Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Peace of cake...


Anyone catch the Haskins/Davis not-so-dynamic Duo this morning?

Yep, make that Davis, as in Berthold's babbling bird brain! She was on the air live with Haskins this morning, urging the listeners to "prevent fracking in New York City" and—in a contrite aside—to show "forgiveness of things that might have occurred." It was very moving, and Haskins could not contain himself as he enthusiastically declared that he was "energized and charged" by Kathy's words. When our Lady of the Double Helix Water suggested that the fate of the world might depend on "us behind the mic and you on the other side of the dial," Haskins found it so profound as to merit repeating—and so he echoed Kathy.

The product they were pushing is a 3-DVD documentary dealing with the Zionist rape of Palestine. They ask $150 for the DVDs, which will help WBAI bring about peace and understanding to the world. We know how important harmony is to the WBAI family, especially to the loving members who arm themselves for meetings, march around giving the Hitler salute, and—through no fault of their own—now cling to the Pacifica raft.

Now, a mere 150 sawbucks will allow you to extend a hand and pull these wonderful guardians of truth out of the stormy sea. Is it an offer you can refuse? Yes, and you can have your cake, too.

They don't as much as hint at this, but if you want to see this documentary, yet haven't a compelling interest in keeping the profound observations of Michael Haskins and in-depth political analyses of Kathy Davis on the air, click here. The link will take you to YouTube, where you can view it all without spending as much as a penny.

Yes, the WBAI Andrew Phillips tried to give a needed makeover is back, courtesy of the Reimers-Reese team!

Apropos Reese, she has promised a live status report at 6 PM tomorrow (Thursday). Will she sob? Have a tissue handy, just in case. 

16 comments:

  1. are you getting the station collect funds thru this blog? Or is your agenda to help disappear the station. if you''re dissatisfied with the station, don't listen.

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    1. Thanks for the advice. If you are dissatisfied with an administration, do you stop voting?

      I certainly wish no longevity for the sorry station that now passes for WBAI, but I did hope for the reappearance of the intelligent station that once was. I'm afraid it's now too late for that.

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    2. are you getting the station collect funds thru this blog? Or is your agenda to help disappear the station. if you''re dissatisfied with the station, don't listen.
      Uh, sentences begin with capital letters. Interrogative sentences should end with a question mark, and “are you getting the station collect funds thru this blog?” is missing “to”.
      This incoherent utterance perfectly reflects the stupidity and lack of education of the new WBAI audience.
      Ef you be dissatisfy wif my comment, don reed it.


      TPM

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  2. The notion that WBAI and Pacifica need any help to ‘disappear’ the station is simply absurd.

    Ever listen?

    ~ Indigo Pirate

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  3. If Louis Schweizer walked into WBAI today, he would likely cast out the "community" hacks and the propagandists out of its studios, the way Jesus dealt with the money changers at the temple. Having lived through the Russian revolution and having seen ITS community hacks and propagandists, not to mention its own revolutionary goons, he was anything, but a Marxist.
    I caught the early part of Haskins' morning broadcast, is he trying to sound like those commercial broadcasters? Are they seriously hoping to compete with those commercial FM radio music stations or is he auditioning for a new job?

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    1. Yes, Lou was no Marxist, but he would not have hesitated to come to the aid of one in need.

      I think your take on Haskins' performance this morning is on the money, as it were. His ebullience and optimism is rather strained, and he does seem to be preparing himself for a commercial venue. This is a chameleon—not a man with serious convictions.

      It will be interesting to hear what Summer Reese has to say tomorrow evening. I hope she doesn't cry!

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  4. Haskins sounds two-faced. I looked at the four members of the WBAI's Pacifica Board delegates. I noticed that it's only women. Actually it does seem to be representative of the LSB politics, but who are they. There is an Iranian peace activist I never heard of, or heard on the station; there is station employee named Cerene, who doesn't broadcast; there is an older woman, who hosts/used to host a show that I didn't listen to, and there is Summer Reese. Summer Reese seems to be of the Steve Brown faction; Cerene is Justice Unity, but what factions do the activist and the radio show host represent? And who is Summer Reese? Is she a wealthy philanthropist or a well off person doing volunteer work? Is she a media producer etc? What is the connection of the peace activist to the station? Are there other factions involved in the WBAI LSB? One interesting thing is that both you and Null both mentioned "peculiar arrangement with Amy Goodman", but did not get into details; do you have any idea of what that arrangement might be or how it evolved? Also some time ago there was Utrice Leid. She fired Amy Goodman, among others is a "Christmas Coup". Leid appeared to have been the hatchet person, but for whom? Was Amy Goodman fired because she was charging too much and/or because she was evolving her own for profit enterprise using WBAI/Pacifica resources, for which she wasn't paying? All this amazing and mysterious history! More fascinating than any WBAI conspiracy premium!

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  5. Cerene Roberts does not work at WBAI (perhaps she once did), but she apparently turned physical on a couple of occasions, so she is barred from entering WBAI's premises, and from posting to the LSB list. Mind you, she serves on that board, having been elected, but she has to post via other members. That's typical, isn't it?

    Summer Reese is not WBAI, based in Berkley, she is the interim Executive Director of Pacifica. I believe her background is a behind-the-scene one in the film industry. I am not familiar with the Iranian peace activist you mention, but Kathy Davis, the light-brained pusher of Double Helix water and homeless angels, was among the 19 laid off recently. I don't know if that disqualifies her from serving on the board—if so, perhaps it explains why she continues to do that Reader's-Digest-cum-Irwin-Corey show, Heart of Mind, once a week.

    The Amy Goodman situation is a long chapter unto itself. I don't know all the details (does anyone?), but there ought to be a book. Fact is that she is owed a lot of money by Pacifica, contractually speaking, and she is probably the most widely listened to and recognizable Pacifica person.

    I wish I had the time and in-depth knowledge to satisfy your curiosity—perhaps someone will chime in.

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  6. The list of Pacifica National Board members elected from the WBAI in New York: Carolyn Birden, Janet Coleman, Cerene Roberts, Manijeh Saba.

    If you look at Democracy Now!, it is the flagship show of the Radio Pacifica, according to Wikipedia, and from the syndication channels that this article lists, by far, the biggest network outside Internet TV, is Pacifica! I understand that they have operating expenses, but I bet that the overwhelming majority of its funding comes from Pacifica. I got a feeling that if Pacifica folds, so will Democracy Now! The way Pacifica let it grow and then started paying for its content is reminiscent of the post Soviet privatization, in which corruption was a given. This is very unlikely to happen in a corporate economy, where proprietary rights give the owning company the ammunition to litigate the upstart out of existence, but for some reason the left wing Pacifica was content to give away the store. If I was in charge, I would have hired the best and the brightest corporate lawyers to ensure that the most profitable programming stayed in the Pacifica foundation's hands.

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  7. It's been said that there is a very fine line between genius and insanity.

    When I listened to Kathy Davis and Michael G. Haskins yesterday morning, I realized that the line between vapidity and hollowness in even finer.

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  8. Many times during this "fundraiser" I have tuned in and hear Null, Blahsdale, or both. Today I heard (Before I tuned out) Kathy Davis interviewing some name dropping meditation fool. Well, maybe there is an audiance for this kind of nonsense but that audience does not include me! Null at least seems to take his airtime seriously and I guess there are a lot of people who will pay tho hear the "alternative medicine" nonsense, after all the ding bat churches are full every Sunday (and even other days) so it would appear that there are more then enough fools to fund anything and anybody. The unfortunate thing is that there are good show and good info on BAI but this is descredited by the loony stuff.

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    1. The meditation fool who drops a name a minute is George Quant. Yesterday, when he mentioned that someone had "captured the full vastness of her being," Kathy knew exactly what he was talking about, having had the same experience,

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  9. Listening to Kathy Davis comment on the history of Palestine/Israel made me think of what H.L. Mencken wrote about a lecture President Harding gave on Dante:

    https://www.ocps.net/lc/southwest/hbo/AC/Documents/AP%20Literature%20and%20the%20School%20mam.pdf (Go to the last paragraph of p.2)

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    1. Well - I did not hear the show of which you speak but "..a mass of confused and puerile nonsense.." is an apt characterization of much of what I do hear on BAI
      -

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  10. In her commentary on Thursday Reese, when provoked by a caller complaining about all the Null infomercials, said that the reason he is on the air so much, seemingly round the clock, is that he raises a lot of money. Well I guess one of the bible thumpers would raise a lot of money also. I guess this is what things have come down to now.

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  11. Tonight on NYC I heard a show that was criticizing one of the major networks for putting somebody who is an anti vaccination fanatic on the show "The View". I thought to myself that, sadly, such an individual would probably get her own show on BAI, let alone be interviewed by the likes of Brady or Davis.

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