LUMPENPROLETARIAT—[Thursday, 16 MAR 2023] Greetings, fellow readers. 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 surveillance, 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.)
“Wealthy people should have the wherewithal to know that they shouldn’t have ALL their assets in one place.” —Danielle DiMartino Booth
Indeed. If everyone knows the FDIC only insures bank accounts up to $250,000, how do we explain all those uninsured deposits which were in SVB? How do we explain the deposit accounts with millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions?
It’s like the power elite in Silicon Valley knew the Federal Reserve, under Jerome Powell, would bail out Silicon Valley Bank. After all, Silicon Valley is a Democrat Party stronghold. So, it was probably a game of brinksmanship. The big investors knew they could milk the tech startup sector as long as they could. And once Federal Reserve interest rates went up high enough, the big cheese talked amongst themselves and decided they were never going to see 4.5% profit yields from SVB in the foreseeable future. The grass started looking greener on the other side, money markets, high-yield corporate bonds, stocks. So, they decided to walk out of SVB, to park their billions someplace safer. When the smaller depositors realized what the power elite were doing, that’s when nervousness set in. And the medium-sized depositors probably started getting out of SVB next. And the last ones, they had to run; that’s when the bank run really started. But, with online banking and digital transactions, it happened faster than ever.
As James Surowiecki wrote for Fast Company on Monday (13 MAR 2023):
“Unlike a typical bank’s customers, most of SVB’s customers belong to a relatively tight-knit community. They’re obsessive users of social media. They talk to each other, both online and in the real world. They tweet, and retweet each other. In the case of VCs [i.e., venture capitalists], there are not that many of them, and they exert an outsize influence on the companies they fund. And as we know from the long history of boom-and-bust cycles in tech, they’re prone to herding—rushing into similar investments at the same time, and then fleeing them when sentiment changes. So when they started to get worried about SVB’s financial health, the situation was almost perfectly designed for a bank run.
“SVB’s executives seem to have hoped, naively, that the relationships the bank had built with the VC and startup community over the years would get them through this rough patch. On Thursday [9 MAR 2023], according to The Information, the bank’s CEO, Greg Becker, told a group of top VCs that the bank would be fine unless everyone panicked, and said, “I would ask everyone to support us just like we supported you.”
“But that was a futile request. (They’re called venture capitalists for a reason.) That same day, Peter Thiel’s Founder Fund advised companies in its portfolio to pull money from the bank, and a host of other venture funds followed suit. And it wasn’t just VCs. According to a Twitter thread by Alexander Torrenegra, CEO of Torre, an online job site, more than 200 tech founders were in a group chat Thursday morning talking about SVB’s problems, with people saying there was “Only upside, no downside” to pulling your money out. (The downside, of course, was that the bank would go under, but for obvious reasons no one cared.) Once a few companies started running for the door, it was almost inevitable that everyone would try to flee. And once that happened, SVB was toast.
“SVB fell victim, in that sense, to a fast-paced bank run of the social-media age—a bitterly ironic fate for a bank that had financed so many tech companies. And its demise was accelerated by another digital innovation: online banking. In the old days, taking your money out of the bank and transferring it to another bank was a time-consuming hassle, which meant banks had more time to forestall disaster. Today, you can do all that with a few clicks on your phone. Depositors and investors tried to pull out $42 billion—almost a quarter of the bank’s total deposits—on Thursday. The next day, regulators shut it down.
“SVB’s collapse shouldn’t necessarily have had any real implications for other banks, since its problems—an undiversified customer base, a huge percentage of its deposits uninsured, and a heavy reliance on corporate/VC customers (who are more likely to switch banks)—were mostly idiosyncratic. But fear isn’t logical, and so, even though SVB’s demise seemed very much the result of its own bad decisions and its customers’ quick exit, federal regulators came up with a plan this weekend to forestall similar bank runs at other regional banks. All SVB depositors will be made whole, and the Fed has set up a lending facility that will allow banks sitting on unrealized losses to borrow money to meet any withdrawals.
“That may well be enough to put a halt to the panic (though a big sell-off in regional-bank stocks Monday morning suggests it’s not over yet). But if there’s a lesson in SVB’s demise, it’s that medium-size banks should be subject to the same capital rules as big ones, and that banking regulators should pay attention to how much exposure banks have to a single industry. SVB was, after all, wrecked by the very industry that had made it rich, coupled with a foolish investment strategy. And the same is true, on a smaller scale, of the two other bank failures we’ve seen in the last week: Silvergate and Signature Bank of New York, both of which were highly dependent on the crypto industry and got into trouble when crypto businesses pulled out billions in cash after the FTX crash. It turns out that putting all your eggs in one basket works great—until the bottom drops out.”
In the video below, journalist Jack Farley asked Danielle DiMartino Booth about “moral hazard” because bailing out Silicon Valley Bank creates perverse incentives. Now, everyone’s gonna think they can do whatever they want, thinking the Fed will always bail them out.
“It’s a question of moral hazard,” said Sheila Bair, who ran the FDIC during the 2008 recession. “For wealthier people or companies or large organizations that will have bigger deposits, you want them to look at the bank carefully, kick the tires, make sure it’s a safe place.” (cf. “Will the FDIC’s move to cover uninsured deposits set a risky precedent?” by Arezou Rezvani, NPR, 14 MAR 2023)
As Dr. Michael Hudson pointed out recently on Geopolitical Economy Report, compare the moral hazard of bailing out SVB, whilst the government is reluctant or unwilling to help student loan debt, or struggling families, in a messed up economy. In another interview, Joseph Wang, who worked at the Federal Reserve, agreed with Jack Farley (host, Forward Guidance, 13 MAR 2023) that it is moral hazard because ‘the Fed bent the rules to bail out people, who didn’t need to be bailed out.’ After all, most of the depositors in SVB were millionaires or billionaires or corporate treasurers, who knew better. These weren’t mom-and-pop bank accounts.
Danielle DiMartino Booth noted what a lot of people are probably starting to see. There’s basically two camps at this point, with different ideas of what the solution is going forward. One camp says we must continue inflicting pain on the broader economy by continuing to raise Federal Reserve interest rates. And another camp is saying it’s unsustainable to continue raising interest rates, that we must drop interest rates back down to zero, or maybe even negative interest rates (e.g., “More Bank Failures Are Imminent as Liquidity Crisis Exposes Major Problems With the Banks” by Steven Van Metre, 11 MAR 2023). Conversely, Danielle DiMartino Booth argues we can’t stay at zero forever. “I’m advocating for maintaining interest rates at a fairly high level but not really bringing them up much further than where they are…” DiMartino said.
Your author thinks the Federal Reserve and government officials are trying to solve the Banking Crisis of March 2023 with their hands tied because of regulatory capture and corruption. All of the best white-collar criminologists, financial regulators, and corporate crime experts, such as UMKC Prof. William K. Black have been sidelined. (cf. “Understanding Recent Bank Failures with Dr. Bill Black“ by OSUN Economic Democracy Initiative, 18 MAR 2023.) (In the interest of full disclosure, Prof. Black is one of your author’s former professors.)
Furthermore, Prof. L. Randall Wray and his colleague Yeva Nersisyan, predicted stagflation since last year (if not earlier) if the Federal Reserve started raising interest rates, unnecessarily. (Prof. Wray is another of your author’s former UMKC professors.) See: PUBLIC POLICY BRIEF NO. 157 | April 2022, “Is It Time for Rate Hikes?: The Fed Cannot Engineer a Soft Landing but Risks Stagflation by Trying” by Yeva Nersisyan and L. Randall Wray. Nevertheless, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates knowing the terrible consequences and did so, by some accounts, the fastest and most severely since the Paul Volcker Shock of 1979 and the early 1980s, which was followed by a deep economic recession.
Economists Dr. L. Randall Wray, Dr. Stephanie Kelton, Dr. Jack Rasmus (cf. Twitter profile), Dr. Michael Hudson, and other observers, such as Thomas H. Greco (BeyondMoney.net), Jr. and Ellen Brown (author, host, It’s Our Money), who see the deeper systemic flaws and economic and banking fragility make the most sense. We need deeper systemic change. (cf. “Randall Wray – Why Our Economy Keeps Crashing” by Wellbeing Economics Brighton, 11 MAR 2023.)
The Usury Conjecture in a nutshell
“The central banking, interest-based, debt money system that is dominant around the world today is neither stable, nor sustainable, nor fair. The creation of money based on bank lending with interest creates an imperative for debt to grow exponentially with the passage of time. That debt-growth imperative drives artificial economic growth as borrowers compete with one another to acquire enough money from the always insufficient pool of money to service their “loans.”” —Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
Danielle DiMartino Booth painted a grim picture on Monday (13 MAR 2023) in her discussion with journalist Jack Farley (host of Forward Guidance on the Blockworks Macro YouTube channel). DiMartino mentioned her concerns about the ‘lending pipeline to construction’ potentially being cut off and serious damage to the lending system of the economy, which would mean serious economic pain for the broader economy and the working class.
Danielle DiMartino Booth (c. 18min 00sec): “But there’s something worse than any bailout. If you start taking really bad loans, and you know that you’re never going to have the money made whole—heck, Maiden Laine was made whole in the end, didn’t lose money [i.e., Maiden Lane Transactions]. But this would be a step further out. This would be a Maiden Lane, KNOWING that you were going to eventually have taxpayer losses, which, in my mind, is THE rubicon.
“It’s not a Treasury; it’s not an agency, unless you’re working under the assumption the United States is going AWAY [i.e., won’t be bailing out its favorites forever]—because that’s what you’re saying, if it’s not gonna be good at maturity, then we no longer exist as a nation.
“But I say we don’t go past that line, which IS going to take bad players out of the system, which is okay.”
Jack Farley (host, Forward Guidance): “Danielle, a lot of what you spoke of just there is credit risk. CRE is commercial real estate, so loans going bad, people not paying it back. That’s different from the problems, that we discussed at the beginning of our talk, which is mainly due to interest rate risk, um, not credit risk.
“I want to hear about the credit risk that you see in the system. And you’ve been pointing out certain vulnerabilities in the job market, in the auto market, in the housing market, that haven’t appeared outside the surface, even though I know there’s a lot of, like, activity beneath the surface. I want to hear about that, and also to what degree do you think the banking turmoil, that is going on as we speak might accelerate that.” (c. 19min 29sec)
Danielle DiMartino Booth: “Now, you’re getting to the crux of the issue because you’re connecting the final dot. Right? Because, hypothetically, the Fed can backstop all of this interest rate risk, right now. They can just—they can put a timestamp on it and say, ‘Enough! We’re backstopping. Now, you’re indemnified.’
“That has nothing to do with how lending will remain impaired, how, once we empty out the construction pipeline, we see losses in that sector—up to a million jobs—because that lending pipeline is not really going to get refilled.”
Today, your author spoke with an economist type (or at least a work-from-home bloke with a degree in economics) in Silicon Valley, someone in the know. Your author asked him, if he knew what was going on with Silicon Valley Bank. He said, “Yeah…” We talked for a bit.
He mentioned his wife was panicking because her company had all their funds in SVB. And they didn’t know if she was going to get anymore paychecks. So, they were relieved about the bailout.
We discussed the ethics of it all. We agreed it was criminal that the SVB CEO got millions of his personal funds out.
Your author didn’t think it was necessary to bail out SVB. So, we disagreed on that point.
But we agreed that, basically, all of the overlapping crises, from the proxy war in Ukraine to the banking crisis, it was all avoidable and mostly self-inflicted by the US government and the Federal Reserve central banking system.
And we agreed on another thing. He said he thinks the US economy is heading towards a major crash in the next year or two. “Bigger than the Great Depression?” your author asked. “Yeah,” he said.
Then, listening to Danielle DiMartino Booth… Well, the way things are going right now, any move the Fed makes is likely to be bad for working-class people…
#DanielleDiMartinoBooth #SiliconValleyBank #BlockworksMacro
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 (i.e., meaningful, truth-seeking, truth-tracking) OBSERVATIONS:
- “BANK RUNS – Credit Suisse needs $54 Billion BAILOUT to Avoid Collapse as Cash Crisis Hit Europet” by Joe Blogs [via YouTube], 16 MAR 2023. [26min 06sec] | A laundry list of corruption in Credit Suisse history. Hudson and Rasmus are needed to fill in the gaps left by Joe Blogs neoclassical economics perspective. Joe Blogs corroborated what Dr. Michael Hudson said on Geopolitical Economy Report when he said this wasn’t so much a run on the bank as much as it was the biggest investors talking to each other, deciding the ‘free lunch was over’, as Dr. Hudson said, as soon as the largest investors at SVB saw they were no longer gonna see 4.5% profit returns anymore, they decided to pull their money out. When the large investors did that, the smaller investors got nervous and that’s when we did see a run on SVB. The stragglers, the smaller corporates had to scramble at the end. | Joseph Wang in the video listed below admitted that officials bent the rules to protect people, who didn’t need to be protectes. They should have and did know better. But they kept their money in thei uninsured…
- “Crypto & the SVB Banking Crisis with Marty Bent & Michael Krieger” by Unlimited Hangout [via Rokfin], 16 MAR 2023. [1hr 42min 15sec] [L27] “In this episode, Whitney is joined by Marty Bent and Michael Krieger to unpack the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the financial instability that has ensued and interrogate the flimsy narratives used to justify, among other things, the SVB bail-out and the shutdown of Silvergate Bank.”
@LumpenProles, last modified/edited/updated on 18 MAR 2023 at 22:04 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. ✊🏽✊🏼✊🏿✊]
Thursday, 16 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.
02:00 PST / 05:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > CODEPINK Radio with CODEPINK Collective
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
05:00 PST / 08:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman and company
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
06:00 PST / 09:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Equal Rights and Justice with Mimi Rosenberg
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
06:00 PST / 09:00 EST, WPFW [D.C.] > On the Margin
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
07:00 PST, KPFK [Los Angeles, CA] > Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
07:00 PST / 10:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > CODEPINK Radio with CODEPINK activists
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
07:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > UpFront with Brian Edwards-Tiekert
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: UpFront is some of the worst Machiavellian perception management, which will never inform the working class, which is oppressed by the power elite, nor help them connect the dots between issues to help the public see the larger truths to be able to learn from past experience. This is liberal [i.e., pro-capitalist or non-anti-capitalist] entertainment and Democrat Party apologism masquerading as critical leftist [i.e., anti-capitalist] journalism and analysis. [ 2 ]
08:00 PST / 11:00 EST, WPFW [D.C.] > Code Pink Radio
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
08:00 PST / 11:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Joy of Resistance with Fran Luck
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
09:00 PST / 12:00 EST, PRN.Live [NYC] & WBAI [NYC] (simulcast) > The Gary Null Show
NOTES (re: Gary Null Show for 16 MAR 2023): 0922 prn.live critique | TW film clip, a monologue about the 1960s being humanity’s last gasp before the onset of global totalitarianism… | a call-in, from a parent with her kids, apparently, being miseducated into gender dysphoria…and how homeschooling has helped the kids be happier and healthier and less confused about their gender… | On Null’s retreats
COMMENTS: This program, The Gary Null Show, is one of the most honest, compassionate, and hard-hitting shows on Pacifica Radio, or anywhere for that matter. This program is easily as important, as the best of them: Flashpoints; Project Censored; On The Ground: Voices of Resistance From the Nation’s Capitol; Covid, Race & Democracy, Guns and Butter, et al.
10:00 PST / 13:00 EST, PRN.Live [NYC] > Leid Stories with Utrice Leid
NOTES: Dr. Gary Null visits to express his concerns about debt in the nation. Your author doesn’t agree with everything Dr. Null says, especially when jt comes to fields of study outside of health and healing. Dr. Null concluded his commentary about the massive debt or asset inflation in the USA, particularly in the secondary market and the derivatives market. Ultimately, Dr. Null concluded by saying the problem is “making money from money,” a succinct way of describing financial capitalism. So, Dr. Null, basically, called for a different type of capitalism of traditional production and consumption. It’s true that would be better than financial capitalism. Anything would be better than financial capitalism. The problem with industrial capitalism is that it is what led us, as a society, to financial capitalism. I would respectfully suggest to Dr. Null to invite Dr. Stephanie Kelton or Dr. L. Randall Wray to clarify for us how the monetary system actually works because Dr. Null conflated some things about finance and the monetary system. Your author agrees with Dr. Null’s concerns about the global CBDC feudalism, as Greco said yesterday on Ellen Brown… ] | Null switched topics to advocate for Utrice Leid’s cancer recovery, including appealing to listeners for donations to her Go Fund Me account: ‘Support for Utrice Leid’ | 0955 Null offered to take calls again… So, ur author decided to try calling… But he just got a busy tone… Called back, ring tone, then was hung up on… Oh, well… Your author wanted to send some kind words to Utrice and also to ask Null if he’s talked to Dr. Kelton yet… if not, to invite him to talk to her about the monetary system because he contradicts her and modern monetary theory, which is quite undisputed… Anyway, your author would’ve challenged Null a bit… The goal is to better perceive reality, not to one-up anyone… For example, Null seems unaware of Minsky’s Instability Hypothesis. Yet, PRN airs Dr. Jack Rasmus, who has written about it. But, evidently, not everyone on PRN doesn’t have time to listen and learn from every other program airing on the same network. Your author has found the same thing to be true at Pacifica Radio, where some area of life or topic will be well understood by one broadcaster, but on another program, they will be unaware of what their fellow programmer is very aware. It’s as if there’s a lack of inter-station or internetwork communication. For example (on WBAI), post-COVID-19, Dr. Gary Null would be very aware of the problems with PCR testing, or at least how PCR tests were being misused. And, then, the very next hour, Leonard Lopate would come on the air seemingly ignorant, or completely unaware, of the problems with PCR testing. Of course, sometimes, on Pacifica Radio, it seems this happens due to wilful ignorance. Or, sometimes, people feign ignorance. Now, perhaps, Leonard Lopate simply disagreed with Dr. Gary Null’s perspective on PCR testing or COVID-19 topics. If so, it stands to reason, there may be disagreement among listeners. In that case, it would be helpful to air debates between Dr. Gary Null and Leonard Lopate on such topics, where listeners hear conflicting information from radio hosts on the same network. That way, programs aren’t existing in their own little bubbles, or silos, as Matt Taibbi would say. Moreover, that would honor Pacifica Radio’s Mission Statement, “to engage in any activity that shall contribute to a lasting understanding between nations and between the individuals of all nations, races, creeds and colors; to gather and disseminate information on the causes of conflict between any and all of such groups […]” Unfortunately, too often it appears, liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists), like Leonard Lopate and Mitch Jeserich, on Pacifica Radio do not want to know certain things, such as the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, the polarizing nature of two-party systems, or the sundry problems with the establishment COVID-19 narrative they espouse. Yet, many of those same liberals, like Mitch Jeserich (on KPFA) love to air people, like economist Prof. Richard Wolff, who is very good at explaining many of the fundamental contradictions of capitalism. Yet, the rest of the airtime, liberals, like Mitch Jeserich, will filter every broadcast through a corporate Democrat Party apologist lens, which enables the furtherance of the fundamental contradictions of capitalism. It’s a trip…
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, 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 / 13:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Leonard Lopate at Large
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This program, Leonard Lopate at Large, suffers from the same “liberal bias” (which Dr. Noam Chomsky has warned about since at least the 1990s), as UpFront, Democracy Now!, Letters and Politics, Talkies, Rising Up, et al. Democrat Party apologism and a refusal to critique or interrogate the two-party dictatorship is the common thread between all these liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists)…
10:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] & KPFK [Los Angeles, CA] (simulcast) > Letters and Politics
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This program, Letters and Politics, suffers from the same “liberal bias” (which Dr. Noam Chomsky has warned about since at least the 1990s), as UpFront, Democracy Now!, Leonard Lopate at Large, Talkies, Rising Up, et al. Democrat Party apologism and a refusal to critique or interrogate the two-party dictatorship is the common thread between all these liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists)…
10:00 PST / 13:00 EST, WPFW [D.C.] > Your Rights at Work
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
11:00 PDT / 14:00 EDT, PRN.Live > The Ralph Nader Radio Hour
NOTES: Nader intro: 1. New book from Dahr Jamail(sp?) on awakening to the reality of industry-induced ‘climate change’ or colonizer-induced climate change from a First Nations/Native American perspective… [TW] [It’s nice to hear talk of wisdom and wisdom-cultivation on the Nader Radio Hour | 2. A much-needed discussion on the importance of pensions … 1142 Pension Rights Center, Karen Freedman(sp?) http://www.pensionrights.org | 1145 3. UC Berkeley cutbacks, Sandra and Yesus(sp?) speak out [sounds like UC Berkeley is gutting the university, as trucks are scheduled to come in and empty out the library! Wow, that’s so disappointing. ..It’s good some students are speaking out…] 1150, gotta tune out for lunch.
11:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Talkies with Kris Welch
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This program suffers from what Dr. Noam Chomsky described circa 1991 as “the liberal bias”. Kris Welch is a stalwart defender of Democrat Party reformism. But, of course, the defense is done with subtlety and nuance. Uncritical listeners might even project their own views on to her liberal rhetoric and see what they want to see. But, make no mistake, Kris Welch is a staunch Democrat, a Wellstone Democrat to be precise. The Democrat Party will always be a corrupt, corporate party. Yet, some Democrat reformists never stop with their false left-right paradigm, operating from an underlying assumption or from the presupposition that the Democrat Party is a sincere opposition party to the racist, anti-working class Republican Party. Over time, a pattern of Democrat Party apologia emerges. This seems implausible as an ideological stance. Such apologia only makes sense coming from shills on some payroll.
11:00 PST / 14:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Take Charge of Your Health with Corrine Furnani & Carol Petersen
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
12:00 PST / 15:00 EST, PRN.Live [NYC] > All Together Now with Eleanor LeCain
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: Your author is new to this radio program on the Progressive Radio Network (PRN). Your author has been listening to free speech radio KPFA since childhood, since junior high school (aka ‘middle school’). But, since the 1999 KPFA Lockouts, liberals, like Doug Henwood, a political ally of Sasha Lilley (a host of Against the Grain), have been watering down honest, hard-hitting, yet compassionate free speech radio… An honest, pro-labor, program, like All Together Now, ought to be on KPFA, instead of synthetic left programs, like Behind the News…
12:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Behind the News
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This program, Behind the News, suffers from the same “liberal bias” (which Dr. Noam Chomsky has warned about since at least the 1990s), as UpFront, Democracy Now!, Leonard Lopate at Large, Letters and Politics, Talkies, et al. Democrat Party apologism and a refusal to critique or interrogate the two-party dictatorship is the common thread between all these liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists). Doug Henwood, like the hosts of Against the Grain (Sasha Lilley and C.S. Soong), deserve some credit for providing some informative programs, which are of interest to left-leaning people. And, I must admit, they had me fooled for years into thinking that they are actually leftists. But, at this point in my life, I finally understand that Doug Henwood, like C.S. Soong and Sasha Lilley, will never critique the Democrat Party nor the two-party dictatorship as thoroughly as they may critique the Republican Party. Notably, Sasha Lilley is a political ally of Doug Henwood, helping him get on the KPFA broadcast schedule back during the years when Sasha Lilley was KPFA’s interim Program Director. I remember at least one KPFA ally, speaking against Doug Henwood, calling him a “hack” back then, when I naively perceived Doug Henwood as more leftist than he actually is. Liberals, like Doug Henwood, Sasha Lilley, and C.S. Soong are the most clever of Pacifica Radio liberals because they seem sincere, honest, leftist. But, when you listen closely to them, especially for decades as your author has done, you start to see the liberal bias and the Democrat Party apologia very clearly. It’s obvious over time, especially taking notes on their broadcasts. But such liberals can perpetrate a fraud against occasional listeners, as they have done for years, but all the while contributing to a general dumbing down of free speech Pacifica Radio listeners, especially when it comes to what Dr. Peter Dale Scott, Dr. Peter Phillips, and others call “deep politics”, especially when it comes to moments of kairos, turning points, such as 9/11 and the COVID-19 psyop (chimeric virus is real, most likely lab-engineered through gain of function research; but the statistics and statistical modeling was fraudulent and inflated for fearmongering purposes). All we get is gaslighting from such liberals masquerading as anti-capitalists when it comes to deep politics. Ultimately, this is liberal entertainment for shallow and demobilized types. It takes more sincerity, more willingness to challenge power structures with specifics, naming names, to truly elevate the consciousness of listeners, to activate and politicize and mobilize listeners to go from being passive to active. We need people like Doug Henwood, Sasha Lilley, and C.S. Soong to stop bullshitting listeners, when it comes to deep politics, even when it comes to the two-party dictatorship. Such liberals need to interview and learn from other more honest broadcasters, such as Mickey Huff, Bonnie Faulkner, Dennis Bernstein, Esther Iverem, Gary Null, Steve Zeltzer, et al.
12:00 PST / 15:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Resistance Radio with John Kane and Regan de Loggans
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
13:00 PST / 16:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
13:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] >
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
14:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > The Visionary Activist
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This show, The Visionary Activist, is, perhaps, the most egregious example of dishonoring the Pacifica Mission statement. Instead of calling this show The Visionary Activist, it ought to be called The Demobilizing Activist, fomenting analysis paralysis. Fake deep statements. Fetishism of indigenous stuff? Liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists).
14:00 PST / 17:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Driving Forces
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
14:00 PST / 17:00 EST, WPFW [D.C.] > Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
15:00 PST / 18:00 EST, WPFW [D.C.] > U Must Learn
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
15:00 PST / 18:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Democracy Now! Evening with Amy Goodman and company
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: Evidently, a truncated 30-minute version of the morning’s Democracy Now! program functions as WBAI’s nightly newscast.
15:30 PST / 18:30 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Chris Hedges Report [30min]
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
16:00 PST / 19:00 EST, WBAI [NYC] > Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley [60min]
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
16:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Hard Knock Radio with Davey D
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
17:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Flashpoints with Dennis Bernstein
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
18:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays is usually, honest on basic social justice issues, but KPFA newscast bosses tend to gaslight listeners on COVID-19 (never mention VAERS data, VAERS deaths, assaults on informed consent, assaults on parental consent, no mention of litigation in India against the World Health Organization, etc.) and also gaslight listeners regarding establishment Democrat Party politics (i.e., usually engaging in Democrat Party apologia and perception management to keep people within the Democrat Party imaginary and away from the third-party politics imaginary, in the sociology sense of the term, ‘imaginary’). I.e., in other words, ‘it’s all good, just don’t question 9/11, COVID-19, nor establishment electoral politics.’ Having said all that, this is still a better nightly newscast than most. I’m hard-pressed to think of a better one, especially since the demise of Free Speech Radio News (FSRN), particularly regarding local news coverage. But that doesn’t excuse the KPFA news bosses’ intellectual dishonesty, lying by omission, and other deficiencies of journalistic integrity. WION is pretty good on global news; but there, too, one can detect the liberal bias, which Dr. Noam Chomsky has warned about since at least the 1990s.
19:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] >
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
[ 1 ] 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.
[16 MAR 2023]
[Last modified/edited/updated on 18 MAR 2023 at 23:27 PDT]
Lumpenproletariat 