The Executive Committee of the Libertarian Party of Californian has been busy suspending memberships lately. It would be a badge of honor to be suspended by them, judging by who they have suspended so far. It will be a badge of shame for the LPC if the membership allows the Ex Com to get away with it.
A few months ago, the Ex Com suspended two great activists from Northern California. Let's call them the Lambs (not their real names). The Lambs are a husband-wife team raising a young daughter. I worked with Mr. Lamb on the Johnson-Weld campaign, he as Northern California activist coordinator and I as Statewide coordinator. We would meet with the national campaign manager weekly by teleconference and Mr. Lamb would give his report. He and Mrs. Lamb organized and worked very hard on many events and activities. The campaign itself was the most impactful Libertarian presidential campaign ever, by a large margin. The Lambs continued their volunteer activism after the 2016 campaign. They were a big part of organizing the 2017 California Libertarian convention. Mr. Lamb ran for state chair in 2019. The Lambs have been very active in their County organization throughout. I don't know the Lambs personally, but every political party needs more people like them! The last thing the Ex Com should be doing is holding trial over them and suspending their memberships.
The Lambs appealed the suspension, arguing that the procedure the Ex Com used to suspend their memberships violated due process under Robert's Rules of Order. The LPC Judicial Committee should have ruled in their favor on this point. Instead, it ruled, essentially, that the Ex Com can suspend anyone they wish without meaningful procedural limits, as long as they say it is "for cause." Or at least, the Ex Com is interpreting the ruling so, as evidenced by its latest crime spree.
The Lambs did not choose to argue the merits of the putative "cause." Nor would most people in their position. Who wants to have nasty, false accusations about their conduct argued in public? It came out afterwards in a public discussion forum that the misconduct was nothing more serious than using access to private member information to contact a donor once, a well-intentioned slight that could have been handled with a private reprimand. Although we'll never know for sure.
Not long after expelling the Lambs, the Ex Com went after another member, a local activist here in Southern California I'll call Mr. Bulldog. Mr. Bulldog is a professional signature gatherer, and has run signature gathering teams. He has been publicly critical of elected officers and former officers of the Los Angeles County affiliate for their role in depriving the membership of public, in-person meetings, using threats of police force to squash dissent, fabricating lies about meeting places, defaming members who questioned their conduct, and other abuses of office. My guess is these same people are responsible for trying to eject him. To avoid the LPC Ex Com's Star Chamber, Mr. Bulldog resigned his membership. I hope he rejoins at a more opportune time.
Then they went after another prominent activist here in So Cal, who I'll call Mr. Jupiter. Earlier today, the Ex Com voted 12-0-2 to suspend his membership. They did this in Visalia, after giving Mr. Jupiter who lives in the LA Basin less than a day's notice of their intent to suspend him.
Mr. Jupiter is a friend of mine. He only became so after I joined the party and got to know him. I value his friendship as a person of rare honesty, trust him as someone who keeps the non-aggression pledge, and respect him as an activist for ethical and responsible human liberty. He has impressed me on many fronts. Like Churchill, he has persevered in the face of adversity and has not been afraid to voice unpopular opinions when he thought it important to an ethical cause. I know of no other activist in Southern California who has worked as effectively and generously in the cause of freedom for so long, or done more to recruit and encourage other activists. All this he has done in the face of more than ten years of attacks and abuse by officers of the party, harassment that has damaged his friendships, family, and business relations. All he has ever asked for from the party is for the abuse to stop.
Faced with the kind of abuse Mr. Jupiter endured, most would have left the party and forgotten about Libertarian activism long ago. Surely, that is what his detractors desire. After eight years in the party, I've seen plenty of others abandon the party for less. Mr. Jupiter hangs in there year after year, taking frequent abuse, while still generously volunteering his time and talents to candidates and causes across the country. Much more could be said about the long and extraordinary pattern of abuse by officers of the party against Mr. Jupiter. The suspension is just the latest example.
We will never know the alleged cause for the Ex Com's suspension, which it did it in secret session. I have reason to believe the cause is even more trivial than used to expel the Lambs. One of the former Los Angeles affiliate officers who has been relentlessly attacking Mr. Jupiter was complaining on LPC-discuss (an LPC Google Group) that Mr. Jupiter had refused to give him brochures a long time ago, and he had no reason to make such a complaint except as set-up for a suspension motion. The accusation is ridiculous, because Mr. Jupiter has never held power over brochures or other party property. But even if it were true, it would be no basis for suspending his membership.
The membership will never know what really went on with the suspension of the Lambs and Mr. Jupiter. No recordings were made, and the Ex Com is proving itself untrustworthy. If the Ex Com has to go into secret session to suspend a member, it should not be entertaining the motion at all.
Maybe the naysayers are right. Maybe the highest purpose of the Libertarian Party is to keep deluded sociopaths busy arguing about bylaws and attacking one another over petty slights. I believe a party organized around the Non-Aggression Principle can do better, but only if intelligent people of good will show up and elect reasonable leadership. It's not really that hard. Ex Com bullies gotta go.
A few months ago, the Ex Com suspended two great activists from Northern California. Let's call them the Lambs (not their real names). The Lambs are a husband-wife team raising a young daughter. I worked with Mr. Lamb on the Johnson-Weld campaign, he as Northern California activist coordinator and I as Statewide coordinator. We would meet with the national campaign manager weekly by teleconference and Mr. Lamb would give his report. He and Mrs. Lamb organized and worked very hard on many events and activities. The campaign itself was the most impactful Libertarian presidential campaign ever, by a large margin. The Lambs continued their volunteer activism after the 2016 campaign. They were a big part of organizing the 2017 California Libertarian convention. Mr. Lamb ran for state chair in 2019. The Lambs have been very active in their County organization throughout. I don't know the Lambs personally, but every political party needs more people like them! The last thing the Ex Com should be doing is holding trial over them and suspending their memberships.
The Lambs appealed the suspension, arguing that the procedure the Ex Com used to suspend their memberships violated due process under Robert's Rules of Order. The LPC Judicial Committee should have ruled in their favor on this point. Instead, it ruled, essentially, that the Ex Com can suspend anyone they wish without meaningful procedural limits, as long as they say it is "for cause." Or at least, the Ex Com is interpreting the ruling so, as evidenced by its latest crime spree.
The Lambs did not choose to argue the merits of the putative "cause." Nor would most people in their position. Who wants to have nasty, false accusations about their conduct argued in public? It came out afterwards in a public discussion forum that the misconduct was nothing more serious than using access to private member information to contact a donor once, a well-intentioned slight that could have been handled with a private reprimand. Although we'll never know for sure.
Not long after expelling the Lambs, the Ex Com went after another member, a local activist here in Southern California I'll call Mr. Bulldog. Mr. Bulldog is a professional signature gatherer, and has run signature gathering teams. He has been publicly critical of elected officers and former officers of the Los Angeles County affiliate for their role in depriving the membership of public, in-person meetings, using threats of police force to squash dissent, fabricating lies about meeting places, defaming members who questioned their conduct, and other abuses of office. My guess is these same people are responsible for trying to eject him. To avoid the LPC Ex Com's Star Chamber, Mr. Bulldog resigned his membership. I hope he rejoins at a more opportune time.
Then they went after another prominent activist here in So Cal, who I'll call Mr. Jupiter. Earlier today, the Ex Com voted 12-0-2 to suspend his membership. They did this in Visalia, after giving Mr. Jupiter who lives in the LA Basin less than a day's notice of their intent to suspend him.
Mr. Jupiter is a friend of mine. He only became so after I joined the party and got to know him. I value his friendship as a person of rare honesty, trust him as someone who keeps the non-aggression pledge, and respect him as an activist for ethical and responsible human liberty. He has impressed me on many fronts. Like Churchill, he has persevered in the face of adversity and has not been afraid to voice unpopular opinions when he thought it important to an ethical cause. I know of no other activist in Southern California who has worked as effectively and generously in the cause of freedom for so long, or done more to recruit and encourage other activists. All this he has done in the face of more than ten years of attacks and abuse by officers of the party, harassment that has damaged his friendships, family, and business relations. All he has ever asked for from the party is for the abuse to stop.
Faced with the kind of abuse Mr. Jupiter endured, most would have left the party and forgotten about Libertarian activism long ago. Surely, that is what his detractors desire. After eight years in the party, I've seen plenty of others abandon the party for less. Mr. Jupiter hangs in there year after year, taking frequent abuse, while still generously volunteering his time and talents to candidates and causes across the country. Much more could be said about the long and extraordinary pattern of abuse by officers of the party against Mr. Jupiter. The suspension is just the latest example.
We will never know the alleged cause for the Ex Com's suspension, which it did it in secret session. I have reason to believe the cause is even more trivial than used to expel the Lambs. One of the former Los Angeles affiliate officers who has been relentlessly attacking Mr. Jupiter was complaining on LPC-discuss (an LPC Google Group) that Mr. Jupiter had refused to give him brochures a long time ago, and he had no reason to make such a complaint except as set-up for a suspension motion. The accusation is ridiculous, because Mr. Jupiter has never held power over brochures or other party property. But even if it were true, it would be no basis for suspending his membership.
The membership will never know what really went on with the suspension of the Lambs and Mr. Jupiter. No recordings were made, and the Ex Com is proving itself untrustworthy. If the Ex Com has to go into secret session to suspend a member, it should not be entertaining the motion at all.
Maybe the naysayers are right. Maybe the highest purpose of the Libertarian Party is to keep deluded sociopaths busy arguing about bylaws and attacking one another over petty slights. I believe a party organized around the Non-Aggression Principle can do better, but only if intelligent people of good will show up and elect reasonable leadership. It's not really that hard. Ex Com bullies gotta go.
While I am not familiar with the minutiae of the cases that you cite, I trust that the Ex Com made their decisions with due deliberation and in consideration of the facts.
ReplyDeleteYou state that, "It would be a badge of honor to be suspended by them". Based on your previous maleficence as Southern California Coordinator, your lying in your official capacity regarding events about which I have direct knowledge, your support of schism within groups under your supervision and your generally disruptive behavior, it appears that you are striving to earn that honor.
I hate to see anyone driven away from the party and our movement and urge you to stop your role in these divisions.
Brian Ryman,
DeleteWhile serving as the Vice Chair of the San Bernardino County Libertarian Party you led an assault on its membership at meetings. You repeatedly shouted slurs at members. Not just one member but at many and repeatedly. At one meeting you accused several men in their 20s of being homosexuals in front of their girlfriends and suggested that they were having sex with each other. In this tirade, you didn't stop there but you called these adults, "catamites." Which are children sex slaves. There are a number of people prepared to talk about your behavior including the owners of the restaurant who were troubled by not only your volume but the filth that would fly from your mouth.
The restaurant was always very understanding about heated discussions and volume even giving us a place of our own to use, while their swanky clientele dined on the patio by the stage. Your language was disgusting and worse than aggressive sounding, you were vindictively targeting and threatening individuals one after another in a concerted campaign of personal damage. But that was not the beginning of your behavior was it. Before disappearing into the high desert in 2014 how many times had you been censured in San Bernardino?
Brian,
DeleteA room being divided on an issue is normal. What is truly atrocious
is you personally slandered me at a LP meeting and accused me of homosexual behavior toward me and my friends, in front of my friends, family members and coworkers! Not just in a mean insensitive way, but your attack was clearly meant to call my relationships into question in a very personal damaging way. You were an officer of that meeting, and you are targeting people to do damage to their relationships. You coordinated with other destructive people and led a personally targeted campaign against the hardest workers in California. You held secret trails and prosecuted other members. The worst part of all, I've personally heard you tell members that you intend to do whatever you have to do, to destroy them.
I joined the libertarian party to do activism, not to have my private life invaded, my sexuality questioned and my work/personal relationships damaged.
I can attest to the assault on membership at meetings by the Vice Chair of the San Bernardino County Libertarian Party, Brian Ryman. I was there when he insulted numerous young men, including myself, at the meeting by calling them catamites right in front of their girlfriends. But this isn't the first time he's been sexually aggressive. In fact, he and another saboteur have been coordinating their attacks in multiple counties. Jill Pyeatt in the Pasadena Region Meeting, often berates members, including myself, and disrupt party business with her horrible accusations that have nothing to do with party business - Everything to do with gay shaming. They continue to cause hurt and damage not only at meetings, but online and at people's relationships as well. They've breached into MY personal life. They've even gone after me at work.
DeleteBrian, you were the one who shouted sexually aggressive slurs to me and my friends, in front of our families, girlfriends, and children. You were the one who orchestrated to have myself and Boomer censured in the state party in a secret trial with no notification or defense. Your using the party as a platform to personally damage me is a gross abuse.
DeleteBrian,
ReplyDelete"Badge of honor" is a self-evident rhetorical statement that reflects my rational conviction that the current Ex Com is acting in an unprincipled and destructive fashion that all members of good conscience should be concerned about. In reality, it is disruptive and a cloud on one's reputation to be suspended from an organization to which one has dedicated years of active service. This is obvious and should not need to be spelled out. In Mr. Jupiter's case, the motivation to silence Mr. Jupiter and the Lambs from speaking from the convention floor or gaining influence within the party could not be more apparent.
I have watched your anger and aggression towards Mr. Jupiter for years, including your action as chair to move the San Bernardino business meeting to a place and time he could not attend, and your leadership of the secret trial held against outgoing officers you counted as his friends. It was this very trial that touched off schisms still reverberating in Los Angeles County and whetted the Ex-Com's appetite for secret trials and expulsions. You proudly display your animus against Mr. Jupiter. Thus, your remark that the Ex Com "made their decisions with due deliberation" in a secret trial held with less than 24 hours notice 300 miles away from Mr. Jupiter's residence, led by representatives who have publicly declared their intention to silence Mr. Jupiter and drive him from the party, is absurd.
You accuse me of lying and being generally disruptive but do not provide any specific examples. I have no groups under my supervision except my family, friends and co-workers all of which are united and free of schisms. I am willing to discuss my opinions and actions during my 5-year term as Southern Vice Chair civilly and truthfully with well-intentioned people, and many could testify to my honesty, distaste for conflict, and good decorum. You will be responsible for the karma that flows from making unfounded accusations and holding on to your bitter anger against those who have made many overtures of reconciliation and peace. Namaste, peace be upon you.
The ExCom has effectively demonstrated they cannot be trusted.
ReplyDeleteThey go into executive session we are supposed to be about full transparency.
They suspend memberships without proper notice, procedure, nor ethics.
And when they were called upon to investigate the violence on numerous Central Committee members, they did nothing, repeatedly did nothing.
Who called for these memberships to be suspended anyway? and why is that only the ExCom is making these decisions? Does the "leadership" represent the entire body? If so, they are severely misrepresenting the body. If they can just suspend memberships so easily and underhandedly, whats stopping them from going after the rest of us? Who's next?
This article only talks about the 3 people railroaded by the ExCom this year. In the last several years at least 9 different Central Committee members have been in front of the state ExCom or JudCom for disciplinary actions. Some were not allowed to speak on their own behalf at all and convicted in abstentia all the while begging, crying and eventually screaming to be allowed to speak up for themselves.
ReplyDeleteTheir conviction was eventually nullified by the ExCom but only after long tireless demands for fair play. Two of those three were busy getting a Libertarian elected. The Chair of the Los Angeles Libertarian Party who was a part of railroading the members vowed that they would get them another way as argument in open session.
We do not know how many more Central Committee members were attacked at personal levels by these officers. We only know of these 9 people that resisted their aggressions to the point that they were pulled in front of committees.
We do know that there is a whole boat load of members reporting that officers and ExCom members are reaching into their lives, assaulting their families, and bullying their employers.
What we do know is that just a few weeks from convention, they have only sold a dozen of their 40 room block for a presidential election... only 40 rooms. Is it possible that they think that ousting members with massive networks of friends will bring out more activists?
One previous Chair of the California LP said in 2010: "We don't want members, they cost too much and get in the way."
You can add me to that list of 'dissenters'! LOL. I'm surprised I haven't been banned altogether after all the constant negative news I've received from the party. Definitely in need of new leadership if attracting new members is the focus. If not.....
ReplyDeleteHi Nickolas! Happy New Year and best wishes to you and yours. Looking forward to seeing you in Long Beach, if you are able (or willing) to attend. Events over the past couple of years have me rethinking my commitment to party activities, and I now understand why so many deeply libertarian activists have withdrawn from participation over the eight years I have been observing. Sad.
DeleteIt is really really really bad Nick and going after Libertarians like you on facebook is generally how they start their attacks. They are systematically targeting the largest activist networks in the California LP. Mr. Jupiter, as Mr. Jaech calls him, was notified the morning before the meeting with absolutely no notice of what "cause" was. The ExCom voted specifically to NOT allow him any witnesses - one of them was Judge James Gray. The prosecution, according to a witness to the proceedings, did nothing but hurl personal attacks at Mr. Jupiter - each of them designed to demonstrate to him that if he resisted, they would attempt to destroy him personally and professionally. The actual charge they listed in the notice of suspension was not even submitted as evidence during the non-trial.
DeleteIf the experience Mr. Jupiter had was anything like the others, it is no wonder Mr. Bulldog and Mr. and Mrs. Lamb simply left the party. They were coerced with extortion, not disciplined for cause.