LUMPENPROLETARIAT—[Thursday, February 4, 2021]  We demand a ‘Robin Hood‘ tax, and we demand a 100% tax rate at the upper limits.  Those of us, who took Economics 101, may recall that in the United States, we once had upwards of a 90-95% tax rate for the highest income-earners.  America had learned its lesson after the Age of the Robber Barons.  We have forgotten this lesson of history, as a society. Clearly, it is a toxic state of affairs when a single man is allowed to hoard so much wealth that his wealth can overpower a nation.  People, like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates, we complain, should not have so much power in society.  In the San Francisco Bay Area, when the COVID-19 pandemic was raging, Musk’s Bay Area plant in Fremont shut down, like everybody else.  But, soon, Musk opened up his Tesla plant for production in defiance of Governor Newsom.  Are such elites above the law?

And those are just the obscenely-rich, who are in the spotlight.  But sociologist Dr. Peter Phillips, author of Giants, teaches us that this is a global transnational class of investors represented by 17 transnational investment firms.  “There’s more than enough food to feed everybody,” said Dr. Peter Phillips. But capital deems such an endeavor unprofitable.  Instead, they turn to the Giants, the 17 biggest investment firms, “the activist core” of the global elite.  “They’re controlling 90% of the wealth in the world.”  And guess what they love to invest in.  We’ll wait. You’re thinking the same thing. Right?  War.  Well, it’s been a war economy for some time, has it not?  Perhaps, white privilege or some other good reason can explain why we’ve been like the proverbial deer-in-headlights, since we heard Eisenhower’s Farewell Address.  Maybe we had it so good in the United States, from the 1950s to the 1980s, listening to Stevie B., life was so easy, that we didn’t notice we were benefiting from empire.  But austerity always follows. By the ’90s, things were changing.  In a narcissistic abuse relationship, there are cycles of abuse, followed by cycles of love-bombing, this is called the devaluation phase and the idealization phase.  But, always, in such abusive relationships, the abuse escalates.  Just when you thought you were getting along with your abuser, perhaps in a trauma bond, or Stockholm Syndrome, suddenly the narcissistic discard occurs again, and the pendulum swings back to the devaluation phase.  At the macro scale, we might call this another reconstruction phase.  But, since white people themselves are divided, and black people are divided and brown people are divided, since the whole nation is divided, we don’t expect the next reconstruction phase to be a panacea.

In the same way, white supremacy and white privilege are abuses that are escalating, or being escalated.  We contend that a great portion of the working class people in the pro-Trump camp are being gaslighted and manipulated, by misinformation campaigns, especially the people of color, who join Trump World, combined with various social forces related to cultural changes in society.  The thousands or tens of thousands, who descended on the Capitol, and the 74 million, who voted for Mr. Trump, were motivated by various working class issues, which have largely been ignored. An important opportunity to win many of them over is being squandered by the simple lack of diplomacy and leadership on the part of the Biden administration.

Our American elite no longer have any allegiance to any notion of America or apple pie.  Alexa O’ Brien was prophetic when they started the Occupy Wall Street movement. The culture wars are over. Everyone lost.  Dr. Phillips reminds us the data shows 80% of TV news stories the American public sees “are packaged or prepared by public relations firms working for government or corporations.”  So, our media is managed.  We are, effectively, as a society, not allowed to think for ourselves.  Why isn’t at least half the radio dial and half the TV bandwidth protected for free speech media, which allows real people to speak freely, not corporate talking heads delivering scripted narcissistic abuse?

“So, the public domain is bought up,” says Dr. Phillips.  We must realize neoliberalism will privatize everything, if we allow it, even the air we breathe, for corporate profit, for shareholder profits, and, ultimately, increasing corporate power over our lives.  Why does our society protect capital, but not human beings?  All of the red flags are indicating the winds of change are blowing toward corporate fascism.  Are they not?  The prophetic Chris Hedges has worked to draw our attention to Sheldon S. Wolin’s “prophetic” 2008 book, Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism. Things are looking bleak.  But there is always hope.  We can self-educate for correct political action. “Ultimately they’re gonna resist,” says Dr. Phillips. We are seeing resistance movements all around the world.  And that all makes them very afraid.  Solidarity.

@LumpenProles

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Download the Pacifica Radio app to listen to the free speech radio network.

KPFK [L.A.], https://www.kpfk.org/archives/

KPFT [Houston], https://archive.kpft.org/

KPFT [Houston-HD2], https://archive.kpft.org/

WBAI [NYC], https://www.wbai.org/archive/

KPFA [Berkeley], https://kpfa.org/archives/

WPFW [DC]

Notes for future scholarship…

Mining free speech media, liberal media, and even right-wing media for the most critical analyses of the issues of the day…

“Orwell’s final warning – Picture of the future”, clip from BBC4 documentary on George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984.

06:00 PST, WBAI > […] real talk. politics, with a local emphasis on NYC and NY state. […]  Why we need a Robin Hood tax, and how to get it. 06:47 PST, music break. ‘intransigent class-based’, ‘it goes more than ever to the propertied class’ […]  This show was Equal Rights and Justice […] 06:58 PST, ‘shark parts, shark liver oil (squaline(sp?), used in covid vaccines is driving sharks to extinction? clip from ‘Extinction Diaries’  […]  ‘Code Pink at 9 o’ clock’, NYC time.

“The Banker” by RobinHoodTax, 9 FEB 2010

07:00 PST, WBAI > Radio DJ updates and speaks on COVID-19 pandemic conditions, and introduces upcoming Gary Null segment to help raise money for free speech radio WBAI.  Please support free speech radio.

08:00 PST, KPFT [HD2] > […] 08:40 PST, ‘Prof. Michael Mann on his book, The New Climate War. […] 08:46 PST, “the inactivists”  […]  08:55 PST, the author’s credibility just took a nosedive, as he cited corporatist Anthony Fauci as a credible source of leadership.  Oy vey.

09:00 PST, WBAI > The Gary Null Show > Excellent, honest broadcast. The Great Reset is backed by neoliberals, such as Al Gore, the Carlysle Group (cf. Bush II regime, 9/11, etc)[…] video clip: ‘the fourth industrial revolution’ will involve artificial intelligence (EI)’ Musk’s ‘neurolink uses AI’ […]  call-ins:  what’s the phone number. Dr. Null, ya gotta repeat the number.  The first time you mention it gives people a chance to get something to write with to write it down.  The second time you say it, then, maybe, some people will be quick enough to jot it down.  We tried to find the number online, only to have a rude lady at WBAI transfer us to somebody’s voice mail.  The worst part of the whole thing was the WBAI lady’s evil tone.  I used to answer phones on Friday nights at KPFA, during La Onda Bajita, your author started visiting Miguel ‘El Gavilan’ Molina and company since his high school days, back when KPFA was, literally, a crack in the wall on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley.  How hard can it be to be helpful when radio listeners call in?  […] 10:09 PST,

10:00 PST, WBAI > Leonard Lopate at Large > An interview on “winter gardening” with a “nursery man”.

10:00 PST, WPFW > […] 10:11 PST, real talk. topic(s): “labor“, “John Sweeney at the AFL-CIO“

1013 kpfa & KPFK, sounds like Dr. Gerald Horn.  Mitch Jeserich announced he has a new YouTube page. Nice job, Mitch.  We gotta get one of those, too, at Lumpenproletariat.

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11:00 PST, real talk. On fitness and nutrition. We only disagree with “weight loss”, focus on body recomposition for optimal outcomes.

1100 kpfa talkies [….] re pacifica lawsuit! […]  11:40 PST, “Raymond Nat Turner, the town crier”, the poet, perhaps, from Black Agenda Report (BAR).  Just because we hear a poet from BAR does not constitute acknowledgment of the two-party dictatorship. For some reason, we didn’t have time to hear from alternative perspectives on the Pacifica lawsuit.  We got “the short version”.  But we do have time to chit chat about—we don’t even know what they’re talking about.  No topic was introduced.  Don’t fall for it, people.  […]  11:46 PST, Okay, our sincere poet is now singing.  Brother, I love your poetry.  But we want to learn more about why Pacifica Radio is falling apart, or being dismantled.  Some of us have been observing this antidemocratic, anti-free-speech agenda.  And we don’t trust Kris Welch to tell us the full truth, the whole picture.  Notice how she only promoted her faction. Notice how she didn’t bring Carol Spooner on the air.  We don’t trust Kris Welch, or her faction, to be sincere about the ongoing efforts to NPR-ize Pacifica, or to destroy it.  As a simple police matter, who would be the primary suspects?  I know.  Right?  But all of the KPFA elders I’ve talked to have said KPFA and Pacifica don’t need outside saboteurs. That simple internecine conflict was enough to bring down Pacifica, the only listener-supported free speech network.  If so, Welch’s faction has been at the core of the rot, at least back during the 2000s.  But we doubt anything has changed.  We don’t trust Welch and her faction.  We demand to hear from the broadcasters we trust at KPFA and Pacifica:  Anthony Fest (Project Censored), Dennis Bernstein (Flashpoints), Miguel “El Gavilan” Molina (La Onda Bajita), Bonnie Faulkner (Guns and Butter), Norah Barrows-Friedman (Electronic Intifada, formerly on Flashpoints; even C.S. Soong used to work on Flashpoints, circa the 1999 lockout; we have a video of him staring at Dennis Bernstein on the floor, handcuffed to the studio, during the lockout; CS looked detached; DB looked impassioned), Mickey Huff, Davey D, Kat Brooks, Dr. Peter Philipps, Cierra Shine, Sunsara Taylor, most of the folks at WPFW, especially Esther Iverem, and WBAI, et al. [TP]

12:00 PST, KPFA > Behind the News with Doug Henwood > Doug mentioned his article on the GameStop short sells at Jacobin.  He also mentioned appearing on The Daily Show.  Nice job, Doug! […] topic: On the apparent useful idiot Alexei Navolny.  […] 12:17 PST, “He is a narcissistic, to some extent.” [TP] […] 12:39 PST, “…we, as socialists…”  […] 12:43, ‘There are only so many socialists…’  ‘Only socialists will do certain tasks directed at capital.’  ‘We have to be strategic’ ‘Our enemy, the capitalist class, is cold and calculating.’

Kpfk 1218 [TP] ‘singing workers movement’ ‘the weavers’

1200 WBAI 1222 [TP] […] 12:23 PST, “AIM”, must be referring to the American Indian Movement.

1200 WPFW […] 1226, real talk. topic: “activism”.  We remember when KPFA used to be steeped in activism, back in the 1990s.  Everything changed after the 1999 KPFA lockout.  We remember  former KPFA Program Director Sasha Lilley claiming KPFA couldn’t really talk about activism or protest rallies, for fear of getting sued if a listener tripped on a branch or something.  Meanwhile, the far-right has been allowed to even organize an attempted coup.  And, we, on the left, have been told we cannot even inform our communities of picket lines or protest rallies.  What’s wrong with this picture? […] 12:37 PST, soothing jazz music, soothing horns, sax.  Thank you, WPFW.  Solidarity.

1300 KPFT […] 1308, ‘Houston History Tours, includes black history

1300 PST, WBAI > Democracy Now! > […] 13:25 PST, segment on “vaccine hesitancy”.  This segment sounds like bullshit.  Why don’t we hear Dr. Gary Null or other dissenting doctors on Democracy Now!  What’s wrong with this picture?  Amy Goodman just cited the fact that 1/3 of physicians are rejecting these corporate vaccines.  Cf. Bikman, Why We Get Sick: The Hidden Epidemic…

Wbai 1330 ‘the inner mind'(?) program

“Wolff Responds: GameStop, Old Speculation Exposed Anew” by RichardDWolff, 4 FEB 2021.

13:00 PST, KPFA > Book Waves with Richard Wolinsky > […]  13:43 PST, ‘2008 interview with Delroy Lindo on his work with August Wilson, and his work developing the character of Harold Loomis, which he played on Broadway.  […] c. 13:46. Delroy Lindo: ‘Up until the 1940s, black men were kidnapped and captured into’ “forced labor.”

14:00 PST, KPFA > The Visionary Activist > We have listened to more hours of this variety of “astrology” than we would care to admit.  Most of our activist friends, people of color, and authentic white people, not the fake narcissistic abusers, most of our friends around Berkeley roll their eyes at the thought of Caroline Casey.  Earlier today, Democrat partisan Kris Welch bashed her sister stations, totally shitting on Pacifica Network solidarity.  She said they sell snake oil, a clear dig at Gary Null, that she doesn’t know what airs on the other stations, as if to absolve her faction.  But her faction endorses astrology, for crying out loud.  What’s wrong with this picture? […]  14:23 , guest just tried to call Caroline Casey on her bullshit.  But CC regressed to astrology.  We send you all a big hug. 1443, meta.  […]  14:59 PST, What a happy coincidence that we feel the energy over the airwaves from white liberals at KPFA.  Could it be they are paying attention?  We do recall that happy moment years ago when Kris Welch cited Lumpenproletariat.org on The Talkies circa 2012, perhaps.  She cited our article on Ilan Ziv’s Capitalism.  Your author actually acquired a copy of the DVD set valued at about $450 or so, and got to use it in his classroom teaching high school economics as well as in other classrooms teaching middle school social sciences. Anyway, Kris Welch noticed us back then.  It’s plausible the white liberals at KPFA have caught wind of our recent posts.  Call-ins at WPFW and WBAI do not seem to act like elitist gatekeepers, like certain people do at KPFA and KPFK. Your author recently called in to various east coast Pacifica broadcasts.  They let your author speak freely.  They encouraged listeners to read Lumpenproletariat.  But Kris Welch and her faction never did.  Could it be white privilege?  Impossible.  Right?

15:00 PST, KPFA > Rising Up 1521, guest misunderstood the question, it seems; “internalized white supremacy on the left”, wait.  Hold up. […] 

16:00 PST, KPFA > Hard Knock Radio > real talk: activism; politics.  SF-Oakland-Silicon Valley Bay Area focus.  >  But, first, KPFA News Headlines 16:03 PST, Rep. Green is gravely reported as being unhinged by Kristina Aanestad.  But, here, we can invoke our crazy family members and friends, who have been sucked in by the Q-Anon narratives.  Remember, they were manipulated, but using a lot of compelling information.  For example, YouTuber Ivor Cummins has presented a lot of COVID-19 data, which must be refuted, not dismissed.  To dismiss is to enable, such theorists and researchers.  Another example of the Q-Anon-type info, which some of our childhood friends have been sharing online is YouTuber Dutchsinse.  During the California wildfires, your author engaged in dialogue and also a bit of debate with one childhood friend.  Back at San Mateo High School, she was one of the more popular students, even more popular than Alicia Silverstone (who your author didn’t know personally, but my homie’s girlfriend at the time was in a ballet class with her.  Because of that we went to go see Crush in South City one day.  But I digress).  The point is this friend of mine, K, is still just as charismatic as ever, only now on Facebook.  Anyway, she shared information and data from YouTuber Dutchsinse, who had a hobby of monitoring satellite data.  And we all saw the images of heat signatures, which looked like laser beams beaming straight at a point centered in the fires.  We thought that information was compelling.  But we haven’t had time to validate this particular YouTuber.  But Kristina Aanestad should point this out, not just act like Green is crazy.  We must be very mindful. This climate of calling people crazy will only be weaponized to much more devastating effect against those of us on the left.  We believe Kristina Aanestad, like Kris Welch, Brian Edwards-Tiekert, et al are Democrat voters.  So, they are willing to gaslight audiences to run defense for the Democrat Party and block all critique, which comes at them from their left.

Carol Phife(sp?) and Connie Wong(sp?) about “the mayor”, et al. “trying to undermine” progressives.

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Jimmy Dore: “The Democratic Party wants you thinking the other half of the country is the enemy.”

(c. 5:18)  “They’re keeping us divided.  And they’re making us afraid to talk to each other.  And I’m not gonna play that game.”

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[4 FEB 2021]

[Last modified on 14 FEB 2021 at 12:16 PST]

[TW = Transcript Worthy, pending volunteer labor. These are segments of radio, which would make excellent short-length, easily-searchable videos to share and, hopefully, make viral news and information from a left, working-class perspective, also to promote critical media literacy.  We seek solidarity and dignity, not status nor narcissistic supply, like many U.S. liberals.]