. . . not Cornelis Cort, Heracles slaying the Hydra, his second labour, engraving, c. 1565 . . .

~

[Remember, the KPFA Local Station Board meets this Saturday, 19Dec, at 1100PT. “Each meeting shall include a public comment period of not less than thirty (30) minutes. No person shall be required, as a condition for attendance at any public meeting or to publicly comment, to register his/her name or to provide any other information” (Art. 7, Sec. 6C), https://pacifica.org/indexed_bylaws/art7sec6.html. Given the latest news out of Berkeley, I’m sure that the KPFA delegates will want to learn from a full & frank exchange of member & listener views, so one can expect at least an hour of public comment. To join the meeting: https://zoom.us/j/97261721597?pwd=eWdHbE81bVovVzlqV0kwd2lOVmFxQT09 (accessing in another way, just use meeting ID 9726172 & passcode 935186), per https://kpftx.org/pacalendar/showfile.php?id=6882&type=agenda.]

~

What a bunch of busy breakers! Whilst attention was on the New Day Pacifica group, this lot stayed focused, beavering away, stamping the PSN brand here, there, & everywhere, & even finding time to go to court – not once but twice! So what have they been up to, this last three months?

• Two websites created F18Sep2020: https://pacificasafetynet.org (also the destination when keying ‘pacificasafetynet.com’) – and no, there’s no ‘pacificasafetynet.net’. (Thx to a reader for this info.) The main site links show their colours: New Day Pacifica, & Save KPFA – https://pacificasafetynet.org/links/#other-resources
• a 501(c)(3) registered Tu29Sep2020: doc linked from Pacifica in Exile, please see below – will also be embedded on this webpage
• of course, a GoFundMe, created 5Oct2020: “Donald Goldmacher is organizing this fundraiser” – well, he is the chief financial officer, according to the Cali Secretary of State; “$60,000 goal”; as of Pacific breakfast, W16Dec, $1 350 had been raised from 8 donors, all within the last 24hrs bar the first donation, made 18 days ago, Sa28Nov; https://www.gofundme.com/f/pacifica-safety-net
• officers publicly disclosed M16Nov2020, to the Cali Secretary of State: Sherry Gendelman, Chief Executive Officer; Craig Alderson, Secretary; & Donny ‘do you think I care?’ Goldmacher, Chief Financial Officer – see Pacifica in Exile doc drop
• a YouTube channel, Pacifica Safety Net, created F20Nov2020: 13 subscribers as of Tu15Dec; no public content, but two vids (detailed below), that are ‘unlisted’, so they don’t come up in a YT search, but each has a URL so can be shared; notably, comments are turned off – these peeps aren’t into conversation, discussion: they’re steamrollers (think tankies), into dissemination, into top-down communication; https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1mgsTKWHgHkxO-yyK83RiQ/about [UPDATE . . . the two vids were made public at c. 1600PT W16Dec (changing the upload date to 16Dec, but leaving the views unchanged).]
• & a Facebook page created Sa21Nov2020: linked to the primary website; three posts (the Peter Coyote vid described below, a note by David Talbot, & admin referring to Talbot); one ‘like’ & one ‘follow’ for the page; no likes/comments/shares for the posts; https://www.facebook.com/pacificasafetynet/

(GoFundMe donors, in chronological order: 28Nov, Anonymous, $5; −22hrs, Anon., $100; −16hrs, Thomas Miller, $1 000; −15hrs, Ann Riley, $100; −15hrs, Anon., $20; −11hrs, Rolando Thorbourne, $25; −8hrs, Barbara Whipperman, $50; & −8hrs, Chris Stehlik, $50. In The Times of Corona, glad to see some have a hoped-for $60 001 to spare. If only they were putting their energies into fundraising for Pacifica – priorities, I guess, priorities on what to build, what to destroy: building the attack to destroy Pacifica.)

The YT channel has at least two unlisted vids, both embedded on the PSN website homepage:

• one titled ‘Peter Coyote’, he speaks to camera, not having learnt the script, as betrayed by his eyes; uploaded Su6Dec2020; 331 views (this out of praps 3k-5k pre-contacted potential supporters); https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PH_BRBmjFY (5:31)
• the other titled ‘Programming Heard on Pacifica Radio’: unreferenced medley of gross falsehoods (even lies) & gibberish, allegedly broadcast by Pacifica; uploaded Su6Dec2020; 28 views; the clips are from Guns & Butter, Alan Sabrosky, Michel Chossudovsky, & a combo of anti-vaxxing/anti-masking/crisis actors/alien visitors/quackery/snake-oil hawking; but remember, in the 1960s, WBAI had the KKK on, to interrogate their ideas; & the liberal conception of speech allows causing offence, even expressing hatred, but bars incitement to violence (all anathema to liberalism are cancel culture/dis-inviting/safe spaces/trigger warnings); a separate matter, of course, is whether Pacifica should give its valuable airtime to reactionary views; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8aYys_rhlo (6:47)

And part of building the PSN brand is thru action, thru what are now two court cases, according to the PSN site, brought to eat up money that Pacifica doesn’t have, to punish their enemies on the Pacifica National Board, & to discourage anyone from becoming a Pacifica director:

• Tu8Dec, the rejection by Judge James Chalfant, Los Angeles County Superior Court, of a petition (case # 20STCV46681) to put Pacifica into receivership & order a temporary restraining order; &
• a Th10Dec press release declaring, “[l]egal action [by persons unnamed] to stop the destruction of the Pacifica Radio Foundation was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. The complaint accuses members of Pacifica’s board of directors with misfeasance and malfeasance, negligence in their management of Pacifica, unlawful conduct and gross dereliction of their fiduciary duties and responsibilities, causing Pacifica the severe loss of multiple sources of income, the imminent loss of its assets and putting Pacifica in imminent danger of insolvency and complete collapse” (emphases added) – https://pacificasafetynet.org/litigation-filed-in-la-superior-court/. (So Th10Dec; but this is contradicted by another webpage, which gives M14Dec: “PSN’s launch today [Tu15Dec] follows the bombshell announcement on Monday that Pacifica network directors were being sued for malfeasance and mismanagement” – https://pacificasafetynet.org/campaign-launched-by-donor-to-save-pacifica-radio/. Bit of a pickle.)

What else is publicly available? Pacifica in Exile, the blog of Tracy Rosenberg, usefully posted other primary docs on Tu15Dec2020 – https://pacificainexile.org/archives/9901. (They’ll be embedded here.)

And filings with the Cali Registry of Charitable Trusts? Unfortunately their Registry Verification Search, & other resources, are currently down for maintenance – and, like a failed state, the webpage says “[w]e do not have an estimated date on which those services will be restored and available”, a notice that’s also undated (https://oag.ca.gov/charities). Amerikan Karnage. Yes, the future is the present – and we aren’t even talking climate emergency.

Nevertheless, RCT gives alternative routes. First, it says “[d]ownloadable Charity Registration Reports are updated monthly on the Registry Reports page”, but this drew a blank (just Pacifica churches – although that’s close) – https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/charities/reports/charities-may-operate.csv. Second, the Charity Annual Report Filings, as expected, give nothing for Pacifica Safety Net, but it lists Pacifica Education Foundation, & Pacificans Care (lines #20247 & #20259 respectively; ‘care’ popped up on the PSN website, closing the ‘about’ statement: “[t]hank you for caring and giving” – https://pacificasafetynet.org/about-psn/). However, the location detail for both charities is Pacifica, CA, so one wouldn’t expect them to have anything to do with breakers – https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/charities/reports/charity-annual-report-filings.csv. But when normal service is restored to the RCT site we’ll take a look.

~

A Pacifica safety net, a really awkward phrase, yes? Even more rubbish as the name for a group. Seriously. But it has a genealogy, rooted in KPFA separatist culture, going back just over four years ago, just after when Trump was elected. This will be detailed in a companion post, ‘The hydra grows another head: breakers resurrect a 2016 plan, the Pacifica Safety Net’.

https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/kpfa/161119/kpfa161119a.mp3 (two audiofiles, 3h35; as you know, at the end, just replace the ‘a’ with ‘b’) & https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/12/01/18794297.php

Quotes from the report, in order of appearance:

• “One notable difference was the Proposal #4: Proposal for LSB to Establish a 501(c)3 (see description below) for which the title had changed from ‘Proposal for bringing to Life The KPFA Foundation’ to ‘Proposal for Bringing to Life a 501(c)3 Foundation As An Available Safety Net To Catch The License And/or As A Way To Ensure KPFA’s Financial Stability’” (emphases added);
• “Set up a safety net 501(c)3 Foundation – lavender paper [document]. A safety net organization to receive the license to broad cast [sic] in the event of collapse, dissolution, or acceptance of the plan #3 (above) that makes KPFA an independent affiliate of Pacifica holding our own license and operating in exchange for assuming Pacific’s debt” (emphases added);
• “Proposal #4: Proposal for LSB to Establish a 501(c)3 [… new para …] Kobren summary: Per Travis, in the case that Pacifica is dissolved, this is a way to pass some of the assets to a nonprofit organization that has a similar mission, and this 501(c)3 would have an identical mission and ‘have something in place’ (a ‘safety net’)” (emphases added); &
• “Whipperman [Barbara, an early GoFundMe donor, $50, to PSN] suggested the 501(c)3 be named the Thompson/Hill Foundation”.

~

A final, crucial point.

PSN betray their origins:

[t]he Pacifica Safety Net (PSN), a California non-profit organization, formed by Pacifica radio listeners, volunteers, and donors officially launched a website and posted a five-minute videotaped statement by actor and author Peter Coyote

https://pacificasafetynet.org/campaign-launched-by-donor-to-save-pacifica-radio/ (emphases added)

Donors. In PSN’s own words, donors who aren’t “listeners”, donors who aren’t “volunteers”.

So who are they? Who bankrolled the court actions? Who are these people? What do they want?

Why no transparency?

Why the secrecy? What are they hiding from the Pacifica members, from the Pacifica staff, from the Pacifica listeners?

~

The GoFundMe tells it like it is, meekly & modestly:

[o]ur mission is durable because it was created to serve – out of a righteous spirit

[&]

[w]e are dedicated to raising money, outside of the purview of foundation [sic] management, to protect the local stations from the immediate dangers they face. We are raising money for a ‘safety net’ of funds to protect the stations in case of emergencies, whether they are legal, operational or otherwise

https://www.gofundme.com/f/pacifica-safety-net (emphases added)

Let’s not mince words: the stated ambition is to set up a parallel funding operation, one necessarily competing with Pacifica. In the meantime, fund litigation to bleed Pacifica dry.

Let battle commence.

~~~