LUMPENPROLETARIAT—[Friday, 17 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.)
The biggest news today appears to be the U.S. government’s relentless march towards Orwellian totalitarianism. As Prof. Sheldon S. Wolin has articulated in his must-read book, Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism, we have been deep into inverted totalitarianism territory for some time now. But, increasingly, we’re seeing signs, or red flags, indicating the state is no longer pretending the USA is a democratic society. The state is abandoning democratic pretense.
The lame stories we’re getting from the establishment media/press to account for the U.S. Navy and intelligence involvement in the bombing of the Nord Stream II pipelines is a prime example. Chris Hedges published an interview today with investigative journalist Seymour Hersh about that bombing. It is striking to think, as Sy Hersh noted, that not a single journalist with access to President Biden has dared to ask him whether or not his administration has asked any of the relevant government agencies to investigate the bombing. Of course, Mr. Biden won’t investigate the bombing because they know who did it. He either let the CIA do it, or he gave them the greenlight because he knows presidents become more popular during wartime. And, of course, the US-planned bombing of the Nord Stream II pipelines is an act of war. It’s insane. These warmongers are risking nuclear war for profits, for filthy lucre.
Similarly, The Grayzone’s Friday Live today, with Max Blumenthal and Aaron Maté dissected the absurd establishment media/press discourse around the Nord Stream II pipeline bombing. They expertly show how the establishment media/press act as stenographers for state power and intelligence agencies. And they reminded us about one of the greatest scandals in U.S. history, and one of the most heinous conspiracies, the conspiracy to push the U.S. into invading Iraq under false pretences of weapons of mass destruction, which didn’t exist. It made no sense to invade and destroy Iraq, to bomb children and civilians on the lie that Iraq had something to do with the attacks of 9/11. And 9/11 is another conspiracy, which to this day must be investigated. The CIA coined the phrase, “conspiracy theory”, to weaponize it, to turn it into a pejorative, to discourage people from asking the difficult questions. The CIA has studied mind control (e.g., MK Ultra) to figure out crowd psychology to learn how to control and manipulate the population. They know people are sensitive to peer pressure. Nobody wants to be the ‘oddball’. So, instead, too many of us go along with the herd with the establishment narratives, like sheep or cattle to the slaughterhouse. Too often, we fall for groupthink narratives. So, we must help each other wake the folk up.
Admirably, Katie Halper and Aaron Maté, the current hosts of usefulidiots (on YouTube), ask the important question: Will the Left Stand Up to the Deep State? Political economist and political geographer Christian Parenti, son of the important leftist scholar, Michael Parenti, is an excellent person to discuss that question. If, by the left, Katie Halper and Aaron Maté mean Democrats and liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists), the answer is no. Democrats and liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists) will never stand up to the deep state. (Read scholars, like Dr. Peter Dale Scott, for more on the deep state and deep politics, if you’re new to the concept.) But we know the left half of the spectrum of possible economic systems is the anti-capitalist side. Leftists (i.e., anticapitalists) understand the fundamental contradictions of capitalism. Liberals do not, or they uncritically go along with those contradictions, if they do. And, by leftist, we don’t mean authoritarianism. The role of the state, the political system is separate from a nation’s economic system. Just as a capitalist economic system can be libertarian or authoritarian, like Hitler’s capitalist totalitarianism. So, too, can a socialist economic system be libertarian or authoritarian, like Stalin’s authoritarian Soviet Union. But a truly libertarian socialist government has rarely been allowed to succeed because capital is global. And the CIA has waged a covert global war against the left. Understanding the fundamental contradictions of capitalism guides us away from prioritizing capital over labor, and guides us toward prioritizing labor over capital, towards democratizing tendencies. We cannot expect to have democracy in society, if we don’t have democracy at work. That distinction is what we must understand. That helps us make sense of the banking crisis, the current economic crash, the latest failure of capitalism.
The deliberate capitalist crashing of the economy by severely raising interest rates in a matter of months is coinciding with the BRICS nations’ continued efforts to escape US dollar imperialism. So, as the world moves to abandon the U.S. dollar as the international reserve currency, the U.S. government has been making moves to eliminate cash and impose a central bank digital currency (CBDC). In Silicon Valley, restaurants and retail businesses have been displaying signs saying: ‘WE DO NOT ACCEPT CASH.’ Many other retailers often claim they have ‘no change’, no coins. Wal-Mart stores have been refusing to accept cash at the self-checkout machines, forcing people to stand in long lines at the one or two cash registers with human cashiers to use cash. It’s like we’re being psychologically groomed for accepting a world without cash. But our government is far too antidemocratic, too totalitarian, for a cashless society to portend anything good. Convenience is invoked; but ulterior motives are obvious.
Recently, the San Francisco Federal Reserve has made major moves to push a CBDC on the American people. A cashless society and S.M.A.R.T. cities, or ‘15-minute cities‘, are next. Palo Alto, California, is becoming an early example in the U.S. of this totalitarian ‘urban planning‘. But we’re missing the root cause of the problem, if we don’t recognize capitalism is driving the overlapping agendas of the global power elite, reflected in the UN, the World Economic Forum (WEF), the World Health Organization (WHO). WEF figurehead, Klaus Schwab is a pupil of Henry Kissinger and the US deep state. Early opponents of S.M.A.R.T. cities, from Rosa Koire, an important early voice against the totalitarian UN Agenda 21, to more recent opponents of ‘the Great Reset‘, like Michael Rectenweld, and like many people with underdeveloped knowledge of the political compass and America’s Stunted Political Spectrum tend to conflate political systems with economic systems. They tend to inaccurately or unscientifically assume leftist is synonymous with authoritarian, like they conflate the pro-capitalist liberal Democrat Party with “the left”. But liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists) are not leftists (i.e., anticapitalists). And the World Economic Forum‘s phony climate change agenda is a purely capitalist agenda, not a socialist agenda. Capitalists do not care about the environment. Capitalists prioritize profit motive above everything else. And this doesn’t mean small businesses. Small businesses can do what they want, for the most part, as far as having a top-down, dictatorial organizational structure. The problem is big business and corporations. They must be required to have democracy at work, to give workers a seat in the boardroom, otherwise they will only abuse labor. Capital is prioritized over labor. So, the corporate media has managed to confuse people into thinking socialism is synonymous with authoritarianism, which is not true. Read Prof. Sheldon S. Wolin to understand how our own capitalist economic system is giving rise to inverted totalitarianism. Scholars are increasingly recognizing the fact that capitalism is not compatible with democracy.
And, now, the Federal Reserve is preparing to launch FedNow in July of 2023. The problem with CBDCs is that it’s programmable money. The U.S. government will be able to cut off the CBDC of anybody in the USA, who dissents, who speaks out against anything wrong in society, just like the Trudeau administration cut off the bank accounts of the Canadian truckers, who were exercising their right to free speech and to peaceably assemble for a redress of grievances, to oppose forced medical experimentation with the COVID-19 injection mandates. China’s CBDC has “expiration dates,” as reported by Lena Petrova, which makes their CBDC a ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ currency. The US government will be able to do the same to us. And Nigerians have been forced to use a CBDC, against their will because many people were refusing it, but now they have been suffering, unable to access their own bank accounts, unable to get enough cash to buy food or get what they need to buy for their families. So, totalitarianism is breathing down our necks. And we must refuse and resist what doesn’t make sense.
As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr wrote in his letter from the Birmingham Jail, “One has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”
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:
- “Julian Assange and WikiLeaks with Julian’s Father John Shipton” by RFK Jr The Defender Podcast [via Spotify], 17 MAR 2023. [31min] [transcript-worthy (TW)] NB: Playback is optimal with Spotify app.
- “After Socrates: Episode 13 – Ritual Way of Knowing | Dr. John Vervaeke” by John Vervaeke [via YouTube], 17 MAR 2023. [1hr 10min 32sec] | Prof. John Vervaeke intends these lectures to be accessible to all ‘with a genuine existential interest.’ So, he defines all technical terms along the way from Episode 1 of “After Socrates.” However, some terms have been previously defined in the previous lecture series, “Awakening From the Meaning Crisis”….
- “🚨 Fed is Launching DIGITAL Payment System to Usher in CBDC | FedNow is Launching in July 2023” by Lena Petrova, CPA – Finance, Economics & Tax, 17 MAR 2023. [6min 56sec] [06:50 PDT] | CBDCs, if you haven’t heard yet, is programmable money. For example, China’s CBDC is programmed to be a ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ CBDC. And, in Nigeria, people are suffering under onerous withdrawal limits. People might not like what’s in store, as CBDCs threaten to replace cash currency.
- “The Collapse of SVB, Silvergate, & Signature Bank | Caitlin Long & Nic Carter” by Blockworks Macro [via YouTube], 17 MAR 2023. [14:58 PDT] [L19?] | It’s usually informative to listen to financial analysts and strategists, like these. If nothing else, one can gain some additional knowledge and understanding of the worlds of banking, finance, and economics. Your author is new to the Blockworks Macro YouTube channel. A recent Jack Farley interview with Danielle DiMartino Booth on the Federal Reserve bailout of Silicon Valley Bank was the first encounter with Blockworks Macro. The analysts on this program, On the Margin, initially seem quite glib, like liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists) often are, with little to no sense of urgency or concern for the proletariat, much less the lumpenproletariat. So, your author wasn’t expecting any politics, political economy, or geopolitical economy. So, when they said they would get into the political aspects of the recent bank runs, your author was pleasantly surprised, only to be quickly disappointed, when they turned to the politics of crypto. So, evidently, no concern for labor or the working-class….
- “How America destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines w/Seymour Hersh | The Chris Hedges Report” by The Real News Network [via YouTube], 17 MAR 2023. [38min 25sec] | [TW]
- “The Grayzone never forgets – Friday live w/ Max Blumenthal & Aaron Mate” by The Grayzone [via YouTube], 17 MAR 2023. [17:13 PDT] | NOTES: [L65] 1. Seymour “Sy” Hersh speech on Nord Stream pipeline bombing. 2. Ukraine proxy war. … On the warhawks beating the war drum for WWIII, risking nuclear war, e.g. Lindsey Graham, Sean Hannity, et al., as calculating Republicans, like DeSantis, posture as antiwar, like W. Bush, who would campaign against neocons, only to capitulate to neocons once in office. … | (c. 45min 00sec) Remembering one of the greatest crimes of state, the U.S. military invasion of Iraq under false pretenses. [The invasion of Iraq was a conspiracy, too…]
- “Will the Left Stand up to the Deep State?” by usefulidiots [via YouTube], 17 MAR 2023. [50min 38sec] | Guest: political economist Dr. Christian Parenti, who provided the audience with a pretty good, albeit simplified, summary of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, the bank runs, and the banking crisis, which is threatening the global banking system. News: Roger Waters’ concert canceled in Germany, as he’s accused of antisemitism. But where’s the evidence? Apparently, criticizing Zionist Israel, the colonial force occupying Palestine, is now antisemitism. | ‘The Four Food Groups, including: (1) Why Democrats Suck: Jamie Raskin (Democrat, Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee) opposed a Republican, Protecting Speech from Government Interference Act, which “basically, would prohibit federal employee censorship”, by calling it the ‘Putin Protection Act’ and arguing for censoring social media. (2) Why Republicans suck: Republican Senator from Louisiana Bill Cassidy went on FOX News to unscrupulously seize an opportunity to spin the Silicon Valley Bank collapse as an excuse to argue for disparaging and eliminating the Social Security trust fund. (Additional notes on this presentation below.)
- MINING MEMORY HOLES:
- “Klaus Schwab Was Henry Kissinger’s Pupil and the Son of a Nazi Collaborator Who Used Slave Labor and Aided Nazi Efforts to Obtain the First Atomic Bomb” by Johnny Vedmore, Stillness in the Storm: An Agent of Conscious Evolution, 31 MAR 2021. [R0]
@LumpenProles, last modified/edited/updated on 4 APR 2023 at 07:10 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, 17 March 2023
Please read this book, if you haven’t already. It is still relevant to help us wake the folk up.
*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.
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
QUOTATIONS FROM PODCAST ARCHIVE: “‘ON THE GROUND’ SHOW FOR MARCH 17, 2023: SEYMOUR HERSH AT THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB, SPEAKS ON INVESTIGATION INTO ALLEGED U.S. ROLE IN DESTRUCTION OF NORD STREAM PIPELINES” | “Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh, whose recent bombshell investigation names the Biden administration as the mastermind behind the destruction of Nord Stream pipeline system, doubles down on his allegations in a wide-ranging conversation at the National Press Club. We spend with hour with Hersh, who says that U.S. destruction of the pipeline is one sign of how reckless and how unprepared the U.S. is as it continues to ratchet up the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. […]”
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 (re: WPFW archive audio): Excerpts of Sy Hersh speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, 14 MAR 2023. | If a direct link to a WPFW radio archive is not included here, please access the WPFW archive by scrolling down to find the archives for [day], [date] (10:00 EST) and clicking on the audio stream for On The Ground. 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 Friday, 17 MAR 2023, PRN.Live livestream): Health & Healing Information: ‘matcha tea benefits’ (09:01 PDT) [channel/station change (CC)] | (09:07 PDT) [tuned back in; sounds like the actual live show for today, H & H] …
NOTES/COMMENTS (re: Gary Null Show for Friday, 17 MAR 2023, WBAI livestream): […] (09:01 PDT) WBAI Dr. Gary Null Show simulcast | Kathy Davis, board operator: ‘Please stay tuned. I have created a glitch.’ Music, then a switch to ‘exclusive interview’ [Sounds like the 10Letters dot org interview] [TW] … (09:07 PDT) [CC] | (09:07 PDT) [tuned back in to WBAI, the 10Letters dot org interview is far more compelling, even having listened to it once already, earlier this week] … (09:15 PDT) [glitch, audio reset to the start of the program. Reloading livestream, the same thing glitch] … (09:22 PDT) [dead air, after Fauci clip started to play] … (09:23 PDT) http://is%20back%20up … (09:46 PDT) [dead air]
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. Your author doesn’t agree with everything Dr. Null says. But, when it comes to health and healing information, Dr. Null is one of the most important voices around today. 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: […] (10:03 PDT) music 1. Muhammad on self-esteem? Then. Definition of money 2. Jeremiah from Harlem: left lost, time for affinity groups 3. Reg caller ‘from New York’, Jay, your author thinks it was: ‘I care about black people…’ … | Henry from Berkeley | from Virgin Islands | 1032 Patricia from New York’ ‘black people put all their hopes in Democrat Party but they don’t…’ [TW] | your author called in | Christopher was grateful for people speaking out for teachers and healthcare workers he lost his pension | 1050 ‘Bill from Pennsylvania’ from ‘Baruch College’ ‘no heavy opinion, just wanna send u some love’ | 1052 UL summary | 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: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
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
QUOTATIONS FROM RADIO ARCHIVE DESCRIPTION: “Alternative Visions – From Silicon Valley Bank to Larger Banking Crisis?” | “Dr. Rasmus gives an update on US and global banking instability in the wake of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank a week ago this friday. What exactly happened at Silicon Valley Bank and is that process occurring elsewhere? What is the role of the Federal Reserve in causing and precipitating the crisis? Have the efforts of the Fed and big banks to staunch the crisis in the US regional banks in recent days working? Is the Fed solution in the short run the cause of future banking instability in the longer run? What happened to bank regulation after Dodd-Frank Act? The three indicators of continuing bank instability. What’s happening at Credit Suisse bank in Europe? Similarities and differences with 2008 crisis. What does it all mean for future Fed rate hikes (next week) and Fed strategy to slow inflation? Consequences of the current banking crisis for US real economy and global economy. (Check out Dr. Rasmus’s print article on these topics this weekend at his blog, http://jackrasmus.com)”
NOTES: […] (11:02 PDT) Dr. Jack Rasmus. ‘Silicon Valley Bank’, what happened, and why. Also, comparing the current bank runs and collapses of SVB, Silvergate, etc. to the Global Financial Crisis of 2007/08. Also, taking a look at Credit Suisse. … 1140 ‘…the fear jumped the Atlantic…’ [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: 1200 Historian Webster Tarpley [TW] … 1201 tune out to listen to chatty neighbor. 1202 tune back in. ‘Treaty of Versailles’, which set the stage for WWII…
12:00 PDT / 15:00 EDT, WBAI [NYC] > Live On The Fly with Randy Credico
NOTES: [notes pending]
12:00 PDT, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > It’s Going Down with anonymous male-sounding host
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
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 ]
10:00 PDT / 12:00 EDT, WPFW [D.C.] > Jazz and Justice – Bobby Rox
NOTES: [notes pending]
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
NOTES: 1302 KPFA mnar [TW] 1302 CC
13:00 PDT / 16:00 EDT, WBAI [NYC] > Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
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
QUOTATIONS FROM RADIO ARCHIVE DESCRIPTION: “Today on the Show: On the Trump trail: Will Atlanta or New York be the first to light the fuse and indict the former president? The Election Crimes Bulletin is back on the Trump trail from the beltway to the Pacific Coast Highway. Also A Superior Court ruled last week that a proposed regulation fails to protect farmworkers who labor near fumigated fields from harmful levels of exposure to the cancer-causing pesticide. And Cynthia Papaermaster from Code Pink will join us to talk about this weekends actions locally and national to end the war.
NOTES: [scribe hasn’t listened yet]
“Money Changes Everything” by Cyndi Lauper (1983)
“Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper (1983)
“Time After Time” interpreted by Miles Davis (1985)
“Honey” by Mariah Carey (1997)
“It Never Entered My Mind” interpreted by Miles Davis (1956/1960)
18:00 PDT, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] & KPFK [simulcast] [Los Angeles, CA] > The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays
QUOTATIONS FROM RADIO ARCHIVE DESCRIPTION: “ICC files war crimes charges against Russia’s President Vladimir Putin; California Governor Gavin Newsom transforms San Quentin’s Death Row; Family of Angelo Quinto, killed by Antioch police, seeks homicide as cause of death in new litigation — Pacifica Evening News March 17 2023” |
- International Criminal Court files war crimes charges against Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and another high ranking official for child abductions from Ukraine
- Slovakia says it will join Poland in sending fighter jets to Ukraine.
- President Joe Biden calls for tougher penalties on executives of failed banks.
- California Governor Gavin Newsom pledges to transform San Quentin’s Death Row to rehabilitation and education facility.
- Detained immigrants in two California facilities mark one month of hunger strike, demanding their release, and better working and living conditions.
- Family of man killed by Antioch police, Angelo Quinto, demand his cause of death be ruled homicide, after new evidence.
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: [L13] Intro song with Paris. | (c. 1min 40sec) Rickey Vincent and guest, introductory remarks, birthdays and deaths/transitions: ‘Sly Stone turned 80’ | Sly & The Family Stone – Dance to the Music. | (c. 5min 20sec) ‘Sly and Earth, Wind & Fire’ … ‘the Bar-Kays on the track’ | (c. 9min 00sec) sounds like Ed Sullivan introducing Sly and the Family Stone. (c. 12min 38sec) ‘Spring of 1968’ …
“Will the Left Stand up to the Deep State?” by usefulidiots [via YouTube], 17 MAR 2023. [50min 38sec]
NOTES: [I] Intro: Guest, political economist Dr. Christian Parenti. News: Roger Waters’ concert canceled in Germany, as he’s accused of antisemitism. But where’s the evidence? Apparently, criticizing Zionist Israel, the colonial force occuppying Palestine, is now antisemitism. | ‘The Four Food Groups: (1) Why Democrats Suck: Jamie Raskin (Democrat, Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee) opposed a Republican, Protecting Speech from Government Interference Act, which “basically, would prohibit federal employee censorship”, by calling it the ‘Putin Protection Act’ and arguing for censoring social media. Aaron Mate pointed out how Raskin sounded ‘like an unhinged McCarthyite.’ That’s a fair assessment. (2) Why Republicans suck: Republican Senator from Louisiana Bill Cassidy went on FOX News to unscrupulously seize an opportunity to spin the Silicon Valley Bank collapse as an excuse to argue for disparaging and eliminating the Social Security trust fund. (3) ‘Isn’t That Weird?’: a news story out of Modesto, California. Modesto Fire Department received a call from a cat owner, who reported meowing coming from the engine of the vehicle after driving seven miles from their home to a rodeo fairgrounds on the east edge of Modesto. They arrived and discovered the caller’s cat had crawled into the engine compartment. And the feline’s foot was caught in the transmission line. The cat was freed, and is recovering from a minor foot injury. … (4) ‘Isn’t That Cute?’: In Oveido, Florida, a cat is survived a drive, after crawling into the engine compartment of a parked car. Firefighter rescuers had to remove a wheel from the car to reach the kittens hiding spot. … | (c. 16min 40sec) Start of Christian Parenti interview. Dr. Christian Parenti provided the audience with a pretty good, albeit simplified, summary of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, the bank runs, and the banking crisis, which is threatening the global banking system. Perceptively, unlike any other analysis your author has heard anywhere else in independent media/press, Christian Parenti made the important connection between the current banking crisis and the self-inflicted economic harm of the COVID-19 lockdowns, which seriously hurt the US economy, put many small businesses out of business, and helped big business and corporations get even bigger. … (c. 36min 22sec) Dr. Parenti: ‘What I think should have been done is that we should have been, particularly on the left, we should have been more critical of the pandemic response. And, um, people were very cavalier about the risk of inflation on the left. That was totally dismissed. Modern Monetary Theory momentarily seemed to be in the saddle.” [No, Dr. Parenti, talk to leading MMT proponents, such as Dr. Stephanie Kelton, Dr. L. Randall Wray, et al. Their advice was never heeded. They’ve been long calling for a job guarantee program, the #1 MMT policy proposal. Democrats have never called for that.] […] “…at the same time that you’re telling people to stay home from work, scaring people so that they want to retire, if they can. I mean this is going to constrict supply chains. […]” [Yes, Dr. Parenti, as Dr. Jack Rasmus, Dr. Stephanie Kelton, et al, have pointed out, most of the inflation we saw recently was supply-driven, not demand-driven, also price-gouging.] | Katie Halper: “You have a piece at Compact magazine urging the left to stand up to the deep state. Can you tell us why you wrote this? And also why you think the left should be standing up to the deep state, and why it’s not?” | Dr. Christian Parenti: “Yes. The article was about the House Select Subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government, which, billing itself as the new Church Committee, this is an attempt to look into what the FBI and other domestic intelligence agencies are doing. And the history of all of those agencies, but particularly the FBI, is that they have primarily targeted the left. So, much of the article deals with the history of COINTELPRO. Right? That begins in 1956, targeting the Communist Party and the Socialist Workers Party. It then goes on to target the Civil Rights movement in 1964. […]”
[ 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.
[17 MAR 2023]
[Last modified/edited/updated on 4 APR 2023 at 07:22 PDT]
Lumpenproletariat 