. . . KPFA Local Station Board, roll-call . . .
. . . and delegate Elizabeth Milos has decided she’s going to speak . . .
~~~
. . . KPFA Local Station Board, roll-call . . .
. . . and delegate Elizabeth Milos has decided she’s going to speak . . .
~~~
~
A Song on the End of the World
On the day the world ends
A bee circles a clover,
A fisherman mends a glimmering net.
Happy porpoises jump in the sea,
By the rainspout young sparrows are playing
And the snake is gold-skinned as it should always be.
On the day the world ends
Women walk through the fields under their umbrellas,
A drunkard grows sleepy at the edge of a lawn,
Vegetable peddlers shout in the street
And a yellow-sailed boat comes nearer the island,
The voice of a violin lasts in the air
And leads into a starry night.
And those who expected lightning and thunder
Are disappointed.
And those who expected signs and archangels’ trumps
Do not believe it is happening now.
As long as the sun and the moon are above,
As long as the bumblebee visits a rose,
As long as rosy infants are born
No one believes it is happening now.
Only a white-haired old man, who would be a prophet
Yet is not a prophet, for he’s much too busy,
Repeats while he binds his tomatoes:
There will be no other end of the world,
There will be no other end of the world.
~
Czeslaw Milosz, A Song on the End of the World, Warsaw, 1944, translated by Anthony Milosz, in Czeslaw Milosz, New and Collected Poems 1931-2001, HarperCollins Publishers (New York), 2003, pages 56 & 776 – free download at https://libgen.is/search.php?req=milosz+collected&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def
~
[Pertinent is the successful 2022 news blackout, keeping secret even the concrete topics of any significant PNB decision (made in the famed ‘executive sessions’), the cherry on the top of the increasing number of open meetings either lacking a publicly available audio recording or even closed to the public thru the withholding of joining details when they aren’t streamed. Every lil bit helps. This exercise in opacity makes it even more likely that Milosz is right, that “There will be no other end of the world, / There will be no other end of the world.” – “And those who expected lightning and thunder / Are disappointed. / And those who expected signs and archangels’ trumps / Do not believe it is happening now.” Gotta luv it. Only goes to prove that when Pacifica decision-makers really put their mind to something, even without coordination, they can come up trumps. Now there’s a thought.]
~~~
. . . a living Thanatos . . .
For those lucky enough not to be acquainted with this living Thanatos, please appreciate their distinctive qualities, personality structure, & techniques from this astute analysis:
. . . ein Doppelgänger . . .
. . . in East Bay, there is no safe space . . .
~
And yes, Pacifica does happen to give her name as “Christina B Huggins” – https://kpftx.org/pacalendar/cal_show1.php?eventdate=20210515.
~~~
~
~
. . . Pacifica Safety Net, keeping it real with a subtle pastel palette . . . soothing inner calm . . . spreading warmth, friendliness, cooperation . . . tranquillity, togetherness . . . pacific . . .
~~~
. . . 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?
(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:
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:
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’.
The primary sources are the two audiofiles of the Sa19Nov2016 KPFA LSB – yes, them again – and a 29Nov report & analysis by Janet Kobren, then a Pacifica director, PNB secretary, & KPFA listener-delegate.
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:
~
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.
~~~