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)
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.
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.
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 downloadhere. [4]
Messina
***
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. —
[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 (RisingUp).
[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.
***
[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
All of the Americans, who were shocked or surprised by Wednesday’s actions by Trump loyalists in Washington D.C. and in other locations across the nation, ought to read Dr. Peter Dale Scott’s deep history of the United States, particularly The Road to 9/11 and The American Deep State: Wall Street, Big Oil, and the Attack On American Democracy. It’s important that Americans understand exactly who is in charge. For a powerful summary of Trump’s presidency, cf. “American Mythology: The Presidency of Donald Trump”, a seven-part podcast series by the Intercepted podcast, narrated by Jeremy Scahill.
Here’s what free speech radio, as channeled by Pacifica Radio, are saying today, Thursday, 7 JAN 2021, in the aftermath of yesterday’s protest actions, disturbances, rebellion, putsch, insurrection, or terrorist actions, depending on one’s perspective. Download the Pacifica Radio app for easy access to free speech radio stations across the nation: KPFA (Berkeley, CA); WBAI (NYC); KPFK (L.A.); WPFW (D.C.); KPFT (Houston)
07:00 PST, KPFA > UpFront [TW] explored some interesting questions: “Violent white mob storms US Capitol, incited by Trump politics, social media, law enforcement; Plus: Crisis deepening at California’s unemployment office, we answer listener questions with Daniela Urban with the Center for Workers’ Rights.”
0:08 – Trump incites violent white mob at the US Capitol, one day after Georgia Democratic victory tips Senate to Democrat majority
Steve Phillips (@StevePtweets) is the founder of Democracy in Color, he’s host of the podcast “Democracy in Color with Steve Phillips,” and author of the book Brown Is the New White.
0:34 – Unemployment call-in
Daniela Urban is Executive Director of the Center for Workers’ Rights and special counsel to Legal Aid At Work (@LegalAidAtWork).
1:08 – Pro-Trump mob storms the Capitol – what were the signs?
Robert Evans (@IwriteOK) is an investigative journalist with the news website Bellingcat.
1:25 – Was the storming of the Capitol yesterday just a media stunt?
David Pierce (@pierce) is editor at large for the tech news site Protocol.
1:34 – COVID outbreak at Chowchilla prison hits 25% of population
Aminah Elster (@AminahElster) is campaign and policy coordinator with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners.
1:46 – Continuing our series hearing from the family members of people who are incarcerated inside Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF). Our reporter Lucy Kang (@ThisIsLucyKang) spoke with a woman who only wanted to be identified as “Lisa” about her daughter who recently tested positive for COVID while incarcerated at CCWF. We’re not naming “Lisa” or her daughter’s identities to protect against potential retaliation.
1:52 – Federal prisons denying compassionate release, according to new reporting
Keri Blakinger (@keribla) is a reporter with the Marshall Project – Thousands of Sick Federal Prisoners Sought Compassionate Release. 98 Percent Were Denied, she reports.
07:00, KPFK > Sojourner Truth > sobering coverage of 6 JAN Trump Loyalist actions in DC and across the nation. News Headlines. Cops taking selfies with pro-Trump/anti-democracy protestors. Expert panelists discuss on Sojourner Truth.
07:00, WBAI & WPFW > common broadcast, speakers were describing details of a woman shot by Capitol Hill police and past history of their brutality. By contrast, yesterday, said one speaker, Capitol Hill police were holding doors open for the protestors, some of whom were flying Confederate flags. One woman earlier today (Thursday), perhaps a prof on DN, said not even during the Civil War, did the South manage to fly the Confederate flag in the White House. But yesterday they did.
FBI is sending out tweets, asking for help in identifying yesterday’s protesters. One speaker questioned whether America can ever have a police force, which is not linked to white supremacist ideology. “There is no equal protection under the law.”
07:15 PST, KPFA: One speaker reported that Capitol Hill police refused to hold a press conference to answer for enabling the disruption, disorder, and violence, as Trump loyalists marched into the Capitol building.
The KPFA guest was making interesting points. But UpFront host Brian Edwards-Tiekert changed the subject to the Georgia election. Oh, well. Georgia is an important topic, as the state has been flipped and has elected its first black senator. So, too, perhaps, is horse-race commentary about the rigged two-party system, or two-party dictatorship. But, somehow, the broader issue of American fascism seems more urgent. I dunno. That’s just me.
07:22 PST, KPFK > Experts interviewed Maurice Cook(sp?) and Zahara Simmons(sp?) react to yesterday’s actions in DC. Then, host also wants to get their take on the Georgia Senate election.
07:25, KPFK > on two-tiered justice system re: DC actions wedn. Pre-planning? Adelle Stan, et al yesterday commented that there’s no way the Trump loyalists could have navigated their way through the underground labyrinth of hallways without assistance or having been enabled. KPFK guest also said she’d “been to the Capitol many times” and said “it’s very hard to get into the Capitol.” She noted that members of Congress were considering siding with Trump to stop the electoral vote count yesterday.
KPFK > Sojourner Truth > mobs of Trump loyalists, even kids, on the streets with pro-Trump paraphernalia. Personally, I saw the same thing, as I looked out my front window after dinner last night. The kids were riding by taunting and calling out pro-Trump slogans, as they rode down the middle of the street on their bicycles. That’s definitely Brown Shirt behavior, as various observers noted yesterday.
Many experts agree there is a double standard…. So, now what? INTERPOL? International Court?
07:35 PST, WBAI & WPFW: An eye-witness recounted his experience observing the quasi-stand-down response by the Capitol Hill police. “I don’t have no idea why they didn’t stop it, with the only exception that they didn’t care to stop it.” On TV last night, I saw that the Trump loyalists did not “storm the Capitol”, as many have narrated. The Trump loyalists were strolling in, sparse in number, in the halls of the Capitol building, as a single cop backed up some stairs, as the Trump loyalists advanced slowly, merrily. The looks on the faces of most Trump loyalists was glee because they knew they were being enabled. The video evidence basically shows the Capitol police led the Trump loyalists straight to the congressional floor.
07:40 PST, WBAI & WPFW, One speaker made salient points…
Protestors or terrorists? Yesterday, Sunsara Taylor or a colleague made an excellent argument that there’s no moral equivalence between, say, the Proud Boys and the Black Panthers march on the Sacramento Capitol building.
0745, KPFK > ‘Dr. Pinel Joseph, ‘law enforcement is not the friend of black people.’ Then, one man called in and said that the calls for a bipartisan solution to the problem of the Trump loyalists’ antidemocratic attacks must involve concessions from the right, “not the left”, as the Dems “have been kowtowing all along. The next man to call in said that America is “being set up for a race war.” “You’re being gaslighted”, he urged.
Call congress switchboard…
08:00 PST, WBAI > Code Pink Radio: (1) [TW] On Congressional moves regarding the 2021 NDAA (2) Activist youth females speak… (3) [TW] On NDAA, guy from Code Pink, I think. He mentioned his Substack blog, Rethinking Security, maybe…
09:00 PST, WBAI > Gary Null [TW] > interesting COVID-19 information
One vaccine has “nanoparticles”, Null discussed the details. Null also discussed a bill in NY, which could mandate covid vaccines, to the point of coming to your house or apartment. Also, the vaccines still require the vaccinated individuals to mask and social distance. Yet, many people think vaccines will free them from the masking and social distancing.
Null cited Catherine Austin Fitts about “the Great Reset”. (Cf. Unpacking Mr. Global.) Small businesses will be decimated, smashed. Big business will further consolidate. Someone yesterday commented that many prisoners are being released, which is good for them and the families waiting at home. But it will also mean an even more depressed job market. Where’s Dr. Kelton’s, and MMT”s job guarantee programme when you need it, right?
10:15 PST, WBAI > Caller “Sanaan”, a man, boldly raised the obvious historical parallel, which many of us are afraid to mention. The storming of the Reichstag in Germany and also the Proud Boys being reminiscent of the Brown Shirts. Gary Null minced no words earlier during his broadcast. But, of course, Pacifica, et al have “banned” him.
11:00 PST, KPFA > The Talkies [TW]. Kristina Aanestad spoke with s doctor about the science of the new covid variant and the realities our medical system and society can expect in the near future, and what to do about it.
11:35 PST, WBAI > Gary Null > interesting health and science info, building the immune system, a very relevant topic in a time of covid.
11:40 PST, WPFW [TW]
12:00 PST, [TW] KPFA News Headlines. Then, Behind the News with Doug Henwood. Viju Krishnan on farmer’s strikes. 2. Unionizing Google
12:10 PST, KPFK is playing interesting music, a bit new agey-sounding. This is typical of KPFK and the stressed out nature of life in SoCal or something. That’s the impression I get.
12:19 WPFW (DC): sultry jazz music; they must be really stressed out over there, too
12:20 PST, WBAI, [TW] Resistance Radio: relevant analysis on Trump loyalists… John Mouse(sp?) and Ariel Pink joined Trump loyalists. “It was an alliance…”
13:00 PST, Meanwhile, KPFA was broadcasting their usual sleepy edition of Cover to Cover with Richard Wolinsky. Well, I can’t lie some episodes of CTC do hook me in. Today’s topic seems to be about Italian films, John Houseman’s play of Native Son. And they did mention the CIA and film noir. So, that’s cool.
13:00 PST, WBAI > DN! News Headlines > 13:18 PST, up next > Sunsara Taylor, “Insurrection Response Special”, ‘a fascism mob broke through and raided […] and it was spearheaded by the man in the White House. There’s no way around it.’
Antisemitism was also represented among the Trump loyalists, as some were wearing shirts with 6MNE or something, which is a slogan saying the ‘six million Jews killed by Nazis was not enough’. Also, one elected rep in the U.S. House of Representatives joined the Trump loyalists, got on mic, and quoted Hitler. The congresswoman said Hitler was right about one thing: If you get the youth, you can be victorious.
13:25 PST, meanwhile WPFW must be super-stressed out over here. They playin’ a whack ass soft jazzy version of The Delfonics’ classic, “La La Means I Love You”. I dunno. I can’t lie. They played some good jazz after that. But WBAI has their finger on the pulse. Let’s go back to Sunsara Taylor.
13:27 PST, WBAI > Sunsara Taylor takes live call ins [TW]
13:55 PST, WBAI > News Headlines: only about a dozen arrests. [Sunsara Taylor, et al reported earlier on Pacifica Radio that, by contrast, about 14,000 anti-Trump, pro-BLM protestors in the summer of 2020.]
14:00 PST/17:00 EST, Driving Forces, relevant analysis
14:00 PST, WPFW > relevant analysis (health care)
14:00, KPFA > Caroline Casey(?), coyote lady(?) > environmental focus, testimony from Native Americans on destruction of arctic by oil profiteers
c. 14:20 PST, interesting interview with Casey Layman, author of How To Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America
14:27, KPFA > Caroline Casey(?), coyote lady(?) > environmental focus, testimony from Native Americans on destruction of arctic by oil profiteers
1427,WBAI, covid, vaccines, and prison populations
15:00 PST, WBAI > News Headlines [TW] Rep. Lindsey Graham, “Yesterday, they could have killed us all.” But no mention of police opening doors and ‘standing down’.
16:30 PST, WBAI > The Jimmy Dore Show > [TW] relevant analysis, cites Greenwald. Dore said, a more competent dictator will lead the fascist mob next time’.
16:40 PST, WPFW [DC] > jazz music, straight ahead jazz
16:45 PST, KPFA [Berkeley, CA] > Hard Knock Radio > [TW] a chilling audio collage of news footage clips, corporate news reporting, and violent mayhem in the streets. Chilling chanting, “USA!! USA!! USA!!”, nationalism, white nationalism, and white supremacist vibes. 16:48 PST, “This Is America” by Childish Gambino, very apros po.
“This Is America” by Childish Gambino
KPFA > Hard Knock Radio > upon closer listen, maybe it was an updated remix version of “This Is America”. 16:52 PST, from death row, a communique from political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal addressed the plight of prisoners, such as “Maroon”, who are at risk of “death by incarceration.” Mumia’s call was recorded by Noelle Hanrahan for Prison Radio. 16:56 PST, another very apros po musical selection, “My Petition” by Jill Scott.
17:00 PST, WPFW [DC] > more jazz music, slow tempo (sax, vihes, horns, upright bass, drums, piano)
17:00 PST, KPFA > [TW] Flashpoints > audio of Trump speech, “My only goal was to defend the integrity of the vote.” Sorry, but that’s bullshit because the entire electoral vote recount was baseless, and should never have even taken place, as many expert observers commented yesterday. Trump closed with, ‘Our journey is only beginning.’
17:05 PST, Flashpoints > Host, Dennis Bernstein spoke with Prof. Francis Boyle (Univ. of Chicago Law), a noted human rights lawyer. “We have a seditious conspiracy going on here. […] And, so, we have to take this very seriously.” Boyle said, ‘Congress should have been in emergency session all day. Instead, they went on recess until January 20th.’ Wow.
Prof. Boyle: ‘We have a prima facia case for sedition by Trump, et al,, coordinated by Holly and Cruz, et al. But we need more investigation on that to confirm the co-conspirators. But there was no security at all. It was like a 9/11 stand-down scenario. Democrats are just as feckless as the liberal Germans after the burning of the Reichstag.’
Next Flashpoints guest addressed the ongoing prison hunger strikes in America. He also described various abuses and inhumane conditions in Alabama prisons, citing a letter of plea from a prisoner published on the SF Bayview Newspaper recently. “We have historical dialectical materialism. There is no rule of law.” ‘The evidence on the ground,’ he said,’is telling us we’re in trouble.’
17:50 PST, KPFK > [TW] Background Briefing. At the end, Ian Masters reported an upcoming LSB meeting. Pacifica Radio bosses, said Masters, have been running roughshod over KPFK and are trying to ouster or “fire” Sonali Kolhatkar (Rising Up) and him.
18:00 PST, KPFA Evening News [TW]
18:15 PST, WBAI > music, theater, and the arts in a time of covid, white supremacy, and fascism.
18:19 PST, WPFW [DC] > more jazz; no breaking special programming on fascism in DC
18:25 PST, KPFA Evening News [TW], BET clip on Trump loyalists, “Bellingcat” (cf. Grayzone coverage of Bellingcat)
19:00 PST, KPFA > Apex Express > on “the racist internment policy” against the Japanese in the USA during WWII.
19:00 PST, KPFK [L.A.] > retrospective focusing on indigenous activist Carey Dan, Mary Dan, et al., Western Shoshone Project, nuclear waste on Yucca Mountain.
19:00 PST, WBAI [NYC] > on the tradition of folk music and Joan Baez
Throughout his life, Trump has fanned the flames of white supremacy. He owes his one-term presidency in large part to his cynical exploitation of racism and fear.