Friday, January 29, 2016

Thursday night's PNB spectacle.


There was a PNB phone-based meeting last night, one that defies description and surely earned the distinction of being the most chaotic, unproductive gathering of these bozos to date. This is the ultimate "thank you gift" the new and vandalized Pacifica has for its rapidly dwindling listenership.

Everybody should hear this, including the FCC, but especially anyone who contemplates giving Pacifica a donation. Be forewarned that it is long and lacking in substance, which is why I recommend that you start with the entrance of Mozart—yes, Amadeus! I need not explain further except to say that the great composer has patiently waited in the wings as the Pacifica overture built up to a climax. It all has to do with the ongoing war of the factions. There has just been a network-wide election and the JUCs of NYC (you know, the Cerenians, saw their plot to win the majority not go as rigged (I mean, planned). Last-minute skulduggery did not go so well, either—WBAI was declared unfit for this board and... well, cue Herr Mozart.

At the bottom, you will find the entire disaster in three parts, including the musical interlude. You will probably want to skip around, but you will miss some gems if you do.

Our friend, 'indigo pirate', listened from beginning to end—a true test of endurance that rendered him speechless. However, after the dust settled and the last phone was disconnected, he managed to get himself together and gather the following impression:

In ancient times two of the many unpleasant forms in which one might find one’s end were… 

The death of a thousand cuts – self evident, self explanatory, though details of course vary.

Punishment of the sack – the party is placed in a sack with an assortment of wild animals and unceremoniously dumped in the sea, preferably at night.

There is also, of course, the case of Jarndyce v Jarndyce, the thematic center of Dickens ‘Bleak House’ – a long-running and contentious legal battle which in time consumes the inheritance at the center of the dispute.

Now I came to find myself wondering which if these might be most applicable to Pacifica. All, all too clearly, fit quite nicely.

In the end, I found the punishment of the sack most fitting, with the observation that in this instance the parties concerned have placed themselves in the sack and, with their own fine company and an accompaniment of wild snarling clawing peck-peck-pecking wee little beasties have found themselves descending slowly in the cold cruel sea, in a night of their own making.

A fitting end, perhaps?


~ ‘indigo pirate

Here is the entire cast: Act 1, Act II, Act III

29 comments:

  1. (JustAListener)
    With Pacifica the entertaining drama can't be beat.
    WBAI and the other stations ought to devote some programming hours to this tragi-comedy, surely they'd get more attention and boosted ratings.

    I'm not a lawyer but the irony of the "great philanthropist" and Pacifica saviour Null suing because he didn't make money off the premiums is rich. (If he was for real he could make an agreement to have WBAI stop breaching copyright then donate to the station the proceeds owed to him).

    And I did get a laugh (from reading Cohen's letter) at the thought of a bar on the first floor of the Brooklyn HQ that WBAI staffers have the keys to. I recommend the bar operators have a room with a strong door to store the booze every night!
    (I do have to say it seems Cohen has a point. WBAI found a landlord willing to put up with their empty promises and bullsh*t, not a good idea to complain. Though maybe the signers just want to say that Reimers shouldn't be trusted to sign any document committing the station to a legal obligation.)

    I even got a chuckle this morning when I heard Wolff blame the homeless in Manhattan on "the market".
    He said "Five years ago you didn't see homeless on the streets like today"
    Uh, is that due to real estate speculators or could it be because Bloomberg and Giuliani had the cops round up or chase them away? Oh well, Wolff's show really does have a place on Pacifica where one can still hear pure left thinking.

    Haven't had time to listen to any of the posted PNB melee. Maybe after WBAI's demise someone like Peter Beauchamp will have time to do a "Pacifica Follies" best of show online.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Peter Beauchamp" -- What (who) are you talking about? You clearly know nothing about BAI.

      For the record, I *loved* hearing this insanity! Been away a long while now and am thrilled that the entertaining lunacy is still available.

      Delete
    2. How can anyone with a good pair of ears not love Mozart?

      Delete
    3. Felashi Ofan [runthemtogether@yahoo.com]Monday, February 01, 2016

      Indeed. 2 or 3 hours a day of Mozart is just fine with me. But then again, he's (was) a dead white european straight male... so probably not BAI's cup of tea, since the mid-80's, at least. (With the exception of Mr. Whent, who I hope is still with us/the station.)

      Anyways, the REAL "artful Albanian" (pace Great Leader Hoxha) is called Peter BOCHAN -- http://mixedup.com/

      Hearing that Carolyn Birden is still defending the fort is a bittersweet revelation. Strong, classy lady; miserable arena.

      "Haven't had time to listen to any of the posted PNB melee" -- That's what set me off. How the hell does one comment w/o doing a shred of research?

      And BTW, for anyone out there -- what the hell happened to the blue board/listener forums?? That had been a fairly open space. But it sems to have less traffic than this place, which is one person's blog.

      Anyways, peace to you all.

      FO

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    4. What happened to the infamous Blueboard is something called R. Paul Martin. He took it over when the founder (Frank?) passed away. Not long thereafter, Mr. Martin morphed into a despot and began banishing people who rubbed him the wrong way, as it were. I don't know how long that list is at this point, but Carolyn Birden and I are on it. In most cases, it takes but a mention of our name to get a post yanked.

      When he extinguished the spirit of old Pacifica, he unintentionally killed that snake pit. That said, Martin does serve a positive function, albeit by default, in that he has some inside info pertaining to Berthold Reimer's secret bookkeeping. Parting with that helps to feed his need for attention.

      I highly recommend that you at least spot-check the PNB melee and listen to the climactic Mozart finish.

      Delete
  2. I caught a piece of the wannabe DJ show with Mozart. I'll catch the entire cataclysm over the weekend.

    I've often said here and on RPM's BB that Pacifica are children playing political activists at an amusement park on someone else's dime. Has it ever been more clear?

    As for Wolff, he's one of those people I like to say has the right questions but the wrong answers. However, I'd rather listen to him and his actual knowledge of economics than the propagandists on CNBC or other financial channels.

    The homeless have been with us for decades. I never stopped seeing them around, even if they were chased from one place to another. As much as I hate humans and prefer carnivorous animals, in general, I always give a Dollar to any homeless person I walk by, like I did earlier today, in fact. I don't know why, but I feel more sympathy for them than some stupid ass who whines that they are poor because they can't afford the new version of the iPhone and still pay for HBO, their Starbucks coffees every day and all the other shit they buy to cover up how hollow they really are...

    SDL

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  3. What a complete and utter mess. I literally had my head in my hands because I couldn't believe what was happening. It says something when you can make Occupy meetings seems sober in comparison. I expected hijinks but I honestly didn't expect them to just shut the WBAI crew out like that. They did not include them on the roll call and proceeded to set an agenda over repeated objections which did not even include discussing seating WBAI members. Fortunately, they agreed to make it the first item of business. There was an attempt to seat the members or retain the old members if they could not resolve the issue. However, Adriana C (KPFT) got a motion passed saying the WBAI Delegates Assembly was invalid and that the LSB must meet to elect directors. Its amazing to me how these people can stomp all over the rules and then lecture everyone on being civil and uphold the bylaws. Of course, there can only be one clear logical response to all this blatant power grabbing. Cue Mozart and something sounding like a nature documentary and a tirade from our own Steve Brown. (Hey PNB chair if you're going to exclude people, you might want to make sure they can't join the call.) I can't just understand why they're going all out to gain control of this train wreck. Controlling the PNB is no prize when you've got lawsuits, no money and a big pile of debts.

    ReplyDelete
  4. is everybody ready for the blacker history month next month on bai ?
    Will anybody notice the difference ? I guess the 20 people still listening might.

    ReplyDelete
  5. gary byrd ... doing the racist review for the week now . His racist guest and him want everybody to
    tune out on the oscars .
    Should we be tuning out the superbowl and the nba? ]
    I think they are not diversified enough . almost 80 black for the nba
    close to that in the nfl. hmmm

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Have some respect. Call him by his rightful name: Bruva Imhotep

      KGT

      Delete
  6. Havana! Havana! Havana..! It's only the Pacifica national headquarters... Shhh...

    We're the Clowns of the Pacifica National Board,
    We fight whenever we're able,
    We do rude scenes like drama queens,
    With honestly incapable,
    We lie well here in PNB,
    We spew shit and dung and crap a lot,
    We're the Clowns of the Pacifica National Board,
    Our shows are most unlistenable,
    But many times we feed you lies,
    Demonstrating we're unstable,
    We're bat shit mad in Berkeley,
    We pitch junk you will never seeeeeee,
    We're in need of some meds we're crazy,
    Quite immoral and totally hazy,
    Between our fights we bitch our plight,
    And beg you to send us money,
    It's a crooked life at PNB,
    We have to pull our scams a loooooooooot

    ©SDL™ 2016

    ReplyDelete
  7. According to a post by R. Paul Martin on another site:
    "I am hearing that Gary Null is not seeking monetary damages, but is looking to get some people in charge at Pacifica fired. Meanwhile Pacifica is going to have to defend itself in court on this. There is a $250,000 deductible on the Pacifica insurance that covers lawsuits. It used to be a $125,000 deductible, but Pacifica got sued so much, and went over that deductible enough times, that the insurance company that will handle Pacifica at all raised it to a quarter of a million bucks. There isn't that much surplus money slopping around in Pacifica just waiting to be used for something at this time. "

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gary Null wants WBAI to be his. It already is de facto. He wants to own it de jure. I do not know the intricacies of the facts and I am not a business lawyer, but if I did and if I were, he will own outright WBAI when this is over. Rojas and White were correct in firing him and those shmegegies who brought him back will live to regret it when he shows no loyalty and fires them.

      KGT

      Delete
  8. I just noticed the elections page on pacifica.org was taken down. I won't hit the conspiracy button just yet but given all the questions about the election, that information should remain available (on pacifica.org and not some archive server with a weird URL) without having to dig through multiple searches. The data includes issues running the election which need to be addressed including the outdated election lists which affects all other aspects of running an election. For example, one person had 24 signatures and had half invalidated while others were accepted as candidates based only
    on the word of a LSB chair or GM.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interesting. I don't think there is any doubt about the election having been rigged. I don't know about the other nations, but Cerena and her JUC cohorts have been quite busy disrupting and manipulating the process at WBAI. As we hear on Friday night's PNB meeting audio, the corruption is network-wide.

      Delete
    2. It gets worse. Pacifica in Exile is reporting that there will be no Exec Director
      as of the first because Lydia Brazon's appointment expires 1/31 and was not extended. They're also saying that the Siegel/Brazon folks are resisting efforts at compromise and 'prefer to fight it out in court using listener donations to fund their defense.'

      Delete
    3. They are crooks, plain and simple.

      Delete
    4. Yup. They are childlike politico wannabes playing in an amusement park payed for by other people.

      SDL

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    5. I know that dummies like Haskins may be unaware of the game, but some of these people must know what they are doing to the station—surely, they can't all be that naïve. It's a matter of very warped priorities skewing their sense of right and wrong. I bet you that most of the "free Mumia" advocates couldn't tell you any details of the case, for example. They go with the flow and turn a deaf ear to anything that might redirect them.

      Delete
    6. Most of the scum at WBAI and Pacifica don't care, as long as they have their shows, and their shows are their lives, and nothing else matters.

      The Siegel/Brazon bunch are getting what they want - ways of eliminating Pacifica at an ever faster pace. Watch what will happen with the Null lawsuit. I bet they will make what look like stupid, costly mistakes, which won't actually be mistakes, but planned waste.

      I was the first to say on these forums that this bunch was out to bankrupt Pacifica, and I think I will be proven correct.

      SDL

      Delete
    7. Inclined to agree, but I still am not sure how that—if it succeeds—will turn out to their advantage. Remember, these crooks don't own Pacifica. They have effectively demonstrated that they are not capable of operating a broadcasting business, so would that not automatically give the FCC pause?

      The question then becomes, who gets the money, property, etc?—obviously, they think it will go to them, but if you think Null's got lawsuits.... :)

      I am no longer mourning the demise of Pacifica, for I think it has been as good as dead for many years.

      Delete
    8. I think they believe they will get things, especially the KPFA license, as if radio station licenses can simply be privately passed around. No, the FCC needs to approve things like that. I didn't say these idiots had any brains, did I? Maybe Null thinks the same way, too?

      Look at how all these morons behave. Do you think they really have any idea what they are doing? I can't stress enough that these are psychotics and sociopaths who have NO touch with reality. They are still the 15 year olds who thought they were going to start the grand revolution.

      Simply put, we are dealing with crazy people, and crazy people don't follow any rules of logic.

      SDL

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    9. Let's hope that crazy people—having self-certified—also don't get awarded FCC frequency licenses.

      Delete
  9. OMG, that recording is HILARIOUS. Howard Stern could do great things with it.

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  10. OK, I finished listening to all three acts of It's a Mad Mad Radio Network and await the fourth and final act.

    I know it won't happen, but these PNB meetings need to be required airing on Pacifica stations so people know what their money is going for, nd can have some good laughs. Of course, then they could hawk a Best of PNB Meetings mp3 flash drive and, probably, make some money off it.

    Democracy doesn't mean freedom but mob rules. This is a good example, as was Hitler's Deutschland.

    SDL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. GAVEL, GAVEL, GAVEL!!

      "Let this meeting come to disorder.

      Delegate Cerena, you may proceed to pull chairs...

      Meester chairperson, meester chairperson.....

      There will be no points of order, Adriana!

      Mr. Cohen, please remove yourself from Madam Wilkerson's lap...

      you too, Berthold.

      We will begin with a recoded invocation by Abu..."

      Delete
    2. And they shall be grand heroes of the revolution! That or unemployed.

      SDL

      Delete
  11. For 50 points, give a half true answer to the following: They behave like animals in the circus that haven't been fed all day?

    SDL

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  12. Joe Friendly recorded meetings of both factions. The first is the Delegates Assembly and
    the second is an informal meeting of JUC members. The JUC members plus Dacio Quintana first alternate and Lisa Davis bashed the Indy members for having the nerve not to show up to their 'legally constituted' meeting and considered the possibility of recalling members safe in the knowledge that Quintana was ready to step in to give them a majority.
    See how it works now. Bring in Lynne Stewart eligible or not, vault over the bylaws and elections to place Vajra and recall somebody to get to a majority while accusing the Indy slate of illegal behavior, not noticing meetings, and anything else they can think of that might stick. Joe Friendly even offered to mediate but he may as well have been speaking to the wall. Their only concern was what can they do on their own to get their way.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGAn7-QqirM

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U2hMA-eRhk

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