Headed down for my night shift I. Tijuana at a shelter. It’s a shit show. A complete shit show. Buy every immigrant a subway and we’d all get a tax refund - la neta.
I have a question for you Marc and everyone. I listen regularly to Democracy Now and often to Marxist economist Richard Wolff. I value both of their shows and analysis. But they both seem indifferent to the dawning fascism in our country. Wolff gave a strict Marxist analysis of the election which dismissed any differences between dems and MAGA. Amy and Juan are just ignoring the issue. While I agree that both parties are defenders of capitalism and the U S empire, the fascism of MAGA and Trump will inflict pain and suffering on millions. And fascism is a real thing that we’ve dealt with less than a century ago in multiple countries. Why do you think these otherwise exemplary Marxists are so indifferent to the prospect of American fascism? Was there anything like this in Chile?
And Trump continues to tell us that he really will move towards fascism. Believe him.
PPS. I think Amy and Juan dont discuss natl politics because they have no understanding of it nuances. They have spent the last 40 years shoe horning the US as the only country on earth with agency and it's all negative. The US under any admin their mind is the primary evil in the world, so why bother thinking about who is in the White House. "They are all the same."
P.S. Yes. There was a fascist movement in Chile that seeped into the mainstream some months before the coup and then flourished under Pinochet. i agreement with u about the US. This is going to be at minimum a Presidntial dctatorship bolstered by the oligarchs and with a democratic facade. Thats the best case scenario. If it leads to scrubbing th constututon and the judiciary it's going to be American Fascism.
I make no comment on Wolff as I know of him but do not know his work. I think of him more as an academic then as anything else. As to Amy Goodman, I know so much u probably dont want to hear. I have no respect for her because I know her up close and personal and it's not a pretty picture. She single handedly destroyed the Pacifica Network 20 yrs ago -- now on the verge of bankruptcy. I think the easiest way to put it is that she promoted a Big Lie that some of us at Pacifica, and especially the leadership, were trying to sell out the network to "corporate interests." It was 100% fantasy. This because some smart people in the natll office wanted to professionalize the network by shedding dead shows, bad fundraising etc. The deadwood at KPFA said this was a political purge which was 100% false. They just didnt want their lips pried away from the mics even though they had clung to their dead shows for decades. Amy picked up the cause for her own ends and unbelievably she and Juan used their airtime to support a boycott of the network who was paying their salaries (and Amy was double dipping). The show was created by THE NETWORK not be her in 1995 and the agreement was reached that the show had to be renewed every year by 4 out of 5 of the stations. She originally has 3 or 4 co anchors for the show who she booted off. with no permission from anybody she moved the show back to NY from DC and started drawing two salaries, one from DN and the other from WBAI as news director. As the internal struggle intensified with a lawsuit against the volunteer governing board, she made up a BS story that she was threatened at BAI and she moved the show to an outside studio and the weak network mgmt did nothing about it as she continued to bad mouth the network on the air and support the boycott and the Big Lie behind it. Nobody on the Left had the balls to blow the whistle on her. After he allies began physically harrassing the board members, holding sit in their law office, leafleting their neighborhoods with leaflets accusing them of stealing a network etc, they resigned and there was a regime change from which the network has never recovered, Millions were spent to pay out lawsuits to settle cases of illegal firings of mgmt by the new leaders who were her buddies. within a month, she PRIVATIZED the show that never legally belonged to her and the new regime signed a multi year multi million dollar contract to carry her now private show. That has nothing to do with what you asked but it is useful background because I have no problem saying publicly that saint Amy actually operates in real life as a self serving gangster, she is not by my lights an "exemplary Marxist" I doubt she has any historic or profound knowledge of Marx. She is however an exemplary "american anti-imperialist leftist" and whatever the issue might be the root cause according to her and her ilk iis the United States or NATO. She is a breed of anti-american lefty of the sort that flowers as demagogues on youtube and Xitter. I doubt she has much interest in american politics other than to revert to a regresssive leftism full of dogma and cliches... like both parties are the same. Both parties support capiitalism but they are hardly the same. Im sorry to say and I dont want to offend you as a listener but she is much of an agit prop propagandist than a credible reporter. she might have been unique 25 years ago before the digital explosion but that is harsly the case now. There are dozens of much more sophisticated and serious outlets on the web and in podcasts. As happenstance has it, I have a large circle of friends my ago who are in fact quite serious Marxists and socialists and they universally despise her. They can se right through her grift, And grift it is. DN has non profit status and their tax documents are public online through Northstar, Last time I looked, she was bringing in $6m a year thanks to a whole lot of grants she does not disclose on the air. Everything I have said here I have said publicly many times including to her face. She has several so I dont know which one I was talking to. Let me put it this way, when KPFK was at its peak in 2000, it had 32 paid staffers, we could raise 100,000 in one day and we managed to cut the fund drives down to two ten day sessions per year. The average quarter hour listenership was around 7,000. Today, KPFK has NO building (it's being sold), rents a second rate office studio in glendale to which programmers send in tapes or phone recordings. They fundraise about 9-10 months out of the year (!!), it has 2 pid staff, no more direct mail, and cannot raise $100,000 in a month when we could do that in one good day. The listenership is down to about 600 on the average quarter hour. They lost their funding CPB for not doing the paperwork, and they are under audit from the state of California and most of whats on the air is screechy sludge and propaganda. As somebody who lived through this entire experience, I can tell you the root of this rot is directly traceable to Amy Goodman and her friends who used a Big Lie to win control of the network and let it rot. I think KPFK has 12 general managers in the last 15 years. And I just learned today that a new one was just installed. I know her and she means well and would prob agree with every word I wrote. But keeping that place afloat for even another year is like trying to bail out the Queen Mary with one tin cup. Her "marxism: is crude anti americanism and is a relic of 1968--- as if the world and the "socilaist bloc" has not changed an iota. You are welcome to call me anytime and I will give you the details that are too sordid to put in print.
That’s all very enlightening. I knew kpfk was in trouble but didn’t know any of the details. DN covers some world events that deserve attention and has been good on the war in Gaza but they are so dismissive of US politics as to be indifferent to the suffering that’s coming for so many. They were also welcoming of Jill Stein without asking her any questions about fascism which even Dems were mentioning. (Though now they seem to have forgotten the word.) It’s noteworthy that these strict Marxists and centrist Dems and media are all ignoring the coming misery.
Headed down for my night shift I. Tijuana at a shelter. It’s a shit show. A complete shit show. Buy every immigrant a subway and we’d all get a tax refund - la neta.
Just wait till Jan 20. You will remenber the good old days.
I have a question for you Marc and everyone. I listen regularly to Democracy Now and often to Marxist economist Richard Wolff. I value both of their shows and analysis. But they both seem indifferent to the dawning fascism in our country. Wolff gave a strict Marxist analysis of the election which dismissed any differences between dems and MAGA. Amy and Juan are just ignoring the issue. While I agree that both parties are defenders of capitalism and the U S empire, the fascism of MAGA and Trump will inflict pain and suffering on millions. And fascism is a real thing that we’ve dealt with less than a century ago in multiple countries. Why do you think these otherwise exemplary Marxists are so indifferent to the prospect of American fascism? Was there anything like this in Chile?
And Trump continues to tell us that he really will move towards fascism. Believe him.
PPS. I think Amy and Juan dont discuss natl politics because they have no understanding of it nuances. They have spent the last 40 years shoe horning the US as the only country on earth with agency and it's all negative. The US under any admin their mind is the primary evil in the world, so why bother thinking about who is in the White House. "They are all the same."
P.S. Yes. There was a fascist movement in Chile that seeped into the mainstream some months before the coup and then flourished under Pinochet. i agreement with u about the US. This is going to be at minimum a Presidntial dctatorship bolstered by the oligarchs and with a democratic facade. Thats the best case scenario. If it leads to scrubbing th constututon and the judiciary it's going to be American Fascism.
I make no comment on Wolff as I know of him but do not know his work. I think of him more as an academic then as anything else. As to Amy Goodman, I know so much u probably dont want to hear. I have no respect for her because I know her up close and personal and it's not a pretty picture. She single handedly destroyed the Pacifica Network 20 yrs ago -- now on the verge of bankruptcy. I think the easiest way to put it is that she promoted a Big Lie that some of us at Pacifica, and especially the leadership, were trying to sell out the network to "corporate interests." It was 100% fantasy. This because some smart people in the natll office wanted to professionalize the network by shedding dead shows, bad fundraising etc. The deadwood at KPFA said this was a political purge which was 100% false. They just didnt want their lips pried away from the mics even though they had clung to their dead shows for decades. Amy picked up the cause for her own ends and unbelievably she and Juan used their airtime to support a boycott of the network who was paying their salaries (and Amy was double dipping). The show was created by THE NETWORK not be her in 1995 and the agreement was reached that the show had to be renewed every year by 4 out of 5 of the stations. She originally has 3 or 4 co anchors for the show who she booted off. with no permission from anybody she moved the show back to NY from DC and started drawing two salaries, one from DN and the other from WBAI as news director. As the internal struggle intensified with a lawsuit against the volunteer governing board, she made up a BS story that she was threatened at BAI and she moved the show to an outside studio and the weak network mgmt did nothing about it as she continued to bad mouth the network on the air and support the boycott and the Big Lie behind it. Nobody on the Left had the balls to blow the whistle on her. After he allies began physically harrassing the board members, holding sit in their law office, leafleting their neighborhoods with leaflets accusing them of stealing a network etc, they resigned and there was a regime change from which the network has never recovered, Millions were spent to pay out lawsuits to settle cases of illegal firings of mgmt by the new leaders who were her buddies. within a month, she PRIVATIZED the show that never legally belonged to her and the new regime signed a multi year multi million dollar contract to carry her now private show. That has nothing to do with what you asked but it is useful background because I have no problem saying publicly that saint Amy actually operates in real life as a self serving gangster, she is not by my lights an "exemplary Marxist" I doubt she has any historic or profound knowledge of Marx. She is however an exemplary "american anti-imperialist leftist" and whatever the issue might be the root cause according to her and her ilk iis the United States or NATO. She is a breed of anti-american lefty of the sort that flowers as demagogues on youtube and Xitter. I doubt she has much interest in american politics other than to revert to a regresssive leftism full of dogma and cliches... like both parties are the same. Both parties support capiitalism but they are hardly the same. Im sorry to say and I dont want to offend you as a listener but she is much of an agit prop propagandist than a credible reporter. she might have been unique 25 years ago before the digital explosion but that is harsly the case now. There are dozens of much more sophisticated and serious outlets on the web and in podcasts. As happenstance has it, I have a large circle of friends my ago who are in fact quite serious Marxists and socialists and they universally despise her. They can se right through her grift, And grift it is. DN has non profit status and their tax documents are public online through Northstar, Last time I looked, she was bringing in $6m a year thanks to a whole lot of grants she does not disclose on the air. Everything I have said here I have said publicly many times including to her face. She has several so I dont know which one I was talking to. Let me put it this way, when KPFK was at its peak in 2000, it had 32 paid staffers, we could raise 100,000 in one day and we managed to cut the fund drives down to two ten day sessions per year. The average quarter hour listenership was around 7,000. Today, KPFK has NO building (it's being sold), rents a second rate office studio in glendale to which programmers send in tapes or phone recordings. They fundraise about 9-10 months out of the year (!!), it has 2 pid staff, no more direct mail, and cannot raise $100,000 in a month when we could do that in one good day. The listenership is down to about 600 on the average quarter hour. They lost their funding CPB for not doing the paperwork, and they are under audit from the state of California and most of whats on the air is screechy sludge and propaganda. As somebody who lived through this entire experience, I can tell you the root of this rot is directly traceable to Amy Goodman and her friends who used a Big Lie to win control of the network and let it rot. I think KPFK has 12 general managers in the last 15 years. And I just learned today that a new one was just installed. I know her and she means well and would prob agree with every word I wrote. But keeping that place afloat for even another year is like trying to bail out the Queen Mary with one tin cup. Her "marxism: is crude anti americanism and is a relic of 1968--- as if the world and the "socilaist bloc" has not changed an iota. You are welcome to call me anytime and I will give you the details that are too sordid to put in print.
That’s all very enlightening. I knew kpfk was in trouble but didn’t know any of the details. DN covers some world events that deserve attention and has been good on the war in Gaza but they are so dismissive of US politics as to be indifferent to the suffering that’s coming for so many. They were also welcoming of Jill Stein without asking her any questions about fascism which even Dems were mentioning. (Though now they seem to have forgotten the word.) It’s noteworthy that these strict Marxists and centrist Dems and media are all ignoring the coming misery.