. . . not the same, but close: the point is manipulating the domain of meaning to suit one’s political aim – and you won’t believe how eager they all were (bar Eleanor Forman & Vanessa Dixon-Briggs) to get this all done, & as quickly as possible. A veritable motion-lust, a hysteria, a frenzy – they’d be great at perpetrating a pogrom . . .

[UPDATE: as of 1200 ET, Sa6May2023, the audio recording has still not been posted at https://kpftx.org/archive.php – even though the audiofile of a later meeting is there, the next evening’s PNB. But do not despair: a PacificaWatch minion has made sure that the good work of the good people of ‘The Interim’ won’t disappear from the historical record: https://mega.nz/file/kFMmHTqD#7RdFHXr9UlaUJGZGNjjWwIiP5a0oR6YjpMHJAnUYAzs (1h15, 105MB).] [It was posted later that day – https://kpftx.org/archive.php. (Beware: that webpage’s ‘Filter Committees’ has two entries denoted ‘Elections’, with one empty; this error is not repeated.)]

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• Update

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PNB Chair Julie Hewitt: “one of the things I wan’ed to um, urgh, suggest that we do is, um, have Stephanie, urgh – ‘hurrgh – appoint herself the interim National Elections Supervisor […] so that we’re, you know, looking, urgh, for all intents and purposes to the world like we really are having elections this year […] to do something that looked like taking an action” (7:03)

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, Pacifica’s brightest & best first & second tier decision-makers sprung on us their latest take on picking words to depict the world as the world they want, on using words to sculpt the image of the world that suits them. In this, they apply a simple operational principle: if words are in the way, & they can’t be moved, then just add some, so the meaning changes, giving the green light to whatever they want to do.

Rules don’t count: rules are for losers. Decisions trump rules – always. It’s all about decisions. Decisions made by fearless, brave decision-makers, upstanding Pacificans, those prepared to step up to the plate, to take the hard decisions. What the likes of Susan Young (KPFT listener-delegate & breaker) call ‘rolling y’r sleeves up, y’all, & getting done the business of the Committee!’ – embellished with as much vacuous bluster as can be mustered.

Living in the world of words – and so not living in the world regulated by rule-bounded behaviour, where rules aren’t reducible to words, if only because there’s the inconvenience of the extra-linguistic force that is the state: structured as courts, where aggrieved peeps seek remedies, & judges issue decisions that are not just rule-bounded but backed up by bailiffs, marshals, & police.

Oh.

What happened at the W3May2023 PNB Elections Cttee was an exercise in full-spectrum domination: a motion-incoming from a Cttee member, obviously not forewarned by being circulated in something as transparent, standard, & courteous as a draft agenda; the PNB Chair just happening to be passing down the corridor & dropping in; the ED just opening the wrong door & wandering into the meeting; the set-up completed by the presence of enough mechanical hands in on the plot in order to get it all passed. Pacifica democracy in action. Pacifica stitch-up in all its splendour. Some of their ancestors were surely in the Place de la Concorde, working on their embroidery, whilst the heads fell into the baskets.

~

So if the relevant by-law says the National Elections Supervisor has to be appointed by the Executive Director – a seemingly obdurate stricture – then just create a new post, one not covered by the by-law – in fact, preferably not covered by any by-law – then call it something like ‘the Interim National Elections Supervisor’, before letting the ED not just appoint the iNES but let them appoint themselves as the shiny new functionary. PacificaWorld’s very own self-coronation. What could be simpler? Who could possibly object? What could possibly go wrong?

~

Plain sailing, one would think. But there’s always one, isn’t there. Some la-di-da, who thinks they’re better than the rest. Someone spouting specialist knowledge, even confident enough to quote something or other, plus using language & concepts no-one else uses, things like ‘rules’ & ‘can’t’ – someone all too ready to spoil the party.

And sure enough, up pops Eleanor Forman (WBAI listener-delegate), coming up with some quote or other from something called a by-law, moreover a Pacifica by-law, a set of words, apparently arranged in some set order, that can’t be changed, with some set meaning, all seeming to put a halt to proceedings (14:43):

“[t]o be eligible for appointment to the position of the national elections supervisor, said person shall not be an employee of the Foundation […]”

By-law Article 4, Section 4 – https://pacifica.org/indexed_bylaws/art4sec4.html

A halt? No. That would be taking things literally, letting the ordinary meaning of words do their work, ‘unaided’ by outside help. An approach giving in to the absurd idea that somehow evidence could be the ultimate arbiter, that evidence in a context of reasoned argument could possibly be compelling & the end of the matter. No. No, no. That simply wouldn’t do. That would simply be the height of naivety. That’s not how PacificaWorld works.

So, as quick as a flash, Susan Young rose to the challenge, putting bang to rights, telling it like it is:

“She would not be the NES: she would be the interim.”

Susan Young (KPFT listener-delegate & Chair of the Local Station Board), 15:13, W3May2023 PNB Elections Cttee – https://mega.nz/file/kFMmHTqD#7RdFHXr9UlaUJGZGNjjWwIiP5a0oR6YjpMHJAnUYAzs

Just make up a post. Problem solved.

. . . after all, who could ever think that content could trump form – in discussion, in jurisprudence? who cares about rationality, evidence, substance? even about what’s right? . . . No, it’s all about winning, the triumph of the will . . .

By now the coterie were egging each other on with alacrity, & with hardly time to take a breath, Chair Aki somehow managed to get out a ‘with no objection, that’s agreed then’, causing Eleanor’s arms to furiously flap about, struggling to lever her head above the sea of bodies, crying out, “I object!”, & before Director Allen, a Pacifica operator for nigh on 225yrs, could retort ‘it’s OK, Eleanor, your objection will be noted in the minutes’, Aki restored a semblance of order with a swift ‘OK, we’ll have a vote: Susan, take the roll’, before flopping back into his chair, composing himself, & reaching for another tablet.

The assembled calmed down somewhat; the democratic process yielded the right result; & a collective sigh settled upon the great-grandparents.

The resolution passed with one objection & one abstention:

“Motion to recommend that ED initiate preliminary tasks that would be undertaken by the National Election [sic] Supervisor until the National Election [sic] Supervisor can be engaged so the rest of the steps may proceed.”

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. . . the lesson: so long as there’s a will, there’s a way . . .

. . . with the exercise of imagination, of focused creativity, any problem can be solved . . .

https://pacifica.org/indexed_bylaws/art6sec4.html, https://transition.fcc.gov/Reports/1934new.pdf (page 216), & https://www.cpb.org/sites/default/files/radio_community_service_grant_-csg-_general_provisions_and_eligibility_criteria_fy_2023.pdf (pages 4-5; quote at page 4, emphases removed)

~

The danger! The danger! (as Kurtz didn’t say)

But PacificaWorld isn’t a world unto itself: it’s a bubble – punctured all too often by RealWorld: by the social law of money, by the organs of the state.

And this election situation is saturated with danger:

the fact that the inner circle has decided to use the language of ‘Steph the interim NES’ means they feel themselves trapped in a gully & fleeing a rolling boulder, that they expect an escalation: Steph won’t just be ‘perfecting’ the lists but start to do NES work. Why the desperate move? Simple: the KPFK/PRA sale fell thru in the first week of April; stopping the cash coming thru for a NES & the other election expenses (plus the upfront ~$40k demanded by the FY2022 auditors); & if that wasn’t enough, the judge in the Ziri Rideaux et al. case has required that the delegates election is showered with lotus blossoms & jasmin by the end of the year, 31Dec. So it’s expected that Steph’s work won’t stop at the lists.

And it gets worse. The judge also “enjoined” the defendant directors to adhere to the by-laws. So no assigning of NES work – even “preliminary tasks” – to anyone else, especially to a Pacifica employee.

They’ve allowed themselves to be put into a bind. And feeling the squeeze, they’ve now decided to defy the judge.

In any case, ED-as-NES aside, catastrophe looms: the prospect – and so the fear – is that if a professional elections supervisor is hired, then if they find an irredeemable mess, corrupted to the gills, they will have no option, as per Oct2018 (see below), but to terminate the 2023 election: meaning, an objective outsider will be making a public report that Pacifica is so maladministered that it has proven incapable of carrying out the demand of the court. Is there a greater demonstration of delinquency?

Oh.

By choosing a structure that ties up ~$2.5m a year keeping KPFA personnel costs as ~25% of Pacifica’s total expenses (FY2022: 24.1%), & so choosing not to use a network development plan to help overcome individual station resource barriers & to maximise total station marginal gain . . . by choosing not to have a Chief Financial Officer, by choosing to not even have a CPA under contract, by choosing not to have an internal audit team, & so choosing an absence of financial control, & choosing not to know what’s happening in real-time . . . by choosing not to make the ED their instrument, by choosing to let the station managers (& their underlings) boss the ED, & so choosing to let the station fiefdoms run riot – by choosing all this, the directors sleepwalkers have also put themselves into a bind re the election.

And having started to dig, they can’t stop digging.

Is there a greater demonstration of delinquency? Well, ask the California Attorney General: their Registry of Charitable Trusts is currently making the public declaration that Pacifica Foundation, Inc. is delinquent, & has been since c. Aug2022 – when ED Wells tried to file Pacifica’s 2021 annual registration (dated 13Aug2022, stamped received 19Aug) using the old form (Rev. 09/2017, not Rev. 02/2021) so paying the old fee ($225, not $400) – see “Form RRF-1 2021 Rejected”, https://rct.doj.ca.gov/Verification/Web/Search.aspx?facility=Y; & https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/media/rrf1_form.pdf. (And other delicts?)

Oh. Meaning?

Since c. Aug2022, Pacifica has been stopped by law from operating – stopped from disbursing funds, stopped from soliciting funds.

And it’s not as if it hasn’t been warned:

webpage of Rob Bonta, Attorney General: “[a] charitable organization that is not in good standing with the Registry of Charitable Trusts may not operate or solicit donations in California. (Cal. Code of Regs., tit. 11, § 999.9.4.)” …

webinar by Tania Ibanez, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Charitable Trusts Section (who looks like she graduated straight from Central Casting onto the set of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation): “[a] charitable organization cannot legally operate if it is not in good standing with the Registry. The organization’s registration must be current to operate; delinquent or suspended organizations may not solicit or disburse charitable funds. (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 11, § 999.9.4.)” …

the law, § 999.9.4: “A person or entity subject to the registration requirements of Government Code section 12580 et seq. [as is Pacifica], must be registered and in good standing with the Registry of Charitable Trusts to operate or solicit for charitable purposes. A registration that is delinquent, suspended or revoked is not in good standing and is prohibited from engaging in conduct for which registration is required including, but not limited to[,] solicitation for charitable purposes.”

https://oal.ca.gov/publications/ccr/ (“Properly adopted regulations that have been filed with the Secretary of State have the force of law”; Office of Administrative Law, Government Operations Agency), & California Code of Regulations, Title 11, Division 1, Chapter 15, § 999.9.4, page 9 of the PDF, emphases added, https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/charities/pdf/admin_review_regs.pdf & https://govt.westlaw.com/calregs/Document/I195AC2E35A1E11EC8227000D3A7C4BC3?viewType=FullText&originationContext=documenttoc&transitionType=CategoryPageItem&contextData=(sc.Default); re the CA Government Code, https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=GOV&division=3.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=6.&article=7

By law, Pacifica is currently forbidden to operate. So, by law, Pacifica is currently forbidden to disburse funds. So, by law, Pacifica is currently forbidden to solicit for funds. And all for the sake of not paying $175?

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The moral collapse, the moral capitulation of ED Stephanie Wells

Drawn into the directors’ sticky web is ED Steph ‘The Breeze’ . . . and her willingness to not just go along with this ruse but to spearhead it. This marks her moral collapse. This marks her moral capitulation. She has finally caved in to the depravity stalking PacificaWorld.

Want me to pose as the Chief Financial Officer, violating by-law Art. 9, Sec. 1, when I don’t even have a bookkeeping qualification, let alone being a certified public accountant, no prob – just keep paying me.

Want me to be the National Elections Supervisor, violating by-law Art. 4, Sec. 4(A), no prob – just keep paying me.

Want me to keep saying “y-eee-ssssssss”, firmly & confidently (thru gritted teeth, when I know differently), no prob – just keep paying me.

. . . even so, she’s probably already been sending off job applications for weeks . . .

Oh.

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Same olde, same olde from the directors sleepwalkers – and the lesson of the terminated 2018 delegates election

Less surprising is this episode mundanely marking a new low for the director sleepwalker stratum, including the blob at the top, the so-called leader, the Chair of the Board. Myopia incarnate: the gift of self-injurious behaviour that just keeps on giving.

This, when the by-law passages re the delegates election process are unambiguous: the NES, & crucially their work, is insulated from both management & governance.

The NES is the sole elections decision-maker: the NES alone decides when the process starts, & under which conditions; the NES alone decides whether the process continues, & under which conditions; the NES alone decides whether the process has to be terminated.

The 2018 process was indeed terminated, by NES Graeme Drew. The subject line he gave to his 30Oct2018 letter to the directors (copied to ED Maxie Jackson) was “RE: Decision to Terminate 2018 Election”. He declared:

On Monday, October 29, 2018 I informed your Executive Director of my decision to terminate the 2018 election process. […]

[A] significant concern arose earlier during my review of previous Pacifica election reports provided to me, where it was clear that one of the major challenges would be the timely receipt of current elector lists (i.e. members eligible to vote) required to administer a proper election. The NES for the 2015 election described the lists as ‘atrocious’ in her final report. The accuracy and integrity of these lists are vital to ensuring a fair and proper election, and in the event of having to defend against future appeals and legal actions by appellants as can be the case with elections in general and has been the case on numerous occasions in the past with Pacifica elections. [page 1]

[…] the absence of an approved election budget (another concern)

[…] I am unable to reliably verify any of the applicants for candidacy due to the poor quality of elector lists. […]

In summary, despite best efforts on the part of all involved and an extension of the nomination period, the elector lists required to proceed with the election process remain incorrect and incomplete.

Given this, I am unable to verify eligible candidates and proceed with the election. [page 2]

CONCLUSION

I plan to announce the end of the 2018 election on Wednesday, October 31, 2018. [page 3]

ref ref

NES Graeme Drew letter to PNB (with copy sent to ED Maxie Jackson), 30Oct2018, all original emphases & underlining – https://mega.nz/file/QRsBmKDZ#08vJfqQcRaOyhwnCrP_po1Yd8TiW7Sl_umf5zU9Knt4

NES Drew couldn’t certify the eligibility of even one prospective candidate: that’s how bad the membership lists were, how materially inaccurate they were – in a word, how corrupted they were.

A principal means for the 2018 election, namely the capacity of the 10 membership lists to function as the 10 elector rolls, were so materially inaccurate, so corrupted, that it meant the election process had shown itself to be so corrupt that it had to be terminated. That’s what was required by the evidence of the object, the objective evidence.

Of course, Chair Alex Steinberg (WBAI listener-delegate) et al. ignored such nonsense. They immediately got Maxie, obviously under pain of keeping his job, to appoint a NES that would do the directors’ bidding. Fuck professional standards. Fuck the rules. Fuck ethics. This is politics. This is how The Family operates. This is Pacifica. This is The Pacifica Family. With our totem, The Great Lew. With our relic, The Mission Statement. If you don’t like it, go fuck yourself, just fuck off – and take your morality with you. PacificaWorld is obviously not for the likes of you . . .

. . . That’s how contemptuous they are of the members & listeners, who, in the absence of effective delegates that will stand up for them & defend them, can only look to their sentinel, the Pacifica constitution (the Articles of Incorporation & the by-laws), the reified objectification in language of the collective will of the members, Pacifica personified. And when betrayed within, that’s why members, usually with the utmost reluctance, go to an authority of TeamUSA, be it CA AG Rob Bonta, FCC, CPB, or the capitalist court – this being preferable to the alternatives: resignation, exit, or violence (cf. Hirschman’s ‘voice, loyalty, exit’).

[UPDATE: the swearing paragraph has to be dedicated, albeit retrospectively, to Fred Dodsworth (not only a KPFA staff-delegate but a Pacifica director, no less – besides being a breaker enforcer, drawing effortlessly upon his bullying, angry, & authoritarian disposition) – dedicated to Fred, given his performance at the M8May2023 PNB Strategic Planning Cttee (37:31 & 58:02) – https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/pnbstratcomm/230508/pnbstratcomm230508a.mp3. (Is he on meds? Or is he just vulgar? … And on-air, does he think he outswears Otis Maclay?) . . . That evening, his expletive-laden rants made Queen Liz III go all aquiver, before she took a turn, & fell into a faint; the latest report from Ojai Palace is that she is recovering in her chambers, in the suitable care of her attendants.]

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UPDATE

The presence of absence at the Th4May2023 PNB: surprisingly, none of this came up at the next day’s meeting. Why? Maybe the Pacifica General Legal Counsel, Arthur Schwartz, advised the controlling group of directors sleepwalkers that it would be for the best if the resolution of recommendation from the PNB Elections Cttee never made its way to the PNB – well at least not the next day. That it would be for the best if no-one even mentioned the episode when the Cttee Chair gave his report, & certainly that no-one asked about it in the ‘Q&A’. Mom. Word. (And there’s also the enjoining stipulation from the judge.)

One should bear in mind that this iNES palaver is perhaps redundant. That’s because those at Wednesday’s meeting spoke as if there wasn’t a clear distinction between the membership list & the elector roll: management prepares the membership lists, whereas the NES uses sampling & other methods to test their adequacy to function as elector rolls. Only the NES can certify a membership list as an elector roll, & allow it to be used in the election, in the first instance to certify who merits being a candidate. It may turn out that Steph is so busy getting the lists in order that she won’t get onto NES work.

I say ‘perhaps redundant’ coz the alliance between the Hewitt faction & New Day/other breakers, already on display in all its geniality at the KPFK LSB meets (antagonising Queen Liz III), may indeed push Steph into doing work that is that of the NES, work unfolding in a necessary sequence: (as ED, drafting an elections budget for approval by the directors sleepwalkers); appointing 5 Local Elections Supervisors, then managing them; declaring that the 10 lists can function as 10 rolls; administering the 10 nominations processes; certifying the 10 sets of candidates; administering the 10 election campaigns; (as ED, hiring a balloting company); then as NES, working with the balloting company . . . one could descend further. And of course, there’s also the work of administering the Fair Campaign Provisions (sic) – adjudicating on disputes & complaints, & enforcing her decisions (. . . she can’t even get her underlings to use an integral, centralised bookkeeping & accounting software system, so that’s going to go swimmingly). Mundane matters aside, how depraved is Steph willing to be? How low will she go? How desperate is she? (For the directors sleepwalkers, these questions obviously don’t arise.)

Also remember that the ED, as Maxie never failed to remind us, ‘serves at the pleasure of the Board’. By-law Art. 9, Sec. 7 happens to use different language, making plain how a servant is to treated: supervised & controlled: “[t]he Executive Director […] shall be selected, supervised and discharged by the Board”; “[s]ubject to the control of the Board, the Executive Director shall […]” – https://pacifica.org/indexed_bylaws/art9sec7.html.

So ED-as-NES can never be an independent NES: to the contrary, with ED-as-NES the NES becomes supervised & controlled by the director majority, doing as she’s told, doing their bidding, performing as their tool, & out of self-interest making sure she does nothing that would harm her annual job performance evaluation, not to speak of her pay cheque. ED-as-NES is intrinsically incapable of acting as an independent NES – even in doing ‘preliminary tasks’. And after all, to take this to its tongue/cheek limit, once the ED is the NES, interim or otherwise, the judge expects the directors to adhere to the by-laws – to ‘supervise & control the ED’.

The prospect – & so the fear of ED Wells & the directors sleepwalkers – is that a duly hired professional elections supervisor will find if not the membership lists then the election process as a whole so corrupted that they will have no option but to terminate the 2023 election.

And what a statement: an objective outsider will be making a public report that Pacifica is so maladministered, that it is so corrupted, that it is incapable of carrying out the demand of the court.

Oh.

~~~