LUMPENPROLETARIAT—[Thursday, 16 FEB 2023] Here are some of today’s media/press notes to help us track and make sense of this plandemic dystopia we all find ourselves living through in the 2020s, including inverted totalitarianism, medical authoritarianism, medical apartheid, police state, post-COVID-19 controlled demolition of the global economy, looming food crisis, the rise of neo-feudalism, houseless encampments of the neo-peasantry, nuclear danger, creeping WWIII provoked by US/NATO/AUKUS imperialism against the BRICS nations and the global south, military pollution, petrol pollution, corporate pollution, chemical pollution, geoengineering, chemical cloud seeding, endocrine disrupting chemicals in the food and water, a worsening global fertility crisis, and industry-induced climate change leading to a climate crisis of melting ice caps, record heatwaves, tornadoes, floods, drought, drying rivers, and other extreme weather events, which threaten life on Earth.
Let’s learn together and find solutions together. Let’s build working class solidarity. Let’s build human solidarity. Let’s form groups and “act for justice”. “[There’s] power anywhere where there’s people,” as Fred Hampton said. Siempre hay esperanza. (Please see below for samples of today’s news cycle.)
It appears CODEPINK, the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalitions (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), and other liberal groups, traditionally associated with U.S. antiwar movements are flaking on the Rage Against the War Machine antiwar demonstration in DC this coming weekend, mainly because they don’t like Jackson Hinkle or whatever. Everybody knows Jackson Hinkle can be a douchebag because he tends to lack empathy for others, make stupid remarks, follow von Mises, and display other lapses of judgment. But, sometimes, we gotta agree to disagree. Surely, we must be able to set aside our ideological differences to come together for peace and against war, against the military-industrial-congressional-complex. If we don’t. We are basically saying we care more about our ideologies than about world peace.
I think our priority should not be electoral politics. I think our priority should be building disciplined, organized, militant popular movements. And electoral politics can be part of that movement, but shouldn’t be the primary focus. We have to rebuild those organizations because the only strength we have is in our numbers. And, if we use those numbers correctly, we can pit power against power. But that requires organization.
Chris Hedges (quoted from a 2021 talk at Brooklyn College)
OTHER SALIENT OBSERVATIONS:
- “Does MMT End the “Debt Ceiling” Debate? w/ Stephanie Kelton” by Bad Faith [via YouTube], 16 FEB 2023. [1hr 12min 22sec] [TW] (Additional notes on this interview below.)
- “Anti-War Activists Infighting Reaches Boiling Point – Chris Hedges Weighs In” by Kim Iversen [via YouTube], 16 FEB 2023. [21min 53sec] (Additional notes on this interview below.)
@LumpenProles, last modified/edited/updated on 14 FEB 2023 at 08:54 PST
MEDIA NOTES, NEWS, VIEWS, WORKING CLASS BLUES, INFORMATION, INSPIRATION, PERSPIRATION, AND AGITATION FROM A WORKING CLASS PERSPECTIVE*
[Ideally, your author would have included links to all programs listed below. Programs listed without an embeded link or listener notes are based on past scheduling and have not yet been verified. Please check relevant websites for actual programming. / Notes will be modified/edited/updated as time and labor constraints allow. Working class solidarity. ✊🏽✊🏼✊🏿✊]
Thursday, 16 February 2023
Please read this book, if you haven’t already…
*The opinions expressed by the hosts, guests, journalists, authors, and other speakers in today’s sampling of news and information are not necessarily the views of Lumpenproletariat.
The free speech Pacifica Radio Network, perhaps the world’s oldest listener-sponsored, definitely the world’s first and only listener-owned radio network, includes KPFA (the first Pacifica Radio station; Berkeley, CA), WBAI (NYC), KPFK (Los Angeles), WPFW (D.C.), and KPFT (Houston), and has many other affiliate stations. The U.S. government, having undergone a corporate coup d’état in slow motion (if not a military coup on 22 NOV 1963), and being inimical to the Bill of Rights, is opposed to free speech radio. After the 1999 KPFA Lockouts, listeners won democratic governance of the Pacifica Radio Network. Unfortunately, since then, a liberal (i.e., pro-capitalist or non-anti-capitalist) faction, including KPFA news bosses (Aileen Alfandary, Mark Mericle, et al.), have colluded to undermine democratic governance and to NPR-ize Pacifica Radio. Free speech Pacifica Radio is your radio network, built to broadcast news and information, which the establishment tries to distort or hide from you. We cannot hope for a democratic society without an informed citizenry. Please support free speech Pacifica Radio. Become a member with full voting rights for as little as $25 per year. Then, hold your Pacifica Radio stations accountable and keep Pacifica Radio true to the Pacifica Mission Statement. Then, help expand free speech radio and digital media. Most media/press is state-corporate propaganda. The airwaves belong to the people. Don’t let Democrat partisans colonize free speech radio. Don’t let Democrat partisans keep the working-class imaginary confined within the false left-right paradigm, within the false opposition party that is the Democrat Party, within the corporate two-party dictatorship. The working-class needs institutional power to build political power, not just cultural awareness or cultural celebration, not just “identity politics”, which are mostly cultural, not political, concerns. Political education is as necessary for working-class liberation, as it is central to the Pacifica Mission Statement. Unfortunately, the Democrat Party, the two-party system, the establishment is dumbing down America. And this process of depoliticization and demobilization is being advanced within Pacifica Radio by certain people, apparently connected to the Democrat Party and/or the U.S. government. Please support free speech Pacifica Radio; then, hold it accountable to its Mission Statement. Oust the sophists. Lift up the truth-seekers. This daily column is dedicated to the Pacifica Mission Statement, dedicated to exposing sophistry and deception, dedicated to the liberation of the working-class through communication, dia logos, encouraging mindful action within and between wisdom-cultivating communities. As Einstein suggested, like Socrates before him, the important thing is to not stop questioning.
02:00 PST / 05:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > CODEPINK Radio with CODEPINK Collective
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
05:00 PST / 08:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman and company
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
06:00 PST / 09:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Equal Rights and Justice with Mimi Rosenberg
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
06:00 PST / 09:00 EST, WPFW [D.C.] > On the Margin
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
07:00 PST, KPFK [Los Angeles, CA] > Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
07:00 PST / 10:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > CODEPINK Radio with CODEPINK activists
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
07:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > UpFront with Brian Edwards-Tiekert
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: UpFront is some of the worst Machiavellian perception management, which will never inform the working class, which is oppressed by the power elite, nor help them connect the dots between issues to help the public see the larger truths to be able to learn from past experience. This is liberal [i.e., pro-capitalist or non-anti-capitalist] entertainment and Democrat Party apologism masquerading as critical leftist [i.e., anti-capitalist] journalism and analysis. [ 2? ]
08:00 PST / 11:00 EST, WPFW [D.C.] > Code Pink Radio
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
08:00 PST / 11:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Joy of Resistance with Fran Luck
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
09:00 PST / 12:00 EST, PRN.Live [NYC] & WBAI [NYC] (simulcast) > The Gary Null Show
NOTES (re: Gary Null Show for x date): [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This program, The Gary Null Show, is one of the most honest, compassionate, and hard-hitting shows on Pacifica Radio, or anywhere for that matter. This program is easily as important, as the best of them: Flashpoints; Project Censored; On The Ground: Voices of Resistance From the Nation’s Capitol; Covid, Race & Democracy, Guns and Butter, et al.
10:00 PST / 13:00 EST, PRN.Live [NYC] > Leid Stories with Eutrice Leid
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This program, Leid Stories, is dedicated to free speech, but free speech with common sense, courtesy, and focus. Listeners are invited to call in to speak freely about a particular question posed by the host, Eutrice Leid. Unlike other call-in shows, like Thom Hartmann, Kris Welch, Mitch Jeserich, and many others on free speech Pacifica Radio, callers aren’t screened or filtered, dissonant voices aren’t cut short, or otherwise handled to control the narrative. Instead, the host, Eutrice Leid, helps callers make their point, as long as it’s a cogent argument. Eutrice Leid encourages critical thinking. On Fridays, the discussion theme is “Free Your Mind Fridays”, where listeners are invited to call in to speak freely on any topic they wish. KPFA listeners deserve a radio host, like Eutrice Leid, during weekdays, instead of partisan hosts, such as Kris Welch, who perpetuate phony establishment narratives, and stifle call-ins. | Leid Stories is one of the most honest, hard-hitting, yet compassionate, programs on the free speech Progressive Radio Network, or anywhere for that matter. This program is easily as important, as the best of them: Project Censored; Flashpoints; The Gary Null Show; On The Ground: Voices of Resistance From the Nation’s Capitol; Guns and Butter; Clearing the FOG; Covid, Race & Democracy; et al.
10:00 PST / 13:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Leonard Lopate at Large
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This program, Leonard Lopate at Large, suffers from the same “liberal bias” (which Dr. Noam Chomsky has warned about since at least the 1990s), as UpFront, Democracy Now!, Letters and Politics, Talkies, Rising Up, et al. Democrat Party apologism and a refusal to critique or interrogate the two-party dictatorship is the common thread between all these liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists)…
10:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] & KPFK [Los Angeles, CA] (simulcast) > Letters and Politics
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This program, Letters and Politics, suffers from the same “liberal bias” (which Dr. Noam Chomsky has warned about since at least the 1990s), as UpFront, Democracy Now!, Leonard Lopate at Large, Talkies, Rising Up, et al. Democrat Party apologism and a refusal to critique or interrogate the two-party dictatorship is the common thread between all these liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists)…
10:00 PST / 13:00 EST, WPFW [D.C.] > Your Rights at Work
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
11:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Talkies with Kris Welch
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This program suffers from what Dr. Noam Chomsky described circa 1991 as “the liberal bias”. Kris Welch is a stalwart defender of Democrat Party reformism. But, of course, the defense is done with subtlety and nuance. Uncritical listeners might even project their own views on to her liberal rhetoric and see what they want to see. But, make no mistake, Kris Welch is a staunch Democrat, a Wellstone Democrat to be precise. The Democrat Party will always be a corrupt, corporate party. Yet, some Democrat reformists never stop with their false left-right paradigm, operating from an underlying assumption or from the presupposition that the Democrat Party is a sincere opposition party to the racist, anti-working class Republican Party. Over time, a pattern of Democrat Party apologia emerges. This seems implausible as an ideological stance. Such apologia only makes sense coming from shills on some payroll.
11:00 PST / 14:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Take Charge of Your Health with Corrine Furnani & Carol Petersen
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
12:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Behind the News
QUOTATION FROM RADIO ARCHIVE DESCRIPTION: “War fever in the US and corruption in Indian capitalism” | “Anatol Lieven on the slim prospects for peace in Ukraine and growing bellicosity towards China • Jairus Banaji, author of this Phenomenal World article, on the politicized structure of Indian capitalism generally, and the scandal surrounding Gautam Adani (Hindenburg report here)”
NOTES: [notes pending]
RELATED RESOURCES/READINGS:
- “Adani Group: How The World’s 3rd Richest Man Is Pulling The Largest Con In Corporate History” by x, 24 JAN 2023.
COMMENTS: This program, Behind the News, suffers from the same “liberal bias” (which Dr. Noam Chomsky has warned about since at least the 1990s), as UpFront, Democracy Now!, Leonard Lopate at Large, Letters and Politics, Talkies, et al. Democrat Party apologism and a refusal to critique or interrogate the two-party dictatorship is the common thread between all these liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists). Doug Henwood, like the hosts of Against the Grain (Sasha Lilley and C.S. Soong), deserve some credit for providing some informative programs, which are of interest to left-leaning people. And, I must admit, they had me fooled for years into thinking that they are actually leftists. But, at this point in my life, I finally understand that Doug Henwood, like C.S. Soong and Sasha Lilley, will never critique the Democrat Party nor the two-party dictatorship as thoroughly as they may critique the Republican Party. Notably, Sasha Lilley is a political ally of Doug Henwood, helping him get on the KPFA broadcast schedule back during the years when Sasha Lilley was KPFA’s interim Program Director. I remember at least one KPFA ally, speaking against Doug Henwood, calling him a “hack” back then, when I naively perceived Doug Henwood as more leftist than he actually is. Liberals, like Doug Henwood, Sasha Lilley, and C.S. Soong are the most clever of Pacifica Radio liberals because they seem sincere, honest, leftist. But, when you listen closely to them, especially for decades as your author has done, you start to see the liberal bias and the Democrat Party apologia very clearly. It’s obvious over time, especially taking notes on their broadcasts. But such liberals can perpetrate a fraud against occasional listeners, as they have done for years, but all the while contributing to a general dumbing down of free speech Pacifica Radio listeners, especially when it comes to what Dr. Peter Dale Scott, Dr. Peter Phillips, and others call “deep politics”, especially when it comes to moments of kairos, turning points, such as 9/11 and the COVID-19 psyop (chimeric virus is real, most likely lab-engineered through gain of function research; but the statistics and statistical modeling was fraudulent and inflated for fearmongering purposes). All we get is gaslighting from such liberals masquerading as anti-capitalists when it comes to deep politics. Ultimately, this is liberal entertainment for shallow and demobilized types. It takes more sincerity, more willingness to challenge power structures with specifics, naming names, to truly elevate the consciousness of listeners, to activate and politicize and mobilize listeners to go from being passive to active. We need people like Doug Henwood, Sasha Lilley, and C.S. Soong to stop bullshitting listeners, when it comes to deep politics, even when it comes to the two-party dictatorship. Such liberals need to interview and learn from other more honest broadcasters, such as Mickey Huff, Bonnie Faulkner, Dennis Bernstein, Esther Iverem, Gary Null, Steve Zeltzer, et al.
12:00 PST / 15:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Resistance Radio with John Kane and Regan de Loggans
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
13:00 PST / 16:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
13:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] >
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
14:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > The Visionary Activist
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This show, The Visionary Activist, is, perhaps, the most egregious example of dishonoring the Pacifica Mission statement. Instead of calling this show The Visionary Activist, it ought to be called The Demobilizing Activist, fomenting analysis paralysis. Fake deep statements. Fetishism of indigenous stuff? Liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists).
14:00 PST / 17:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Driving Forces
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
14:00 PST / 17:00 EST, WPFW [D.C.] > Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
15:00 PST / 18:00 EST, WPFW [D.C.] > U Must Learn
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
15:00 PST / 18:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Democracy Now! Evening with Amy Goodman and company
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: Evidently, a truncated 30-minute version of the morning’s Democracy Now! program functions as WBAI’s nightly newscast.
15:30 PST / 18:30 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Chris Hedges Report [30min]
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
16:00 PST / 19:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley [60min]
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
16:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Hard Knock Radio with Davey D
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
17:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Flashpoints with Dennis Bernstein
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
18:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays is usually, honest on basic social justice issues, but KPFA newscast bosses tend to gaslight listeners on COVID-19 (never mention VAERS data, VAERS deaths, assaults on informed consent, assaults on parental consent, no mention of litigation in India against the World Health Organization, etc.) and also gaslight listeners regarding establishment Democrat Party politics (i.e., usually engaging in Democrat Party apologia and perception management to keep people within the Democrat Party imaginary and away from the third-party politics imaginary, in the sociology sense of the term, ‘imaginary’). I.e., in other words, ‘it’s all good, just don’t question 9/11, COVID-19, nor establishment electoral politics.’ Having said all that, this is still a better nightly newscast than most. I’m hard-pressed to think of a better one, especially since the demise of Free Speech Radio News (FSRN), particularly regarding local news coverage. But that doesn’t excuse the KPFA news bosses’ intellectual dishonesty, lying by omission, and other deficiencies of journalistic integrity. WION is pretty good on global news; but there, too, one can detect the liberal bias, which Dr. Noam Chomsky has warned about since at least the 1990s.
19:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] >
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
“Anti-War Activists Infighting Reaches Boiling Point – Chris Hedges Weighs In” by Kim Iversen [via YouTube], 16 FEB 2023. [21min 53sec]
COMMENTS: Okay, fellow working-class brothers and sisters…
Some of us have been complaining that the #AntiWar movement has been asleep at the wheel, as #USNATO #imperialism provokes #WWIII and #nuclearwar, for decades encircling the Russian Federation with NATO clones…
US imperialists have given Putin and his Russian compatriots no choice but to submit and be dominated by US/NATO/AUKUS imperialism, or defend themselves, like they defended themselves against Hitler and the Nazis, like they defended themselves against Napolean and the French Empire, and like they defended themselves against the Swedish and other invaders…
It seems rightists (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists) are the most antiwar of all because they’ve launched a #rageagainstthewarmachine action coming up in #DC this weekend. I remember when leftists (i.e., anti-capitalists) were the first ones to protest war, the first ones to point out the fact that “war is a racket”, as U.S. Major General Smedley Butler courageously admitted long ago. Now, all #leftists (i.e., anti-capitalists) and #liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists) and others have to do is set aside their ideological differences and get behind the call for #peace and to expose the false narrative about #ukraine…
Unfortunately, the liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists) at Code Pink and other antiwar groups have decided not to join forces with the rightists (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists) to build a non-partisan working class antiwar movement. Your author remembers groups, like A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) used to have huge antiwar rallies. Now, they seem to be turning away from the “war” part of their acronym and more towards the “race” part…) At any rate, we need to bring back those huge A.N.S.W.E.R. rallies and massive antiwar demonstrations. We need to say no to the military dictatorship, which the corporate, military-industrial-congressional complex represents…
#AbolishtheMilitaryIndustrialComplex #AbolishtheCIA #AbolishNATO
cf. #Truthseekers, #ScottRitter, #JohnMearsheimer, #ChrisHedges, #RichardMedhurst, #MaxBlumenthal, #AaronMaté, #KimIversen, #TheGrayzone, #TheRealNewsNetwork, #DrGaryNull, #GeraldCelente, et al.
“Does MMT End the “Debt Ceiling” Debate? w/ Stephanie Kelton” by Bad Faith [via YouTube], 16 FEB 2023. [1hr 12min 22sec]
NOTES: [TW]
COMMENTS (posted on the Bad Faith YouTube channel comments section):
Brianna, thank you so much for talking publicly with Dr. Stephanie Kelton.
I’ve been trying to get people to pay attention to her and others, who explain modern monetary theory (MMT) since I first heard her on Guns and Butter with Bonnie Faulkner back in 2012.
I was so blown away by Dr. Kelton’s explanation of MMT that the following Spring of 2013, I enrolled at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where Dr. Kelton was the Chair of their heterodox economics department. I came back to California and tried to share what I had learned about MMT with my favorite free speech radio station KPFA. Much to my dismay and to their eternal shame, the liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists) at KPFA, like Mitch Jeserich (host, Letters and Politics), Brian Edwards-Tiekert (host of many shows over the years), and the news bosses (Aileen Alfandary, Mark Mericle, et al) all ignored my calls and emails. And here we are a decade later, and liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists) are still obfuscating the truth about MMT.
After the Global Financial Crisis of 2007/08, Brian Edwards-Tiekert (KPFA, Pacifica Radio) and his Democrat Party partisans, who are doing their best to ‘control the narrative’ on Pacifica Radio started featuring an economist I had never heard of at that point—Dr. Richard Wolff. Brian aired a segment on his morning show called, “Ask An Economist” with Dr. Richard Wolff. I was very pleased with the fact that he was an economist, who wasn’t shy about speaking about the economy in Marxian terms. But I had no idea they were hiding the truth about MMT until I heard Dr. Kelton on Guns and Butter. Of course, Brian and his faction would do everything they could to get rid of deep politics from Pacifica Radio. Eventually, Bonnie Faulkner’s Guns and Butter was removed from KPFA. It’s a shame. And they have deleted the Guns and Butter radio archives from the KPFA.org archives. What a shame.
Anyway, I encourage everyone to check out, if they can find audio archives of Bonnie Faulkner’s series on the 2012 Modern Monetary Theory Summit in Rimini, Italy. It’s like seven hour-long programs. Bonnie Faulkner traveled to Italy to record audio and attend the conference. It was a huge stadium full of Italian people wanting to learn about MMT, especially because Italy was undergoing brutal austerity policies. At the time, neoclassical economics types referred to the PIIGS, who deserved austerity (i.e., Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain).
But it was such a revolutionary lesson in economics, that I was inspired to put a lot of work into a series of transcripts, which I published with Abby Martin on MediaRoots.org. And, like I said, I enrolled the following semester at UMKC, and took courses with Dr. L. Randall Wray, some of my classes were taught by Dr. Kelton. Dr. Frederic S. Lee was there at the time, and many awesome heterodox economics professors. At UMKC, I no longer had time to work with Abby Martin on Media Roots. And that website underwent many face-lifts. So, the audio archives of the Guns and Butter broadcasts were lost. I also lost copies on dead hard drives and such. But you can still find the transcripts on my blog, Lumpenproletariat.org, or Lumpen.org.
But I think Dr. Kelton’s presentations from the 2012 MMT Summit in Rimini, Italy are some of the best she has ever given.
Also, when I was at UMKC, Dr. Kelton gave a presentation to a packed auditorium, called ‘The Angry Birds Approach to Deficits’, which is also very good. That presentation should be easily available on YouTube. And, of course, everyone should read Dr. Kelton’s book, The Deficit Myth.
People, who want the more rigorous proofs of MMT, ought to read Dr. L. Randall Wray’s work. His book, Understanding Modern Money is very accessible. Then, there’s also his important book, Modern Monetary Theory: A Primer on Macroeconomics for Sovereign Monetary Systems. In fact, people really ought to read everything Dr. Wray has written.
And for the highest-level skeptics, who want even more proof, they ought to read about sectoral balances and stock-flow consistency from Wynne Godley and Marc Lavoie, including the important 2012 book, Monetary Economics: An Integrated Approach to Credit, Money, Income, Production, and Wealth.
Before I close, I want to add a few remarks about Dr. Richard Wolff because, in my opinion, Dr. Kelton is far too polite. I have always preferred to get in people’s faces when I think they have it coming. Although I’m trying to cultivate wisdom, to find some balance between standing up for what’s right, but in the most peaceful way possible (cf. dialectic into dia-logos). I used to sit in Dr. Kelton’s office and ask her why we can’t get prominent people on the left to acknowledge MMT. It used to make me livid. I used to ask her about Dr. Noam Chomsky, Dr. Richard Wolff, anybody with any degree of notoriety. And she used to tell me, well, I think we should try to make friends and not enemies. I thought that made a lot of sense. But I still felt certain people deserved to be publicly shamed for, basically, lying by omission. And Dr. Richard Wolff and Dr. Noam Chomsky were two prime examples. I couldn’t understand how anyone could withhold information, which could help us get a job guarantee program and end involuntary unemployment as we know it.
As I mentioned earlier, the liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists) at KPFA and similarly throughout the natiowide Pacifica Radio Network and many affiliate stations, were happy to promote Dr. Richard Wolff, but avoided like the plague anything about MMT. Liberals, like Brian Edwards-Tiekert and Mitch Jeserich avoided MMT because they were shills for the Democrat Party establishment. But Dr. Richard Wolff obfuscated MMT for the same reason many other Marxian scholars and Marxists do—they say, ‘Ah! Get out of here with that MMT stuff! You’re just trying to save capitalism.’ But I think that view is short-sighted. I, too, understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism. But I’m more interested in truth-seeking than in protecting or defeating any ideology. To me, it has always been unconscionable that Dr. Richard Wolff would perpetuate a false narrative, like continuing to treat the U.S. federal budget, like a household budget. That is simply bullshit, to use philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt’s technical term meaning communication intended to persuade without regard for truth.
And I would say the same thing about Bernie Sanders. He sold out. As Bernie Sanders told Chris Hedges, ‘Well, I didn’t want to become another Ralph Nader,’ meaning he didn’t want to be marginalized politically. Such an attitude reminds me of ancient words of wisdom, Scripture (Matthew 16:26, I think): Jesus asks, what good is it for a man to gain the whole world, if he loses his soul?
Working-Class Solidarity ✊✊✊✊
Lumpen.org
Dr. Kelton’s “Angry Birds” presentation, 2014, I think it was, your author was in the audience with econ friends: https://youtu.be/aqTeshy4Vw8
P.S., One final note, to avoid being Pollyannish about MMT. And Dr. Kelton subtly alluded to this in her discussion with Brianna Joy Gray, when Dr. Kelton mentioned us, the USA, needing to make things, to increase manufacturing. MMT works for the USA, number one, of course, because the U.S. is the international reserve currency. And as people know the BRICS have been trying to get away from US dollar hegemony or imperialism. This goal of dedollarizarion is why Obama advanced the Asia-Pacific Pivot, redirecting US military focus away from the so-called War On Terror and towards encirclement of Russia and China. And, as Dr. Michael Hudson has been explaining for decades, America has been ‘getting a free lunch’ with US dollar imperialism, especially after 1971 when President Nixon took the dollar off the Gold Standard.
So, yes, MMT is correct: The US can always afford to spend in its own currency. In that regard, the US faces no insolvency risk. The US can always afford to pay its debt obligations denominated in its own currency, in US dollars. But that requires manufacturing nations, like China, to accept those dollars. China was very poor, economically, not in terms of resources. But it has worked very hard to rise out of poverty. And, so, it has accepted the deal with the US, accumulating dollars and, rather than ‘putting it in their mattress,’ so to speak, they buy US Treasury bonds, interest-bearing securities, to earn some interest, instead of sitting on those dollars.
But MMT can start to break down for the US, if the belligerent US war machine insists on provoking China into war-like adversarial relations. If China refuses to trade, to give us all these wonderful manufactured goods for the IOUs our government can freely create, what are we going to do? Are we, then, going to start manufacturing our own goods again? I can’t picture that scenario, not with our current politics or greedy capitalist economics ideologies. Time will tell. And a lot of it depends on whether we, the people, wake the folk up.
For an excellent series on US dollar imperialism, the BRICS, and dedollarizarion, check out the excellent series with Dr. Radhika Desai and Dr. Michael Hudson on the Geopolitical Economy Report.
[ 1 ] UpFront
[16 FEB 2023]
[Last modified/edited/updated on 14 MAR 2023 at 15:26 PDT]
Lumpenproletariat 