LUMPENPROLETARIAT—[Friday, 10 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 repression and lockdowns, COVID-19 psyop, 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 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:
- “After Socrates: Episode 12 – Generative Grammar | Dr. John Vervaeke” by John Vervaeke [via YouTube], 10 MAR 2023. [1hr 09min 01sec] | NOTES: [Your author has only listened to the first 11 minutes thus far ((L19)] | This presentation builds on previous episodes in this series, which itself builds on Prof. Vervaeke’s previous lecture series, “Awakening From the Meaning Crisis”, which is freely available on YouTube. Viewers/listeners may want to avail themselves of those presentations first, to get the most out of this presentation. … ‘Plotinus’ …
- “Workers Strike Back coalition for a $25 min wage & more w/Kshama Sawant | The Chris Hedges Report” by The Real News Network [via YouTube], 10 MAR 2023. [34min 46sec] Kshama Sawant is refocusing her efforts away from electoral politics, not running for re-election to the Seattle City Council. She is helping Socialist Alternative USA provide us all with opportunities to get involved. We, the workers, we, the people, have been getting our asses kicked by the capitalist bosses. It’s long been overdue for us to defend ourselves. And, as Chris Hedges, has said, “if we use [our] numbers correctly, we can pit power against power. But that requires organization.” Kshama Sawant and the Socialist Alternative are giving us an opportunity to get organized, since most unions have sold out or become hypnotized by the false illusions of business unionism. As Ralph Nader says, act for justice. Peace be unto you.
- “Whitney Webb Interview – CIA/Mossad-Linked Surveillance Systems Quietly Installed Throughout The US” by TLAVagabond [via Rokfin], 10 MAR 2023. [1hr 03min 23sec] | NOTES: [F] Hosted by Ryan Cristian … A new 9/11 call system being developed by a CIA/Mossad collaboration promises to be able to access people’s phone information indefinitely after people call 9/11… … (c. 27min 25sec) Whitney Webb: ‘Yeah. How dystopian is that?’ [responding to Ryan Cristian’s concerns about automated policing and society with no human liaison, whatsoever…] (c. 27min 27sec) … (c. 39min 35sec) Whitney Webb: “It’s all about stopping dissent.” … (c. 39min 40sec) … | QUOTATION FROM VIDEO/PODCAST DESCRIPTION: “Joining me today is Whitney Webb, here to discuss the very alarming development of intelligence-backed surveillance and pre-crime systems being rolled out under a guise of helping/protecting the people, one that her and I discussed in 2020 regarding Carbyne911, and one that is the focus of her recent article. Since 2020, this issue has only grown, and now a CIA & Mossad connected surveillance system is being quietly rolled out across the United States, one that is already being used in different aspects of infrastructure and public services. Is this a fast-track to a technocratic panopticon? Tune and find out… | All Video Source Links Can Be Found Here At The Last American Vagabond: [Link] […]”
- “BANK RUN USA PANIC – Second USA Bank Collapses in 3 Days, Run of Withdrawals Causes Liquidity Crisis” by Joe Blogs [via YouTube], 10 MAR 2023. [23min 59sec] [07:32 PST] NOTES: Dr. Jack Rasmus also discussed this topic today on his weekly program, Alternative Visions. (See below for more notes on Dr. Rasmus’ report.) | COMMENTS: A bank run panic… | Is this a #blackswan? Or a one-off economic event? | SiliconValleyBank, a major venture capital fund is buckling…or has failed already. This appears to be the second largest bank failure in U.S. history! That’s major news. And notice the specter of mortgage-backed securities (MBSs) in the so-called ‘secondary market’ rearing their ugly heads, again. You may recall, fellow readers, that MBSs were one of the main culprits during the Global Financial Crisis of 2007/08—well, that and fraud. See one of your author’s former UMKC professors, William K. Black for more on white-collar crime or corporate fraud. It’s as if, we as a society, refuse to learn from past mistakes, to learn from history. After the Global Financial Crisis of 2007/08, your author’s former UMKC professors predicted—shoot, even before then—predicted recurring and intensifying financial crises because the criminogenic financial environment was bailed out, instead of being held accountable for their criminogenic behavior. After the 1929 Stock Market Crash, those bad banks, which caused the Global Great Depression, were allowed to fail and go out of business. During the 1980s Savings & Loan Crisis, Prof. William K. Black “was a central figure in exposing Congressional corruption during the Savings and Loan Crisis.” During the 1990s, under President Clinton’s Reinventing Government initiatives, Prof. Black, as he reported to Bonnie Faulkner (host of Guns and Butter), et al., Prof. Black and his financial regulator colleagues were told, Your customers are no longer the American people. Your customers are now the banks. Being the quiet type, he said, he stood up and protested, but was shouted down. Soon, financial regulators were laid off under Clinton. Also, President George W. Bush reassigned some 500 more financial regulators to the so-called War On Terror. To this day, as far as your author knows, they haven’t been replaced. So, financial deregulation continues to be a huge problem for U.S. banking. | Also, it’s important to keep in mind that we, the people, must separate regular banks, which working-class people must use, from speculative, gambling banks, like venture capital funds. If gamblers lose, so what? That’s their problem. But regular working-class banks must not be mixed up with these gambler banks. After the 1929 Stock Market Crash, which led to the Global Great Depression, the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 separated the gambling banks from working-class banks. Unfortunately, capitalists give the working-class crumbs, only when they protest, like the socialists, communists, and others protested during the Great Depression. But capitalists always take back those crumbs when the working-class falls asleep and becomes politically inactive, depoliticized and demobilized, like the liberal (i.e., pro-capitalist or non-anti-capitalist) faction at Pacifica Radio has been doing to the minds of their audience over the last couple of decades, like NPR and PBS and the corporate media/press have been doing to the American people since the CIA’s Operation Mockingbird or earlier. So, sure enough, true to form, capitalists have been repealing as much of the Glass-Steagall Act as they can, allowing commercial banks (working-class banks) to make risky investments, like mortgage-backed securities (MBSs) and whatnot. | As Dr. Michael Hudson says, the Federal Reserve was created in a secret meeting at Jeckyll Island to take democratic control of the monetary system away from elected officials charged with acting in the interest of Main Street and placed it in the hands of the power elite, acting in the interest of Wall Street. No nation needs a Federal Reserve or a central bank because the Treasury can do everything that a central bank can do. Also, we could have state banks, like the Bank of North Dakota, which would reinvest back into local communities, rather than siphon money away from local communities to give to Wall Street. | Alternative Visions with Dr. Jack Rasmus also addressed this important news story on his weekly program today, which is available via Progressive Radio Network (PRN.Live). Dr. Jack Rasmus provides real-world nuts and bolts explanations of economics topics for working-class people, defining terms along the way. Peace be unto you.
- “Current 30-Year Mortgage Rates: Compare Today’s Rates“ by Andrea Riquier and Brai Odion-Esene, Forbes, updated 10 MAR 2023 at 12:45pm. “Today’s average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage is 7.08 compared to the 7.13 average rate a week earlier. | The 52-week high for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 7.19 and the 52-week low was 6.36.”
- “Booth: Much of Powell’s Hawkishness was Distilled by Rising Joblessness – Bloomberg Asia Daybreak” by Danielle DiMartino Booth [via YouTube], 10 MAR 2023. [6min 32sec] | NOTES: Your author is new to the analysis of Danielle DiMartino Booth, first encounter her analysis in an interview with Jack Farley (host, Blockworks Macro). Danielle is clearly incredibly sharp, she anchors her analysis in Federal Reserve operations and real-time data, and, most importantly, she seems to have sincere concern for the overall economy and working-class people, which is quite rare among financial strategists of her calibre. Your author is looking forward to learning more from her analysis.
- RELATED:
- “A Banking Panic Makes the Fed’s Job More Difficult | Danielle DiMartino Booth with Blockworks Macro” by Blockworks Macro [via YouTube], 13 MAR 2023. [57min 55sec]
- RELATED:
- “BREAKING NEWS: Banking Collapse! -with Lynette Zang” by ITM TRADING, INC. [via YouTube], 10 MAR 2023. [22min 36sec] | Your author doesn’t agree with everything Lynette Zang says; but he believes in hearing from a diversity of perspectives. One thing your author definitely agrees with Ms. Zang on is the fact that we all must be very concerned with the global power elite’s agenda to push central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) on the USA and the world. This is programmable money, which can be shut off, especially against dissidents, as happened to the Canadian truckers standing up for human rights, against gene therapy injection mandates, which don’t make sense. Certainly, Ms. Zang is a successful investor, but she seems to reflect rightist politics, which your author disagrees with. For example, Ms. Zang will likely call for inflicting further pain on labor by continuing with interest rate increases. Meanwhile, others, such as Steven Van Metre, have suggested our economy’s best chance to avoid systemic banking panic contagion may be to lower interest rates back down to zero, possibly even to negative interest rates. Dr. Jack Rasmus’ analysis makes the most sense to your author, out of all of the economic journalists, who regularly provide reports, at least on a weekly basis. Also, Joe Blogs seems to provide quite accurate reports with a rather fair perspective. But, like everything, economics is politicized. We can categorize most economic perspectives along a left-right continuum, with rightists prioritizing capital over labor (people with little to no sympathy or empathy for labor) and leftists prioritizing labor over capital. For leftists, the banking system is supported to facilitate productive capacity in the economy, to fund businesses and companies, which make real things and provide gainful employment to workers with pensions and dignity. For rightists, banks are allowed to do whatever they want because profit motive, rent-seeking behavior, and concentration of wealth in a cruel every-man-for-himself manner is all that matters. For rightists, profit motive is prioritized over all other concerns, including the wellbeing of our local communities and society. Furthermore, your author trusts most his former professors, such as Prof. L. Randall Wray, who warned about us all that stagflation and economic pain across society would surely follow if the Federal Reserve insisted on increasing interest rates, especially huge increases in a short period of time. We, Americans, haven’t seen such sharp interest rate increases since the Volcker Shock of 1979, which crashed the economy into a terrible recession in the 1980s. And the logic of raising interest rates to ‘cool demand’ is flawed for a number of reasons. Those, who believe we must raise interest rates for the benefit of the economy, argue that the current inflation we’ve been seeing is demand-driven. Yet, the evidence shows the inflation has been mostly supply-driven, as well as the result of monopolistic competition, our economy becoming monopoly capitalism, where a small number of firms dominate almost every industry. Then, we see cartelization and price-gouging, as Dr. Jack Rasmus and others have been explaining for a long time. But the idea that we must raise interest rates to ‘cool demand’ says that we must increase unemployment to ‘cool off demand’, to reduce spending! Imagine that, fellow readers. These people believe in NAIRU, the non-accelerating rate of unemployment. They believe we must always keep at least 5% to 10% of workers unemployed because, they argue, if we have full employment, there will be runaway inflation. That has never made sense to your author. Does it make sense to you? What makes more sense is the fact that capitalists want to keep workers unemployed to ‘discipline’ workers, to keep them desperate, to keep wages down. Okay, that’s my time. Let’s listen to what Lynette Zang has to say; and see if it makes any sense. Your author’s gotta hop in the shower and get back to the rat race to help keep a roof over his family’s heads and food in the refrigerator. Peace be unto you.
@LumpenProles, last modified/edited/updated on 16 MAR 2023 at 19:55 PDT.
MEDIA/PRESS 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. ✊🏽✊🏼✊🏿✊]
Friday, 10 March 2023
Please read this book, if you haven’t already. It’s a moral imperative…
*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 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.
21:00 PST / 00:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Jimmy Dore Show
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
05:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Rising Up with Sonali Kolhatkar
QUOTATION FROM RADIO ARCHIVE DESCRIPTION: “A daily digest of independent news analysis, investigation, education, artistic expression, and activism in the public interest, emphasizing the connection between global issues and those in local communities. Hosted by Sonali Kolhatkar.”
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This program, Rising Up with Sonali Kolhatkar, suffers from the same “liberal bias”, as UpFront, Democracy Now!, Letters and Politics, Talkies, Leonard Lopate at Large, et al., which Dr. Noam Chomsky warned about since at least the 1990s. Dr. Chomsky’s critique of establishment media/press now also applies to much of Pacifica Radio. ‘They will only go but so far…’ Democrat Party apologism and a refusal to critique or interrogate the two-party dictatorship is the common thread…
06:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman & company
QUOTATION FROM RADIO ARCHIVE DESCRIPTION: “Democracy Now! is a daily independent award-winning news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez.”
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 ]
07:00 PST / 10:00 EST, WPFW [D.C.] > On The Ground with Esther Iverem
QUOTATION FROM WPFW ARCHIVE: “On the Ground, which premiered on May Day, May 1, 2014, counters this trend by giving a voice to the voiceless [i.e., amplifying the voices of the silenced]. The weekly hour hosted by Esther Iverem covers social justice activism, with a special emphasis on sustainable living, the environment, economics, labor and the left edge of culture and media.”
NOTES: Intro… | Headlines & Happenings: … ‘Cop City’ … | Also, riveting audio from a Take Back DC ACTION. [TW] … | Esther Iverem fundraising for the free speech Pacifica Radio Network, focusing on WPFW and WBAI, the two terrestrial Pacifica Radio Network stations, which broadcast On the Ground… THIS IS A FUNDRAISING BROADCAST. PLEASE SUPPORT LISTENER-SPONSORED, LISTENER-OWNED FREE SPEECH PACIFICA RADIO, WPFW 2025889739 IN DC WPFW dot org OR Give2WBAI.org or WBAI dot org | 27min 45sec music break … | c. 28min 10sec ‘This is Lucy Murphy(sp?), On the Ground: Voices of Resistance from the Nation’s Capitol. For Women’s History Month, I’m speaking with Congresswoman Loria Raquel Dixon Brautigam [TW] […]” a Nicaraguan politician, on how her relatives and loved ones were killed and maimed by US imperialist interventions in Nicaragua and more… | For additional audio archives, search WPFW by scrolling down to find the archives for other dates and programs. Also see On the Ground website for broadcast archives.
COMMENTS: On the Ground is one of the best programs on the free speech Pacifica Radio Network, or anywhere for that matter. On the Ground deserves a timeslot on prime time mass media more than any corporate talking head. What have we allowed our government to do to our media in the USA? It seems very few of us actually read Manufacturing Consent, like very few of us actually read Das Kapital.
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 ]
07:00 PST / 10:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Heart of Mind with Kathryn Davis
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
08:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > A Rude Awakening with Sabrina Jacobs
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
08:00 PST / 11:00 EST, WPFW [D.C.] > Community Watch & Comment – Friday with Ron Pinchback(sp?), Tom Williams(sp?), and Chip Jones
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
09:00 PST / 12:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] & PRN.Live [NYC] > The Gary Null Show
NOTES/COMMENTS (re: Gary Null Show for 10 MAR 2023, WBAI livestream): An interview with Ellen Brown… Unfortunately, EB is not very articulate here, when discussing macroeconomics… [Dr. Gary Null should have had a panel for this type of discussion on the global financial system and dedollarizarion. For example, some of the best analysis your author has heard recently on dedollarizarion has been on Geopolitical Economy Report with Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson. Also, PRN and Pacifica have got to talk to Dr. Stephanie Kelton and Dr. L. Randall Wray; both are former professors of your author and are still some of the best on macro… | (09:33 PST) Tuned back in. Null is advising people to be prepared for environmental disasters, not just financial… 0937, Ellen Brown just says, ‘Yeah, I totally agree… Then, she goes back to the ‘looming collapse of the derivatives market (aka the secondary market of mortgages and securities)
NOTES (re: The Gary Null Show for Friday, 10 MAR 2023, PRN.Live livestream): […] 0920 prn.live null talking about life home advic3 | break money by ray charles | 0928. | 0931 clip: Jordan Peterson(sp?) with background music, sounds like Marilyn Manson version of “Sweet Dreams” [culture war gripes… | 0932, back to Null commentary, Null’s remembrances and life advice… 0933 CC
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.
09:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman & company
QUOTATION FROM RADIO ARCHIVE DESCRIPTION: “Democracy Now! is a daily independent award-winning news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez.”
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet] (See earlier broadcast above for additional notes.)
09:00 PST, KPFK [Los Angeles, CA] > Thom Hartmann Program
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
10:00 PST / 13:00 EST, PRN.Live [NYC] > Leid Stories with Utrice Leid
NOTES: 1000 PST, PRN.Live > Leid Stories with Eutrice Leid > 1. Jeremiah challenging ‘downballot voting’ [TW] 2. Harvey in Berkeley [lib] 2. Ms mali on globalist against local farms 3. Jackie from Brooklyn (?), SNAP getting slashed 4. Muddled mental health advocate | 1034 cut to rerun. 1. Jeremiah anti vax tw | 2. Caller man promotes global citizenship a la intl registry of global citizenship post wwii Gareth davis [naive…lambs to slaughter… His sentiment is well-meaning to have solidarity with people around the world… But he’s advising renouncing national political agency, which is the only political vote one has… Its naive to think some global governance will be any more democratic than the national failures | Next caller, a woman, is critical of COVID-19 agenda, critiquing Biden’s claims of a ‘pandemic of the unvaccinated’ [EL played devil’s advocate, forcing her to back up her arguments…] … 1046 PST … EL: ‘The bodily integrity violations mean nothing because they’ve been violating that for decades…’ Guest: ‘This is totalitarianism on the rise…’ EL: ‘Call it what u want…Biden’s in a terrible bind…’ caller should cite community standard of care | Unfortunately, Leid Stories is not archived consistently at PRN.Live. Perhaps, you can volunteer and help with archiving. In the meantime, please search PRN’s archives for past editions of this excellent and important free speech radio program, Leid Stories.
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 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, KPFK [Los Angeles, CA] > Michael Slate Show
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This program is dedicated to following Bob Avakian’s Revolutionary Communist Party (USA). Your author does not agree with everything Bob Avakian or the RCP espouses. But the messaging of Mr. Avakian and his RCP is important for all to understand.
10:00 PST, WBAI [NYC] > Leonard Lopate at Large
NOTES: 1000 WBAI Lopate with usual political ally, Robert Hanlin(sp?,), fellow liberal broadcaster at WBAI 1002 cc
COMMENTS: This program, Leonard Lopate at Large, suffers from the same “liberal bias”, as UpFront, Democracy Now!, Letters and Politics, Talkies, et al., which Dr. Noam Chomsky warned about since at least the 1990s. Dr. Chomsky’s critique of establishment media/press now also applies to much of Pacifica Radio. ‘They will only go but so far…’ Democrat Party apologism and a refusal to critique or interrogate the two-party dictatorship is the common thread…
10:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Economic Update with Prof. Richard Wolff
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: Dr. Richard Wolff is co-author of Contending Economic Theories: Neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian (The MIT Press), an important book for economics students to understand some of the main differences between neoclassical (i.e., establishment approach to economics) and heterodox economics (i.e., alternative approaches to economics). But Dr. Richard Wolff, a heterodox economist and an ally and colleague of the heterodox economics department at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (USA), your author’s alma mater, somehow publicly feigns ignorance of modern monetary theory (MMT) or its policy prescriptions, such as the MMT-based job guarantee program. [ 3 ]
10:00 PST / 13:00 EST, WPFW [D.C.] > Latino Media Collective
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
11:00 PST, PRN.Live [NYC] > Alternative Visions with Dr. Jack Rasmus
NOTES: ‘There’s been a run on a major bank in Silcon Valley…Is this a canary in the goldmine? …AI startups got over-extended…so, tech sector is starting to contract…they’re not making money because nobody is borrowing anymore, esp with high interest rates… Fed bench mark is like 5-1/4 now…’ [TW] … 1106 ‘a run on these shadow banks’ ‘SVB [Silicon Valley Bank] … 1107. ‘98% to 99% is lent out…Reserve requirements used to be 20% but the regulators kept lowering requirements’ … 1113 [TW]
COMMENTS: Alternative Visions with Dr. Jack Rasmus is the real economic update. We love Economic Update with Dr. Richard Wolff, but he’s more of a performer than an educator, or a reporter, at least with regard to Dr. Wolff’s economic updates. We cannot deny the importance of Dr. Wolff’s popularization of leftist (i.e, anticapitalist/prosocialist) economics. But Dr. Jack Rasmus provides real-world nuts and bolts explanations of economics topics, tracking actual data in accessible language for everyday working-class people, defining terms along the way. Leftist (i.e., anticapitalist) economic perspectives prioritize labor’s interests over the interests of capital. Rightist (i.e., procapitalist) economic perspectives prioritize capital’s interests over the interests of labor. Please keep in mind, capitalism is not necessarily synonymous with liberty/libertarianism; and socialism is not necessarily synonymous with authoritarianism. The left-right spectrum is a range of possibilities of economic systems, not political systems. Political systems have to do with the role of the state, which is a separate dimension; so they must be considered and, therefore, graphed on a separate axis, such as a vertical axis. (To consider graphs and further details on these important political compass explanations, see “America’s Stunted Political Spectrum” by Second Thought [via YouTube], 24 APR 2020.) [ 4 ]
11:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Voices of the Middle East and North Africa (VOMENA)
QUOTATION FROM RADIO ARCHIVE DESCRIPTION: “The richly diverse and fascinating world of culture and politics of the Middle East and North Africa, co-hosted by Khalil and Malihe.”
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: VOMENA is an anti-colonial, anti-racist, anti-white supremacist, anti-imperialist program. Of all the programmers/radio hosts on KPFA’s Local Station Board (LSB) (c. 2007-2012), Algerian-born VOMENA host Khalil Bendib seemed like one of the honest ones, based on your author’s various personal interactions with Khalil, and being a longtime listener of VOMENA. [ 5 ]
11:00 PST / 14:00 EDT, WPFW [D.C.] > Resistance Radio with John Kane and Regan de Loggans
NOTES: [notes pending; author hasn’t listened yet] No direct link to WPFW radio archive. To access the audio archive, search WPFW by scrolling down to find the archives for Friday, [date], 2pm [14:00 EDT] and clicking on the audio stream for Resistance Radio.
COMMENTS: Resistance Radio is explicitly anti-racist, anti-colonial, anti-imperialist, and focuses on Native American/indigenous issues, rights, and justice.
12:00 PDT, PRN.live [NYC] > Guns and Butter with Bonnie Faulkner
NOTES: 12:00 PST, PRN.Live > Guns and Butter with Bonnie Faulkner > BF: ‘Scapegoating Germany’ ‘James Bacque, welcome back. ‘ [This is a rerun, as G&B has not been publishing programs very consistently in the last few years. The most recent program listed on the G&B website is from 27 JAN 2023. And only a half dozen programs listed for 2022. In the past, this was a weekly program. This is a continuation of the interview aired on PRN.Live last week… Your author hadn’t heard these James Bacque interviews before. So, it’s good to hear these on air. GunsAndButter.org archives, https://www.gunsandbutter.org/archived-shows…, list these two Bacque interviews as first aired in June 2019: 6/5/2019, Let’s Stop Torturing Germany, #405, James Bacque & 6/12/2019, Scapegoating Germany, #406James Bacque] guest: James Bacque(sp?) on atrocities committed by Allied forces against German POWs and civilians… [TW] … [This is good, but we can listen later. Let’s see what’s going on via the free speech Pacifica Radio Network.] … 1218 CC
12:00 PDT / 15:00 EDT, WBAI [NYC] > Live On The Fly with Randy Credico
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
12:00 PDT, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > It’s Going Down with anonymous male-sounding host (pre-empted) > Fundraising rerun with Brian Edwards-Tiekert
NOTES: 1200 PST, KPFA > […] (1218 PST) Stamets again… ‘lion’s mane’ [This is the same excerpt from the same Stamets interview… Again, no shade on Stamets, but this is not a good usage of airtime, especially such repetitive airing of the same content. The corrupt faction at KPFA, with which Against the Grain is allied is clearly trying to destroy KPFA’s listener base. Yesterday, KPFA listeners and LSB members held a protest outside of KPFA speaking out agakndt… ] … 1222 BET cuts in to pitch, fundraise. BET is one of the worst offenders on the Local Station Board. Your author used to attend many board meetings. He first met BET in 2007 at a San Jose LSB… He was weird. At first, I thought it was a cultural difference, which accounted for it, with him being a very square white guy… Audio glitch, apparently the audio was just a buffering audio feed segment… Audio feed went blank, and rebooting cut to ATG… | 1226 PST CS Soong pitching, fundraising…pushing the Doctrine of Discovery documentary again… [Getting back to BET and his underlings, like KW, MJ, et al., they hem and hawe when they get no callers nor pledges of donations. They say, ‘Oh, if we don’t get donations, then we may have to have more layoffs. But they refuse to acknowledge that most likely people aren’t calling or supporting is because their radio programs are garbage, are disappointing. As Steve Zeltzer said at the protest rally in front of KPFA yesterday protesting attempts to sell off the KPFK building and flagrant violations of Pacifica bylaws, if they aired hard-hitting honest broadcasts, which are meaningful to people, which speak to people’s actual lived experiences, they would have tons of listeners and financial support. Instead, BET glibly airs Stamets over and again.] … 1232 ‘psylocibin…magic mushrooms…indigenous practices…’ … 1233. CC
COMMENTS: It’s Going Down is usually a disappointing program for leftists, as it functions as a synthetic left shill for the establishment by perpetuating the false left-right paradigm whereby the Republican Party and the ‘far-right’ are usually framed as the bogeymen, of which listeners must be wary. Meanwhile, the Democrat Party is usually let off the hook, usually not critiqued as sharply as the Republican Party. [ 6 ]
12:00 PST / 15:00 EST, WBAI > Live on the Fly with Randy Credico
NOTES: 1233 PST, Sounds like Assange,Sr., no, it sounds like John Pilger. | 1236 RC: ‘That was John Pilger from 2017(?)..’ Fundraising mode. PLEASE SUPPORT LISTENER-SPONSORED, LISTENER-OWNED FREE SPEECH PACIFICA RADIO, WBAI, or any of the five stations to support the people’s free speech radio network. $25 or more gets u full voting rights. Then, help hold the network accountable by ousting the sophists, like Brian Edwards-Tiekert, Mitch Jeserich, Kris Welch, Mark Mericle, Aileen Alfandary, at KPFA and Leonard Lopate, et al at WBAI. U see there are liberals, who have been colonizing the network, messing it up with phony programming, which only turns people away…But Pacifica has played an important role in US history. That’s why the state has been sending in Democrat Party shills to undermine it. We can take it back. Pacifica belongs to the lisener-members. All you need is $25 per year. But we, the people, have been too overwhelmed with the rat race or distracted with hedonism and amusing ourselves to death… The Biden administration has been warmongering with the Ukraine proxy war. Yet, the bad faith liberals have been gaslighting listeners about the real history and context of US/NATO imperialism and provocations… ] … 1244 PST… [Randy Credico is one of the honest broadcasters on Pacifica Radio, alongside Mickey Huff, Dennis Bernstein, Esther Iverem, and others. But the honest ones don’t seem to put up the same degree of a unified front, like the dishonest ones. ] … Guest mentioned getting in touch with John Mearsheimer via email and corresponding about all of the ways this proxy war in Ukraine could have been avoided. [Indeed. I called in to Talkies with Kris Welch early on in the proxy war…. Guest: ‘This is one of the only places you can hear the truth… I feel like we’re living in [George Orwell’s] 1984.’ She feigned ignorance… And, afterwards, she went back to her ignorant stance… The only way this ignorant attitude can be explained is through wilful ignorance or gaslighting, feigning ignorance because she and her faction are state shills. If it’s true that they are die-hard Wellstone Democrat Party reformists, then they have a deranged ideology. Even Chris Hedges at a somewhat recent Berkeley speaking event, hosted by Mickey Huff, Hedges admitted that ‘the Democrat Party cannot be reformed.’ That was refreshing to hear by a prominent figure in public. So, how can we explain the Democrat Party apologists? We must admit they are bad faith actors.] … 1257 PST WBAI board op Reggie(sp?) joins the fundraising.
12:00 PST / 15:00 EST, WPFW [D.C.] > Jazz and Justice – Bobby Rox
NOTES: Jazz and Justice with Bobby Rox > […] (13:09 PST) talk, call-ins [This is one of the good programs. WPFW seems to be rooted in the black community in DC, with a real community foundation. So, they seem to be able to maintain their listener base in a way that the predominantly white/Euroamerican liberal listener base of KPFA and WBAI cannot… And WPFW seem to be far more honest. For example, Bobby Rox and especially Brother Ka’Ba’ has call-ins and allows unfiltered free speech from listeners, including being honest about the meased up COVID-19 psyop agenda, which doesn’t make sense. Listeners never hear such honesty about COVID-19 on KPFA.] … BR: ‘An innocent man was convicted…this could happen to you, too. … 1319 ‘The courts are decimating the black families by removing parental rights, usually the fathers…false narrative that black fathers don’t want to be present…but judges are doing everything they can to remove fathers from the lives of their kids…It happened to me, too.’ [Wow, the host, Bobby Rox, said he had to fight for his parental rights, too…] … 1321 PST back to the music …. 1327 PST caller, male-sounding, a real caller with real talk corroborates how black father’s are being abused and stripped of parental rights by the court systems… [TW] … 1328 ‘I have to go to court in July…She didn’t even file for divorce. She was just letting the thing linger. So, I’m goin’ in there to file.’ [Indeed. And it’s hard because many working-class people cannot afford legal fees… Some county courthouses used to have a self-help office with minimal help, which at least helps people figure out the proper paperwork. But, since the bogus COVID-19 lockdowns and such, the self-help offices have been closed. If you’re lucky, you can get a phone call appointment, at least, last I checked…] … 1332 ‘the circuit court judges are creating monsters [by breaking up families]… No wonder we have these break-ins and crime…But the corporate media is not talking about this…’ … 1333 … | caller, Jake: ‘…we’re not organizing. That’s the problem…’ host: ‘Is there an organization that’s legally helping or financially helping non-custodial black fathers navigate the court system…?’ Caller Jake: ‘There is not one that I know of… …at the time, I couldn’t afford a lawyer… I did what I had to do and supported my daughter…moved the child out of the area…’ BR: ‘…some people don’t actually know what’s going on with the courts… Some judges are good. But most are bad judges…And I blame the black church because they know this is going on. But they act like this is not their problem. I think a lot of the black churches protested around the George Floyd murder by killer cops because it was trendy…’ ‘…the super predator narrative was engineered…Watch the documentary film The 13th by Verna Avery Brown… There are a lot of ladies that use false protective orders before they even go to court to strip father’s of their rights…The protective orders are civil. But as soon as a violation is registered, then it becomes a legal issue…’ | 1342 caller, Alfonso from DC: ‘I just went to a fatherhood class…’ … 1342 … ‘You asked if there was an organization…There is not…’ 1343 Host: ‘There are men that put up $20-30K and they still lose custody rights…the best hope is to find a lawyer who is friends with a judge because, then, they just played golf yesterday…’ …. 1344 caller, Alfonso: ‘In DC, I know of no org helping fathers…’ … 1345 host: ‘children are getting snatched…taken away…’ | caller: ‘Thank you for addressing this topic on this show. Please do this more often.’ | Next caller: ‘I’m an author of books. I’m trying to establish an organization with some partners to help support black fathers with the circuit court system, the family courts…’ Host: ‘Please go to Strive 365 dot org and share your information…’ | Host: ‘We can vote out some of these bad judges… I know good men, good fathers, who are only able to see their kids four times a month. You cannot raise a kid like that… Mark your calendar for March 2023. We’re going to rally at the courthouse… They have a school-to-prison pipeline for our kids… They’re doing this on purpose… Thank you for listening.’ [Wow, what an excellent broadcast. TW. This program deserves to be transcribed
COMMENTS: Bobby Rox is one of the honest broadcasters on the free speech Pacifica Radio Network (like Mickey Huff, Dennis Bernstein, Esther Iverem, Gary Null, et al.), as opposed to the intellectually dishonest ones, such as Brian Edwards-Tiekert, Mitch Jeserich, Leonard Lopate, Kris Welch, Aileen Alfandary, Mark Mericle, et al. The intellectually dishonest broadcasters have in common a tendency to prioritize Democrat Party apologism over truth-seeking.
13:00 PDT, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Project Censored with Mickey Huff (pre-empted) > Liberal (i.e., pro-capitalist or non-anti-capitalist) fundraising rerun
NOTES: […] 1302 BET…’environmental journalist George Monbiot(sp?) on his book on ‘the food system’ [Brit-sounding bloke… This is gearing up to be more Democrat Party apologism and obfuscation. This is a common tactic employed by BET and his corrupt faction: air milquetoast programming with a focus on foreign nations without making any connection to US imperialism or the global power elite, always letting the US deep state off the hook, always letting the Democrat Party off the hook… ] 1306 … ‘Plants can talk…’ [They always take listeners into abstract discussions, which avoid any political connection to the political agency of the listeners… The goal appears to be, and the effect is clearly, to depoliticize and demobilize listeners, to deflect to cultural concerns and away from political education and political reality. ] … 1309 CC
13:00 PDT / 16:00 EDT, WBAI [NYC] > Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod
NOTES: Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescott > roundtable on SNiCC, focusing on the women…Ella Baker shaw univ conference in Apr 1960′ … ‘shock troops of the revolution 1302 CC
14:00 PDT / 17:00 EDT, WPFW [D.C.] > Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
14:00 PDT / 17:00 EDT, WBAI [NYC] > Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley cancelled? > Max Politics with Ben Max
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: Black Agenda Report was revolutionary, especially as led by Bruce Dixon, Glen Ford, and Margaret Kimberley. Lately, Margaret Kimberley has been hosting Black Agenda Radio. But, for some unfortunate reason, listeners must now listen to establishment politics and Democrat Party apologism with Ben Max. On Friday, 21 OCT 2022, the WBAI board operator mentioned on-air that Max Politics is the regularly scheduled program at this time-slot. No mention was made about what happened to Black Agenda Radio.
15:00 PDT / 18:00 EDT, WPFW [D.C.] > News Views with Garland Nixon
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
16:00 PDT, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Hard Knock Radio with Davey D
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
17:00 PDT, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] & KPFK [simulcast] [Los Angeles, CA] > Flashpoints with Dennis Bernstein
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
18:00 PDT, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] & KPFK [simulcast] [Los Angeles, 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 dissenting doctors, no mention of any relevant pending litigation, 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), especially not locally. 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.
20:00 PDT, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > La Onda Bajita
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
22:00 PDT, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > The History of Funk
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
[ 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 ] Economic Update with Richard Wolff… Your author left Kansas City in mid-2015 before one of Dr. Wolff’s then-recurring visits to UMKC (then a hotbed of MMT); so he was unable to ask Dr. Wolff why he does that. Presumably, Dr. Wolff avoids informing his audience of MMT because he sees it as liberal (i.e., pro-capitalist or non-anti-capitalist), reformist bullshit (i.e., communication intended to persuade without regard for truth, as philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt defined “bullshit”).
[ 4 ] Alternative Visions with Dr. Jack Rasmus is the real economic update. We love Economic Update with Dr. Richard Wolff, but he’s more of a performer than an educator, or a reporter, at least with regard to Dr. Wolff’s economic updates. We cannot deny the importance of Dr. Wolff’s popularization of leftist (i.e, anticapitalist/prosocialist) economics. But Dr. Jack Rasmus provides real-world nuts and bolts explanations of economics topics, tracking actual data in accessible language for everyday working-class people, defining terms along the way. Leftist (i.e., anticapitalist) economic perspectives prioritize labor’s interests over the interests of capital. Rightist (i.e., procapitalist) economic perspectives prioritize capital’s interests over the interests of labor. Please keep in mind, capitalism is not necessarily synonymous with liberty/libertarianism; and socialism is not necessarily synonymous with authoritarianism. The left-right spectrum is a range of possibilities of economic systems, not political systems. Political systems have to do with the role of the state, which is a separate dimension; so they must be considered and, therefore, graphed on a separate axis, such as a vertical axis. (To consider graphs and further details on these important political compass explanations, see “America’s Stunted Political Spectrum” by Second Thought [via YouTube], 24 APR 2020.) Post-WWII conflating of the role of the state (i.e., authoritarian political systems vs. libertarian political systems) with the range of economic systems (i.e., rightist/capitalist economic systems vs leftist/socialist economic systems) has mired working-class people within rightist economics ideologies, which prioritize capital over labor and, thus, mired working-class people in political ideologies inimical to the interests of working-class people. Paying attention to the economic updates, reporting, and commentaries of experts, like Dr. Richard Wolff, alongside experts, like Dr. Jack Rasmus, makes all of this crystal clear. Your author often hears well-meaning people suggest it’s divisive to choose between the economic left or right of the spectrum. But the true left-right distinction is a matter of fact based in reality, unlike the false left-right paradigm of corporate media, which conflates the economic dimension with the political dimension. The fact is there will always be a point at which the interests of capital will be at odds with the interests of labor when it comes to deciding how to divide profit. It is not divisive to point out this reality. The division in human societies between the educated, wealthy, powerful few and the uneducated, impoverished, disempowered many preceded the recognition of the class dynamics of left and right. Class analysis only makes plain and clear the fact that we, the people, always choose, wittingly or unwittingly, between prioritizing labor or capital. No well-meaning, decent, or humanitarian person wants to be divisive. Unfortunately, some divisions precede our recognition of them. We cannot wish away the fundamental division between capital and labor anymore than we can wish away the division between predators and prey. It is impossible to deny capital is predatory; and disorganized labor are prey. The capitalist never hires a worker, unless the capitalist can make more money off of the worker’s labor than the capitalist will pay the worker in wages. Capital is a social relation, in which capitalists are wolves and workers are sheep, unable to thoughtfully respond, only react helplessly and be herded by the wolves for feeding the wolves. A capitalist economic system will always tend toward authoritarianism because authoritarianism is built into the mode of production. There is no democracy on the job; so, there is no true democracy in society. The concentration of wealth and power in few hands at the workplace is multiplied across society, inevitably, into concentration of wealth and power in few hands in the political system. Libertarian capitalism is a contradiction in terms because capitalism is not compatible with democracy. Any economic system, whether socialist or capitalist, is susceptible to authoritarian leadership in the absence of an informed, active populace. But only a socialist economic system is compatible with a libertarian political system because only a socialist economic system prioritizes labor over capital and, therefore, can be stabilized into a democratic society. But this requires the organization of labor. And capital never rests to disorganize and divide labor, in order to keep workers from seeing the bigger picture, to keep workers reactive instead of proactive, like mindless sheep whenever the wolves snarl and gnash their teeth. As Jim Morrison sang in The Doors’ classic song, “Five To One”, “they got the guns, but we’ve got the numbers…” Imagine, if we, the people, recognized there are more of us than there are of them. Then, we, the people, could have waves of general strikes and, as Malcolm X hoped, a bloodless revolution. Working-Class Solidarity. ✊🏽✊🏼✊🏿✊🏻
[ 5 ] VOMENA… Thankfully, based on personal interactions and being a longtime VOMENA listener, VOMENA staff didn’t seem to be politically allied with the liberal (i.e., pro-capitalist or non-anti-capitalist, i.e., non-pacifist/war apologists) faction at KPFA and its LSB, the faction known as KPFA Forward, which then changed its name to Concerned Listeners, then to SaveKPFA (co-opting the original Save KPFA moniker coined by the grassroots, listener activists, who defended the station in 1999 from a liberal coup d’état of sorts led by Mary Frances Berry and Lynn Chadwick, with apparent support from Janet Reno and the Clinton administration. From speaking to one of the liberal faction’s followers after a Chris Hedges event in Berkeley on 26 SEP 2022, the liberal KPFA faction has changed its name again. The name changes are done, evidently, to try and shed their negative reputation, as listeners see their true imperialist colors. The liberal news bosses (e.g., Aileen Alfandary, Mark Mericle, et al) and program hosts (e.g., Brian Edwards-Tiekert, Mitch Jeserich, et al) at KPFA cannot serve two masters; they cannot uncritically amplify establishment narratives, including the presuppositions that US-funding of war in Ukraine or Yemen, for example, are reasonable foreign policies, which warrant no critique, whilst claiming to be pacifists, faithful to the pacifist Pacifica Radio Network Mission Statement.
[ 6 ] It’s Going Down is usually a disappointing program for leftists, as it functions as a synthetic left shill for the establishment by perpetuating the false left-right paradigm whereby the Republican Party and the ‘far-right’ are usually framed as the bogeymen, of which listeners must be wary. Meanwhile, the Democrat Party is usually let off the hook, usually not critiqued as sharply as the Republican Party. It’s usually (and insidiously) implied that the Democrat Party is some sort of opposition party to the Republican Party. Of course, this implicit framing is absurd. So, occasionally, a word or two of critique of the Democrat Party is allowed to allow for plausible deniability, if publicly challenged on this point. But the critique of the Democrat Party is usually lopsided enough to frame rightists as the only political villains, when most Democrats, if not all, are also rightists, if not centrists. Democrat Party operatives are not leftists (i.e, anti-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists). Two-party systems are polarizing and anti-democratic. (Cf. “America’s Stunted Political Spectrum” by Second Thought [via YouTube], 24 APR 2020; “America’s Corporate Two-Party Duopoly [Two-Party Dictatorship]” by Second Thought [via YouTube], 25 SEP 2020.) This subtle and insidious style of Democrat Party apologism, exemplified by It’s Going Down, which perpetuates a false left-right paradigm, is aided by the anonymous host and recurring interview guests (presumably the host’s friends or political allies, usually the same few people) posturing as “anarchists”, which ostensibly means electoral politics are a low priority in an anarchist discourse, which shuns the state. (Notably, guests are often also anonymous or merely identified by a first name or a nickname. Hiding behind anonymity is bullshit, as sharp observers, such as Chris Hedges have acknowledged.) Anarchist posturing is convenient for Democrat Party shills because it allows them to focus their discourse on anything but challenging the two-party dictatorship in the USA, prevents working class listeners from thinking about and contributing to meaningful third-party politics, ranked-choice voting, a national popular vote interstate compact, or viable electoral reforms. Anarchist posturing redirects social justice critique and political critique away from the Democrat Party, away from the two-party dictatorship (as Ralph Nader described it), and narrowly towards the Republican Party. If listeners listen to It’s Going Down regularly, they will be led to believe that ignoring the federal government, ignoring electoral politics, refusing to build a viable opposition party for the working class, picking fights with rightist protesters on the streets, and simply squatting in abandoned buildings to engage in mutual aid and cultural activities will lead social justice warriors to some panacea or utopia. This is naïve, as the Occupy Wall Street movement learned during President Obama’s nationwide crackdown on Occupy movement encampments, in a coordinated operation involving many of the nation’s big city mayors. Unless ostensible anarchists buy property and buy into the capitalist system, the Feds will come sooner or later to infiltrate and/or clean house, until NATSEC goons are put out of business by an enlightened populace. But don’t expect It’s Going Down to challenge NATSEC, the CIA, the Democrat Party, the two-party dictatorship, or the status quo any time soon, as the program appears to be part of the Democrat Party apologist faction at KPFA, which includes the KPFA news bosses, Aileen Alfandary and Mark Mericle, as well as most of the public affairs programmers, including Brian Edwards-Tiekert, Mitch Jeserich, Kris Welch, Sasha Lilley, C.S. Soong, and their ideological allies across the Pacifica Radio Network, such as Leonard Lopate (WBAI), Sonali Kolhatkar (KPFK), Stephanie Miller (KPFK), Amy Goodman (ex-WBAI), et al. Amy Goodman is like the patron saint of such liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists) and wannabe sellouts. 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.” Amy Goodman, now a millionaire associated with the Ford Foundation and the establishment, is clearly compromised, a class traitor, who has betrayed the original mission of Democracy Now!, betrayed the Pacifica Mission Statement, and betrayed the working class, yet represents the aspirations of the cynical liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists), who are transforming the Pacifica Radio Network into a propaganda vehicle for the Democrat Party. Shame on all of them. And shame on us listeners, who have abandoned the Pacifica Radio Local Station Boards (LSB) and allowed democratic governance of KPFA and all Pacifica Radio stations to be dominated by liberals, like Brian Edwards-Tiekert abusing Robert’s Rules of Order and parliamentary procedures at the Local Station Board meetings and the Pacifica National Board meetings. Your author sat through many LSB meetings and even ran for the KPFA LSB in 2010, so this perspective comes from direct experience, observation, and research. If you care about free speech radio, please form groups or join others in the struggle to take back KPFA and the Pacifica Radio Network from establishment shills, who only perpetuate or amplify establishment narratives. These partisans, as Bob Marley sang in “Babylon System”, are “deceiving the people continually…” Once free speech advocates expose and shun establishment shills from free speech radio, who undermine free speech and stifle dissent, the task will be to expand free speech radio across the nation and the world, terrestrial radio and digital radio. Pacifica Radio programs, like Project Censored, Guns and Butter (censored by Pacifica), Flashpoints, On the Ground, The Gary Null Show, Covid, Race & Democracy, Sojourner Truth, and What’s The Verdict with Wendell Harper (retired, ex-KPFA) are examples of the best of honest, hard-hitting, yet compassionate free speech radio, truly honoring the Pacifica Radio Mission Statement.
[10 MAR 2023]
[Last modified/edited/updated on 11 MAR 2023 at 16:16 PST]
Lumpenproletariat 