
LUMPENPROLETARIAT—[Monday, 06 MAR 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.)
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 a 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:
- “JFK and the wars in Vietnam and Laos (with historian Aaron Good)” by Geopolitical Economy Report [via YouTube], 6 MAR 2023. [1hr 05min 35sec] (Additional notes on this presentation below.)
- “CIA Stories: The Jakarta Method” by Empire Files [via YouTube], 6 MAR 2023. [1hr 07min 21sec] [L3] [F] 1[TW] 4min 30sec guest: ‘My book is really about the intentional mass murder of leftists.’
- “CA Attorney General Bonta Prosecute SF Police Killer Say Speakers At State Building In San Francisco” by laborvideo [via YouTube], 6 MAR 2023. [1hr 03min 45sec] [L13] [F] | “After the San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins declined to prosecute the San Francisco police officer Christopher Samayoa for killing Keita O’Neil, a rally was held at the San Francisco State building on March 6, 2023 demanding that California Attorney General Rob Bonta prosecute Samayoa. […] Keita O’Neil’s aunt April Green and his mother spoke as well as Cleo Moore, whose son was also murdered by police. […]” #JailKillerCops #LaborVideo
- “Israeli fighter pilots refuse to train in protest against judicial reforms: Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant denounced the decision on Sunday, saying it ‘harms the functioning of the Israel Defence Forces'” by JC Reporter, The Jewish Chronicle, 6 MAR 2023. [R0] | Thanks to Max Blumenthal for sharing this article: “Israeli fighter pilots refuse to train to massacre entire families in the Gaza ghetto in protest of judicial reforms. | Once the judicial reforms are reversed, the Israeli fighter pilots will agree to train to massacre entire families in the Gaza ghetto.”
@LumpenProles, last modified/edited/updated on 12 MAR 2023 at 11:06 PDT.
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. ✊🏽✊🏼✊🏿✊]
Monday, 6 March 2023


*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.
04:00 PST / 06:00 CST, KPFT [HD2] [Houston, TX] > Flashpoints
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This program, Flashpoints, is one of the most honest, compassionate, and hard-hitting shows on the free speech Pacifica Radio Network, or anywhere for that matter. This program is easily as important, as the best of them: Project Censored; The Gary Null Show; On The Ground: Voices of Resistance From the Nation’s Capitol; Covid, Race & Democracy, Guns and Butter, et al.
04:00 PDT / 06:00 CST, KPFT [Houston, TX] > The Thom Hartmann Program
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
04:00 PST / 07:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > What’s Going On? Labor Monday with Bob Hennelly
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
05:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] & 07:00 CST, KPFK [Los Angeles, CA] (simulcast) > Letters and Politics
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This 05:00 timeslot wastes a one-hour block on repeating the previous day’s show, as if this show was worthy of such repetition. Not even Democracy Now! is worthy of being aired twice per day on the same station. But Letters and Politics reruns are an example of the way liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists) colonize and monopolize the free speech radio airwaves and prevent voices to the left of them from having a fair opportunity to be heard.
05:00 PST / 07:00 CST / 08:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] & WPFW [D.C.] & KPFT [Houston, TX] [simulcast] > Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman and company
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: Democracy Now! used to be a hard-hitting, adversarial newscast. Now, Amy Goodman is a millionaire and Democracy Now! is no longer willing to be honest about various things, including the two-party dictatorship, 9/11, COVID-19, and US/NATO imperialism. As Danny Haiphong wrote in 2021, “[Democracy Now!] has become a reliable platform for uncritical regime change propaganda, demonizing targets of US empire from Syria to Nicaragua.” [ 1 ]
06:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman and company
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: [also see comments above for earlier broadcast of this same daily episode]
06:00 PST / 09:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Law and Disorder with Heidi Boghosian, Michael Smith Producer: Geoff Brady
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
07:00 PST / 10:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Project Censored
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This program, Project Censored, is one of the most honest, compassionate, and hard-hitting shows on the free speech Pacifica Radio Network, or anywhere for that matter. This program is easily as important, as the best of them: Flashpoints; The Gary Null Show; On The Ground: Voices of Resistance From the Nation’s Capitol; Guns and Butter; Covid, Race & Democracy, et al.
07:00 PST / 09:00 CST, KPFT [HD2] [Houston, TX] > The People’s News
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
07:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > UpFront
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 masquerading as critical leftist [i.e., anti-capitalist] journalism and analysis. But you don’t have to take your author’s word for it. Listen for yourself. [ 2 ]
08:00 PST / 10:00 CST, KPFT [Houston, TX] > Covid, Race & Democracy
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This program, Covid, Race & Democracy, is one of the most honest, hard-hitting, yet compassionate, programs on the free speech Pacifica 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.
08:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Law & Disorder with Cat Brooks
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]

09:00 PST / 12:00 EST, WBAI [NYC](simulcast) & PRN.Live [NYC] > The Gary Null Show
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This program, The Gary Null Show, is one of the most honest, hard-hitting, yet compassionate, programs on the free speech Pacifica Radio Network, or anywhere for that matter. This program is easily as important, as the best of them: Project Censored; Flashpoints; On The Ground: Voices of Resistance From the Nation’s Capitol; Guns and Butter; Clearing the FOG; Covid, Race & Democracy; Leid Stories; et al.
09:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Democracy Now!
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: [see comments above for 06:00 broadcast]

10:00 PST / 13:00 EST, PRN.Live [NYC] > Leid Stories with Utrice 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, Utrice Leid. Unlike other call-in shows, like Thom Hartmann, Kris Welch, Mitch Jeserich, and many others on free speech Pacifica Radio, on Leid Stories, callers aren’t screened or filtered, dissonant voices aren’t cut short, or otherwise handled to control the narrative. Instead, the host, Utrice Leid, helps callers make their point, as long as it’s a cogent argument. Utrice Leid encourages critical thinking. On Fridays, the discussion theme is “Free Your Mind Fridays”, where listeners are invited to call in to articulate an opinion on any topic they wish. KPFA listeners deserve a radio host, like Utrice Leid, during weekdays, instead of Democrat Party apologist 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 / 12:00 CST, KPFT [HD2] [Houston, TX] > Code Pink
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
10:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] & KPFT [Houston, TX] (simulcast) > Letters and Politics
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This program suffers from the same “liberal bias”, as UpFront, Democracy Now!, Letters and Politics, Lopate at Large, Talkies, et al. Democrat Party apologism and a refusal to critique or interrogate the two-party dictatorship is the common thread…
10:00 PST / 13:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Leonard Lopate at Large
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This program suffers from the same “liberal bias”, as UpFront, Democracy Now!, Letters and Politics, Talkies, et al. Democrat Party apologism and a refusal to critique or interrogate the two-party dictatorship is the common thread…
11:00 PST / 14:00 CST, WBAI [NYC] > Trauma Code with
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
11:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > The Ralph Nader Radio Hour
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
11:00 PST / 13:00 CST, KPFT [Houston, TX] > Thom Hartmann
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet] [N.B.: No podcast link provided. No download link provided. However, audio is accessible at the KPFT-FM, Houston Archive by manually searching for this program by searching the archive. As of 3 OCT 2022, it appears the KPFT archive only goes back to 22 JAN 2019.]
12:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Against the Grain
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
12:00 PST / 15:00 EST, WPFW [D.C.] > Jazz and Justice- African Deep Thought with Brother Ka’Ba’
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
12:00 PST / 15:00 EST, PRN.Live [NYC] > Ask Beatty with Beatty Cohan
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This radio program is new to your author. The 27 FEB 2023 broadcast is the first your author actually noticed. But your author is looking forward to listening again. Hopefully, PRN.Live can archive the programs. That way listeners can listen afterwards, if they miss the live broadcast due to work or other responsibilities, which prevent listening to the live broadcast, or webcast, as the case may be.
12:00 PST / 15:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Vantage Point
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
13:00 PST / 16:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Covid, Race & Democracy with PNB Covid Taskforce
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This is a good show. Your author is acquainted with at least two contributors. [ 3 ]
13:00 PST / 15:00 CST, KPFT [Houston, TX] > Hard Knock Radio
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
13:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Women’s Magazine
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: For the most part, this program suffers from the same “liberal bias”, as UpFront, Democracy Now!, Letters and Politics, Lopate at Large, Talkies, et al. Democrat Party apologism and a refusal to critique or interrogate the two-party dictatorship is the common thread…
13:00 PST / 15:00 EST, PRN.Live [NYC] > Exploration with Dr. Michio Kaku
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: Your author is a long-time listener of Exploration, a science program, with Dr. Michio Kaku, first listening on free speech KPFA (Pacifica Radio) years ago, perhaps, decades ago, at least since the early 2000s, if not earlier. Notably, Dr. Michio Kaku’s official website links his Exploration radio program description to the KPFA radio archives. Apparently, he and his team haven’t noticed that the last archive for Exploration on the KPFA archives website is dated 3 MAR 2020. It seems KPFA has betrayed Dr. Michio Kaku. But, apparently, he doesn’t know it because his website is still linking people to an archive page, which has stopped airing and stopped archiving his radio program. Yet, many other stations and audio streaming services, more dedicated to free speech, continue to broadcast Exploration. Your author recalls the corrupt liberal faction at KPFA, which has been gaslighting people about the COVID-19 psyop, was pushing the zoonotic origins theory of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. For example, C.S. Soong (host of Against the Grain) broadcast an interview with a guest pushing that implausible and false narrative. To this day, Against the Grain and other liberal (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalist) programs politically allied with that same liberal (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalist) faction, continue to push the false establishment narratives around the COVID-19 psyop. Yet, early on, Dr. Michio Kaku stated on Exploration that the zoonotic origins theory of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was still inconclusive. His authoritative perspective contradicted the non-scientist types at KPFA pushing the establishment narrative without compelling evidence. It seems the liberal (i.e., pro-capitalist or non-anti-capitalist) faction decided to stop airing Exploration at that point. And, it appears, the gaslighting liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists) at KPFA even went so far as to remove all Exploration archives back to 3 MAR 2020. Lockdowns and the COVID-19 psyop began later that month. Your author’s employer sent all of the workers home to go into lockdown on Friday, 20 MAR 2020. Another good program, which seems to have been cut, or purged, by the establishment liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists) colonizing free speech KPFA, is Your Own Health and Fitness with Layna Berman. (Free speech KPFA is being turned into controlled speech KPFA. And listeners are turning away, which is a shame. Your author encourages listeners not to turn away because working-class people need a people’s radio. We must hold the listener-sponsored, listener-owned Pacifica Radio stations accountable, rather than abandon the only free speech terrestrial radio network in the nation.) Your author can’t remember the last time he heard Your Own Health and Fitness with Layna Berman on KPFA. But her website indicates their final broadcast on KPFA was 30 APR 2019, almost a year before the COVID-19 psyop began. Layna Berman and he co-host Dr. Jeffry Fawcett tended to speak honestly about controversial health topics, such as fluoride and electromagnetic pollution. So, your author suspects, Layna Berman would have been critical of the COVID-19 psyop. Dr. Kaku seems to be a liberal (i.e., pro-capitalist or non-anti-capitalist). He seems to be honest; but he doesn’t seem willing to engage in science topics, which intersect with deep politics. Is that an example of intellectual dishonesty? You decide. Please let us know in the comments section. And Dr. Michio Kaku doesn’t seem to be an anti-imperialist. But, at the very least, he has been known to be an anti-nuclear war activist. So, that’s good. Nobody is perfect. Your author often longs for brilliant thinkers, like Dr. Michio Kaku, to be more political, or at least be more outspoken about his political perspectives and/or concerns. But, sometimes, people are specialists; and we just have to be grateful for the good things they do in their particular field and leave it at that. We take what makes sense, and leave behind the rest. The bottom line: Explorations is worthy of your time and attention, in your author’s humble opinion.
14:00 PST / 17:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Sojourner Truth
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This program is usually revolutionary, but has been known to be soft on the corporate Democrat Party, prone to “liberal bias”, when it comes to the two-party dictatorship, which can clearly see the corruption of the Republican Party, but has a blindspot for the corruption of the Democrat Party.
14:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > About Health
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
15:00 PST / 18:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > WBAI Evening News
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
15:00 PST / 17:00 CST, KPFT [Houston, TX] > Code Pink Radio
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
15:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > UpFront PM
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This is a rerun of content from the morning broadcast, which automatically makes this broadcast offensive, especially when there are so many censored, dissenting voices out there, which deserve airtime. Instead, we get duplication 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. (See comments above for UpFront.)
15:30 PST / 18:30 EST, WBAI [NYC] > CounterSpin
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: Your author used to dig this show back in the day, when it was on KPFA. In recent years, it seems disappointing. It’s unclear whether the program became less hard-hitting, or if my perception is less susceptible than before to “the liberal bias”, deceptions, and wishful thinking. Maybe it’s a combination of both elements. But this program seems disappointing nowadays.
16:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Hard Knock Radio
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
17:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] & KPFK [simulcast] > Flashpoints
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
18:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] & KPFK [simulcast] > The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: 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] > Africa Today
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
20:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Transitions On Traditions
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
“Shout Out” by Sekou Sundiata (1997)
“Here’s to the best words
In the right place
At the perfect time to the human mind
Blown-up and refined.
“To long conversations and the
Philosophical ramifications of a beautiful day.
“To the twelve-steppers
At the thirteenth step
May they never forget
The first step.
“To the increase, to the decrease
To the do, to the do
To the did, to the did
To the do, to the did
To the done, done
To the lonely.
“To the brokenhearted.
To the new, blue haiku.
“Here’s to all or nothing at all.
“Here’s to the sick, and the shut-in.
“Here’s to the was you been, to the is you in
To what’s deep and deep, to what’s down and down
To the lost, and the blind, and the almost found.
“To the crazy
The lazy
The bored
The ignored
The beginners
The sinners
The losers
The winners.
To the smooth
And the cool
And even to the fools.
Here’s to your ex-best-friend.
“To the rule-benders and the repeat offenders.
To the lovers and the troublers
The engaging
The enraging
To the healers and the feelers
And the fixers and the tricksters
To a star falling from a dream.
To a dream, when you know what it means.
“To the bottom
To the root
To the bass, uh, boom!
To the drum
To the was you been to the is you in
To what’s deep and deep to what’s down and down
To the lost, and the blind, and the almost found.
“Here’s to somebody within the sound of your voice this morning.
Here’s to somebody who can’t be within the sound of your voice tonight.
To a low-cholesterol pig sandwich smothered in swine without the pork.
To a light buzz in your head
And a soundtrack in your mind
Going on and on and on and on and on like a good time.
“Here’s to promises that break by themselves
Here’s to the breaks with great promise.
To people who don’t wait in the car when you tell them to wait in the car.
“Here’s to what you forgot and who you forgot.
Here’s to the unforgettable.
Here’s to the was you been to the is you in
To what’s deep and deep to what’s down and down
To the lost, and the blind, and the almost found.
“Here’s to the hip-hoppers
The don’t stoppers
Heads nodding in the digital glow
Of their beloved studios.
To the incredible, indelible impressions made by the gaze as you gaze in the faces of strangers.
To yourself you ask: Could this be God? Straight up!
Or is it a mask?
“Here’s to the tribe of the hyper-cyber
Trippin’ at the virtual-most outpost at the edge on the tip
Believin’ that what they hear is the mothership
Drawing near.
Here’s to the was you been to the is you in
To what’s deep and deep to what’s down and down
To the lost, and the blind, and the almost found.”
“Shout Out” by Sekou Sundiata, from The Blue Oneness of Dreams (1997)
“JFK and the wars in Vietnam and Laos (with historian Aaron Good)” by Geopolitical Economy Report [via YouTube], 6 MAR 2023. [1hr 05min 35sec]
NOTES: [TW] … | (c. 57min 38sec) Ben Norton: “Yeah, well, that’s a very good note to conclude on. Um, I do have one final question, that’s related, but that actually sets the stage for the next part, for Part Three of our discussion of [JFK’s presidency] and, especially, in terms of Vietnam and Southeast Asia policy. But, before we conclude this episode, just because I think it’s good to have a deeper economic understanding, we were talking as well before, um, we recorded about the role of balance of payments and the kind of economic motivations behind some of these decisions, that Kennedy made. And, in particular, we know that after WWII, in 1944, the Bretton Woods Conference, the U.S dollar becomes the global reserve currency. And it’s convertible to gold—$35 dollars for one ounce of gold. And we known that the U.S., throughout this time period, with the Korean War and, especially, with the various wars in Southeast Asia and, especially, after JFK’s assassination, the U.S. is depleting and depleting its gold reserves. So, what role did economics play in the decision-making? I think that’s often ignored, the very important economic motivations behind the debate over Vietnam and Southeast Asia policy.” | Aaron Good: “Right. And this is part of a longer story […]”
[ 1 ] Your author will never forget the day Amy Goodman interviewed former President Bill Clinton. He got his comeuppance. And we got to hear Mr. Clinton’s true personality, his bullying nature. I never understood people, who interview people in positions of power, but then ask softball questions. People called it an ambush interview. Pfft. After 9/11, many of us were disappointed by the dishonesty of Democracy Now!, the lying by omission, the gaslighting. After COVID-19, it was clearer than ever that Democracy Now! (DN!) has been compromised, or has sold out. As Lewis Lapham said about reading The New York Times, ‘I still read it,’ he said, ‘But, when I do, I know they’re lying to me.’ The same thing goes for DN! Like the KPFA news bosses and most of the Pacifica Radio news bosses, DN! suffers from what Dr. Noam Chomsky called the “liberal bias” back in the day, when he was critiquing corporate media. Now, Dr. Chomsky’s critique also applies to most of the Pacifica Radio Network newscast bosses, who must make U.S. spooks proud for providing synthetic left programming, if the news bosses aren’t in fact on some spook payroll.
[ 2 ] UpFront is some of the worst kind of Machiavellian gaslighting in radio. This type of Machiavellian talk radio hides its lack of concern for the suffering of others behind a veneer of journalistic objectivity or journalistic professionalism—professionalism, the journalistic refuge of scoundrels. Liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists), like this host, appear to be professional amnesiacs, conveniently forgetting lessons from their own past interviews, if such lessons threaten the status quo, not to mention other common sense lessons from the broader society. There are so many examples of when listeners can remember a key piece of information, which can help an interview reach deeper conclusions or attain new insights, but the liberal host feigns ignorance or simply failed to make the connection. And listeners are given the mushroom treatment, as Nicole Sawaya used to say (former KPFA manager, described the long-standing culture behind the scenes at Pacifica Radio): ‘keep them in the dark and feed them bullshit.’ At any rate, the listeners, who listen because they care about social justice, are the losers because these liberal hosts force each conversation to start at square one. Important insights culled from interview A will never show up on interview B or C. Sure, such liberals will go into meticulous and sophisticated detail. But only when it doesn’t impact the status quo. Of course, there are exceptions at Pacifica Radio, such as Flashpoints and Guns and Butter (which was forced off the air at KPFA), but they are viewed as the black sheep by the bosses, not supported or embraced as allies. Oddly, during the first quarter of 2022, Mickey Huff was on Letters and Politics. I’ll have to relisten, if possible. It’s plausible Mickey Huff is open to collaboration and cooperation. But it’s not plausible entertainers, like Mitch Jeserich, would ever do anything with sincere educators and truth-seekers, like Mickey Huff, without an ulterior motive, such as reputational rehabilitation. Examples of established ideas and conclusions, which can help liberate the working class, but which are marginalized or ignored by such liberals, as the hosts of UpFront, Letters and Politics, Talkies, etc., include modern monetary theory, the job guarantee program, the two-party dictatorship, the fact that two-party systems are polarizing, benefits of ranked-choice voting, proportional representation, the incompatibility between democracy and capitalism, and so on. And these are not partisan issues. They’re only partisan issues, if you’re an antidemocratic partisan, a fascist, or an authoritarian. Otherwise, we all have the common sense to identify basic democratizing features of a healthy democracy. These are undisputable conclusions about a healthy democracy versus a diseased democracy, which have been accumulated after listening to voices advocating for social justice for decades. When you listen to voices for peace and justice for years and decades, it’s hard not to learn basic truths over time. Yet, somehow, some people never learn anything. They still haven’t grasped the fundamental contradictions within capitalism, for example. Only willful ignorance seems adequate to explain this. The underlying presuppositions of such liberals deny all of these realities and begin with the false left-right paradigm, in which the Democrat Party is assumed to be a sincere opposition party, when, in fact, as Chris Hedges, Ralph Nader, et al, have long admitted, we have a two-party dictatorship because America has undergone a corporate coup d’etat decades ago. But you’d never know any of this from listening to liberals, such as this particular host.
[ 3 ] Covid, Race & Democracy is a good radio program. Your author is acquainted with at least two contributors. Yet, regarding the COVID-19 issue, he disagrees most with the contributor he knows best. Your author disagrees with the so-called Zero Covid approach because human history has proven it’s impossible for humans to ever be free of seasonal respiratory diseases such as coronaviruses or rhinoviruses. Also, the scientific consensus is clear: coronaviruses, when first introduced to a species, are more harmful, but less contagious; then, they become more contagious, but less harmful. Of course, this is what happened with Omicron. Age stratification means the older one is, the more vulnerable one is to any and all respiratory diseases. But this program has aired conflicting perspectives on COVID-19, which is fine. The problem is some of those fact-claims are easily verifiable falsehoods. Debates or panels with opposing perspectives could help resolve, or at least address some of the contradictions of occasionally allowing dissenting views, such as the Great Barrington Declaration, but mostly amplifying establishment assumptions, such as citing “case rates”, rather than truly sick and infected or hospitalized people. Most COVID-19 statistics cite PCR test results, which are prone to error, depending on the cycle threshold used to magnify samples. At any rate, the PCR test’s inventor, Dr. Kary Mullis, has stated categorically that the PCR test is not a diagnostic test. Then, there’s the VAERS data, which is usually occulted, and the official statistical models have been occulted, and the 17,000 doctors speaking out in dissent, and the doctors being persecuted, targeted, smeared, for refusing to be coerced into pushing an absurd agenda. The Gary Null Show addresses most, if not all, common sense concerns and critiques about the police state psyop response to COVID-19, which is threatening to close the open society, to force ‘COVID passports’ on everyone, to mandate jabs for kids without parental consent, to impose unscientific ‘social distancing’, to abolish cash and impose a central bank digital currency (CBDC), which threatens to be programmable by an authoritarian state (to be cut off faster than the Canadian truckers’ money got cut off, if you disagree with government policy, protest, or petition the Government for a redress of grievances), to make most people fearful of everyone else, to further alienate people and atomize society, in short, to incrementally impose inverted totalitarianism.
[06 MAR 2023]
[Last modified/edited/updated on 12 MAR 2023 at 11:04 PDT]
