LUMPENPROLETARIAT—[Monday, 15 MAR 2021]  Today, is Day 55 of Mr. Biden’s first one hundred days in office. We made a commitment to do our best to write a daily column during these first one hundred days, taking notes of the various manifestations of what Dr. King identified as the three evils of society. “Yes, the hour is dark. Evil comes forth in the guise of good,” said Dr. King. This guise of good appears before us as a system of “patronage”, as Dr. King described. This is a fascinating insight for us to (re)discover. Your author spoke to Curt Gray by telephone circa 2010, someone we all admired back in those days, during the struggles to take back KPFA. Even your author was so moved, and compelled, to run for KPFA’s Local Station Board, alongside Steve Zeltzer, Sureya Sayadi, and another comrade, whose name shamefully escapes me at the moment.

I had suspected people like Brian Edwards-Tiekert, Kris Welch, and Philip Maldari, those liberals, who do not allow the suffering to speak in all of its fullness and breadth, of being William O’Neals, of being Judases. But Curt kind of laughed at me and said, basically, No, the left is perfectly capable of being dysfunctional enough to destroy KPFA on their own without state intelligence intervention. I was skeptical. (I didn’t consider the Democrat Party part of the left, and still don’t.) But he was gracious enough with his time to explain to me about the system of “patronage”, which predominated internally at KPFA and Pacifica Radio, generally. Perhaps, this was true for all media institutions and their gatekeepers. He pointed out that there will always be gatekeepers. The question was: To what end? So, you can imagine our surprise, and fascination, when we (re)discovered Dr. King identifying the “Democratic Party system of patronage network”, as a stumbling block to justice, to truth and reconciliation. In my zeal for truth, I spoke with ousted and beloved former KPFA station manager Nicole Sawaya by telephone circa 2008. She was accessible and candid, but refused to speak on the record. So, I did not record the phone call. But she advised me to take the high road and to focus on the work.

But, then, as now, what work could I possibly focus on? I was just a working class bloke, who drove a truck filled with toxic chemicals for a living. But focus on the work we did.

We feel we have compiled in our modest scrapbook project more than enough evidence to substantiate our claims about the fraudulent nature of our “democracy” and of the vapid, meaninglessness of Mr. Biden’s faux-FDR veneer.

We do not feel the need to prove to liberals about the falsity of their rhetoric any longer. As we become confident in our critique of what Ralph Nader called the two-party dictatorship, which we need not remind our dear readers is a tyrannical institution, and as we’ve taken some time to carefully monitor the world of illusions, which is corporate media, and how it keeps people in their own little silos of thinking, or in their own little bubbles of illusion, we begin to look more inwardly for sources of toxicity. We began by critiquing our very own beloved free speech Pacifica Radio, and all of the tragic ways it has been internalizing toxic liberal/centrist logic, since at least the 1999 KPFA/Pacifica lockout. Lewis Hill was a patrician; was it always there? Did Pacifica Radio require the (true, uncolonized) participation of people of color, or the (true, uncolonized) participation of grassroots activists to become aware of it? If it was, that fact makes it no more just than any toxicity within the hearts of the framers of the U.S. Constitution, which toxic Originalist judges cling to these days in service of right-wing ideologies.

What is ideology? Why do we have ideologies? Is ideology inevitable?

As the horrifying Sieges of January 6th took place against state capitols around the nation, especially against the nation’s DC Capitol, a nice warm fire has been lit under many of our arses. We heard graceful black voices on WPFW (Pacifica Radio) ask us all to be bolder. Love more. Shine more. Be more. So, we try.

For some of us, a big challenge is expanding our bandwidth, so to speak. For me, that has meant finally being able to reply to all of my social media correspondence, which mostly consists of hate mail. It was way too painful before. Is this what it means to be a snowflake? Perhaps, the slur is baseless. We get called violent super predators, whilst called snowflakes. Which is it? Which descriptor best describes the left? The main argument accuses men on the left, as unwilling to fight, or to defend their women or their country or their livelihoods, or something to that effect. (We hope to learn more about our sisters and brothers on the right, through sincere dialogue, going forward.) I mean I have no problem with pugilism, other than its seeming futility in fostering understanding. An argument can be made, of course, for blowing off some steam. But at what cost?

It is certainly difficult to reply to hateful people, especially with non-violent communication. And, even if we’re capable of doing so, many excuses present themselves for why they are unworthy of our time and attention. After all, what is more valuable than our time and attention? But, on another level, hateful expressions seem like a cry for help. We mustn’t be naive. Some people are incorrigible. Some people are evil. Nevertheless, we welcome everyone and everything towards peace and justice. And we train to refuse and resist evil through militant, non-violent direct action.

In the name of humanity, we refuse to accept a fascist America.

Hate has no home here.

But where is here? What is this here? There is a degree of trauma we all carry. The trauma we carry from childhood can be painful. Sometimes, it can even be repressed. But the trauma might run even deeper, as Dr. Joy Degruy teaches us, when she discusses intergenerational trauma. Sometimes, we become unwitting alcoholics or drug addicts or food addicts or wealth addicts with adverse consequences, which are often perceptible, but sometimes imperceptible. We can internalize the pain. Or we can externalize the pain. It takes courage to translate the pain into something more life-affirming, life-advancing. Sometimes, we become violent or always on guard. It’s difficult to be vulnerable and pacifist, when one knows very well the dominant culture is cruel, judgmental, and unforgiving.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X were veritable saints, like a modern day Jesus of Nazareth. And, yet, our nation gnashed its teeth at them, and annihilated them, first in life, then in death via postmodern hyperrealism. It wasn’t enough to kill their physical bodies. Their enemies have eternally sought to also annihilate their true legacies.

Socially, the USA is trapped in a feedback loop of hatred and fear. Like Richard Rodriguez, I have been engaging in an ongoing argument with my working class Mexican father. Recently, whilst discussing injustice, he said, “La injusticia nunca se va acabar.” In the past, I would have said something like, No, not with that attitude, or some other such guilt-inducing phrase, unaware of the violence embedded in such language.

Instead, I agreed with him, and added, “Pues no, porque la injusticia la tenemos adentro, en el corazón.”

So, we strive to gain the patience of a saint. May we eradicate the cruelty from our hearts without becoming sacrificial lambs.

All apologies for the overly ambitious headlines and unanswered questions, dear readers. All dreams are ambitious. Are they not. Yet, ambition makes you look pretty ugly. We trust we can find solutions together, as Dr. King and Malcolm X suggested, once we learn to live like brothers and sisters.

As Dr. King concluded his speech, “The Three Evils of Society”:

“And I say to you that I choose to be among the maladjusted as my good friend Bill Coffee(sp?) said, there are those who have criticized me and many of you for taking a stand against the war in Vietnam, and for seeking to say to the nation that the issues of civil rights cannot be separated from the issues of peace.

‘I want to say to you that I intend to keep these issues mixed because they are mixed. Somewhere we must see that this justice is indivisible. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And I have fought now too long and too hard against segregated public accommodations to segregate my moral concerns.

“And, so, let us stand at this convention center, knowing that on some positions, cowardice asks if it is safe; expedience asks the question: Is it politic? Vanity asks the question: Is it popular? But conscience asks the question: Is it right?

“And, on some positions, it is necessary for the moral individual to take a stand, that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must do it because it is right.

“And we say to our nation tonight, we even say to our government, we even say to our FBI, we will not be harassed; we will not make a butchery of our concsience; we will not be intimated. And we WILL be heard.”

Solidarity.

• The New Day Pacifica grouping, which is calling for antidemocratic governance of the free speech radio commons we know of as Pacifica Radio, is associated with the 29 OCT 2019 lockout of WBAI. cf. WBAI Fight Back dot org

@LumpenProles, updated at 10:22 PDT, 18 MAR 2021.

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Download the Pacifica Radio Network app to easily tune in to the live broadcasts of the terrestrial radio signals across the free speech radio network.

Please support democratic governance of the Pacifica Radio Network. Please vote NO on the Pacifica Bylaws Referendum, which seeks to disenfranchise the listener-members of the Pacifica Radio Foundation, who are the legal owners of Pacifica because they pay for it through their financial contributions.   This Pacifica Bylaws referendum seeks to disenfranchise listener-members by eliminating democratically-elected Local Station Boards with unaccountable, unelected elitist gatekeepers.  This is akin to regulatory capture.  The only way Pacifica Radio can continue to be free speech radio is if, we the people, keep it accountable through democratic governance.  The last time elitist gatekeepers attempted this was during the 1999 KPFA/Pacifica Lockout.  Anti-free speech forces will never stop trying to censor left-of-center perspectives until everything sounds like NPR, PBS, or corporate media.  People of conscience and good faith must be ever vigilant and refuse and resist any and all antidemocratic and anti-free speech forces.  Solidarity. Equanimity.

NOTES FROM A WORKING CLASS LEFT PERSPECTIVE

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“Slavoj Zizek on Biden, Race, and What It Will Take to Stop the Pandemic | Weekends” by Jacobin, .

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“Ten Warning Signs Your Liver Is Toxic” by Dr. Sten Ekberg, 11 DEC 2020.

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(c. 4:15) On the notion of being ‘true to yourself’, fortunately, some of us paid a degree of attention to Prof. John Vervaeke’s lecture series, “Awakening From the Meaning Crisis.” A big takeaway for some of us was how he disabused of the notion of ever trying to be true to oneself. Ever since then, we now seek, instead, to be true to reality. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on one’s disposition, this cannot be done in a vacuum, or in solitude. This requires community. So, we commune with others to harmonize our realities. Then, we may be true to reality. | Perhaps, the problem with this communing, or communism, or communalism, is that others outside of this community, or commune, have more power. Having more power, they can impose their will on any community, to force them to give up their ideas, or communal ways of living, in favor of more individualistic or materialistic or alienated ways of living. It seems this is what my Stalinist friend at university meant when I openly admired our banker colleagues fine suit one day, as we strolled through downtown KCMO. It was an interesting moment. I admired my Stalinist friend so intensely. But I also used to be a dandy. And, perhaps, I always will be. If so, that likely means I could never be a Stalinist. Who knows? Who even knows what Stalinism is? It’s such a taboo topic, innit? | At any rate, there is this interesting tension between individualism and collectivism, apparently, within all of us, which seems to play itself out in our society in all manner of ideological pathologies. Perhaps, we may begin to resolve, or heal, some of these pathologies, if we cease conflating individual liberty with individualism. | Thus, we continue to self-educate for correct political action. Is the personal political? Does barbarism begin in the home, or in the human heart, for lack of a better word? | Solidarity.

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0800 , WPFW TW On the antidemocratic filibuster rule in the US Senate. | 0815 PDT, On the Nigerian issue of recurring kidnappings.

08:00 PST, WBAI > […] 08:22 PST, Dr. Gary Null on detoxification and healing. | 08:40 PST, That’s odd. A man just hung up on me when I dialed I tried to avail myself of Curing the Incurable and another item on juicing. I used to be a big fan of the Juice Weasel. But this sounds updated. Plus, we need a cookbook for contributing to the unwaged labor at home. Our mind tends toward sinister explanations. Fortunately, I eventually got through. | THIS IS A FUND DRIVE BROADCAST. PLEASE SUPPORT FREE SPEECH RADIO. PLEASE DONATE TODAY. #118595, $133.01, includes shipping. What can I say? Hopefully, these resources arrive soon. My old juicer broke. It’s time for a new one. We’re also excited, looking forward to the new book, autographed, too, from Mickey Huff and Project Censored, the new 2021 book. Get yours today! Solidarity. | 08:52 PST, Now, if we could just end racism, militarism, and materialism, we will be able to finally rest easy. Until then, the struggle continues. | 08:53 PST,

09:00 PST, WBAI > The Gary Null Show > “I Can Dream About You” clip, from the film Streets of Fire > Vitamin C helps prevent stroke; red meat and early female development; Vitamin B12 protects the brain; inhaling carbon nano tubules harms the brain; 10% reduction in stroke, reducing amyloid plaque, with high nutritional natural foods; green juices and green plants reduce stroke. Also, a commentary from Chris Hedges on bandaging the corpse; and more. | ‘Go to Prn.fm’ | Rosemary Frye(sp?) on the new coronavirus strains’ | 09:13 PST, Dr. Null said no one had tried megadosing with Vitamin C to cure AIDS. Dr. Null said he used 200,000 milligrams per day, intravenously. Of course, we recall Dr. Max Gerson, if memory serves us, who used megadosing to cure forms of cancer, until he was attacked, or persecuted, by the American Cancer Association (I believe is the institution). | ‘Doc film: The Cost of Denial.’ So, why did Anthony Fauci not fund one penny for any AIDS organization. 35 years later, said Null, the truth comes out.’ ‘AZT was toxic; people died.’ ‘Is it because it couldn’t be so easily monetized?’ | 09:19 PST, music break. | 09:22 PST, video clip on the CDC, COVID-19, and the importance of the anti-COVID-19 masked mandate. | 09:29 PDT, Dr. Null’s critical remarks on the masked mandate, the PCR test, and other controversial aspects of the statist responses to COVID-19. | 09:32 PDT, Next, Dr. Null’s interview guest on ‘a cautionary hypothesis, an open letter to the World Health Organization to halt injections of experimental and proprietary anti-COVID-19 drugs.’ | Early in this broadcast, as in past broadcasts, Dr. Null called bacon toxic. Yet, I’ve had positive body composition effects from a modified paleo diet, including high fat-low carb or high protein diets. However, I must report some recent inflammation, which I hope to resolve with lifestyle improvements, or modifications, as I have no access to institutional health care. We would like to see a debate between Dr. Ken Berry and Dr. Gary Null on the health benefits and/or dangers of consuming bacon and red meat. I tend to eat a high fat diet, yet maintain an 8-10% body fat, muscular body composition with no fatty stools. | 09:45 PDT, Guest begins speaking now. 09:52 PST, Oh, no. The guest was seemingly uncooperative. Then, when given a chance for free speech, she bid Dr. Null goodbye and, instead, hung up.| 09:53 PDT, Perhaps, Dr. Null should hot have lowered the volume on her ‘microphone’ before. | 09:56 PDT, End of Dr. Null’s broadcast. [TW] That was a tough broadcast. Pacifica must help Dr. Null articulate his arguments, rather than marginalize him. If he has a point, his arguments will be corroborated. If he does not, his arguments will be refuted. But Pacifica Radio listeners deserve free speech, not marginalization of dissent.

09:56 PDT, WBAI & WPFW > News Headlines with Sue Goodwin [TW]

10:00 PDT, WBAI > Leonard Lopate at Large > Topics: “sibling language experts Kathryn and Ross Petras on if the way we talk changed since Biden took office” Synopsis: “After five years of near-constant upheaval in all areas of American life including language, have new words been created since Joe Biden was sworn in as president on Jan. 20? | In this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI, sibling language experts, regular contributors to the program and the authors of Awkword Moments: A Lively Guide to the 100 Terms Smart People Should Know and That Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means: The 150 Most Commonly Misused Words and Their Tangled Histories Kathryn and Ross Petras consider the latest cultural shift in US history.”

10:00 PDT, WPFW > TBD with TBD > Dr. King speech. [TW] | 10:10 PDT, Documentary film clip on Angela Davis. 10:16, Angela Davis cited Herbert Marcuse. George Jackson and comrades. cf. Soledad Brother. 10:31 PDT, Whoa! Angela Davis studied with Herbert Marcuse, which “made her a Marxist”, as opposed to some of the other members of the far left. ‘In that sense, she is a rarity.’ [TW] 10:33 PDT, Whoa! Herbert Marcuse audio! On Angela Davis’ influences, including Marcuse and the Algerian struggle for freedom. 10:52 PDT, On gradualism and the urgency of now. Thank you so much for this broadcast, WPFW!! ❤ > 10:55 PDT, News Headlines with Askia Mohammed. [TW] On the politics of the so-called Rescue Plan cash aid.

11:00 PDT, WPFW > To Your Health with Dr. Ted Watkins > Musical into. On the emotional and stress-related aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. “What about our children?” Indeed. That’s been the hardest part for us, parents of young people. Our kids have, basically, been on house arrest. Stress is definitely a killer. cf. Dr. Robert Sapolsky (Stanford University)

1109 WBAI, COVID-19 talk

1113 PDT, KPFT [HD2] > On Native Lands and Native rights “West Berkeley Shell Mound”

1116 KPFA > Ralph Nader on health care politics and labor. FTC corruption. SinglePayerAction.org | Nader: ‘Democrats are undermining health care bill.’ Guest: ‘The people are trying to get single-payer, but Congress is not listening.’ ‘What’s wrong with the American people?’ Why don’t they stand up for single-payer or medicare for all, when it’s in their best interests to fight for single-payer, and the CBO has admitted it’d be cheaper overall for the American people. | Transcript available at Ralph Nader’s website.

12:00 PST, KPFA > Against the Grain with Sasha Lilley > Historian Shannon Clarke(sp?), author of book on “cultural workers”. We recall portions of this broadcast were presented during the previous KPFA fund drive.

1200 PDT, WBAI > […] “reparations” [TW]

14:00 PST, WPFW > Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod >

15:00 PST, WPFW > Covid, Race, & Democracy with Ann Garrison > On the politics of education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

15:00 PST, WBAI > WBAI Evening News >

15:30 PST, WBAI > CounterSpin >

18:00 PST, KPFA > The Pacifica Evening News >

20:00 PDT,

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“Invincible” by Tool, 2019.

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Thank you for reading Lumpenproletariat.org

Also find us at Lumpen.org

Solidarity

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[15 MAR 2021]

[Last modified on 15 MAR 2021 at 19:52 PST]