood, they’re usually goofball. It’s weak, annoying, and it shows no taste, repelling too many who might be interested in getting involved. There’s an abundance of nerd goofball aesthetic that dominates libertarian communication, I’m not going to contribute to it.

I got some criticism for this video from people asking where are the policy positions. I specifically didn’t put up an engineering spec sheet that only political advocates could understand. I was communicating with people who are not us. And I wanted this to feel unlike any political ad anyone has ever seen. This was meant as an extremely introductory video. Can you be into this? Is this Libertarian thing something worth looking into? I wanted to show people enjoying their life. But I did hammer home one policy position, at the end, with 3 words, our slogan: Let Life Live.

I used the song Teen Angst by M83, I knew it was the perfect song for this before I played it to confirm. Just selecting the photos from my archive for the 1st video took me about 2 weeks. My talented friend Janek Ambrose (from Assembly Line Entertainment) edited the structure together, and then I went into Adobe Premiere and slotted in my photos to his edit. It was the first time I ever interacted with a video editing app. As I started to kinda figure out the basic moves around the app, the door was opened for me to create my first campaign video on my own: Vote Different

When I came up with the idea for our 2nd campaign video, Vote Different, I was so in love with the idea, that I was telling people on the campaign team that this will be the greatest campaign video any human has ever seen in history. But I didn’t know how to use the video editing software. I just learned that you press “C” for Cut Tool and press “V” for Select Tool. That was ALL I KNEW. Until after I finished the video, I didn’t know that the left and right keyboard arrow keys moved down the timeline, I was clicking with my mouse those damn left and right buttons on the screen repeatedly. If only I knew that, it would have saved sooooooo much time.

I love Apple’s Think Different campaign, and the words to Here’s To The Crazy Ones were like gospel to me. The world would be a better place if more people lived by these words. Our Vote Different campaign video was like my cover version tribute to Steve Jobs. I felt like having John McAfee read those words was powerful in 3 ways. It’s a homage from one famous Tech CEO to another, re-establishing McAfee in that realm. These words are a perfect sales pitch for John McAfee as a presidential candidate. And John McAfee reading these words is a powerful sales pitch for the liberty movement.

Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world,
are the ones who do.

I wanted our 2nd video to bring a lot more attention to John McAfee, but without directly making an ad about him. This was an ad glorifying going against the grain. Which is what we’re asking voters to do. Instead of the ones who go against the grain being seen as powerless runts to be disregarded, I wanted to represent them as the leaders who inspire powerful change. Be a hero. Change the world. Vote Different.

This ad took off and went viral. The enthusiasm was extreme. The video was featured in a Forbes article, and number of Apple fan sites.
I got some heat from libertarians for the space shuttle footage at the end, which I explained in a Facebook post here.

I wanted the video to be gorgeous and inspiring. The song I chose is the opening track from Bvdub’s album Tanto (Bvdub is my new favorite artist.)

My heart was into the Vote Different video, but I decided to completely change it up again for our 3rd video: War Is Hell

Our third video War Is Hell was a collaboration with Janek Ambrose from Assembly Line Entertainment. I wanted this video to hit a lot harder. The last video was glorious and beautiful, I wanted this one to be brutal and intense. It needed to be WAY OUTSIDE the bounds of acceptable political messaging.

I picked a heavy industrial track, Salvia by Health, and I created a template with the scrolling text and title cards at the end, Janek filled in the rest with footage. He had done some impressive war documentaries (which is why Janek caught my attention in the first place), so war footage is his specialty. We used a lot of footage from Janek’s Unwarranted Influence documentary, mixed with some modern war footage. Before he got started I asked him if I can use the parachutes in reverse for the ending. Otherwise I told him to go to town with the footage, don’t hold back, except it can’t be grotesque and disturbing; people need to be able to share the video. It’s easy to get people excited with war footage, so we decided to make sure it was disorienting, and not a place you want to be. War Is Hell.

I knew this is a very controversial topic, I tried to be pretty fair. Regardless of whether national defense is a legitimate purpose of government, it’s still a government program, riddled with waste, abuse, and corruption, like any government agency. Except there are lives and limbs at stake. Can we look into what’s going on here? Must we treat the Defense Department as sacred? In the business world I encounter conflicts all the time. The best approach to dealing with them is to not focus on who’s right or who’s wrong (it’s never that black and white), instead focus on our respective contributions to the problem. Are we contributing to the hostility we’re receiving abroad? And then I asked the main question of the video: How much should we spend on killing to make us feel safe? Because I think that’s an incredibly important question to ask. No matter what nation you live in. I wasn’t expecting that question to get screenshot and become a Facebook cover photo for a bunch of people in the anti-war scene.

I felt like we broke new ground in presidential political messaging with this video. McAfee is a badass, and an ad like this suits him. But I felt like it was possible to stretch the boundaries even further. How far can I go? I explored that with our 4th and final campaign video: Exit Politics

My heart was really into Vote Different while I was making my first video ever, I was operating at the edge of my abilities. It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever created. Now I wanted to push my limits even further with Exit Politics. This video was about leaving boundaries. So I broke as many rules as I could, not because I was trying to break rules, but because I didn’t care about them, the message wasn’t going to be restrained. This video is not going to fuck around. The message would be ruined if the video played it safe in any way. I was determined to make something bold, something fresh and unlike anything anyone has ever seen in presidential political messaging. I wanted it to have impact, and if the video didn’t create controversy… I will have failed.

When making Vote Different I told McAfee and the campaign team how awesome the video was going to be; but I was reserved when starting on the Exit Politics video, because I was not so sure. I told my campaign team that this will be the most “Out There”, kind of Avant Garde, but it should be a wild ride. I really had no idea if the response was going to be receptive, I just wanted to make the most balls to the wall video I was capable of. I told McAfee I’m going hard with this one, and he was super supportive. I only assured him that he knows I’m obsessive to the point that I won’t release something unless it’s amazing. He gave me an enthusiastic green light, and wanted to see how far I could go. Seriously, I love him for that. Can anyone imagine me having the flexibility to do something like this with Gary Johnson??

Exit Politics was a partial collaboration with Janek Ambrose from Assembly Line Entertainment. He edited the 2 minute flashing sequence with political figures and chaos. You might notice similarities in the editing style of that sequence and the War Is Hell video. We were trying to show the political world as a poorly constructed facade barely hiding the ugly truth, and how the media and our educational establishment promotes it all. A challenging concept to pull off visually, Janek impressed me here. I love his snarky portrayal of Hillary and Trump; and the way he focused in on Paul Krugman explaining our capacity to “Collect Taxes and Service Debt”. If you ever find yourself struggling with your taxes, then you should get legal help by contacting Brotman Law.

Some people criticized our 1st video for being too long at 90 seconds. I was told it needed to be 30 seconds or 60 seconds max. So I made the 2nd video 3 minutes, and it blew up big. Exit Politics finished at 5 1/2 minutes. I was crafting an experience and it’s going to be as long as it needs to be. The first video also got a lot of smart asses commenting that there needed to be an epilepsy warning, when it really wasn’t an issue for anyone. So this time I might as well achieve what I’m accused of. The flashing red and blue colors were used to create an unsettling intensity, we were creating a sort of dreamy nightmare you’re waking up into.

I chose Pursuit by Gesaffelstein for the song, because it’s badass, and I like how it can both command attention but also stay out of the way, while remain driving. The editing of each video follows the song, and I liked how the last part of this song had a dance vibe after a dark nazi like buildup; that was going to be my contrast moment. It was fun to pay homage to Serenity and Simpsons, and I felt like the clips I edited in were perfect. The text sequence after the Simpsons clip was critical. Libertarians use large blocks of text to communicate, because libertarians are mostly intellectuals, but failing when communicating to the vast non-intellectual masses. People need to be engaged. I wanted to show how to craft an experience with text. That you can get someone’s heart pounding, even create goosebumps, with text.

The final segment of the video was compiled entirely from segments of promotional videos for the Voice & Exit Conference and Festival. The creators of Voice & Exit were a little startled by this video, but I assured them this video is a tribute by a very enthusiastic fan, not connected with Voice & Exit officially. I highly recommend their upcoming Austin event in November. Check out my photos from Voice & Exit last year.
It’s the future oriented Voice & Exit material at the end of the video that allowed me to complete the message, and allow this to actually be a positive video, even though it went to dark places. I wanted the video to go dark, to create a strong contrast with the last segment, to highlight a much better way.

It’s not the political process that moves humanity forward, but technology and our vision for a better life that moves us forward. We’re all bound into a system that’s not working for us. It time to explore other paths.

We got some press with Exit Politics. And some love on Adland. I loved seeing headlines like “John McAfee Releases Bizarre Campaign Ad“, there never would have been a headline “John McAfee Releases Conventional Campaign Ad” (apparently The Hill since changed the headline, but you can still see it in the URL). Exit Politics went the most viral. People flipped out. The comments wherever this was shared are so fun to read. They were so excited about it, so many people were sharing it enthusiastically. It could have totally flopped. I broke all conventional wisdom. No one would have advised me to follow those thematic paths. There has never been a Presidential Political Ad like this.

I had an idea for a 5th video that I loved. It picks up from Exit Politics, but again goes in a totally different direction. I think this would have been the best one, and probably would have gone the most viral. It was more solution oriented, hopeful, with an intense but beautiful and inspiring feel. It would have been perfect to start off the general election with, I’m kinda sad I never made it. I actually had 22 video concepts I jotted down notes for. Most we’re just a broad concept paired with a song, some I fleshed out a little. Maybe someday I’ll develop more videos for the liberty scene, unaffiliated with a specific political campaign.
 

The only way I know how to make the libertarian message exciting is to have the liberty to make something I’m excited about.

The whole point of these videos was to show how to communicate outside the boundaries of generic political messaging. Political messaging has become so stale and stifling, I wanted to craft engaging experiences instead of recite from the liberty engineer manual. And I wanted each video to be a distinctly different experience from each other, dropping new templates because I wanted to show libertarians some different ways to disregard the rules, to communicate with more power. These videos weren’t meant to come from a different place, I wanted them to come from a different galaxy. To totally re-imagine political messaging, and to show different ways to totally rebrand libertarian packaging.

I wasn’t making ads directly about us, our campaign, or even the Libertarian Party. I was making ads for the cause and the liberty movement. I wasn’t interested in talking about how great we are. I was interested in showing how well we can communicate the ideas, to those who are not us. This campaign was about having a platform to show a different way, it wasn’t about whipping up votes. We could have done SO MUCH MORE if we won the nomination, but I never had any delusions of the White House, I have no political ambitions, and I don’t give a shit about my political future. So I can be honest, and focus on moving away from the norm in politics. No focus groups. No concern for conventional wisdom. Either we’re fans of it, or we’re not doing it. The only way I know how to make the libertarian message exciting is to have the liberty to make something I’m excited about.

I plan to write more on the entirety of the campaign at another time. Being a VP candidate with John McAfee was a wild experience, politics is more shocking than I could have imagined, it’s a crazy story that needs to be told.

For Facebook sharing, Facebook links to the 4 videos:

Be A Libertarian

Vote Different

War Is Hell

Exit Politics

The post McAfee/Weiss Libertarian Presidential Campaign Videos first appeared on Hustle Bear - by Judd Weiss.

[Note: Our campaign site is now at BeALibertarian.com]

The rumors are true. A candidate for President, John McAfee, asked me to be his running mate, and I said let’s do it!

When I invited friends to meet John McAfee at a party at my house last Thursday, I promised a surprise announcement that would blow their minds, I think I delivered.

Why would I run for Vice President of the United States? Why the Libertarian Party?
I’m happy to explain.

I’m pretty good with a camera, and over the last few years I’ve been flown out to shoot nearly every major conference and event in the wider liberty scene. I’ve seen pretty much the whole movement, even crossing behind enemy lines of some of the various warring factions, like no one else really has.. The hair removal methods can be permanent or temporary, depending on your preferences. Also, the prices usually range with permanent hair removal methods being expensive as compared to the temporary ones.

And I can say without reservation, the Libertarian Party is by far the biggest sinkhole of time, energy, money, resources, and emotion in the wider liberty scene. Useless would be an improvement for the Libertarian Party. There are inefficiencies in other organizations, but at least they’re working together cooperatively. The Libertarian Party has become the cage match arena to fight bitterly with other libertarians over positions of no power. I say this with a broken heart, as I’ve witnessed too many of my friends get sucked into petty squabbles and distracted from our wider goal. It’s embarrassing and frustrating.

This became clear to me in 2013 when I was elected to the Executive Committee of the California State Libertarian Party; my initial enthusiasm wore off quickly as I realized that this simply meant that my email inbox exploded into a bunch of bickering over bylaws. I couldn’t imagine a worse waste of my life than reading these emails, let alone joining in and contributing to it. And California was one of the more friendly and functional state parties. Too many of the other state parties were experiencing all out hostile internal warfare. Which was still usually not as bad as the National Party. There are so many great people involved in the Libertarian Party, I just hate seeing party politics turn them against each other. The internal politics of any political party is a zero sum game, and I didn’t want to be involved in scheming ways to take down friends and allies; so I resigned my position and involvement with the Libertarian Party, but dramatically increased my involvement in many other areas of the liberty movement.

This movement has only so few resources, we have so many battles we need to take on outside the liberty scene. I dream of using the resources we have for something more meaningful than fighting with our friends and allies. We eat our own. And so among the wider liberty scene (let alone among the rest of the nation) the Libertarian Party is widely regarded as a joke.

That’s the good news.

We have nothing to lose.

This framework isn’t working for us. There are no rules we need to follow. We don’t need to play it safe.

Let’s do something different this time.

Let’s break up these patterns.

————

I’m a Commercial Real Estate Broker and currently VP of Sales at M-Rad Architecture. My background is in entrepreneurship and sales. However, many know me as the guy who single handedly hijacked the image and brand of the liberty scene. I’m an enthusiast photographer. I took a camera and a bunch of nerds and turned that into a massive flood of art pieces. There are now over 25,000 Facebook profile photos out there that are mine. In our era of digital media, tens of thousands of my photos are used to represent libertarians all over LinkedIn, Blogs, Speaker Bios, Web Pages, Wikipedia, Book Jackets, and (what brings me the most pride) Tinder. Girls are swiping right to libertarians now. Imagine that 10 years ago, when most events looked worse than Star Trek conventions. I’m not at all the paparazzi of the movement, I’m more like the nitpicky girlfriend that sees potential, but wants to improve things. And the response has been incredible.

I’ve been involved in the Libertarian Party since 1996 when I was 16. I started paying dues in 2000. We’ve come a long way. There are many incredible organizations that have done wonders at improving the accessibility of the wider liberty scene, but if you gave an organization $1,000,000 I’m not sure you could have had the impact of one crazy obsessive guy with a camera. The entire liberty scene looks a lot more attractive and exciting now. Morale has improved, libertarians are a lot prouder to show off to their friends what they’re doing when it looks a lot more interesting.

Would you rather read a bunch of documents, or watch an unfolding story of legends?

I took a different approach with a camera. Most use a camera to document, I use it to glorify. Why not dramatize those on the ground changing history, building the future of the liberty movement?

Essentially what I do with a camera is go around boosting people’s narcissism. So much of our culture focuses on tearing each other down, keeping each other in check. What if instead we focus on building up the people around us? I want to see my friends be awesome, and unapologetically proud. When I work to improve the status of the people around me, besides all the good will, I have a more impressive boosted network that way.

My life is better when I help the people around me become better.

And that is the message I want us libertarians to communicate.

We’re here to bring people up. We want society to thrive, and that means we want individuals to thrive.

Liberty means: Don’t hurt people. Enjoy your life.
Simple.

Liberty is important because it allows us to be human. Liberty allows us to grow and realize our potential.
I can’t be my best self when I’m restricted. None of us can. In order for our society to flourish well we need to let go of our chains.

Those who do harm should be restricted.
Those who do no harm should live free.

Let Life Live

Philosophy will definitely be at the heart of our campaign, but the focus will be on keeping it super simple, and inspiring.

I refuse to run a negative campaign. I have many differences with many people in the movement, but they are all still overwhelmingly my allies. I want to see them do well, and everyone knows I’ve gone far out of my way to be supportive and helpful.

Gary Johnson is one of our most valuable allies. I love Gary Johnson. I consider him a personal friend. I’ve hosted cocktail parties with him as a speaker at my house a couple times. I wrote an article that went viral in the Washington Times telling Republicans to ditch Mitt Romney for Gary Johnson. Gary Johnson became governor of New Mexico and had the courage to advocate legalizing Marijuana, back when that issue was total political suicide. There are so many heroes that will be remembered for bringing the War On Drugs to an end, and Gary Johnson is one of our biggest heroes. What an incredible honor it is to have Gary Johnson on our team. I’m a strong Gary Johnson admirer, and I will be for many years.

I’m going to ask you to not vote for Gary Johnson as our Libertarian Party presidential nominee.

Gary Johnson was certainly the best option for the Libertarian Party in 2012. I don’t want a repeat of 2012. We know what we’re getting with Gary Johnson, we can see his speeches, his messaging doesn’t really connect with many people. We all see it. He’s not generating enough excitement and attention. And that’s ok, Gary is a truly incredible person, it doesn’t mean he needs to be incredible at everything.

Instead, I ask you to support a maniac.

If I work really hard at it for many years, someday maybe I hope to be half the maniac that is John McAfee. John McAfee is dynamic, he’s exciting, he’s fun, he’s bold as all hell. And people can’t turn their eyes away from him, wondering what this crazy bastard is going to do next.

McAfee is an impressive human, and a badass. He has so many incredible stories and achievements in his life, but he’s still pushing himself into more challenging adventures. I want to see a force of nature like McAfee go up against Trump and Hillary. I want to be excited about following this presidential race.

After watching the recent televised Libertarian debate on Stossel last Friday between Gary Johnson, John McAfee and Austin Peterson, the standout strengths of each of them crystallized for me.
Austin Peterson wins the high fluency factor.
John McAfee wins the cool factor.
Gary Johnson wins the credibility of previously being a governor factor.

Fluency and credibility are great, but we desperately need a cool frontrunner, for once. It’s an essential ingredient we’ve been missing for a long time. I can work with this.
McAfee might not be as advanced level fluent as some of us who’ve gone further down the rabbit hole, but he’s plenty fluent enough, and he’s got me on his team now, and I’m extremely fluent in these ideas. Expect further improvement from him here. And besides, sometimes it’s better not to have a theoretical mathematician teach basic algebra. Our role with this liberty outreach campaign will be to catch attention, turn heads, and introduce people to these ideas; then send people down the factory assembly line to other voices in the liberty movement for deeper digging. This is a good division of labor model for liberty advocacy, and we need someone people want to pay attention to at the front of it.

Another interesting factor where John McAfee wins is his more philosophical approach, yet he keeps the ideas extremely simple. His opening statement on the recent Stossel debate was all him, I had no influence on that, and I’m genuinely impressed. Also, while all 3 top LP presidential candidates are very intelligent, McAfee wins in the sheer IQ intelligence factor. McAfee doesn’t just qualify as genius, he is a high level genius. What a treat it is to have such a brilliant beautiful mind on our team.

I have to admit, Austin Peterson’s championing the long forgotten foreign policy option of Letters of Marque and Reprisal is brilliant, even influencing my thoughts on this. Austin clearly has a dramatically different campaign approach than I prefer, and I didn’t initially consider his run for president worthy of any consideration, but I’ve been legitimately impressed by him lately. His online magazine The Libertarian Republic is a valuable resource for the movement, his work with Andrew Napolitano is notable, and there’s no doubt Austin has brought in eyeballs to what we’re doing.

John McAfee is capable of bringing in significantly more eyeballs. No candidate is able to command the kind of media attention John commands.

John McAfee is clearly an eccentric character, and a bit rough around the edges. Find me any brilliant historical figure who wasn’t eccentric and rough around the edges. John McAfee is the eloquent badass, the sophisticated savage well suited to the new arena Trump has now established. Gary Johnson and Austin Peterson aren’t well suited for that environment. Neither was Rand Paul. Donald Trump smacked Rand Paul around in the debates, because Rand Paul was the patient intellectual in a gladiator arena with an ape. I’d like to see Trump try to intimidate a powerhouse like McAfee. This will make entertaining politics, which Trump has made abundantly clear is the sea we now swim in to catch the attention of the majority of the population that aren’t intellectual and not really interested in politics.

This is a protest campaign. McAfee and I won’t hide from our politically incorrect past, we’re not ashamed. We’re going bold. I’m unconventional, and this will be a thoroughly unconventional campaign. The themes we’ll be hitting are bold, edgy, inspiring, beautiful, and authentic. We’ll be targeting youth, pushing into different aspects of pop culture, and focusing on making the ideas of liberty as attractive, comfortable, and as simple to digest as possible to those who are previously unfamiliar or apathetic. I’m looking long term. I’m not going to promise the presidency, but we can turn a significant number of heads and seriously ramp up this protest, to build upon in the coming years. With McAfee at the forefront and the attention he can generate, with me as his teammate, we have the potential to blow past what any liberty campaign has achieved before, by multitudes. How much of that potential we actualize depends on hustle, and the amount of support we generate.

I’ve had a good impact so far as one human, this opportunity to run with John McAfee allows me to scale things to another level.

We’re going to keep it real. I don’t know how we can fix the problems with our party by ignoring them. Discovering our own faults is a PHENOMENAL thing. Our own faults are easy avenues to improve our situation without having to persuade others to get involved. Whenever you see tough love from me, you can always know it is love. Because I love you guys, and I love this growing movement, and I work so hard at doing my part to have a positive impact.

I do have potential negatives. I’m articulate on the topics, but I’m not polished. I can improve at speaking in more succinct media sound bites, but it’s not something I bring to the table. I have no political experience, and I have no political ambitions. I’ve never been politically correct in any of my writing, and I never plan to. I would quickly be disqualified as political suicide for any presidential candidate other than John McAfee. Here I’m the chaser, he’s the hard alcohol ;) 

There’s also something very serious in my recent past I’ll have to address. A truly horrible injustice of a legal matter that I will explain in more detail. I was falsely accused of a terrible crime. The short story is there was a girl that was infatuated with me for over a year, I made it clear nothing was going to develop with us, and she went to the police and had me arrested for rape. Completely outside my world view that something like that could happen. Especially since we didn’t actually have sex.
I would like to report a crime, not just of a felony perjury lie by an emotionally unstable girl, but of the police and district attorney that knowingly aided and abetted this felony against me after they knew beyond any doubt that she was lying. There is no regard for justice, none; they’re only after convictions, by any means necessary. I will be naming names, and I hope the media makes them all answer for themselves.
The media jumped on the story of an accused Bel Air playboy, and smeared me as a monster on the news, while I had to remain silent as I faced prison, unable to explain that I harmed no one. This was the greatest injustice I’ve ever faced in my life. A sick and shocking story that more people should hear about, people should understand the injustice of our justice system, I just wish it wasn’t part of my story.
This issue is intense for me. I was planning to write a long explicit article accounting the whole ordeal, and when I was about 12 pages in I realize this is getting long, and I hate writing this, when I have so much else I want to do. I never finished that piece, now I will speak about this in detail and explicitly explain the ordeal in an interview.
The charges are dropped, I have a clean record, but the fallout from the charges was so severe, I was hurt very badly for years, and I still don’t understand why I had to go through that hell. Legally this is behind me, I’m finally past the devastating financial fallout, but I’m definitely not over it.

One of the things I love about John McAfee is how supportive he is of me with this issue. He says it’s a positive for the campaign, allowing us to give an authentic inside account of the terrifying injustice of our Justice System, in an area that no one is willing to talk about.
John has faced some extreme injustice at the hands of authorities himself. Most famously, recently after denying a Belize politician’s extortion request for a donation (protection money), John had to escape the country through the jungles of Central America from a manhunt conducted by the Belize military. Because he refused to be extorted by corrupt politicians, John lost millions, leaving behind his home and other possessions during his escape, while Belize officials tried to smear him as a monster; months later they even burned down John’s home he left behind in Belize. A clear harsh message was sent to anyone who doesn’t pay when a politician requests a donation.

Both John and I know the importance of liberty on a very personal level, by experiencing what hell is like when you lose liberty and justice.

Amazingly John is giving me a ton of flexibility here. I’m allowed to be off message. We discussed it, if we’re ever off message, it’s only love, and an opportunity to learn and understand from our differences. I’m so grateful to him for that amount of trust in me. I won’t abuse it, I’m here to help. We’re a team. John and I click with each other surprisingly well, but I have my own voice, and I’m going to be me.

We are all individuals, and very different from each other. I’m not going to pretend that I represent you. I don’t represent anyone. I’m pushing hard to give you the power to represent yourself.

We do have some resources in this movement, let’s use them effectively. Say what you will about the Libertarian Party, but many people have worked hard for years to make it the only third party that managed to get on the ballot in all 50 states. Let’s put that blood sweat and tears to good use. We should get involved in the Libertarian Party for this election. Let’s try to remember that we’re all on the same team. There is intense division among Democrats, and the Republican party is imploding; this is our chance to have a massive impact while people are exploring other options. It’s time we cross the chasm.

We’re a strong combo. McAfee and I can reach these people who are not us. McAfee and I can introduce these ideas. McAfee and I can send people to the other voices in scene for deeper digging.

With John McAfee the liberty movement now has their own Most Interesting Man In The World, mixed with a bit of James Bond adventure, mixed with genius Tech CEO, mixed with a well-spoken love for philosophy and a passion for liberty.

John McAfee is cool, he’s bold, he’s powerful, he’s eloquent, he’s brilliant, he’s a media figure, he’s entertaining, he’s likable. I’ve been a John McAfee fan long before he joined this party. I’ve been in this scene so long, we’ve never had an opportunity for someone like this to champion us.

If the Libertarian Party wants to play it safe right now with a tame safe candidate, Gary Johnson is clearly the best option.

If the Libertarian Party wants to be a bold exciting alternative in this election, John McAfee is the presidential nominee we can be excited about.

This letter is already too long, I’ve got so many ideas we’ll have to get into later. A few final points:

I won’t just be focused externally on connecting with those outside the movement. I’ll also be focused inward on the liberty movement, helping activists become more powerful and effective communicators. One of my main goals with this campaign is to bring the wider liberty scene closer together, and spread a message and desire for internal cooperation.

I have a tremendous amount of friends throughout the wider liberty movement, but I will not be using our friendship to push for support. Pay attention to what we’re doing, if you’re excited about what you see I would LOVE your support. Financial, promotional, or just helpful volunteer support, we’re not doing this by ourselves, we can use every bit of help we get, because we want to do amazing things. And if you do choose to support someone else, I respect that, it won’t affect our friendship. I’ll be actively involved in the liberty movement a lot longer than this 2016 campaign.

Be A Libertarian will be a persistent campaign message. I just registered BeALibertarian.com and created a new campaign logo with a graphic designer. The campaign site has shifted to that domain a few days ago, the new logo is being used, and more changes are coming. I’m trying to finish up our first campaign video, it shows what I’m bringing to the table, and my goal is for it to be the most beautiful and inspiring video from any campaign in any party during this election. More videos are coming.

We’re putting together a team with real political campaign experience to build up an infrastructure to handle volunteers. Many are already asking how they can be a part of this, and I’m getting that set up. I’ll likely turn my house into an LA Campaign Headquarters. I have extra rooms and a lot of floor space. We’ll make great things happen, and have an amazing experience together. Fill out the volunteer contact info form on the site, and we’ll bring you in the loop as soon as we’re set up.

Right now, the most critical thing we need are people who want to come with us to the National Libertarian Party Convention in Florida to be a delegate with us (May 27-30). We’ll need a few hundred delegates to win this nomination and become the official Libertarian presidential ticket. If you’re interested in being a Libertarian Party delegate, please fill out this delegate contact info form on the site.

Very exciting times ahead, my friends. This will be memorable.

The post Why I’m Supporting John McAfee As His Vice Presidential Running Mate first appeared on Hustle Bear - by Judd Weiss.

My photography “hobby” has been picking up lately. Despite all of my public statements that I’m going to tone down this photography obsession and focus more on business, I just can’t help it. I want to do everything at once. When you’re doing something you’re proud of and excited about, it feels like a crime to restrain yourself. And there was just no way I could turn down this trip to Nepal. I didn’t know anything about Nepal except that it’s north of India and that some very different world awaits. Managing is not very easy and one can get tips and advice from experts like Andy Defrancesco .

I didn’t Google or Wikipedia anything about Nepal. Nothing. I didn’t want any movie spoilers, I just wanted the experience to be fresh. I was brought to Nepal to shoot a conference, the Asia Liberty Forum. I’m not a career photographer, I don’t market myself as a photographer or even have a proper portfolio site online at the moment. I’m not a professional, this is not my profession. I’m an enthusiast, I’m always obsessively trying to create beautiful compelling photos to the best of my ability. And that’s exactly what the conference organizers wanted. It’s a crazy expense to bring someone from the other side of the planet out to photograph your event in a 3rd world nation, so I knew I had some huge pressure to make sure I deliver. Click here to see the conference photos.

The photos in this post are an album separate from the conference, purely the scenic photos of Nepal I captured outside of the conference.

Most of these photos were taken in a single day devoted to exploring Kathmandu. I knew I wouldn’t have any chance to explore the city while I was at the conference, so I gave myself 2 extra days in Kathmandu to see and capture whatever I could. Unfortunately, due to some serious incompetence and dishonesty from a tour guide, an early morning hike out in the rural mountains surrounding Kathmandu turned into an all day affair that caused me to cancel my packed schedule of sights I planned to see in my precious remaining few hours in the country. Stuck all day in the middle of nowhere, I was furious to waste most of one of my only 2 sightseeing days, but it’s a lesson in relying on your common sense over and above the assurances of strangers who act like they know what they’re talking about when it doesn’t make sense. Even when you’re in a totally foreign land. But I digress. And I did get cool shots of the rural mountain villages and some groups of cute kids after they got out of school for the day. I have no shame, I just go up to groups of random school kids and ask who wants to be famous. They get ecstatic when I show them cool shots of themselves and their friends in my camera. No one asked for my info to get the photos, they seemed happy just that these photos of them would be seen by people in America.

One thing I totally didn’t expect was the weather. I knew I was going to the Himalayas. In January. I packed for very cold weather (I remember surviving the coldest winter on record in Romania), but it wasn’t that cold in Kathmandu. Once I was there I was told that Kathmandu is the valley surrounded by the mountains, and that it’s relatively warm. No snow ever falls in Kathmandu. It felt more desert like, maybe a little chilly at night, but no big deal. I had full body thermal underwear packed, but I wish I brought sandals instead.

I didn’t have time to check out any other city, though I’m told there are some real treasures throughout Nepal. Kathmandu was both beautiful and gritty. The poverty is pretty extreme, people often live on $80 a month. There is trash everywhere. Los Angeles is not exactly a clean city, but it feels like a sterile sanitary clean room by comparison. I’ve seen plenty of stray dogs and cats in other countries, but all the stray cows was actually pretty cool. The warmth of the Nepali people was striking. Everyone was extremely friendly and graciously greeted me with a Namaste and a bow. I’m talking about the random strangers I approached with my camera. I learned to reply back “Thank you friend” in their language, which people enjoyed.

The temples swarming with monkeys was a highlight. They’re really cute until you get up close. I was warned repeatedly not to get too close, but I didn’t listen, and one angry monkey tried to grab my camera from me. I was ready to fight him to the death, he’s not taking that. The monkeys are rude. They are all unfriendly little shits actually. I can see why our society has so many problems, if we evolved from these bastards. Adorable as they are.

I took a $200 sight seeing flight to Mount Everest with a few friends. I regretted it immediately afterwards. We didn’t get that close, I’ve seen mountains from a plane window before, I wasn’t that impressed, and I really could have used the sleep instead of waking up so early for a delayed and pointless flight. But when I got back to Los Angeles and saw the photos I got of these majestic mountain ridges, I’m glad I did it. I shot those mountains totally sleep deprived, wishing I was back in a bed instead of a freezing cold plane to nowhere, but I managed to still capture a few shots that are priceless to me.

One night some of the conference attendees went out to a bar that had a local metal band playing. We were out on the patio where we could talk, which was my intention so that we weren’t drowned out by whatever crappy local band was set to play. But I was surprised and impressed with how good the band actually was. I picked up my camera and started taking some shots of them. They reminded me of some sort of a Nepalese Deftones. A throwback to 90s Numetal when it was still artistic, but driving and aggressive. And the guys were actually talented, the music was great, and fans were in a trance and pumped. I really didn’t expect that when I heard a local metal band was playing that night. I found the guitarist after the show and showed him a few shots I took, and he flipped out, immediately bringing me over to the singer to show him my camera screen. I promised they would eventually get these, and they invited me to share a joint with them. I got a picture of that too ;)
Pretty cool the places a little device in your hand will take you.

One of the craziest things I saw was a citywide protest that shut down all major streets on my last day there, while I was rushing to get to the airport. Fortunately they were letting tourists through (the protesters don’t want to look like they’re cutting off vital income to the country). The protests were orchestrated by Maoists. Not Socialists, not Communists, but Maoists. With flags and banners of Mao. I’m just going out on a limb here, but it felt like it had to be China’s influence to me. Nepal is safe from out right occupation since it’s so closely linked to the massive India, but that doesn’t mean China isn’t going to meddle. Purely my speculation, but seeing very poor people that live off less than $100 a month carry around printed flags and banners of China’s Chairman Mao leads me to assume who’s funding this…
I WISH I had walked around and captured some compelling shots of the protests, but I was rushing to the airport, worried about catching my flight, and could only get a few imperfect shots as my car sped by.

Anyway, these pictures are worth more than any of my words. This is a landmark album for me, and easily the most exotic photos I’ve ever taken. I hope they help you get a better idea of the experience of this different world.

You can follow me on Instagram here:
http://instagram.com/juddweiss

The post Kathmandu, Nepal – January 2015 first appeared on Hustle Bear - by Judd Weiss.

I’m not the only one who’s had some socially awkward teenage years. Mine were pretty depressing. I wore mostly black, I was hostile when I spoke back to everyone, and I had no friends. I don’t blame others, I was pretty uncomfortable to be around. I was a smart kid, but I was way behind everyone else. The most toxic part about it was how self righteous I was. Clearly being a loner meant I was much better than everyone else. This was obviously preferable to associating with all the mindless sheep. But I knew something was wrong because I was always sad. I was stuck in a hole. Discovering Nathaniel Branden’s books were like finding an outstretched hand guiding me out of a dark hole. When I discovered him I quickly read everything of his that I could find. I scoured used book stores and found powerful books of his that had long been out of print. There’s no question that I was transforming myself as I read his books. Everyone has potential, but too often too much of that potential is restrained and untapped. From an incompetent loner who was uncomfortable even socializing with people, I’m still stunned by how quickly I became a massive overachiever with an overwhelming abundance of incredible friends in my life. It seems strange now since I’m such a public person, but I used to be an extremely private person. I had to rip myself open with both hands, I had to fight against my inertia and change my terrible habits, I had to reach up and pull with everything I’ve got. Finally I was excited to become something more than a disgruntled loser. I saw a path out, and I took it. Nathaniel’s writing laid the foundation for me to create a powerful blueprint for my life that I could act on and achieve with. Which is why I’ll always be so deeply grateful to him. And why I often say that I was raised by Nathaniel Branden’s books more than by my own parents.

16 years ago, when I was a young 18 year old, I would drive to any book signings for Nathaniel within driving distance, just for the chance to see him in person. I never really got a chance to talk to him back then, I was shuffled along in the line of his other fans. About 7 years ago I reconnected with Nathaniel at a regular local Objectivist salon hosted at the home of a mutual friend of ours in LA. Nathaniel was in his later years at this point. We eventually became friends. What that initially meant is that he would call me up when he had computer problems and I would try to fix it. When he eventually stopped driving, I started giving him rides around Los Angeles. His wife appreciated it since it would relieve some pressure off her busy calendar, and I appreciated the opportunity to talk with him. I held a few events for Nathaniel at my house to speak to a group of friends that I assembled. I later held large birthday parties for his 81st and 82nd birthdays. By the way, his 82nd Birthday Party here was the largest party I’ve ever thrown at my house, with about 400 well dressed high quality people literally stuffed like sardines into my living room (never ever again, never will I ever let my house get that packed again). Nathaniel would sometimes tell me fondly that I was like a grandson he never had. I never lost sight of the fact that Nathaniel was a hero to me. If I could go back in time and tell my 18 year old self that “one day you are going to become personal friends with him , and you will even host Nathaniel Branden’s birthday at your house in Bel Air”, probably 18 year old Judd wouldn’t believe me. Because 18 year old Judd did not believe he was capable of that.

Nathaniel Branden’s 82nd Birthday Party I threw for him at my house. The reaction as I introduced him.

Yesterday I was honored to speak at Nathaniel’s memorial in Los Angeles. It’s not easy for me to let go of him. No one in this world has had a bigger impact on my life. If Nathaniel Branden hadn’t been in my life, I wouldn’t have accomplished what I have. I wouldn’t be who I’ve become.

Some people touch many lives, Nathaniel Branden profoundly changed many lives. Millions of lives. In fact, all of us have been affected by him.

It’s very challenging to quickly articulate the enormity of the legend that is Nathaniel Branden. I hope I’ll do him justice here.

A world renowned author of over 20 profoundly impactful books. That’s an impressive piece on anyone’s resume. These books are incredible, and each immensely valuable in their own way. I imagine if I were him, I would hold these books to sleep at night, so in love with my masterpieces.

Nathaniel was the protégé of the philosopher Ayn Rand. At the age of only 28, Nathaniel launched the Objectivist philosophical movement in the 1950s with a lecture series promoted by the Nathaniel Branden Institute, which has in large part led to the rising Liberty movement of today. That’s a rather arrogant 28 year old who felt he could explain to everyone fundamental matters of how the world works, and how we should interact with each other. Then again, Ayn Rand was a pretty powerful mentor. He was teaching her philosophy, but she knew he was much better able to present it and be the face of Objectivism. His talks were recorded, and groups were promoting listening parties around the country, and around the world. All the founders of the Libertarian party attended his talks, among so many other thought leaders. This sea change in the realm of ideas that our world is experiencing today, if you trace it back, Nathaniel Branden has had a significant influential impact on much of it.

Starting in the 1960s Nathaniel then went on to transform the field of Psychology, from a field primarily focused on alleviating mental sickness, into a field also very focused on helping normal fairly healthy people significantly improve their levels of competence, self respect and confidence. This earned Nathaniel Branden the moniker “Father of the Self-Esteem Movement”. Psychologists simply weren’t discussing Self-Esteem or giving the subject much attention in the realm of psychology before Nathaniel started focusing on Self Esteem in the 1950s. Nathaniel Branden has unofficially become the guru to so many prominent mega successful personal development/self help gurus of the last couple decades. These gurus have gone out and spread Nathaniel’s ideas to the masses far further than Nathaniel could have done himself. Think of it this way, Nathaniel Branden was never the arena rock band like U2, he was the musician’s musician who was a massive source of inspiration for many huge artists. Nathaniel’s writings were mostly written to be understood by any layman, but they weren’t quite as simplistic and flashy as the mega gurus’, and he never had that kind of marketing muscle behind him. But his insight resonates throughout the personal development world, and many of Nathaniel’s contributions have become commonplace knowledge in our culture.

Once during a personal talk I had with him, I told Nathaniel that even though he’s known as the Father of Self-Esteem, and the words Self Esteem are in the title of almost every book of his, that this is actually all nonsense. He’s not teaching self-esteem. Not really. He’s teaching people how to grow to become better people, higher self-esteem is the consequence. “You’re not teaching people how to appreciate themselves more, you’re teaching people how to become someone that they have higher appreciation for. And THAT is what differentiates you from most others in the field of self-esteem.” That was a pretty bold thing to say to him, but he had a big grin on his face, and he enjoyed that. Those aren’t his words, but I think he agreed with that perspective.

To this day, when people privately ask me for book recommendations, I always tell them that Nathaniel Branden’s writings are the most powerful material I know of. I even advise people to halt their business and pause medical school if they need to, and read Nathaniel’s books. They’re that important. A good place to start is his opus, The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem (check out the Amazon reviews). It lays out the framework for the scope of his perspective. It’s a pretty easy but insightful read, though it does require some deep reflection. And while I deeply love each of his books for their own insights, the book that is easily the most transformative thing I’ve ever read is Taking Responsibility. It has a simple innocuous title, but the insight is profound and so empowering. It’s a deeper exploration of one of the six pillars of his opus. I cannot imagine anyone achieving great things in life without some understanding and adoption of this perspective. At the very least, read Taking Responsibility after you read Six Pillars, take action on what you’ve just learned, and watch your life improve. Nathaniel’s insights help you see the best within you that you might not see, and he helps you pull that potential out of you, so you can experience it.

In my early high school years, I feel like I learned a lot after I discovered Ayn Rand.
In my early college years, I feel like I grew a lot after I discovered Nathaniel Branden.

Nathaniel Branden has influenced our understanding of ideas and our understanding of ourselves.

He was a giant who has left his mark on this world.

I would like to personally thank Nathaniel for the wisdom and the guidance I gained from his books that helped me develop and grow to the point that I may one day host his birthday party at my house in Bel Air surrounded by so many incredible friends. I would like to thank Nathaniel for helping me become someone who was honored to speak at a memorial in tribute to a legend like him.

It is sad for me to acknowledge that I’ve lost someone I loved so much. But Nathaniel hasn’t left us, and he never will. If you look around, this man’s influence on the world is everywhere.

The post How Nathaniel Branden Changed My Life, and Impacted Us All first appeared on Hustle Bear - by Judd Weiss.

It’s no secret I’m a huge fan of Atlas Shrugged and the author Ayn Rand. So when I was asked to shoot the Behind The Scenes photos for the 3rd Atlas Shrugged movie, I don’t think I let Scott DeSapio (the Associate Producer) finish his sentence before I jumped all over this. It’s not just that I’m a fan, but the idea of having real production value and professional actors to capture was so exciting. I’ve been extremely prolific, and I’ve moved very fast, but I’m still relatively new to photography. When I picked up a Sony NEX-3 four years ago, I first treated it more like a much better quality point and shoot. My friends know I went quite OCD with it, but I had NO IDEA a few years later I would be asked to shoot all these events around the country, and now BTS photos for a movie that will come to theaters and bring my photos to a much bigger audience… wow. Behind The Scenes photos are usually boring, so I was determined to create art pieces at the best of my ability. I had earlier gained some notoriety for my event and conference photos. There’s now probably around 10,000 Facebook profile photos of mine floating out there, being used by people for all sorts of purposes, from Match.com to Speaker Bios to Wikipedia to Book Jackets. And now the Associate Producer is telling me “I want Judd Weiss photos. Can you deliver us Judd Weiss photos?”. Hell the fuck yeah! The pressure was on. Fortunately production was starting the following week in LA, so I didn’t have to wait too long to jump in.

Thank god Sony just released their earth shattering full frame mirrorless A7 right before filming started in January. I had been shooting on smaller sensor APS-C NEX cameras before, and I was eagerly awaiting the arrival of the full frame mirrorless, following any shred of rumor and news story for the previous 2 years. I knew I needed to move to a full frame setup in order to take my photos to the next level, and the A7 did not disappoint! I had never shot photos of this quality before, and my love for the camera rose along with excitement from the production team for the quality of photos I was delivering them. I was determined to push past my limits, and over deliver, but I didn’t expect to rise to this level. In January I still had plenty of room to grow, but these photos were a massive leap of a milestone for me. I’m so grateful for that opportunity.

The movie comes out in theaters tomorrow. Some of my photos were used in the film itself, not just in the marketing. For me this whole thing has been a real honor. I hope you enjoy some of these :)

The post Photos: Atlas Shrugged Part 3 “Who Is John Galt” Movie Behind The Scenes – January 2014 first appeared on Hustle Bear - by Judd Weiss.