I’M IN SEMI-RETIREMENT AND THIS BLOG IS WINDING DOWN. I INTEND CALLING IT A DAY IN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS. POSTINGS WILL PROBABLY BE LESS FREQUENT AND I WILL NOT UNDERTAKE ANY MAJOR NEW INVESTIGATIONS. DIOLCH YN FAWR.
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The picture with YesCymru is becoming clearer, which makes those who clouded it ever more desperate. And dishonest.
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“Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies.”
Senator Barry Goldwater
I shall offend certain people by quoting this early influence on my political development. But it doesn’t matter how you try to twist it, what Barry Goldwater says there could have been written about recent events in YesCymru.
For when it comes to YesCymru, there may have been those among the takeover gang who sought to do, “what they regard as good”, but there were many driven by political fanaticism, and a few by self-interest.
And now it’s all over. The coup has failed and the plotters are slinking away.
So let’s have an update.
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WHO’S LEFT THE BUILDING?
It’s been difficult at times keeping up with events, but here’s how I believe things stand after collating information from a number of sources.
Llywelyn ap Gwilym has been keeping a low profile, making me wonder if he was hoping to hide, Claudius-like, and then emerge after the blood-letting to be acclaimed emperor.
But no, for a number of sources tell me ‘Ein Llyw Nesaf’ has promised to stand down and not seek re-election at the EGM. That said, others warn that he’s a ‘slippery customer’, and needs to be watched.
Then, some time over the weekend before last Tori West bade her farewell. But there was no presentation of a clock followed by a few pints down the Red Lion, where anodyne speeches were delivered about ‘Good old Tori‘, and her responding with, ‘I’ll be back to see you all from time to time‘.
Instead, she suggested that YesCymru should be razed to the ground. Which, if nothing else, calls into question her commitment to Welsh independence.
One source suggests that West may still consider herself ‘resignation fluid’. After that tweet she should be toast. And burnt toast at that.
I’m told the next to leave, on Monday last week, was Carys Eleri.
She will be best remembered for the video below. Even though it’s more of an exhibition of posterior than a gift to posterity I still see it as somehow fitting.
YesCymru members’ money was given to a company few had heard of. (Hardly surprising seeing as the company is less than a year old.) Then there are questions as to how this company gained the contract. Was there a tendering process? Does the Turk running the company know someone who may have been influential in YC? Is this company still receiving money from YesCymru?
As I say, I see this video as a metaphor – for the unfocused, spendthrift, self-indulgent and ultimately laughable organisation YesCymru became under the clowns now seeking the shadows.
On Tuesday last week Elin Hywel did her disappearing act. Like so many – all? – of those involved in the attempted and now defeated coup she is a member of Far Left Undod.
While some took to the shadows as the pressure mounted, one who tried to put on a show of resistance was Ben Gwalchmai of Labour for an Independent Wales.
But something has clearly happened with Gwalchmai and it might have been linked with complaints to the Central Committee about his online behaviour. One complaint was signed by some 50 people.
A source tells me: “The CC meeting to suspend Ben was supposed to have been last Wednesday, then delayed until Thursday, then delayed to today (Monday), and now tomorrow.” I hear feet being dragged.
Whether the Rasputin of the Severn Valley has been or will be suspended is unknown, but his YC Twitter account was certainly shut down last Wednesday. A couple of days later he used his personal account to put out a rant against the 16 local groups that mustered a vote of no confidence in the Central Committee at the recent sit-down.
Note that critics are ‘crazies’, and a democratic vote open to all is a ‘coup’.
Though Benji attempted to clarify his remark about ‘violent harasser’ by saying that he was not referring to himself, but to an online critic of the Central Committee, the so-called ‘Cornish Crow’, a Twitter account that was taken down on Sunday night.
But not before encouraging an imitator.
The personal account was putting out YC stuff today. Which might suggest that Benji remains part of the gang, but perhaps semi-detached? ‘We’ll pretend you aren’t with us’ kind of thing.
There could be a good reason for this. As I’ll explain in a mo.
Whatever his status vis-à-vis the Central Committee, Gwalchmai is a spent force. Utterly discredited, and perhaps now viewed as a liability even by the remaining CC members. (Which would really be saying something!)
There may also be legal action pending against him.
Ben Gwalchmai’s fundamental problem is that he’s ‘imaginative’. (Yes, that is a euphemism.) Take the recent example below.
Now, to read Benji, one might think that those awful ‘Fash’ had enlisted the help of the Kremlin to mount a full-scale assault against the organisation he and the comrades had so recently snatched from their evil clutches.
The Central Committee had to put out a statement clarifying that it was just a minor, personal matter. And no mention of PayPal.
Talking of the Central Committee, who is left?
Let’s recap . . . there’s possibly Llywelyn ap Gwilym, no doubt carefully weighing up the best move for Llywelyn ap Gwilym. Then there’s Sarah Rees, the vice-chair, and interim chair since Siôn Jobbins stepped down. And finally, there’s treasurer Gwyn Llewelyn.
And that, without suspended Niki Jones, is that. Apart from the indeterminate status of Ben Gwalchmai, which might even have changed between me writing this on Monday evening and you reading it.
UPDATE: The news has been broken now so I can tell you that Niki Jones resigned from the Central Committee tonight.
Which means that the Central Committee might have less than four members and consequently be inquorate. If so, then the only power it has is to call an EGM pretty damn quick to get a new CC elected.
A last-ditch attempt to remain quorate would explain ap Gwilym hanging on and Gwalchmai being allowed to mooch around. Because without them it’s just Rees and Llewelyn, and definitely inquorate.
One who seems to have slipped under my radar is Shane Brennan. In an earlier post I pointed out that with Iestyn ap Rhobert not seeking re-election as secretary his rival for the post, Shane Brennan, was a shoo-in.
What I didn’t know was that Brennan had been offered a job with The National and told that if he was taking it then he couldn’t be YesCymru secretary. Though when you think about it, working for Huw Marshall puts you on the same side as the Woke-Left takeover gang anyway.
Here’s Marshall crowing over the Twitter demise of the Cornish Crow. (Though I suspect he’ll be back soon.) Note that I remain a target. God! it brings a tear to the old Jac eye.
It has been suggested to me that the Cornish Crow’s fate might be attributable to media persons knowing others of that ilk in the employ of Twitter. Who knows?
For obvious reasons, the Central Committee kept quiet about Brennan’s non-arrival. Which means that in addition to possibly being inquorate the CC has also been stumbling along without a secretary since before the May 22 AGM.
YesCymru is an utter shambles!
Another departure was that of Diversity and Inclusivity Officer Jessica Harvey. One of those determined to turn YesCymru into TransCymru. She will not be missed.
The sole remaining employee is Harriet Protheroe-Soltani. Though I don’t recall hearing anything from her or about her for months. Is she still there? If so, what is she doing for £32,000 a year in her part-time job? (For she is also an official of Momentum.)
Putting it all together makes me wonder why the first mate and the purser pretend that the good ship YesCymru is sailing merrily along with a full complement of officers and a not-at-all-mutinous crew.
Obviously there’s the matter of remaining quorate, which we’ve just read about. But there are also suggestions that this pretence must be maintained because there are things to hide. And money to be accounted for.
Just one more thing that might need to be cleared up is the Equality and Diversity Sub-committee, which was a motion passed at the May 22 AGM. Were appointments made to this sub-committee? Can a sub-committee exist independently of the committee to which it is subordinate?
Questions. Questions. So many questions.
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FINAL THOUGHTS
The Woke-Left coup has failed, partly because those involved were just so bloody incompetent. But if you want specifics . . .
1/ The Far Left entryists believed that by using terms like ‘fascist’ and ‘far right’ for their critics they could swing more moderate socialists behind them. But this didn’t work. In fact, it may have had the opposite effect.
This I find very encouraging. It tells me there are decent people out there, reasonable and fair-minded socialists, prepared to work with others in the cause of Welsh independence.
2/ Once those who’d taken over began to assert themselves, and it became clear that for many outing ‘TERF’s and ‘transphobes’ was more important than working towards independence, they both revealed their true intentions and sealed their own fate.
3/ In some ways, those who joined the Central Committee were the reasonable face of the Woke-Left fringe. Because out there, on the howling peripheries, roam some seriously unhinged nutters! You have met many of them on this blog.
But those on the inside did themselves no favours by their social media interaction with the loonies. Both encouraging them and being encouraged by them.
An example of the behaviour of these loonies cropped up a few days ago. I don’t know this guy, I’ve had no dealings with him, but he is not alone in his experience of the Woke-Left extremists.
These evil and dangerous bastards mimic their heroes in the anarcho-nihilist cult Antifa: ‘We are absolutely in the right, which means we can do whatever we choose to those who oppose us and those we decide are in the wrong’.
The sort of attitude that leads to Inquisitions, pogroms, persecution, and the public beheading of unbelievers. So far we’ve only reached the de-platforming stage, and social media censoring, but the trajectory is clear.
An illustration of the co-operation between those on the inside and those on the fringes came to light tonight. It’s in a tweet from former Central Committee member Niki Jones, responding to Ben Gwalchmai, who claims never to have made or signed a complaint to YC.
He is of course lying, again, as the complaint from June 4 proves.
But just look at those names! Central Committee members mixed in with the worst of the gang. They’re all there: the mad axeman, ‘Dr Dildo Davies’, that disgusting creature who wrote the obscene tweet to a boy mourning his mother, the mayor of Bangor, and of course, the leader of the pack – Aled Gwyn Williams.
You can see the lines of communication, the links, for organising a pile-on.
Benji’s fiery pants must be visible from the Long Mynd.
UPDATE 10.08.2021: There was a reaction last night to the publication of the list of complainants against Niki Jones, made when it was realised she would not fall into line with the exclusionary Woke-Left agenda. It came from Benedict Belli, ‘BVB’, @no_pasaran90, one of those complainants.
After a chorus of, ‘Non, Je ne regrette rien’ he goes on to blame “that joke organisation” for a breach of confidentiality. It’s always somebody else’s fault.
YesCymru, as it is currently constituted, is no longer fit for purpose. There must be root and branch change, in both personnel and organisational structure.
Those involved in the takeover, and their social media foederati, must return from whence they came and never be allowed back into YesCymru.
For with their undoubted talent, their tolerant and inclusive behaviour, I have no doubt that those of whom I have writ could build up Undod into a movement that both captures the souls of our people and, by so doing, strikes terror into the black hearts of our enemies.
Then again, I could just be taking the piss. (Cos I enjoys a good laugh, I do.)
I started with a little something from Barry Goldwater, and I’ll end with some more wisdom from the great man.
“Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
God bless you, Barry.
♦ end ♦
I say Jaco, a few brief observations on the news of your ‘retirement’.
I genuinely respect the avenues you have provided/pioneered over the years for yourself and likeminded ‘Independence obsessives’ to ventilate your views on the matter.
However, I couldn’t help smile at the irony of your ‘Goldwater’ quote; which I requote with adjustments:-
“Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies.”
Senator Barry Goldwater
I shall offend certain people by quoting this early influence on the basket cases that dominate (ad Nauseum) this site. But it doesn’t matter how you try to twist it, what Barry Goldwater says, could have been written about the sad people that yearn for Independence for Wales.
Enjoy your retirement
Daiiroko.
“Moderation is absolutely essential in the pursuit of justice .”
God bless you, Barry /Jaco.
Dai, mun, we’ve missed you!
Welcome back Daiiroko, we’ve missed you. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity of repeating what the learned Doctor living next door to you allegedly told you Dai over the garden fence – “Dai, your trouble is, you’ve been educated beyond your intelligence!”. We miss both of you. What are you both up to these days?
You enquired via Twitter as to who might be the accountants acting for YC while ” in temporary administration”. I am reliably informed that it is the local branch of Loot, Con and Fleece, a member of the Big 9 most unreliable public accountants and, in turn, part of the global professional malpractice group Blunder Plunder and Default. I hope you find this helpful !
I’m sure they’ve appeared on this blog, under various guises.
I see that Bethan Sad is back in action . Of sorts. Takes a picture of herself with a close relative and then claims it’s Jac ! Bit demented I’d say. Good job she retired early on health grounds.
I can’t imagine what I’ve done to wind her up. Unless I’m permanently in her mind. But what would her husband think!
It was rumored she was partial to a bit of rough. That creature in the background is probably too genteel !
Likening someone to a chimpanzee is something a semi-pubescent teen would be on the back seat of the school bus and exposes her level of intellect and political maturity. Always amazed me why she was considered candidate material in Plaid Cymru. Of greater concern in the photo is Bethan herself. I always thought was a bit un-hinged but she appears malnourished which I understand is from a psychological eating disorder. Hope she finds help and support to get over this. It’s quite sad to see her downward spiral played out on her social media.
I don’t think it is a chimp. I think it’s a troll. Not that they exist, of course.
Please show us LINKS we can access to see her silly BLOG postings so we can pass the LINKS around . I hope her replacement Senedd Members will take the job more seriously than being a branch of Student Politics on issues that do not concern Wales. I’m already not impressed with Heledd Fychan. She is of the same Bethan / Leanne mould! Sadly Plaid Cymru really lost its way over the past ten years. the Party now means nothing to the average person in Wales anymore. We need people like Gwynfor and Wigley and even McEvoy!
Those that you mention have all had their blemishes but to their credit they were well able to put Wales first. This more recent bunch are heavily into sectional interests and thus easily diverted from the main challenges at times appearing as though they are no longer interested in an independent country just hanging on to a well paid job and being in permanent opposition.
Bethan Sayed, the Ultimate Virtue Signallin Politicuan (UVSP for future ref!!)
Jac.
Please let everyone know when there’s a democratic election of all the membership of YesCymru.
(a) For a new Central Committee,
(b) Abolished ‘reserved places’ for various interest groups,
(c) Sacked all those of weird irrelevant appointees.
So YesCymru can get on with the job of promoting Welsh independence. I am not that fussed about whether the elected committee is gay or straight or got a cock or a fanny.
Most members would be totally unconcerned with the sex or sexual orientation or identification of those running YesCymru. The problems have arisen because certain people have tried to make these issues predominant.
Have I missed something on all the UK News press / Media outlets over the past few days? I am referring to the silence in Wales to the Bishop of York’s suggestion that Welsh people should sing “God Save the Queen” as a Welsh National Anthem before all major Welsh international sporting events. He is serious. There has been a silence in Wales on this. Either the response has been so loud and crude that the media cannot use it, or more likely as usual, our meek Politicians and our population are to meek these days to protest. This is an issue that would have suited a protest from ‘YesCymru’ a couple of years back, but not now. Instead of protesting now at the Bishop’s suggestion, today’s ‘YesCymru’ would be more likely to protest that lefty sexual odd balls are not represented in any proposed anthem. So their present silence indicates hopefully that the ‘YesCymru’ coup leadership are now finished and all resigned. Gone! Go, if not gone! Good riddance. Now if that’s the case, it is something for all true real Welsh patriots to sing with some joy “Yma o hyd’ . Did the weirdos leave the sheepdog when they closed the office door and turned off the lights? If so, he needs rescuing to settle in retirement in a decent Dog’s Home.
Quite a bit of objection to it on other blogs/websites.
Exactly, and I can’t recall reading anyone supporting the idea.
Wrexhamian – about singing ‘God save the Queen’ as a Welsh anthem you say above – “Quite a bit of objection to it on other blogs/websites”. OK, but who reads those BLOGS? The point I am making is that I’ve not heard a murmur from any of our Politicians or National Figures let alone YesCymru. You are missing that point. Does any Welsh Politician in any Political Party truly support Wales anymore?
I bet Andy Arty would throw his considerable weight behind it.
Very considerable weight. He’s a great advert for Welsh lowland farming.
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jac re comment in your 3rd last paragraph you cannopt say Black
I said ‘black’.
As usual contributions have to be littered with childish comments that nullify any way forward – what does ‘woke’ mean apart from the opposite of asleep? What does ‘diverse’ mean except maybe the opposite of mono culture. Why do some have to slavishly follow the old ways or even jump into the new ones with equal recklessness? Give me two from Wales to have 3 opinions.
It is, to my mind, given the word’s inherent poor grammatical context, some sort of pastiche of Ebonics. I’d guess the idea is to show how ‘inclusive’ they are. Some might call it a form of that ‘cultural appropriation’ they so often whinge about.
In the words of the woke, ‘Educate yourself!’
You can do worse than start here: https://newdiscourses.com/
Is that an American equivalent of UnHerd?
Similar, but far more erudite.
It always amazes me how prolific they are on twitter – as if it’s somehow important. Twitter is used by less than 20% of adults in the UK – and adults are crucial, they are the ones who vote. Research even shows that younger, more prolific tweeters (teens etc) lose interest and use it less and less the older they get.
We’re dealing here with narcissists – note the number of selfies. (Though fewer of late.) And they aren’t just on Twitter.
The scourge of modern society. Every no-mark is a star in their own fucking reality show.
You got to laff at some of the crap coming out of these people. Just one example you mentioned – Tori West – talks of “marginalised people” yet her goal was to marginalise every person who didn’t march to her peculiar tune. How on earth did she ever imagine that the ordinary proletariat of Cymru was going to buy into her twisted visions. She’s damn lucky that right now most of them are so distracted by just making ends meet that they don’t respond to shit like that and string her up.
Government policies from London and Cardiff are making life in most of our communities feel quite “marginalised” already hence the success of the “back lash” from the electorate in recent polls. Once they realise that voting for Faragist or other Brit xenophobe groups doesn’t improve their lot there will be a more radical surge but it won’t be in pursuit of Tori West’s pansified visions of a better Cymru.
The ‘S’ word is criminally misused by all stripes too. These loons may self-identify and borrow its iconography, but how many parties or groups are actually advocating full public ownership of the means of production? *Actual* Socialism. Labour and Plaid, economically at least, are merely offering something further left along a continuum which sits the Conservatives and the like. In other words, a mixed economy, the disagreement being on the relative proportions of the ingredients. Even ‘old’ Labour could never be described as a Socialist government, as long as there was a space for private enterprise to operate. One with greater Socialist tendencies, certainly but never fully Socialist.
Cymrosmith, common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange pre-supposes people with the competence to manage the same. That’s why they don’t talk about it. Student politics is all.
Twitter is riddled with state actor fake/troll accounts too, of that I am convinced. Just look at the pile-in on anything the SNP or Sturgeon put out. Anecdotal account on my part admittedly, but look at how few of these accounts have an actual picture of a human for a profile pic, have a handle of the form ‘@dave4535907430957’ and are almost invariably hardcore Rangers nuts of the most knuckle-dragging kind. In essence, almost a stereotype or even a parody of a Scottish Unionist. But when you have minions in dark rooms registering and manning these accounts in their thousands, not much thought is going to go into their individual characterisation and nuance is there?
SNP? Follow the (missing) money. SNP? 4 year olds to have the right to change gender, without parental consent. So that’s all right then!
The SNP is losing support over this issue, and Salmond is capitalising. Giving us the truly bizarre situation of women switching from the SNP to Alba because they feel safer with tactile Alex than with Nicola Sturgeon!
Women switching to Alba is easy to explain – they know what Alex represents and what he has hanging in his groin. Some of the creatures running rampant inside SNP are highly ambiguous and feel entitled to let their baser instincts run free whenever the mood takes them. Making matters far worse they were able to re-orientate the priorities of the party. Nicola has dropped a massive clanger ( should I say bollock ?) letting these freaks loose in a Party that was doing so well. I guess it was the same type of “influencers” that sunk YC.
I’m going back some time with all this.
That list of twenty people who put in the complaint about Niki Jones. All white aren’t they, every one of them? Lots on that list members of Undod? Contains all three people who put in complaints about Dilys Davies. The permanently (and easily) bloody offended and “out to fuck shit up in a big way,” as one of them infamously tweeted once (or words very similar)! Quite a few aren’t YC members now anyway. I’ve seen several of those names announced they’ve left YC.
Late on Monday night Gwalchmai put out a tweet that suggested his name had been inserted on the list in the expectation he would be a signatory, but never put his name to it in the end. If that is the case, why wasn’t this ever communicated to Niki? He could easily have DMed her privately to explain, but didn’t. There’s something of the night about this fella. Not a man to be relied upon, in my opinion.
All that remain must go, and soon. A completely new CC is a must now. No-one that’s been part of this shit show should be countenanced in any restructuring.
Yes, the same gang. Though I hadn’t realised that the three who made ‘complaints’ about DD were signatories. In a way I suppose it’s reassuring to realise how few there are. But with their followers they’ve caused a hell of a lot of trouble.
Agree, Dai Protheroe – same handful of names, over and again. Most of them UNDOD, most of them vicious bullies on Twitter. The way they have hounded Niki Jones is disgusting. Ben Gwalchmai’s claim that his name was on the complaint about her as a signatory without his knowledge is tosh. As you say – he could have communicated this to her, if he chose (members of the YC Central Committee seem entirely happy to use Twitter freely for slander, mud slinging, pornographic threats and harassment, so it would seem oddly bashful for Gwalchmai to stay silent on that issue). And does he want us to believe that a complaint against a fellow committee member was issued with his name on it, but he had no sight of it? Come off it. The only positive about this whole saga seems to be that the grassroots branches of YC have united and mobilised to stand up to this bullying clique. Knowing full well that to do so means they will be labelled as ‘far right’, ‘transphobes’ and ‘fash’. What Aled Gwyn Williams, Gwalchmai, Tori West, ‘George’ Brown (has their been a police complaint about that utterly vile pornographic harassing tweet George made to a bereaved 18 year old? Is Gwalchmai still defending that as some sort of youthful exuberance?), ‘Jessica’ Harvey, Rachel Cooze and ‘Emrys’ Price Jones haven’t realised is that they lashed out with those terms too much. They’re wearing them out. They don’t really understand what they mean anyway. They’ve just scooped them up like handfuls of shit, and thrown them around hoping it’ll stick. But now it seems there are enough people to reject those descriptions, and see the malicious intent behind them. Gwalchmai and Aled can whine ‘but if you don’t let me or my eight friends run YesCymru, you are a fascist!’ as much as they like. But no one’s buying it now. Time to jog on.
Hope they all “jog on” but my fear is that they’ll organise a rearguard action and will either prevail at the next CC election or have sufficient presence that these Terf Wars last as long as YC is in existence.
There were 5 CC members on that complaint about Niki Jones, including Gwalchmai. With 20 on the list altogether, one of that 20 must have organised the signatories, and presumably the same person submitted it to YC. It’s inconceivable that Gwalchmai didn’t see a draft or final copy of the complaint at the time. What’s he asking us to believe now? That the complaint coordinator put his name on without his knowledge? It’s utter crap. Four of his fellow CC on it, plus two of his best drinking buddies from YC Welshpool – and none of them discuss the complaint with him? WTF! He must have seen the complaint. He must have seen the signatories. He must have seen his name. For Christ’s sake, it was the second on it, under Aled’s. Gwalchmai can try and wriggle off this hook all he likes. But the facts and evidence condemn him, no question. He needs to go.
I believe that the pressure being applied is reducing the number of those prepared to publicly align with the wreckers. While on the other side, the regular exposures have built up opposition to them from thousands of decent YC members. Not only that, but some of the wreckers realise the game is up and have burnt their bridges. There is no going back.
Tell me, Dai, are you related to Harriet Protheroe-Soltani, YesCymru’s Campaigns Officer (when she’s not working for Momentum)?
If I am a relative she’s certainly never sent me a birthday or Christmas card. But never sent her one either.😉
You can but live in hope, Dai.
I don’t think that Goldwater chap’s views are much cop either. A libertarian Wales, no ta. Libya, there’s a great, ‘small government’ paradise, a shining example of such.
That’s just Jac’s way of telling you how old he is ! Seriously though Goldwater was elevated to bogey man by a media that was still back in the post WW2 dark age and struggling to define politics in any coherent way. At that time the only guy darker than Barry G was Nixon, despite emerging contenders like Wallace. Yet 4 years later Americans elected Nixon because they had a guts full of a mish mash of policies that couldn’t resolve their internal or external problems. Kids sent to Vietnam in droves while the privileged offspring ducked the draft ; moves that purported to end segregation yet the top tier of society only had dealings with black people if they were servants or in a service industry. Malcolm X made it clear that white liberals were not to be trusted and history since that time tends to support his insight. No black or white in all this just shifting shades of grey.
By today’s shabby standards most of those players in the 60’s and 70’s were almost lily white !
It’s never black and white, which is why those who want a Manichean interpretation of politics or humanity always fail.
Goldwater had no problem with Gay rights, or even gays in the military. For a conservative politician in the 1960s that was revolutionary. Nixon, for all his anti-Communist rhetoric was the first US president to visit China in order to break the deadlock.
Malcolm X knew not to trust white, middle class liberals, who were either salving their collective conscience or simply using Civil Rights for other purposes. We don’t call them ‘liberals’ today, but the Woke are their linear ideological descendants. As are those who support CRT and BLM.
I hardly know anything about his life, I just read he was a founding thinker of the libertarian movement in the States, which I know to be a pretty wacky ideology. Zealots like the Koch brothers and Ayn Rand, the sorts who crow about how ‘taxation is theft’, and ‘freedom’-obsessed rednecks who still think the ‘gubmunt’ is after their guns are what it seems to be about. False dichotomy lunatics who think any government intervention is tantamount to full-blown Stalinism, and McCarthyite nutters encouraging people to rat on their neighbours for being communist sympathisers, in a manner not unlike, well, the practices of a communist state itself. Libertarians, and liberals: two flavours of Libtard.
No government will ever have my guns!
The wacky fringe of libertarianism has shifted far beyond the space that kind of thinking occupied in Goldwater’s time. Like so many other things it has been hijacked by a wide selection of nut jobs some just looking to outdo others in their extremist postures (bit like our YC entryists) while it suits some to deny the state’s right to collect taxes as they are ultra possessive about wealth regardless of how it was accumulated. Given the size of the USA’s population even a tiny %age will yield a number of freaks who hold oddball views and have behavioural issues.
Yeah obviously there are degrees of wackjobism. Penn of Penn & Teller fame, after years of being a prominent advocate of what he called “Beyond libertarianism, anarcho-capitalism”, has had a big hard rethink in recent, post pandemic times of how such a society would fare in it. I’m sure I once read something along the lines of one or more on the fringe arguing that child pornography should be legalised as it has a market. Don’t quote me on that, however.
It’s the unqualified statements I can’t fucking stand, like ‘taxation is theft’ or ‘governments do nothing but screw you over’. As I said to a former boss in response to such a declaration, “Who guarantees your property rights?”. By unqualified I don’t mean lacking in sufficient education to comment of course, I mean statements unlike the far more reasonable discussion springboard of something like ‘taxation is too high’ or ‘governments meddle too much’.
It’s logically fallacious to strive towards some platonic ideal of a free market with zero government intervention, as it simply would not be a market at all. It’d be the equivalent of wanting to do away with gravity as it hinders constuction of taller and taller buildings. A form of circular reasoning or whatever you call it would be election of say a Ron Paul, on the promise of repealing and prevention of government programmes. Him acting as a government official, being paid for it, and actioning policy to this effect, is, well, just that, government intervention in itself.
Well written, what a bunch of wankers, all grazing on this committee and that, feted by politicuans because of their connections, but unable to organise a piss up in a brewery. The Thick of Yes Cymru, could have been written by Armando Ianucci. Huw Marshall always jumping on somebodys bandwagon, failed fraud, Ben Mr Bean Gwalchmai, Carys Eleri spoilt middle class brat, Elin Hywel daughter of daddy Hywel, MP, Llew, privately educated spoilt brat…. yep so diverse. The joke is they thjnk the Crow started it, whipped it up, led it,.. but its the grassroots that led, you entitled loosers.
Isnt Bethan an employee as well? She still answers emails.
Possibly, but she doesn’t count as a member of the Central Committee.
The criticism of these ‘wankers’ (really!) was mounting before The Crow appeared, and it will continue after he’s gone. Getting him blocked on Twitter will prove to be a hollow victory because he hasn’t stopped his work. It’s just that now the gang is in the dark about what he’s doing. The Crow has gone nocturnal!