Day Eight | The Proto-Fascist Alliance Lynch Mob Violence

13 Wed Jan 2021

Posted by ztnh in Anti-Fascism, Anti-Racism, Anti-Totalitarianism, Anti-War, Civic Engagement (Activism), Uncategorized

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LUMPENPROLETARIAT—Let’s stay vigilant, folks. The events of January 6th may begin to fade from the news cycle, but the forces of fascism are still out there plotting their assaults on democracy. Bourgeois politics debate in Congress today, whether or not to defend democracy and the rule of law in America. It seems the brute physical violence of last Wednesday will be translated, today, into legislative violence waged by the Republican Party against democracy. False moral equivalency will be drawn between anti-racist / anti-fascist protests and outright fascist / racist marauding. And Dems will continue to enable the Republican Party by authoring only one single Article of Impeachment, when dozens could be authored. And Dems will likely continue their low-energy-level ‘opposition’ to Republican fascism by equivocating and handling the fascists with kid gloves.

@LumpenProles

***

Welcome to my notebook. These are my raw notes… Help tell the people’s history. Take back the narrative from the corporate media. What did you see on January 6th?

Please share your comments below. Let’s dialogue; and, in so doing, heal our nation and build up our nation from the bottom up.

Download the Pacifica Radio app for easy access to honest, fact-based, historically-based free speech journalism, news, information, and culture. Let’s share honest free-speech media; but we also must stay vigilant and monitor right-wing media, especially those putting out hate speech.

Let’s hear what people are saying on free speech radio about #45’s ongoing attempts to stay in power. Of course, today is all about impeaching Trump. Almost all of the experts featured on Pacifica Radio have urged for immediate impeachment to disempower the would-be dictator. However, a few legal experts pointed out that the 25th Amendment was largely “performative” here. Also, Dems are counting on Mitch “The Grim Reaper” McConnel.

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

05:00 – 06:00 PST, KPFA > Rising Up with Sonali Kolhatkar.

06:00 – 07:00 PST, KPFA > Special Broadcast: Impeachment Proceedings. “Direct from the US House of Representatives, KPFA brings you the proceedings on a vote to impeach President Donald Trump, with hosts Brian Edwards Tiekert and Mitch Jeserich.” BET intro. Mitch Jeserich joins in after a few minutes. Background on 25th Amendment. 06:11 PST, Republicans will likely take issue with 25th Amendment being used, as it was originally designed for medical emergencies when a president may be incapacitated, rather than for political reasons. 06:17 PST, AOC feared for her life, she said. And rightly so, as observers have noted. Had the lynch mob spotted AOC or Pelosi, they would’ve been lynched. Some house members have been infected with COVID-19 after huddling with anti-masker Republicans during the events of January 6th. […] 06:23 PST, live feed of Impeachment Proceedings begins. […] (c. 29:00) Tom Kohl(sp?) (R – OK) Prof. Jonathan Turley cited as being opposed to a “snap impeachment.” ‘Alan Dershowitz, et al think that Trump’s words are not impeachable.’ No? How about his actions? […] Woman argues in favor of impeachment and rails against terrorism. She’s barking up the wrong tree. The threat is fascism, not terrorism.

07:00 > 07:30 PST, WPFW > 07:50 PST, black women’s service sorority history

07:00 – 09:00 PST, KPFA > Special Broadcast: House Impeachment Proceedings. “Direct from the US House of Representatives, KPFA brings you the proceedings on a vote to impeach President Donald Trump, with hosts Brian Edwards Tiekert and Mitch Jeserich.” N.B.: KPFA did not make this broadcast available as an mp3 download.

07:00 PST, WBAI > 07:54 PST, Brent Michael Phillips path to wealth/health pitch fund drive

07:00 PST, KPFK, > [TW] Sojourner Truth.

08:00 PST, KPFK > 08:35 PST, [TW] Prof Timothy Snider (Yale Univ) says this was predictable in NY Times cover story article, “The American Abyss”. 08:44 PST, Next, COVID-19 update from L.A.

08:00 PST, KPFA > UpFront > John Nichols [TW] > 08:45 PST, Mitch Jeserich explained the protocol in Congress for debate and voting on impeachment. ‘No Republicans have voted for impeachment yet,’ said Jeserich.

08:00 PST, KPFK > 08:52, “Indigenous communities”

09:00 PST, WPFW > 09:14, “Black Velvet” by Heart

09:00 PST, KPFK [L.A.] > The Tom Hartmann Show > 09:15 PST, A congressman and listener call-ins

09:00 PST, KPFA > Special Broadcast: House Impeachment Proceedings > 09:18, 0931, live coverage of Congress. 0931, live feed. c. 09:35, Pelosi. 0942, Republican X. BS arguments: no hearings; this is a hearing. too soon; we don’t need more time. Dems are counting on McConnell, and after the 20th. McConnell the grim reaper cannot be trusted. — snip — 10:40, Dem. Maxine Waters: ’45 watched it all from TV!’ [Low energy from Dems; Maxine is the 1st voice of real indignation and concern. Even more than Dissilio(sp?), the author of the only impeachment article introduced.

10:00 PST, KPFA > Letters and Politics Special: House Impeachment Proceedings Live. [TW] “

Direct from the US House of Representatives, KPFA brings you the proceedings on a vote to impeach President Donald Trump, with hosts Brian Edwards Tiekert and Mitch Jeserich. Guest: Ruth Conniff is Editor-in-Chief of the Wisconsin Examiner and Editor-at-Large for The Progressive Magazine.”

10:00 PST, WBAI > Leonard Lopat3 At Large. — snip — 10:52 PST, author of Solving the Climate Problem Is Simple, on climate change. leonardlopate@WBAI.org

10:55 PST, WBAI, News Headlines, “mob attack”. “Several”, “at least five”, including Lynn Chaney. Armed troops surrounded the Capitol Building today, during impeachment hearing. [TW]

11:00 PST, WBAI > health

11:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley] & KPFK [L.A.] (simulcast) > Special Broadcast: Impeachment Proceedings Live. Host Mitch Jeserich, ongoing live coverage of the U.S. Congress Impeachment Hearing in D.C. — snip — 11:25 PST, [TW] analysis 11:32, what happens if Trump tries to pardon himself? Legal scholars are debating this now. But never, says legal expert woman, has our nation fallen so low that a president is trying to pardon himself.’

1134, wbai pst [TW] Randy. Marty. Assange trial. [TW]

1137, wpfw, “baltimore”, “art”

12:00 PST, WBAI, Black Agenda Radio with Glen Ford and. 1. On the events of January 6th. 2. On black anarchists. 12:25 PST, What’s trans anarchism?

12:00 PST, WPFW > 12:29 PST, “give voice to what people are feeling in constructive ways.” ‘This is a wake up call for a lot of people for a lot of different reasons.’

12:00 PST, KPFA & KPFK (simulcast) > Special Broadcast: House Impeachment Proceedings Live “Direct from the US House of Representatives, KPFA brings you the proceedings on a vote to impeach President Donald Trump, with hosts Brian Edwards Tiekert and Mitch Jeserich.” > 12:32, “opposition to th3 gaslighting” [Yes, Lizzy lady!] — snip — 13:11 PST, Karen Greenberg(sp?) on legal responses to the Events of January 6th. Predictably, bourgeois politics is overreacting, calling for domestic terrorism laws, which are code for anti-1st amendment attitudes. In other words, American liberals’ misguided, or naive, analysis, which views the 6th as a simple political problem stemming from a single malignant politician. Even if humanely, judiciously, and with a view toward containing the misled white supremacists and white nationalists, Greenberg(sp?), et al would have us focus on the individual as the source of the problem, rather than a broader, more complex or systemic explanation of the problem. Not only did she lack a critical ‘race’/ethnic theory. She had no ‘race’/ethnic theory. The system of white supremacy doesn’t even enter her discussion. And, therefore, such bourgeois, liberal types always have a blind-spot, which causes them to underestimate the determination of white supremacists and white nationalists. We saw how that blind spot caught them off guard on the 6th. White liberals said they were surprised. This is not America, said White America. This is America, said black people. This has always been America, said people of color.

Meanwhile, as the Q-Anon narrative falls apart, its adherents are starting to defect. Kyle Kulinski explained on Secular Talk how Alex Jones may only be distancing himself for legal liability reasons. But InfoWars host Alex Jones has renounced Q-Anon.

13:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Special Broadcast: Impeachment Proceedings Live. N.B.: KPFA has not made this broadcast available as an mp3 download. So, listen now, ‘cos we wouldn’t put it past admin to delete soon. KPFA archive summary:

House Impeachment Proceedings LiveDirect from the US House of Representatives, KPFA brings you the proceedings on a vote to impeach President Donald Trump, with hosts Brian Edwards-Tiekert and Mitch Jeserich.

Guests:

Karen Greenberg is the Director of the Center on National Security at Fordham University School of Law. She is the author of several books and the host of Vital Interests Podcast dedicated to issues of governance, law and policy.

Brenda Wineapple is the author of several books including The impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation.

Alan Hirsch Chair of Justice and Law Studies at Williams College and author of the book Impeaching the President: Past, Present and Future.

14:00 PST, KPFA > Voices of the Middle East. On the Kurdish people’s struggle for self-determination. [TW]

14:00 PST, KPFK > 14:16 PST, Lawyer’s Guild Show. “There were no marshalls.” 14:19 PST, speaker suggested there was no permit. This contradicts what another expert said earlier this week on Pacifica Radio, who said that the wife of a Republican politician got a permit. That same Republican woman also reported that she said it would be a woman’s group, who would be demonstrating. So, Capitol Police were expecting a woman’s group, not arm3d men. Granted, that analyst was FBI.

14:00 PST, WBAI > 14:50 PST, local politics (NYC); Brad Lander.

15:00 PST, KPFK [L.A.] > Covid, Race, & Democracy with Ann Garrison. Audio of protesters on the ground at January 6th, actually rings true. But they’re misguided placing their working class hopes on #45. 15:10 PST, Dr. Gerald Horn [TW]. 15:38 PST, [TW] “the seditious conspirators are still there. They are still in power.” […] And clearly the speech […] was an incitement to insurrection.” […] “So, this is very serious.” […] “This was a coup de tat.” ‘The liberal, or bourgeois media is not owning up to this. They’re not admitting it. Also, it is clear that there was a stand-down order. And the Dems are completely feckless.’ […] ‘It was a coup de tat in plain sight.’ […] The Democrats have lulled us into a false sense of security.’ 15:43 PST, “We need people taking to the streets now!” ‘We haven’t seen the end of this.’ We have Cruz, Holly, and 137 members… ‘He now controls the 6,000 national guard out in DC’ — snip — Musical break: Steel Pulse – “Ku Klux Klan

15:00 > KPFK > Covid, Race, & Democracy. 15:46 PST, Ann Garrison > Heather Gray(sp?) on H. Rapp Brown, political prisoner.

15:00 PST, WPFW > 15:59 PST, “My Umi Said” by Mos Def

15:00 PST, KPFA > Rising Up with Sonali Kolhatkar > On the 6th

16:00 PST, WPFW > The Uncle Devin Show > “family-friendly global beats” plus topical talk with an emphasis on underrepresented perspectives.

16:00 PST, WBAI > [TW] topical discussion on the events of January 6th. “the insurrection” “the attempted coup” [What else did America expect when MAGA hats, Trump flags, and “thin blue line” flags everywhere bolstered by years of incessant hate speech and draconian treatment of immigrants and ethnic minorities.] Right-wing social media, Parlor(sp?). […] 16:17 PST, On the presidential use and abuse of Twitter for official government purposes; the consequences of socially conditioning the public to get used to having to literally becoming a “follower” of Trump on Twitter just to stay informed. […] 16:48 PST, on ‘tracking and monitoring right-wing extremist groups’.

16:00 PST, KPFK > Rising Up with Sonali Kolhatkar > on the 6th > 16:24 PST, Republicans are saying, Well, I’d love to vote to impeach Trump; but I’m afraid of the death threats from his ‘base’. The Republicans don’t want Trump anymore, but they want to keep his voters. So, they’re trying to figure out how to get to that position. Now, mind you, that’s basically a desire to get a bunch of voters, who support the same toxic, racist, chauvinist, and fascist ideologies, which Trump pursues. So, it’s not saying much about the Republican Party that they want to rid themselves of Trump, but not of his ideologies. Guest was Derek Jeter (?), of The Nation. 16:30 PST, next topic… […] 16:43 PST, SK: ‘9/11 is the closest thing to this we can recall. Do we really need more domestic terror laws? [No.] Guest: First, we need to investigate and address all the unanswered questions before we start moving to criminalize and punish dissent. Well, that’s exactly what the Impeachment debate sounded like, fr both Dems and Repubs. Alan Nairn pointed this out early on. Warnings against cancel culture also warn against feeding into anti-First Amendment traps.

16:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Hard Knock Radio > 16:33 PST, Host Anita Johnson talks to guest (a ranting “political science professor”, Dr. Taylor) on the phone about the events of January 6th; impeachment. “The only value that the 25th Amendment could have had is […]”. 16:36 PST, AJ: “Is this political theater?” Prof: ‘The 25th Amendment was a tactic to run out the clock.’ [TW] ‘Black Congressional Caucus was trying to impeach 45 from day one. But white liberals looked at them, as if they were being black and radical, or hyperbolic. The prof said they were dismissed. Well, but then why didn’t the Black Congressional Caucus come to the people, rally their base, if they weren’t getting bipartisan support? I don’t buy that, Prof. He sounds like a Dem apologist there. […] “Bernie bro racism.” […] AJ: Why has Pence been so silent. Dr. Taylor: ‘I think he was rattled.’

17:00 PST, WPFW > 17:23 PST, R&B/Soul music

17:00 PST, WBAI > Explorations with Dr. Michio Kaku > 17:24 PST, on illegally copying other people’s genome to copy other people’s facial features. What about a black market for movie star faces? What about mental abilities?

17:00 PST, KPFK > Background Briefing with Ian Masters > [TW] On the events of January 6th. On the complicity of congress and reports of reconnaissance assistance to loyalists by congress members. 17:28 PST, on impeachment, and what about the trials of the arrestees? Meanwhile, there will be 400,000 dead Americans due to COVID-19. What will Biden do?

17:00 PST, KPFA > Flashpoints “Today on the Show: 24 million Yemenis at catastrophic humanitarian risk following new U.S. terrorist designations of Ansar Allah, according to The International Rescue Committee. Also Donald Trump impeached for the second time in thirteen months. We’ll speak to Harvey Wasserman Who just published the piece, “Hey MAGA Marchers: Where Was Trump As You Died?” And we will also open the phones to get your thoughts on the days historic events.” > 17:32 PST, ‘This is another argument for DC statehood.’ [TW] Greg Palast reporting ‘Ali Alexander is now in hiding. And authorities seem to want to know what he knows about congress complicity. If that mob would’ve happened on AOC or Pelosi, that mob would’ve killed them. No question. Trump must go to prison. You can see the pictures of the gallows… Harvey Wasserman.

18:00 PST, KPFA & KPFK (simulcast) > Pacifica Evening News. [TW] Trump impeachment. Weaponizing the U.S. Census. Death penalty. 18:10 PST, ’10 Republicans joined Dems in voting for impeachment.’ — snip — 18:43 PST, ‘rent relief is helpful, but not enough. Corporate landlords have been bragging how much richer they’ve gotten since the pandemic. ‘ AB71 and the houselessness problem. $23.4B for California economy and construction jobs, for projects to benefit houseless people 18:52 PST, Prop 22 & AB5. Labor protection for ‘gig’ workers. 18:55 PST, Google joins Alphabet Union. But it’s affiliated with the CWA, which sold out the UnPaid Workers Organization (UPSO) at KPFA.

18:00 PST, WPFW > 18:05 PST, “Here I Go Again” by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

18:00 PST, WBAI > talk, lady explains why she joined “DSA” and became an activist…

19:00 – 20:00 PST, KPFA > Bay Native Circle. Bill Means, latest on Leonard Peltier, and the 6th. “white privilege”. 19:05 PST, listening to Bill Means, it occurs to me that the events of January 6th were an example of police harassment and brutality of Congress. snip — 19:22 PST, Lenny Foster with the latest on Leonard Peltier.

19:00 PST, WPFW > 19:10 PST, jazz

19:00 PST, WBAI > 19:11 PST, “Street Life” by Rose Royce

19:00 PST, KPFK > Covid, Race, & Democracy. 19:14 PST, Ann Garrison. Max Blumenthal.

20:00 PST, KPFK > news/noticias (español), anchor Fernando Velazquez. — snip — 20:12 PST, good point: despite the antisemitic narrative being peddled via ‘Q-Anon’, US has a special alliance with Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. Oh, the irony. 20:20 PST, Iran officials blasted the US. Look, they said, the U.S. was trying to push us around. And now they have fallen so low. 20:25 PST, China.

20:00 PST, KPFA > Dead to the World. Grateful Dead music.

20:00 PST, WPFW > music

20:00 PST, WBAI > music

20:30 PST, KPFK > culture & politics (español)

[These are my raw notes, which will be edited, revised, and expanded as time constraints allow.]

Thank you for reading Lumpenproletariat. Solidarity.

***

[13 JAN 2021]

[Last modified on 23 JAN 2021 at 20:05 PST]

Day Seven | Antidemocratic Right-wing Alliance Violence

12 Tue Jan 2021

Posted by ztnh in Anti-Fascism, Anti-Imperialism, Anti-Racism, Anti-Totalitarianism, Civic Engagement (Activism), COVID-19, Democratic Party (USA), First Amendment (U.S. Constitution), Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, Government, Memoirs, Police State, Political Science, Presidential Election 2020, Racism (phenotype), Republican Party (USA)

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Donald John Trump (b. 1946), KPFA, KPFK, Pacifica Radio Network, RT, WBAI, WPFW

LUMPENPROLETARIAT—This election is a disaster. Facebook has now banned the Trump loyalist slogan, “Stop The Steal.” Presumably, the idea is to protect Biden’s victory. Instead, the effect will be to rein

force the belief among the loyalists that they’re being cheated. Censorship never helps. Censoring the loyalists will only further erode the First Amendment. Next time, Facebook will censor other political slogans. If we condone censorship against one, we injure all. The answer to unwise speech is more wise speech, not censorship.

Now is a time for learning about how best to deal with malignant narcissists.

People of color & the poor have harbored & internalized excessive shame, such that it’s rendered us defenseless.

Meanwhile, white supremacists have been shame deficient, sin-verguenzas.

Shame evil.

Messina

***

Here’s what people have been saying today about the Events of January 6th and more. Well, I hope to write about what America has been saying, what I’ve been hearing, what people have been thinking, and adding any relevant personal perspectives. But I am not a leisure class American; I am a working class American. So, my time is limited, as is my cognitive capacity. I am not the smartest, or the dumbest. But I always aim to be the hardest worker I can be. For now, these are my notes, which will serve my future scholarship. If they help you help America be better, good. If not, I always appreciate constructive criticism.

Solidarity.

Download the Pacifica Radio App for easy access to some of the best free speech radio around, featuring voices of reason dedicated to the mutual understanding between groups.

Free speech radio notebook:

05:00 – 0600 PST, Rising Up >[TW] On the events of January 6th.

05:00 PST, Something’s Hapening >TW 6th Tom Hartmann(rerun). Free speech. Make your voice heard. Call congress they’ll transfer you to any representative. Call all 3 of your members, 202.224-3121. 0510 thought police. Recall 1996 clinton telecom act led to megamergers. ‘Thaddeus, section 3’ 0520, its also what happened in the ’60s when j edgar hoover decided to take out martin Luther King, said Tom Hartman, former SDSer. TH read the article of impeachment against Trump. 0526, TW, on the standown. 0527, next caller, official statement said the 6th was a ‘First Amendment protest’. Hans Morgenthau book on balance of power tw ryan mcarthy et al are inside, cf military times, army times, et al 0538, tw, ted cruz uses meyers briggs tests on his followers . 0542, r d wolff (jan 7?) Robert reich (11JAN21)

0500 – 0600 WPFW & WBAI (simulcast), 0549 PST, WPFW > DN!

0600, KPFK Stephanie Miller Show, FBI agent Frank, who’s doing the media rounds

0600 wpfw tw iran Venezuela sanctions, alliance of nations under siege by US imperialism

0600 KPFA DN!

06:00 PST, WBAI > 06:13 PST, medical psychiatrist will discuss his observations of Trump. 0627 PST, narcissistic abuser traits ‘70,000 physicians felt Trump was a threat’, warned via NY Times article. Broad categories of behavior, such as grandiosity, problems with reality testing, narcissistic spectra, psychotic, pathological liar. This article was not intended to be a diagnosis. But, evidently, it was dismissed without further inquiry on those fallacious grounds.

0700 KPFA > 0715, dems need 17 repubs. But dems ain’t never been able to persuade that many dems to do something they didn’t already want to do. BET: phone call transcript, ‘it was AntiFa. I was there’. 07:57 PST, BET talks to guest Felicia Ankofer(sp?) (Public Health Advocates) on various topics, incl. “recall effort” against Gov. Gavin Newsom. 0801, News. Later, more on the 6th.

07:00 PST, WPFW > Crossroads with Roach Brown, 0727, re: Sundiata Acoli, Prison Squire # 39794-066 FCI Cumberland Maryland. Don’t put anything in your letter to him because he never receives those. White envelope, white blank paper (no lines), write in black. Letter will be read by prison officials. ‘If you’re worried about the government, they already know who you are.’ They have a file. But we get to control, barring abuses of power, what goes in that file. So, you have freedom of speech, just watch what you say because the fascist deep state is looking for any excuse to persecute dissent.

07:00 PST, WBAI > 07:30 PST > Green Street Radio with Doug and Patti Wood. > 07:45 PST, overuse of glyphosate, biodiversity impacts, eg, monarch butterflies. Toxis residues are being found in honey.

07:00 PST, KPFK > Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod > 07:53 PST, Marjorie Cohn(sp?) on the events of January 6th…

08:00 PST, KPFK > Democracy Now!

0800 – 08:30 PST, WPFW > News [TW] citing experts

0800 PST > 0830 > WBAI TW

1044 TW wbai Leonard Lopate Show

1102, wbai > health, covid

11:00 PST, WPFW > 11:10, talk; woman (guest).

1100 > kpfa > 1120, Kris Welch vs Andrew Baicevich.

1100 > wpfw > 1122, talk. Youth program. Black History Month program. 1141, arts program and venue.

Kpfk > talk. Health. Emf

12:00 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Against the Grain. “The Political Uses of Shame. https://kpfa.org/episode/against-the-grain-january-12-2021/

13:00 PST, KPFA, The Herbal Highway. native american critique of the english language

1300 wbai > DN! [TW] 6th > pretty good summary of neoliberalism 13:30, [TW]

13:00 PST, WPFW > Cuban-style music

13:00 PST, KPFK > emotions, mindfulness, gratitude, “Woody”, loss, “He’s in a better place.” Michael.

14:00 – 15:00 PST, WBAI > (rerun) Brent Michael Phillips on health

14:00 – 15:00 PST, WPFW > Live at Five, live music in-studio

14:00 PST, KPFK > Feminist Magazine with Women’s Collective, Operation Period, “western savior complex”, “menstrual equity”, “menstrual freedom”, Scotland case study. They also related feminist topics to the events of January 6th. Author Jane Ward, PhD (The Tragedy of Heterosexuality) said feminist concepts are now understood as real, eg women being manipulated toward sex, then being “slut-shamed”, if receptive. But when the concepts were seen as valid, men picked them up, but to sell lothario coaching.

14:00 PST, KPFA > the written word

15:00 PST, KPFK > [TW] talk, on the events of January 6th and the state of the nation. ‘On Dec 26, Trump basically nullified a Civil Rights Act.’

15:00 PST, KPFA > Rising Up with Sonali Kolhatkar. [TW] On the events of January 6th. 1530, guest Melissa Figueroa (PhD candidate), ‘the fact that accountability for the insurrection attempt is being debated in Congress is the very definition of privilege.’ It’s also an indication of the collusion between Dems and Repubs, the two-party dictatorship.

15:35 PST, WBAI [NYC] > Radio Gag [TW] 1546, ‘They’re at war with the word ‘liberal’.’ Indeed, but not just the center, the entire left.

[Apologies for publishing my raw notes; we take great pride in hard work and craftsmanship. But you are literally looking at my personal journal. Raw notes will be expanded and edited as time constraints allow. Please help monitor right-wing media as well. But we all need to do our part to call out injustice and contribute to public dialogue and reason, but also peaceful advocacy. Please leave your comments below. Thank you for supporting citizen journalism. –Messina]

***

[12 JAN 2021]

[Last modified on 12 JAN 2021 at 04:04 PST]

[TW = transcript pending volunteer labor; please reach out or leave a comment, if you would like to volunteer with transcripts; these transcripts have been used in published books, and cited by various sources online, including Wikipedia. So, it’s crucial we all contribute to the common stock of knowledge toward the emancipation of humanity.

Michael Slate Show | Carl Dix Speaks, On the Events of January 6th, 2021

08 Fri Jan 2021

Posted by ztnh in Anti-Capitalism, Anti-Fascism, Anti-Imperialism, Anti-Racism, Anti-Totalitarianism, Anti-War, Civic Engagement (Activism), COVID-19, Democratic Party (USA), Government, Memoirs, Police State, Political Science, Presidential Election 2020, Racism (phenotype), Republican Party (USA)

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Carl Dix, Events of January 6th, KPFK, Pacifica Radio Network, Revolutionary Communist Party, Robert Bruce "Bob" Avakian (b. 1943), The Michael Slate Show, Thorstein Bunde Veblen (1857-1929)

LUMPENPROLETARIAT—This week has been intense, politically, in the United States. Our nation’s two most powerful political parties seem to be crashing our economy, mishandling the government’s response to the pandemic, and destroying America’s hopes for true democracy by undermining the democratic process at every turn. The events of January 6, 2021 will definitely go down as a day of infamy in U.S. history. That is, if the people write the history books, not the gaslighting corporate media or corporate political parties. If you review the reactions of Americans, it seems, the darker one’s skin, the higher the cortisol secretions, the higher the stress, horror, and anxiety levels. White liberals seemed to be perturbed; blacks seemed to range from bemused to horrified, terrified, and/or disturbed. Meanwhile, over half of Republican voters polled felt the tens of thousands of Trump loyalists were justified in protesting across America, especially in D.C., to halt what they perceived as a stolen election. We seriously need an American Town Hall of some sort and some open public debate.

Already, the narrative this week has been distorted by the mass media. Pacifica Radio is still out there, although it has been infiltrated by pro-Democrat Party partisans, who stifle free speech and keep trying to NPR-ize or simply destroy the world’s oldest listener-sponsored radio network. [1] For example, when some Pacifica Radio stations allowed leftists on the air this week, such as Carl Dix, the more centrist, NPR-ish Pacifica Radio stations, such as KPFA in Berkeley (CA), opted out of the emergency simulcast, which was being enthusiastically simulcast across the Pacifica Radio network and affiliates in smaller signal areas. The national Pacifica broadcasts addressed breaking news and analysis regarding the events of January 6th, which featured frank discussion of the Capitol Police stand-down. The special broadcasts were also hosted by Sunsara Taylor (RefuseFascism.org; Revolutionary Communist Party). Ever since the internal KPFA controversies, or the colonization of KPFA by centrist Democrats, KPFA is slowly morphing into NPR, but with a lower budget. Meanwhile, the real NPR is entertaining with slick production value, but also often politically-sedating.

As Americans suss out the real narrative, NPR has basically helped MPD say nothing wrong was done. Maybe not on their part, but NPR doesn’t question the Capitol Police behavior, taking selfies with Trump loyalists, opening doors, helping the trespassers and vandals and whatnot. So, that’s deceptive, bad journalism, lying by omission. The liberal corporate media, for their part, are broadcasting elected Democrats tweeting that it’s time to move on already. That’s even more deceptive, straight up putting out lame ideas. The liberal mass media seems bad enough. But the mass right-wing media is outright evil, saying things like, What’s wrong with taking a guided tour of the Capitol?

Right-wing media is parroting Trump’s false claims of election fraud, whilst ignoring the real complaints of people, like investigative journalist Greg Palast, who have been exposing voter suppression for decades. And American voter suppression and disenfranchisement is usually perpetrated by the GOP, which primarily targets populations of color. But the Democrat Party colludes with the Republican Party to block alternative political parties from ballot access in states across the nation with top-two primary laws and whatnot. The presidential debates have also been captured and corrupted by the collusion between the Republican and Democrat Parties to prevent alternative political parties from challenging the corporate narratives being used to gaslight and manipulate the American people into supporting political parties, which do not represent their interests, only those of corporate, antidemocratic power.

One of our nation’s keenest observers of such trends has been Carl Dix of the Revolutionary Communist Party. Yes, he’s a partisan; but so is everyone else. And he’s not trying to hide it. And what’s more important is that his analysis of the state of our nation, especially at a moment like this, is spot on. You don’t need to join his political party to listen to what he has to say, nor to see that it makes perfect sense. We need more people, such as Carl Dix, to tell the people’s story in a way, which can draw upon our collective years of experience as American observers, workers, and, really, as American patriots. [2]

Today, the esteemed Carl Dix was interviewed on The Michael Slate Show to help us all make sense of what the events of January 6th mean for America. What does this display of white privilege, white supremacy, disaffection with the Democrat Party, disaffection with Washington corruption, even disaffection with the Republican Party status quo teach us about America? Eyewitnesses on the ground have reported that the Trump loyalists were chanting, “Hang Pence!! Hang Pence!!” That is extremely dangerous. We can only wonder whether that was before, or after, Vice President Mike Pence called the National Guard, in defiance of the reluctant lame duck President Trump, to control the disturbances, vandalism, violence, and looting. What does this all mean for white people? What does this mean for black people? What does this mean for yellow people? What does this mean for brown people? [3] Listen and/or download here. [4]

Messina

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THE MICHAEL SLATE SHOW—[8 JAN 2021] — transcription pending volunteer labor; please reach out to us, or leave a comment, if you would like to volunteer at Lumpenproletariat.org to help the American working class self-educate for correct political action. Solidarity. —

Learn more at THE MICHAEL SLATE SHOW.

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[1] Just this week, I heard KPFK’s Ian Masters (Background Briefing) invite listeners to a Local Station Board (LSB) meeting to defend the station from NPR-ization, as station bosses, he reported are trying to ouster him and Sonali Kolhatkar (Rising Up).

[2] After all, as Chris Hedges has noted, a patriot is someone, who works to make his country better. And, over the years, we’ve noticed that whenever political tensions have flared in the United States, like when we had the Global Financial Crisis of 2007/2008 or war or imperialism flares up, Carl Dix has always provided sharp analysis to help us make sense of the political world around us. Dix tends to defer to his party’s leader, Bob Avakian, which may sound strange to apolitical people outside of party politics. But the point is not to feed into a cult of personality, but to gather relevant information and analysis about the world around us in the most honest and effective way for organizing working class people for self-defense against capitalist, fascist, racist, and imperialist forces of hostility and aggression.

[3] Anecdotally, I can report that numerous well-to-do immigrant Asian families in Silicon Valley, particularly from China, have been moving back to Asia. Contractors will tell you about the demographic shift of which Silicon Valley families have actually been spending money on services. Peninsula communities in Silicon Valley, such as Palo Alto, San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties, but also the greater San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area, have seen episodes of gentrification, population relocations, and now economic stagnation, and decline.

When I was a kid, it seemed like white people ruled. Middle class and wealthy homes in the Bay Area would spend loads of money on seasonal color in their landscapes. Saratoga, for example, is a wealthy town on the eastern edges of Santa Clara County, towards the hills. Those homes used to abound in seasonal color, that’s what landscapers call installing flats, flowers, ground cover. These days, ground cover is merely dirt. Homes are unkempt, landscaping services have declined or been discontinued. The industry is in the dumps. And seasonal color isn’t installed anymore. Generally, the landscaping, even in wealthy areas, such as Saratoga and Atherton, reflects the economic depression in which our nation is mired. It’s only an anecdotal observation, but it’s a visually stark one.

As a kid, working as a landscaper around Saratoga, you would see crowds of people everywhere. The local nurseries would be crowded with people buying seasonal color. All of the homes would fill their flower beds with loads and loads of flats of impatiens, daisies, lavenders, chrysanthemums, and whatnot. I mean this was some real Edith Wharton-House-of-Mirth–type stuff, where families buy fresh flowers for the table. I mean, what can we say? Admittedly, Thorstein Veblen lived in Menlo Park, smack dab in the heart of my childhood stomping grounds among the leisure class. No wonder I’ve often felt such a strong connection with Veblen’s levity. Each wealthy home seemed to try to outdo the next. And mom-and-pop landscapers and small businesses did alright for a while. The same would go for all the other rough trades, which built the homes and landscapes as well as serviced and maintained them.

“[…] the queer thing about society is that the people who regard it as an end are those who are in it, and not the critics on the fence. It’s just the other way with most shows—the audience may be under the illusion, but the actors know that real life is on the other side of the footlights. The people who take society as an escape from work are putting it to its proper use; but when it becomes the thing worked for it distorts all the relations of life.”

Lawrence Selden, quoted in The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

As a kid, working as a landscaper around Saratoga, you would see crowds of people everywhere. Shops and cafés were teeming with life. Economic activity and frivolity spilled out everywhere. And I was younger, so everything seemed all the more innocent. (I had not yet heard of the Veblenian Dichotomy, conspicuous consumption, pecuniary prowess, invidious distinctions, or any of that.) America just looked amazing, if I could someday make enough income to not be so broke all the time, I thought back then, feeling like a green Raskolnikov. (My teenaged mind just wanted to fix up my ’63 Impala and make it clean, ese.) The local nurseries would be crowded with people buying seasonal color. All of the homes would fill their flower beds with loads and loads of flats of impatiens, daisies, lavenders, chrysanthemums, etc. I mean this was some real Edith Wharton-type stuff. Each wealthy home seemed to try to outdo the next. And mom-and-pop landscapers did alright for a while. The same would go for all the other rough trades, which built the homes and landscapes as well as serviced and maintained them.

The peninsula would be teeming with construction and service providers, since the 1980s and into the 1990s. I can only imagine the obscene levels of wealth Veblen must have seen in my hometown stomping grounds of San Mateo County and Santa Clara County back in his day, the Late Victorian Age, the Age of the Robber Barons. Everywhere one looked in the peninsula, there was economic and social activity going on, tons of service providers, painters, roofers, construction workers, dog walkers, joggers, tour de france-looking bicyclists clogging up the shoulders of thoroughfares, carloads of teenagers playing loud music, whether preppies blasting modern rock or alternative or whatever, or working class kids blasting hip hop or punk or reggae or alternative and whatnot.

Today, you see virtually no youth culture on the streets anymore. I mean we can recall the local Bay Area newspapers shriveling up, the nightlife was shut down. In San Francisco, there was this whole political push against the nightclubs and music halls. I remember when the Maritime Hall was closed. Slim’s closed this year; but that was probably more to do with the coronavirus economic crash. Since the Clinton administration 1990s, cops have swept the lumpenproletariat off the streets.

All that was left by the late 1990s/early 2000s was conspicuous consumption and night life. But, if you could still afford hedonism and distraction in places like the Bay Area, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, then the Global Financial Crisis of 2007/2008, made it that much more expensive. So, nightlife and popular culture was further shut down by the time the 2010s rolled around. And, if hedonists were still out there somewhere having fun, well, then, COVID-19 shut everyone down. All we could afford by the mid-2010s was the occasional music festival. But, now, post-COVID-19, everything was cancelled. Mr. Olympia 2020 was postponed repeatedly, until, finally, a bizarre, semi-masked contest was held in front of a semi-empty audience. All music festivals were cancelled. A few comedians and musicians tried to hold concerts at drive-ins, or other outdoor areas. Dave Chappelle organized his socially distanced Comedy Camp during the summer of 2020 out in his childhood stomping grounds around Yellow Springs, Ohio. Chappelle’s Summer Comedy Camp was finally shut down due to “possible exposure within our inner circle” in September.

Society seems to have been slowly closed down…

Some say this is temporary. Others are warning the state wants this to be permanent. The concerning fact is that many indicators in the recent past, and not-so-recent past, point to an increasing police state society. We must respect those among us, who have spent a great deal of time thinking about, and studying, these issues and gathering information and data.

Going back to the Bay Area, and its colonization by big tech, gentrification, and now cultural stagnation. It seems families aren’t owning the communities in the peninsula and in Silicon Valley anymore. Banks, corporations, and venture capital seems to be owning the communities in the peninsula these days. Over time, you didn’t really see white people spending money on their homes anymore, mostly Asian folks, newer immigrants. Many established white families in the wealthier enclaves seem to be fading away, their kids moving away, perhaps, unable to afford the same cost of living as their parents. These appear to be mostly aging baby boomers. Mr. Russie(sp?), an 8th grade teacher predicted most of my cohort probably wouldn’t be able to afford living in San Mateo by the time we were adults. It was a harsh thing to say to a class of 8th graders; but it was true. He was right.

My parents’ former post-WWII tract home in the Shoreview neighborhood of San Mateo County was sold to them for about $245K circa 1989, which they sold probably for double that circa 9/11. Today, that same basic three-bedroom, two-bath home we lived in when I was in 8th grade in virtually the same condition now sells for $1.23 million.

Well, it has been interesting to hear reports of the rough trade clientele demographic shifting to predominantly Asian immigrants in the wealthy enclaves of Silicon Valley in recent years. But 2020, the year of the coronavirus, has seen something of an exodus back to China and Asia of many of those wealthy immigrant families. The first families of immigrants going back to China, was reported to your author, as precipitated by the floundering of the peninsula schools post-pandemic. The families I spoke to were very respectful, but had serious concerns with the way their kids were being taught since the lockdowns. They pulled their kids, and went back to China. This was during the summer of 2020.

Around the same time, we saw news reports of higher education taking hard hits because their enrollment of foreign students had dropped in the wake of the Trump administration’s belligerent stance toward China and Chinese people. Many Chinese students were feeling unsafe at American universities due to the racial tensions. Of course, fast forward to the second wave of 2020 coronavirus in the fall, and things got even worse. After the Thanksgiving break, even universities were trying to sell online learning for full-price tuition. Students began protesting; and foreign student enrollment dropped even further.

Today, between COVID-19 lockdowns, infection rates, suffering, and death rates soaring, a crippled economy, and racial tensions, cops killing unarmed innocents on the streets with impunity, citizens protesting said killings, other protestors protesting the protestors protesting the killer cops, it’s all a big clusterfuck, innit?

We can understand why hardworking, well-to-do Asian families are bailing out of Silicon Valley, those families, who seemed to be the only young and growing families in Silicon Valley.

But, again, this is only anecdotal. It’d be interesting to get into the serious statistics about these demographic and socioeconomic shifts we’re seeing anecdotally. But, on the ground, today, the peninsula and the Bay Area is looking very much like the Great Depression, especially when those were your stomping grounds since the ’80s and ’90s.

[4] To access the audio archive narrow the program selection to “The Michael Slate Show”, then select the audio archive for the “Friday, January 8, 2021” broadcast archive.

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[10 JAN 2021]

[Last modified on 10 JAN 2021 at 23:59 PST]

(c. 1:50) “Hello, Carl?”

“Yes.”

“Hi. Let me introduce you to everybody first. We’re operaring under difficult circumstances. But we really, really need to get this out. And I think it’s a very important show, that we have going. (c. 2:07)

“And, basically, what the run is: we’re gonna be talking to Carl Dix

Lumpenproletariat

~ free speech

Category Archives: Civic Engagement (Activism)

Day Eight | The Proto-Fascist Alliance Lynch Mob Violence

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Day Seven | Antidemocratic Right-wing Alliance Violence

Michael Slate Show | Carl Dix Speaks, On the Events of January 6th, 2021

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

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