LUMPENPROLETARIAT—[Friday, 25 NOV 2022] 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.)
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:
- “More vaccinated deaths than unvaccinated deaths from covid (US)” by Dr. John Campbell [via YouTube], 25 NOV 2022. [16min 21sec] [L0]
- “Feds ADMIT To Having Agents Among January 6 Rioters” by The Jimmy Dore Show [via YouTube], 25 NOV 2022. [18min 30sec] [L0]
- “INSANE Once in a Lifetime Prepper Deals: Don’t Miss Out!” by Riverside Homestead Life [via YouTube], 25 NOV 2022. [11min 25sec] | COMMENTS: Emergency preparedness is always a good idea. Here is some useful information, for those, who haven’t really considered the basics of being prepared for emergencies.
- MINING MEMORY HOLES:
- “KPFA Staff: Recall Brian Edwards-Tiekert from the KPFA Local Station Board” by Concerned Staff, IndyBay, 18 SEP 2010. | This article is a small comment from an anonymous staffer, which long-time dedicated listeners of free speech radio KPFA (Berkeley, CA), the world’s first listener-sponsored radio station, will know to be more than justified and true. But it took your author years of observing Mr. Brian Edwards-Tiekert’s behavior at the public monthly LSB meetings to finally realize Mr. Brian Edwards-Tiekert (BET) is part of the synthetic left faction at KPFA. Your author was fooled by Mr. BET’s intellectual skill and ability to articulate issues, which if one is inexperienced and naïve may perceive as sincere. When intellectual sheen is applied to an issue, rookie activist-type listeners can get taken in by all of the over-intellectualizing and lose sight of the fact that the Democrat Party is always let off the hook and lose sight of how truly radical (i.e., grassroots) alternatives and perspectives are continually suppressed. Your author, for example, witnessed Mr. BET engage in all sorts of unfair, abusive practices on KPFA’s Local Station Board (LSB), abuses of Robert’s Rules of Order and such. And BET’s allies even engaged in verbal abuse and threats of physical violence during LSB meetings against your author’s acquaintances and friends at LSB meetings, such as Daniel Borgstrom. But, mostly, Mr. BET appeared to be the most adept parliamentarian, always armed with a copy of Robert’s Rules of Order. And Mr. BET was always like a parliamentarian jackal, going after anybody on the board, who didn’t conform to his elitist political faction’s agenda to corporatize or NPR-ize KPFA and the whole Pacifica Radio Network. He is a master of Machiavellianism and gaslighting and obstruction. All anyone has to do is check the archives of the meetings, if they exist. Your author used to show up with a video camera; the corrupt faction hated that. They tried to intimidate your author, just like they bullied anyone else, who questioned or challenged BET’s faction. Your author ran for the KPFA Local Station Board (LSB) in 2010, along with three others as the Voices For Justice slate. And, back then, some internal KPFA emails were leaked, which further exposed Mr. BET’s true colors, such as the following quote from a 2005 email, reproduced in this 2010 article’s comments section. In the email, Mr. BET was writing to then-station manager, Ms. Lemlem Rijio (actually a puppet of his faction), Bonnie Simmons (a stalwart member of the elitist faction, and a recruiter or groomer of people, who come around the LSB meetings, as she attempted to do with your author, even pushing sophistry as a virtue upon your author), et al. This email corroborates your author’s perception from attending many LSB meetings during the late 2000s to the mid-2010s, at which Mr. BET was one of the main operatives behind the anti-free speech radio faction at KPFA. In the leaked email, Mr. BET wrote, among other revealing details: “Strategic retreat on the LSB—how do we make our enemies own the problems that are to come? Alternatively, should we be recalling LSB members/dismantling the LSB?” Mr. BET and his faction have always wanted to ‘dismantle the LSB’, that is to say they have always wanted to get rid of the democratic governance structure at free speech radio KPFA and the nationwide free speech Pacifica Radio Network. And, here, concerned listeners had evidence of that fact, which was obvious to the dedicated listeners, who regularly attended LSB meetings. So, then, it appears, Mr. BET stepped up his CIA-like efforts at KPFA by publishing an encryption key, ostensibly to protect his anonymous sources, except he has none. Mr. BET relies on a small roster of establishment shills, such as Dr. Jon Swartzberg. Listen for yourself and you will see what your author means. The encryption key is, apparently, to eliminate transparency about what goes on behind the scenes to avoid being exposed again by community members or concerned staffers finding his sinister emails again, who see through Mr. BET’s phony radio personality and synthetic left veneer. (See next bullet point for Mr. BET’s “Public Key Encryption”, which can be used to encrypt messages by someone holding the ‘Private Key’, probably Mr. BET and his inner circle and/or handlers.)
- “Brian Edwards-Tiekert Public Encryption Key” by anonymous (presumably Brian Edwards-Tiekert), KPFA, 19 NOV 2015. The notion that Brian Edwards-Tiekert needs, or uses, an encryption key to protect anonymous sources is absurd when we recognize the fact that he mostly broadcasts establishment sources, like Dr. Jon Swartzberg gaslighting listeners about the COVID-19 psyop. | If we care about free speech, then we must defend it. And we must expose those, who work to undermine free speech radio, like BET, who squander listener-sponsored free speech radio with synthetic left programming and uncritical amplification of establishment narratives. We must defend free speech radio KPFA and the free speech Pacifica Radio Network, and then expand the network across the USA. And we must help other nations of the world, who are also interested in having listener-sponsored, listener-owned free speech terrestrial radio in order to inform the working class, a working class drowning in corporate media/press. This is why all of the working class people of the world should defend free speech terrestrial radio. The airwaves belong to the people, not the government, not the power elite, not the corporations, not the capitalists, who only want to increase the power of capital at the expense of the working class. All apologies, if these notes are cryptic. Time constraints prevent a more detailed explanation. A little research and fact-checking on the reader’s part will flesh out your author’s concerns and assertions. But, god willing, your author will publish all of these experiences and observations bearing witness to moneyed forces and their agents trying to destroy free speech radio, since at least the 1999 KPFA Lockout in as coherent and critical and surgical a manner as possible. The prime suspects, which appear to be working to destroy the Pacifica Radio Network, include Democrat Party partisans, most likely the Democrat Party machinery… Your author cannot prove this yet. But, circa 2010, from attending KPFA LSB meetings and other events and gatherings and meeting people involved with KPFA, it appeared the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club was the local political machine behind Mr. BET’s faction at KPFA. And there’s more than ample evidence, which exposes how Mr. Brian Edwards-Tiekert (BET) and his faction are diametrically opposed to the Pacifica Radio Mission Statement and diametrically opposed to the democratic governance structure of Pacifica Radio. That democratic governance structure was a hard won victory by listeners in the wake of the 1999 KPFA Lockout because it protected free speech radio KPFA and the free speech Pacifica Radio Network from easily being trashed, sold off, and shut down. Unfortunately, time has proven that there were thieves in the temple, so to speak. Over time, a group of individuals at KPFA would assert their small clique’s power through the KPFA Local Station Board (LSB) and a pre-existing patronage system in order to colonize KPFA with their liberal (i.e., pro-capitalist or non-anti-capitalist) Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club (WDRC) politics, but without ever even mentioning the WDRC. This group of radio hosts which were/are colluding within KPFA, outside KPFA, and at KPFA LSB meetings, includes, Brian Edwards-Tiekert, Mitch Jeserich, Bonnie Simmons, Mark Mericle, Aileen Alfandary, Philip Maldari, Larry Bensky, David Gans, Sasha Lilley, C.S. Soong, Lewis Sawyer, et al. This is the group of individuals at KPFA, the clique or faction, which would, in the months and years after the 1999 KPFA Lockout, come to assert its power and agenda inside KPFA and the nationwide Pacifica Radio Network and colonize its news departments and the editorial direction of most of its programming with controlled opposition. There are a few exceptions (e.g., Project Censored; Flashpoints; et al.), but they are dwindling. The establishment shills are saturating KPFA and Pacifica with controlled opposition radio, pushing establishment narratives and abandoning its original pacifist, antiwar, anti-establishment mission, despite any and all listener, listener-member, listener-owner protests. This Democrat faction undermines honest political education programming, suppresses deep politics, and now mostly avoids politics altogether to depoliticize and demobilize the people, when the people most need to be out in the streets, building organized, disciplined, militant popular movements. The only politics this faction broadcasts are identity politics and the political theater between Democrat and Republican partisans. Both are false constructs. The Democrat and Republican parties are both beholden to corporate interests, and both collude to block meaningful grassroots political participation, block third-party ballot access and so on. Identity politica are fake politics, mostly cultural concerns or divisive culture war gripes, which function as a hollow substitute for real political analysis and class analysis. Pacifica Radio has always had the capacity to be a powerful force for informing and politicizing and mobilizing huge numbers of people. But, in the 21st century, this corrupt faction insists on regurgitating establishment narratives and two-party system talking points, being stenographers for state power, simply repeating uncritically what the elite say, never challenging false narratives, never being skeptical, as is the responsibility of honest media/press to be, never providing a critical analysis of current politics. This Democrat faction appears to be succeeding in destroying KPFA and the Pacifica Radio Network, through violations of the Pacifica board rules and bylaws behind the scenes and by watering down the Pacifica Mission, emphasizing identity politics, being critical only about foreign governments, and broadcasting about radical, leftist politics only in far-removed history in the past, in the 20th century or earlier, lest listeners develop any imagination to abandon the corporate Democrat Party and moved leftward. Listeners are never allowed to hear critique of the Democrat Party or the two-party dictatorship. The false left-right paradigm is always kept firmly in place. And all third-party politics are marginalized and prevented from becoming a political threat to the Democrat Party machine or to the two-party dictatorship. Of course, free speech Pacifica Radio was a threat to the political establishment in the 20th century. Of course, the government, the state, through its lackeys in the Democrat Party, such as Lynn Chadwick and Mary Frances Berry, with apparent involvement of former President Bill Clinton and Janet Reno, tried to shut down KPFA and the Pacifica Radio Network once and for all in 1999. But they were too heavy-handed. And thousands of people, tens of thousands of people, rallied around free speech KPFA and the Pacifica Radio Network. The listeners won democratic governance of the Network, but became too complacent. Meanwhile, Democrat Party shills patiently colonized and watered down the radical (i.e., grassroots), truth-seeking spirit of Pacifica. Free speech radio was like a thorn in the side of the establishment. So, the state must be pleased with the liberals doing their dirty work for them. | It’s notable that, for a group which idolizes or worships Paul Wellstone, listeners never hear about Paul Wellstone on the KPFA airwaves. The WDRC evidently knows they must keep a low profile to avoid being detected as a political faction committed to capturing KPFA’s editorial direction, watering it down, driving away its leftist, radical, grassroots original audience, and, ultimately, shutting down KPFA and the entire free speech Pacifica Radio Network down. (Mathew Lasar avoided all of this history of political infiltration of KPFA in his writings on Pacifica Radio, by the way. This is most likely because he is one of them, an ally of the WDRC and the Democrat Party, generally. Democrat Party reformists stick together.) Reading the political platform of the WDRC, one realizes the platform can be perfectly mapped on to the editorial priorities of KPFA’s news department and public affairs programming (with some exceptions, as noted above). A few honest, radical, grassroots truly community-orientated programs are still on the air on KPFA, e.g., Flashpoints with Dennis Bernstein, Project Censored with Mickey Huff & Eleanor Goldfield, and Hard Knock Radio with Davey D. These honest, radical, and hard-hitting programs are faithful to the Pacifica Mission Statement and to basic ethical standards of journalistic integrity. But, for the most part, KPFA’s news and public affairs programming sound like Democrat Party propaganda, even Cat Brooks. And, sometimes, one wonders why Davey D also seems to give the Democrat Party a pass. (Your author sharply questioned Davey D on air once during a call in to take Davey D to task for not asking Democrat politicians, e.g., Kamala Harris, Barbara Lee, and Maxine Waters, the hard questions, when he got them on the air. Later, Davey D seemed to emphasize more on interviewing activists, organizers, and other community and cultural personages. That’s not to suggest any correlation, but to speak to the political perspective of Davey D, the radio personality.) On the surface, the WDRC platform sounds good. And it certainly sounds better than the rhetoric one might hear from the so-called ‘corporate wing’ of the Democrat Party. And, the WDRC platform is obviously better than any Republican Party platform, in terms of prioritizing labor over capital. But the WDRC is still just an appendage of the corrupt, corporate Democrat Party. And the WDRC platform, as Dr. King said of the ‘white moderate liberal’, will only go but so far. Dr. Noam Chomsky similarly said the same thing in the 1980s and ’90s about the “liberal bias”, which will only go but so far in their analysis. When others go further, deeper, to the roots, thus more radical, the elitist faction at KPFA pushes them out. For example, Guns and Butter with Bonnie Faulkner was devalued and ousted from KPFA. Instead of Kris Welch making a living off of KPFA, whilst gaslighting listeners with Democrat Party apologism, Bonnie Faulkner should have been made paid staff and lifted up as a KPFA treasure. Programming, like Guns and Butter, should have been supported and elevated and prioritized, as it worked to inform listeners about deep politics, which one will never hear on NPR or PBS or corporate media. Instead, listeners are inundated with content from the likes of Kris Welch and Mitch Jeserich, which is already heard elsewhere, like NPR or PBS. Guns and Butter challenged the status quo and dared to ask questions, which most of the media avoided. Instead, KPFA listeners get Brian Edwards-Tiekert, Sasha Lilley, Aileen Alfandary, Kris Welch, Mitch Jeserich, et al. giving us the same liberal entertainment one can find anywhere else, basic middle-of-the-road programming of authors and academics, few of which challenge capitalism or expose its fundamental contradictions or meaningfully critique the Democrat Party of the two-party dictatorship. If such guests do challenge the status quo, their interviews are ‘handled’ or cut short. The controllers maintain the status quo by preventing radical leftist voices from challenging the Democrat Party machine. Shame on them. If you’re near the SF-Oakland-Silicon Valley Bay Area, attend the LSB meetings, join Pacifica Radio solidarity groups, and drive out the elitists from KPFA. Or, if you’re near any of the Pacifica Radio Network stations, whether near Berkeley, CA; Los Angeles, CA; Houston, TX; Washington, D.C.; or New York City, NY, attend your Pacifica Radio LSB meetings and act for justice. The same urgency applies to any of the Pacifica Radio Network affiliate stations. Don’t let the Democrat Party shills stifle grassroots activist energy. And, nowadays, people can listen to any free speech Pacifica Radio online as well as participate in most LSB meetings online. But we also need activist listeners to demand an end to the Democrat Party apologism at all Pacifica Radio stations. Listeners must be told the truth and deserve critical analysis of politics and deep politics, instead of uncritical amplificaton of establishment narratives.
@LumpenProles, last modified/edited/updated on 28 NOV 2022 at 16:55 PDT
MEDIA/PRESS NOTES, NEWS, VIEWS, WORKING CLASS BLUES, INFORMATION, INSPIRATION, PERSPIRATION, AND AGITATION FROM A WORKING CLASS PERSPECTIVE*
[Ideally, your author would have included links to all programs listed below. Programs listed without an embeded link or listener notes are based on past scheduling and have not yet been verified. Please check relevant websites for actual programming. / Notes will be modified/edited/updated as time and labor constraints allow. Working class solidarity. ✊🏽✊🏼✊🏿✊]
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Friday, 25 November 2022
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Please read this book, if you haven’t already…
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*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.
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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.
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05:00 PST, KPFA > Rising Up with Sonali Kolhatkar | “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; author 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…
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06:00 PST, KPFA > Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman & company | “Democracy Now! is a daily independent award-winning news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez.”
NOTES: [notes pending; author 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 ]
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07:00 PST / 10:00 EST, WPFW > On The Ground with Esther Iverem
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 [day], [date] (10:00 EDT) 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.
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07:00 PST, KPFA > UpFront with Brian Edwards-Tiekert
NOTES: [notes pending; author 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 ]
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07:00 PST / 10:00 EST, WBAI > Heart of Mind with Kathryn Davis
NOTES: [notes pending; author hasn’t listened yet]
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08:00 PST, KPFA > A Rude Awakening with Sabrina Jacobs
NOTES: [notes pending; author hasn’t listened yet]
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08:00 PST / 11:00 EST, WPFW > Community Watch & Comment – Friday with Ron Pinchback(sp?), Tom Williams(sp?), and Chip Jones
NOTES: [notes pending; author hasn’t listened yet]
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09:00 PST / 12:00 EST, WBAI > The Gary Null Show
NOTES/COMMENTS (re: Gary Null Show for 00 SEP 2022): [notes pending; author hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: This program, The Gary Null Show, is one of the most honest, compassionate, and hard-hitting shows on Pacifica Radio, or anywhere for that matter. This program is easily as important, as the best of them: Flashpoints; Project Censored; On The Ground: Voices of Resistance From the Nation’s Capitol; Covid, Race & Democracy, Guns and Butter, et al.
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09:00 PST, KPFA > Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman & company | “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.)
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09:00 PST, KPFK > Thom Hartmann Program
NOTES: [noets pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
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10:00 PST, KPFK > 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).
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10:00 PST / 13:00 EST, PRN.Live > Leid Stories with Eutrice Leid
NOTES: [notes pending; scribe hasn’t listened yet]
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10:00 PST, WBAI > 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…
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10:00 PST, KPFA > Economic Update with Prof. Richard Wolff
NOTES: [notes pending; author 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 ]
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10:00 PST / 13:00 EST, WPFW > Latino Media Collective
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11:00 PST, PRN.Live > Alternative Visions with Dr. Jack Rasmus
COMMENTS: This is the real economic update. We love Dr. Richard Wolff, but he’s more of a performer than an educator, or a reporter.
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11:00 PST, KPFA > Voices of the Middle East and North Africa (VOMENA) | “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; author 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. [ 4 ]
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11:00 PST / 14:00 EDT, WPFW > 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.
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12:00 PDT, PRN.live > Guns and Butter with Bonnie Faulkner
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12:00 PDT / 15:00 EDT, WBAI > Live On The Fly with Randy Credico
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12:00 PDT, KPFA > It’s Going Down with anonymous male-sounding host
NOTES: [notes pending; author 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. [ 5 ]
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10:00 PDT / 12:00 EDT, WPFW > Jazz and Justice – Bobby Rox
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13:00 PDT, KPFA > Project Censored with Mickey Huff
NOTES: [notes pending; author hasn’t listened yet]
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13:00 PDT / 16:00 EDT, WBAI > Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod
NOTES: [notes pending; author hasn’t listened yet]
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14:00 PDT / 17:00 EDT, WPFW > Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod
NOTES: [notes pending; author hasn’t listened yet]
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14:00 PDT / 17:00 EDT, WBAI > Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley cancelled? > Max Politics with Ben Max
NOTES: [notes pending; author 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.
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15:00 PDT / 18:00 EDT, WPFW > News Views with Garland Nixon
NOTES: [notes pending; author hasn’t listened yet]
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16:00 PDT, KPFA > Hard Knock Radio
NOTES: [notes pending; author hasn’t listened yet]
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17:00 PDT, KPFA & KPFK [simulcast] > Flashpoints with Dennis Bernstein
NOTES: [notes pending; author hasn’t listened yet]
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18:00 PDT, KPFA & KPFK [simulcast] > The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays
NOTES: [notes pending; author hasn’t listened yet]
COMMENTS: Usually, honest on basic social justice issues, but KPFA newscast bosses tend to gaslight listeners on COVID-19 (never mention VAERS data, VAERS deaths, assaults on informed consent, assaults on parental consent, no mention of litigation in India against the World Health Organization, etc.) and also gaslight listeners regarding establishment Democrat Party politics (i.e., usually engaging in Democrat Party apologia and perception management to keep people within the Democrat Party imaginary and away from the third-party politics imaginary, in the sociology sense of the term, ‘imaginary’). I.e., in other words, ‘it’s all good, just don’t question 9/11, COVID-19, nor establishment electoral politics.’ Having said all that, this is still a better nightly newscast than most. I’m hard-pressed to think of a better one, especially since the demise of Free Speech Radio News (FSRN), particularly regarding local news coverage. But that doesn’t excuse the KPFA news bosses’ intellectual dishonesty, lying by omission, and other deficiencies of journalistic integrity. WION is pretty good on global news; but there, too, one can detect the liberal bias, which Dr. Noam Chomsky has warned about since at least the 1990s.
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20:00 PDT, KPFA > La Onda Bajita
NOTES: [notes pending; author hasn’t listened yet]
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22:00 PDT, KPFA > The History of Funk
NOTES: [notes pending; author hasn’t listened yet]
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[ 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 an example of some of the worst kind of Machiavellian gaslighting in radio. Comedian Jimmy Dore would call it shit libbery, total bullshit. 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 last refuge of scoundrels. Liberals (i.e., pro-capitalists or non-anti-capitalists), like this radio host in question, Mr. Brian Edwards-Tiekart (a Wesleyan University graduate) exemplifies 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 ] 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.
[ 5 ] 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.
[25 NOV 2022]
[Last modified/edited/updated on 14 MAR 2023 at 07:34 PDT]
Lumpenproletariat 