Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Exile newsletter 12-19-2016


CATCH 22 and a Member Strike

Berkeley - The second Pacifica National Board meeting in three days went no better than the first with another three hours of invalidating elections on the agenda. The board took no action to change or correct their Tuesday action of decertifying the entire 2016 delegate election, despite a legal opinion informing them the certified election results are final. There has been no word from IED Brazon, National Election Supervisor Lynne Serpe or election vendor True Ballot if or when the board's requested "recount" would be performed.


Having decided the results of the elections,  60 newly elected delegates in all five signal areas, and any actions those new delegates take are "provisional" for an indefinite period of time, the board majority went on to finish the total disenfranchisement of NY station, WBAI, once the pride of the network for its fearless reporting and countercultural dominance. After throwing out WBAI's election of national representatives that occurred on December 7th, the board majority then threw out the WBAI election of national representatives that occurred on December 14th, invalidating a total of 13 elections in 3 days. You can hear an 11-minute summary reel of the meeting here. 

Invalidating the WBAI director elections allowed the board majority to prevent anyone from New York who is not in their own faction from voting for the two 2017 PNB-elected affiliate directors. The two affiliate directors will be the tie-breaking votes on the 2017 PNB after the independents won resounding election victories in Los Angeles, Houston and New York. Affiliate director candidates include the incumbents Efia Nwangaza and Themba Tshibanda, famed lawyer and professor Bob Fitrakis, DJ, teacher and equity consultant Jose Gutierrez and former PNB director David Beaton. Neither Beaton, Gutierrez nor Fitrakis is expected to have sufficient votes to defeat either of the incumbents unless the WBAI independent directors are seated in the national board's 3 vacant seats and allowed to vote.

In this brief clip from Thursday's PNB meeting, former IED Wilkinson can be heard in the first 30 seconds of the meeting sneering "yeah right" after KPFK listener rep Jan Goodman noted the WBAI directors had been elected on Wednesday night and should be added to the conference call. A colleague of Wilkinson's in the west coast wing of the Siegel/Brazon faction (Save KPFA) tried to say Wilkinson's vote to invalidate NY's second director's election was caused by a misunderstanding, but the snort indicates that is probably not the case. In case you are not following all of this closely, the invalidation of the WBAI directors election on the 15th was the second time the PNB refused to seat the delegate's choices in 3 vacant WBAI seats on the national board. On December 13th, they threw out NY's election results from December 7th. After the local board re-gathered the following week on December 14th and elected the same people again to fill the seats, the board majority threw out the 2nd election the following day and refused to seat them once again.

While we don't want to spend a lot of time chasing mirages, this 8-minute clip lines up side by side the excuses for invalidating the December 7 WBAI directors election followed by the excuses for invalidating the December 14 WBAI directors election the following week. Basically, it's a Catch-22,  to quote Joseph Heller's famous novel about a vicious circle of contradictory rules. "You can't call a special meeting of the delegates, only a regular meeting of the LSB, but at the regular meeting of the LSB you have to notice in advance an election after we threw the 1st election out the night before -- even though you didn't know we were going to throw the first election out and therefore couldn't notice the second election in advance".  Or something like that. Listen for yourself. 

As usual in a Catch-22, those setting out the crazy quilt of impossible rules do not follow those rules themselves. This meeting announcement for the January 16, 2016 WPFW local meeting when current directors Nancy Sorden, Ron Pinchback, and Jim Brown (all of whom voted to invalidate WBAI's director elections) and board chair Tony Norman (who did not), were elected to their own national director positions, contains no advance notice

In an even more ridiculous touch,  the board majority maintained Siegel/Brazonite Cerene Roberts on the board as a member, even after throwing out her election twice. Roberts continues to serve on the board as the sole WBAI director. The last time she was elected by the WBAI delegates in a "PNB-recognized" election was 23 months ago. KPFT rep Bill Crosier made a point of order Thursday night that the invalidation of WBAI's directors election, if allowed to stand, meant that all 4 WBAI's director slots were now vacant, not just those of the 3 independent. He was overruled. Board chair Tony Norman said the PNB had "placed Roberts on the board by vote for the entire 2016-2017 term". Actually, they didn't. The PNB's motion to allow Roberts to be a "stay-over 2015 director" can be found here and it says:

"That until an election of 2016 WBAI Directors is completed by the properly seated WBAI Delegates (as per the PNB's motion of January 21, 2016) and a report of the election results are submitted to the PNB secretary, only WBAI listener-Director Cerene Roberts shall be considered seated on the Pacifica National Board of Directors.

Needless to say, a report of the election results has been submitted. Repeatedly.

Many Pacifica in Exile readers have written to this publication over the past two and a half years describing their anguish and difficulty deciding whether or not to continue financially supporting the organization despite deep distress at the actions of the Siegel/Brazon majority since their March 2014 coup. Pacifica In Exile has always advised donations continue, due to financial fragility and the potential ability of members to fix the mess by exercising democratic voting rights. But with the Siegel/Brazon board majority's actions this week to de-recognize and de-certify every election result contrary to their continued dominance, and the continuing and acute decline in the integrity of the network, we no longer feel unethical behavior can or should be enabled. In the age of Trump, the deliberate weakening of the biggest progressive media network in the country by botched audits, grant forfeiture, misuse of restricted funds, abrogation of member voting rights, premium theft, and copyright abuse should no longer be tolerated. We can't afford to have the only mass media infrastructure in the United States free of corporate or government ownership held hostage.

Therefore, we are asking Pacifica members to say enough is enough and that they will not participate in year-end giving or the upcoming January/February fund drive cycle unless and until the rot is cleaned out.  We are asking for the immediate resignation and permanent severing from Pacifica governance of every single national board member who did not vote affirmatively on the national board against decertifying the 2016 election results and the invalidation of the two WBAI directors elections in defiance of basic voting rights. You can sign on to the Get the Rot Out Strike here. 

At KPFA's local station board, the last of the 2017 local station boards had newly elected members seated "provisionally" per the PNB dictate. The meeting contents mostly focused on the local station board's desire to set up a new nonprofit and force Pacifica to give them KPFA's license, building, transmitter site, the national office building and the Pacifica Archives for pennies on the dollar. The local board says they intend to sue to dissolve the Pacifica Foundation if the assets are not voluntarily handed over. LSB chair Carole Travis relayed that preliminary contact had been made with actor Peter Coyote to headline the effort to forcibly extract the assets into Wilkinson's new nonprofit at a fraction of their value.

At KPFA, where the December fund drive ended $164,000 short of the opening goal, bizarre fund drive pitches filled with the air, with long-time host Phillip Maldari telling people to donate to the station due to the perfidy of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Maldari said on-air "they {CPB} owe us the money, they're just not sending it". For good measure, he added "The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has an obligation to public media in this country that they're not fulfilling". Pacifica stations have been disqualified from CPB funding after missing June deadlines for the submission of audited financial statements in 2014, 2015 and 2016. The network has not released a 2014 audit, has not started a 2015 audit and would have to complete both the 2015 and 2016 audits by June of 2017 to restore funding eligibility and legal compliance. KPFA, like other Pacifica stations, likes to say the information the station provides can be heard nowhere else. Maldari's statement can certainly be heard nowhere else, because it is not true. 

37 comments:

  1. I'm so glad that horrible racist and mind numbing imfomercial of a begathon is over.
    Now we could get back to the regular horrible daily racist and mind numbing regular programming .

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  2. I have to take an informal poll. Does anybody sit through "The Golden Age of Radio" on Sunday nights? I can't.

    KGT

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    1. In my case, it depends largely on what Max has on the menu-- some of it is good nostalgia, much is just old crap.

      Shepherd is usually worth catching..

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  3. Jean Shepherd and Bob & Ray are Old Time Radio Hee-Haw- Complete Gomer Pyle CORN. C'mon. I mean REAL OLD TIME RADIO. Although, I don't know whom I hate more, Bob & Ray or Larry Josephson.

    KGT

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    1. Bob & Ray, like Bob Hope, The Three Stooges and shows like Gomer Pyle and I Love Lucy never kept my interest. Chaplin, The Marx Brothers, The Goon Show (which we carried on WBAI), PDQ Bach and Spike Milligan were the kinds of shows/comedians I was drawn to and still can enjoy--intelligent humor. I should add my countryman, Børge Rosenbaum (known here as Victor Borge).

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    2. Victor Borge drove me nuts- although I didn't have far to go.

      KGT

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  4. I think the characterization of Shepherd is unduly harsh. Sure, he's variable, but CORN ? That's just silly. I still enjoy hearing the old shows, at least most of the time. Bob & Ray I'm not that familiar with.

    I will say that since the Bergman bio and other research I've done on Shep, I was disappointed to learn what a nasty, narcissistic guy he was personally, both to his fans in person and his family. But, Thomas Edison was once my hero too, and that cooled when I learned what a curmudgeon *he* was. Einstein too. All heroes have lead feet, as they say.

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  5. "Education at the Crossroads" is spending the entire show tonight talking about African-Americans and their yearly celebration of Kwanzaa. Meanwhile, continental Africans are singing songs about Santa Claus, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman. Am I missing something here?

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    1. You are just forgetting that these are confused hypocrites whom few genuine Africans could take seriously. Kwanzaa can be justified as an educational tool, which is what its inventor had in mind 50 years ago. The dumb racists at WBAI will laud the values of this ritual, then turn around and spew their daily dose of bigotry and hatred.

      They seem to be playing a lot of Christmas music this year—you are right to point out the inherent fraud.

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  6. The show should be called , small minded blacks with the heads up their asses at the crossroads.
    Next show up , the 9pm mumia update hour.

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  7. Apropos that con artist, if you have noticed the increasing Mumia pop-up on Haskins' deplorable morning disaster, you should know that he gets help from fake news dispatcher Sally O'Brien.

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  8. Finally got around to reading the subject of this thread, and it's mostly the same old stuff. One thing i notice, however, is the blame the CPB thing that is going around. That's pretty pathetic, like a child who didn't turn in his homework blaming the teacher for failing him.

    Also, who cares about Peter Coyote. What's he going to do? Act like a mafia enforcer and smack people around? Why don't these clowns just do a real pissing contest. it would be more entertaining.

    SDL

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    1. Bates (and others in WBAI's fake news gang) like to claim that the station is the only real source of free speech and they insist that remnants must buy their crap if for no other reason. The station, they say is not even getting CPB funding, as it used to, because the powers that be are punishing Pacifica for telling the truth. This, f course, is all a lie, but they cant very well tell them that the board bozo blew it by not meeting the CPB's requirement. If noses really grew and lightning struck, 388 Atlantic Avenue would surely be strewn with charred nasal appendages.

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    2. What's so amusing is how they are all the corruption they claim to hate.

      SDL

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    3. Exactly.

      Did you listen to any of the Fass grunt show this morning? It's a terrible, boring mess. He has apparently just returned from another hospital stay and they have moved his "studio" downstairs. He had a phone conversation with Wavy Gravy, who did most of the talking, ditto a lady who was the second caller. She brought up Dylan—he didn't know that the Nobel ceremony had already taken place. Now he is again stumbling through the call letters.

      Dead air is more exciting. He really needs to stop, but I guess his enlarged ego won't let him.

      He just took a third call—it's from that bo-o-o-oring guy with the hydro-generated station.

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    4. Bits and pieces on the kitchen radio while I was cooking. Gravy and Krassner always do most of the talking to make up for Bob's slacking.

      Bob's show is just as bad as it comes. People like Haskins, Kane, etc. are terrible, too, but they keep their shit moving on. Bob is like being stuck in one moment in 1969. It's not really a radio show but more like one of those real life cams on the internet that people set up in a room to show their real lives in said room. Bob isn't communicating to any listening audience, as he doesn't really have on, but having private conversations with boring people and listening to music. It's basically Bob's Friday morning midnight to 3:00AM life being broadcast live. I'd rather watch a camgirl play with herself.

      And, as I type this, here's Mr Excitement, Fred...

      SDL

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    5. Mr. Fred had to call, because that woman criticized him and Bob didn't exactly jump to his defense. If Fred really means what he says when he idolizes Bob, he must be hearing impaired. He appears to enjoy his every grunt and thinks Bob is doing great, "it's like the old days." he said this morning.

      Bob never really was a communicator, not even in the show's best days. Yes, he was better than he has been in many years since, but his guests carried the show. Do you ever hear Bob thank them? No, he just exploits them and they don't even find him worth a phone call. That says a lot.

      I agree that the show is an out-of-focus, dim lit selfie.

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  9. Let me change the subject. Has anybody been following the series of Leah Remini about Scientology and the HBO special "Going Clear. I never heard of them before and I am 64 except that is walked into Barnes and Noble in Flushing and found the psychology section covered with Dianetics about 30 years ago, picked one up, thumbed through it and put it down and forgot about it. What's scarier? Swallowing Jim Jones Kool-Aid or Joining the Sea Org?

    KGT

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    1. Both have been known to be fatal. I saw "Going Clear" quite some time ago and one has to wonder how these thugs get away with it—blackmailing the IRS into making the scheme tax-exempt is almost as mind boggling as placing the village idiot at the helm of our country.

      Several years ago, I was able to rescue a scientology victim who was quite confused, having also been a victim of U.S. interference in Vietnam. Hubbard was a scam artist, but I think the guy who took over his nonsense is worse.

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    2. Can't argue with but one of your points—Scientology may not have murdered any of their victims, directly, but association with that cult has led to early departure.

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    3. How so? Suicides?

      SDL

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    4. Yes, but I recall hearing of other deaths attributed to these thugs. I'll bring them forth if I can find them, or, perhaps, someone else can enlighten us.

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    5. I forgot that not providing medical help has caused deaths, however, I think that is common among cults.

      Scientology in a nutshell - psychology, UFOs and a free mason style hierarchy.

      At least the Catholics give you a little cookie snack during mass...

      SDL

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    6. Mother Hubbard's joke got way out of hand.

      I tasted one of those holy wafers... ever eaten cardboard? They need to change brand--they can afford it.

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    7. What makes Scientology more illogical that a religion that says that a God (a force that controls everything that you can't see) impregnated a married woman with her husband's blessing and when her baby dies, he rose up to heaven. Is that crazier that a being from another planet going into a volcano and then going into people for a thousand generations? For both of them you have to suspend reality.

      KGT

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    8. None of these religious scenarios have anything to do with reality, except that they were invented by real people for the consumption of gullible people. A lot like the WBAI scams, Bernie Madoff, Trump and his brood, etc.

      Barnum said there's a sucker born every minute--I think his estimate was optimistic.

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    9. No, my days as a Catholic lasted about a year when I was 7-8 years old. Then I realized what a load of shit it was and discovered Odin and the Vikings, who were much more colorful. I never made it to the symbolic cannibal snack time. I have heard the little wafers are rather plain and would fail as a commercial product.

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    10. My days as a Jew lasted until I was 14 and I had my Bar Mitzvah and adios.
      That was 50 years ago, I am proud to say.

      KGT

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    11. My 85 years as a non-believer was slightly interrupted by a month as a Catholic, but it didn't take—if anything, it strengthened my belief in organized religion as harmful humbug.

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  10. Mario Murillo gave a presentation recently to a local Latino group where he said that Berthold Reimers has two set of financial books - one for the public and a private set of books.

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  11. A peso doble of sorts?—Many have suspected that. Reimers' figures are hardly ever the same as others'.

    Murillo is a snake in the grass—why did he feel a need to lift one of Reimers' many veils?

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    1. Makes sense to call him a snake - he has always been called "Spineless Mario" for a reason - he is venomous.

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  12. I saw an episode on InvD that occurred in Buffalo in 2003 where Elli Perkins was killed by her schizophrenic son Jeremy who was denied psychiatric treatment by the
    Scientologists. That's another way they kill each other. Now he's locked up in a psychiatric prison and finally getting the medication that is making him closer to sane (maybe not quite sane-I don't want them to let him out like Hinckley) but too late for mama.

    KGT

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  13. Merry bleeping Christmas you bleeping heathens. Have a cool yule and a mellow new year.

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    1. Ruling out a mello anything under The rump, I thank you and wish you the best of everything in and beyond 2017.

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  14. Merry merry and all that hypocritical crap. I hope a load of people get sick from undercooked meat.

    By the way, if WBAI doesn't go under in the next six days, you'll all be proven wrong, and I'll be proven right, again. I keep telling you that they will somehow roll along, until the powers in California dump them.

    SDL

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    1. The very same to you, SDL.

      Guess you were right, although the station is that small jewel under the trash heap and I see a fat lady, wrapped in a final curtain, approaching at the wheel of a dump truck. She appears to be ready to sing.

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