pretty pic

cap

[Not as long as you fear.

[UPDATE … regrettable delay: will be posted by Sa3June2023.

~

[A separate post will explain – again – why Tanaka & the other Berkeley hillbillies are spinning a dangerous yarn when endlessly repeating that the Articles of Incorporation require station self-sufficiency. This was put to rest at this blog back in Nov2021: self-sufficiency pertains to Pacifica as a whole – which is why the Article says “the facilities”, the Pacifica facilities, not anything to do with an individual station. But the evidence & the argument will have to be repeated because it’s obvious that this mantra is already being made a core message of the breakers’ delegates election campaign, be it held in 2023 or 2024.

[In Nov2021, in a post under the sub-heading ‘But don’t the Articles of Incorporation require station self-sufficiency?’, it was made plain that the statement of the existential basis of Pacifica’s incorporation used a carefully chosen formulation, effectively rejecting others that are considered below:

But don’t the Articles of Incorporation require station self-sufficiency?

A common belief, yes, but no, a mistaken belief. Article II identifies purposes, & sub-article (b) says, “the purposes of this corporation shall be: (a) […] (b) To establish and operate for educational purposes, in such manner that the facilities involved shall be as nearly self-sustaining as possible, one or more radio broadcasting stations licensed by the Federal Communications Commission […]” (emphases added; article as amended 19Aug1948 – https://pacifica.org/articles.htm). Making explicit what’s here, by separating the subordinate clause, we have “the purposes of this corporation shall be […] To establish and operate for educational purposes […] one or more radio broadcasting stations licensed by the Federal Communications Commission”, & “in such manner that the facilities involved shall be as nearly self-sustaining as possible”. The corporation’s facilities, the Pacifica facilities. The organisational unit stamped with ‘self-sustaining’ is Pacifica, not each station. So ‘self-sustaining’ is the attribute of facilities, not stations – and it seems obvious that it was said in this deliberate way to be consistent with the originary funding conception: Pacifica is an endeavour paid for collectively by the members & listeners – not outsiders, such as grantors & underwriters.

So not saying ‘in such manner that the stations involved shall be as nearly self-sustaining as possible’. So not saying ‘To establish and operate for educational purposes one or more as nearly self-sustaining as possible radio broadcasting stations’. So not saying ‘To establish and operate for educational purposes one or more radio broadcasting stations, each of which shall be as nearly self-sustaining as possible’. No: the “self-sustaining” pertains to “the facilities”, undifferentiated facilities, the facilities collectively, the Pacifica facilities – not the facilities of each individual station. That’s why the linguistic construction is what it is: the particular concerning “the facilities” is slotted in, splitting the sentence – so much so, it warrants being enclosed by a pair of dashes, not commas.

Section 3, ‘The “in balance” unargued mantra’, part of blogpost ‘Today KPFK is losing money at a rate of ~$3 500 a day, ~$105k a month, ~$1.26m a year, as per the docs. Why does no-one publicly recognise the scale, the urgency?’, 19Nov2021, original emphases – https://pacificaradiowatch.home.blog/2021/11/19/today-kpfk-is-losing-money-at-a-rate-of-3500-dollars-a-day-105k-a-month-1-point-26m-a-year-as-per-the-docs-publicly-why-does-no-one-recognise-the-scale-the-urgency-qm/

~~~

10 posts:

• The sleepwalkers order a financial news blackout: trying to hide their tracks, conceal their acts of omission – Th20Oct2022 PNB

• Contra Counsel Arthur’s advice, the directors illegally extend all delegates’ terms – even their own. The sense of entitlement, privilege, indispensability, superiority – even contra the heavy-duty “in no event” imperative of by-law 4/8. Shredding the by-laws – Pacifica, governed by decisions, not rules. Now in double jeopardy: out of control ‘governance’, plus flying blind post-NETA with no fiscal management – Th20Oct2022 PNB

• Why don’t we decide to sell the building used by KPFK/PRA, then come up with a reason for doing it? Maybe even publish a plan? But maybe we won’t – Th27Oct2022 PNB closed meeting

• After deciding to sell the building used by KPFK/PRA, they then decide to try to come up with a plan. Yup, always rational, always on top of things: “I know that some of us are beginning to take a shot at putting together a draft strategic plan” – Director Jim, Th3Nov2022 PNB

• Questions on the sale of the building used by KPFK/PRA – public comment, Su6Nov2022 KPFK LSB

• PNB Audit Cttee Chair Eileen Rosin, also WPFW Vice-Chair, ‘termed out’ 22June2022, but LSB Chair Williams says she’s staying! Letters to PNB, PNB Audit Cttee, WPFW LSB, auditors Rogers & Company, & their licensors, the Virginia Board of Accountancy & the California Board of Accountancy

[audio starts with ex-PNB Chair Alex reading his motion (the first few secs are missing) – https://mega.nz/file/ABM3CRLC#Ux_z59yfJVg7QeXSf5dDqKc53EbzznWY4EI01LSDMMs (1h15, 105MB)]

• Preparing to default on the payroll – be it F25Nov, F9Dec, F23Dec, F6Jan . . . A cut by a uniform x%, so a regressive policy, favouring the higher paid – Th17Nov2022 PNB closed meeting

[the audio was published in the Pacifica meetings archive, as two audiofiles, but then withdrawn; it seems this was done for a few possible reasons. #1: there’s mention of whether the breaker directors from the KPFK LSB voted in the Th27Oct2022 closed meeting to sell the building used by the station (56:37). These are Ali Lexa Al-Hilali & PacificaWorld’s retort to Austin Powers, ‘Mrs Evil’, Evelia Jones. The good lady had absented herself, but Ali Lexa vehemently denied the accusation against him, disclosing that he abstained (sic – well, that’s ok then). #2: [? – check] disclosed that the PNB has lost its secretary, Marianne ‘¡bueno!’ Edain, who was supposed to get paid – which is exactly how the PNB let it remain until, surprise, surprise, she found better things to do than staying up to see in Friday with friends like that (TimeStamp) – don’t you just luv that talk of ‘the Pacifica family’? The recording linked here misses out the prelims (the first few days, with all-nighters, when the agenda was decided), & starts with GM Novick’s report & questions – https://mega.nz/file/cdsyTbzK#XziI3eyEb8Vlv1dTwcQZQ7BtKbNF-sRTbj-3ExZpBvY (2h31, 210MB)]

[note, all this ‘von’ talk in people’s names is inegalitarian nonsense. A nobiliary particle, as they say in linguistics. In German it denotes ‘from’, the land owned by the family; it ranks somewhat lower than von und zu, Freiherr, Graf, Herzog, Fürst. These are markers of distinction – nod to Bourdieu, who examined “strategies of pretension” (Distinction, p. 253). We can do better than this, yes, especially in PacificaWorld? Indeed, in some countries, as part of their attempt to continue a capitalist cultural transition after World War One, such markers were even banned by law]

~~~

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

[The Pacifica info gatekeepers were tardy posting the Th10Nov PNB audio recording, likewise now with the 17Nov – https://kpftx.org/archive.php. So here’s a revealing portion of that meet. When g-d gives a minion strength, PacificaWatch will replace this placeholder with a proper post. UPDATE, Sa26Nov: even after eight days there’s nothing.

[UPDATE: on another topic, KPFA. Three regressive developments:

• the Chair of the KPFA Local Station Board has violated a Pacifica by-law by not calling a public meeting of that paragon of civility & cordiality, decency & bliss. It last met on Sa17Sep, & it’s now too late to have a November properly noticed public meeting. This violates the requirement that “[e]ach LSB shall meet as often as required to accomplish it [sic] duties, but not less than every other month” – https://pacifica.org/indexed_bylaws/art7sec6.html (stated in full);

• the LSB had met Sa29Oct, in a closed session, probably in the Ritual Chamber of the Berkeley Masonic lodge, but that was to go thru the motions so the breaker majority could garrote Ms Elizabeth Milos, a listener-delegate who just happens to be an anti-breaker – https://kpftx.org/pacalendar/cal_show1.php?eventdate=20221029. Her passing has not been acknowledged in the list of delegates, except by the presence of absence: https://kpftx.org/pnbmem/public_cm_list.php?id=25&yr=2022&eventdate=20220917 & https://kpfa.org/about/kpfa-local-station-board/, different lists, but Ms Milos & another listener-delegate, Ms Adisa Armand, were replaced by Ms Donna Carter & Mr Carlos Kohan. No doubt, pillars of the community, righteous too; &

• KPFA also doesn’t have a functioning CAB, the Community Advisory Board. According to the station website, the last time it met was over 3yrs ago, 23Nov2019 (sic) – https://kpfa.org/station-announcements/community-advisory-board/. The only notice of it meeting this year was for Sa16Apr, but this provided no joining details, & there’s no evidence that Berkeley had a happening – https://kpftx.org/archive.php. As the world knows, not having a CAB disqualifies a station’s application to join the CPB Radio Community Service Grant programme – and joining is the stage each Pacifica station is at, having last received money from that source more than 10yrs ago (sic), in Oct2012; grant totals are at https://pacifica.org/finance/audit_2013.pdf (pages 4 & 20; pages 6 & 23 of the PDF). As ED Steph would no doubt say, ‘moi? Nothing to do with me, that’s a station matter. I’m just the executive director, the ED of the company’.]

~

The ED ‘report’, with a few directors sleepwalkers asking perfunctory questions (17mins; 23MB): https://mega.nz/file/FEUy1DxL#qpy-w1IK0HX_i0je6Ufx5sbAwM-_JYUccbUH-Gd7rQ0.

Obviously no-one asked why, having been 10mths in the job, she hasn’t presented to the Board a costed operational plan for Pacifica – with the director then asking, reflexively, why none of them has presented a motion requiring the ED to devise & present a range of costed operational plans, plans derived from costed scenarios of Pacifica’s future scaled over one, three & five years, scenarios that would have to be devised by the ED coz there hasn’t been even one director during the last half decade who’s shown either the interest or aptitude.

Unsaid questions immediately followed by a motion requiring all that conceptual & imaginative work to be done by the ED. An attempt to give the ED’s work direction, future-oriented direction, breaking with the running-to-stay-still, the perpetual firefighting, the immersion in the groundhog present. An attempt at being proactive, rather than reactive. An attempt at engineering change, rather than being transfixed in stasis. The effort of leading, rather than the effort of just being busy.

But that would require Pacifica having, at a minimum, a director who knows what’s required of a director. A director who can then convince their colleagues to change the culture of the organisation, namely, its habitual way of working. A director who especially has some idea of how to best use the talents & expertise of an ED, a director determined to ensure that the polity of fiefdoms is replaced by a chain of command: PNB policy ⭢ ED programmes of work ⭢ GM implementation. A director able to motivate a national board to pursue what needs to be done to turn around a failing $11m annual turnover public charity that has been declining for at least 15yrs & has now hit the buffers with not enough cash coming in to pay current creditors, let alone past-due balances.

Instead, an assemblage of sleepwalkers. Inferior even to the zombies of Night of the Living Dead – who at least acted with common purpose.

~~~

[This post will be written up properly by Su25July. The audiofile of the Tu20July mtg., 57mins (apologies, as the recording starts with the end of agenda approval): audible & downloadable at https://mega.nz/file/JBlAmKYI#mPcRo4UMezIDyhdCbzdQ_AHsjPuNB82n0VMEUrJpBkE. Because Jorge Diaz, principal auditor of Rogers & Company, goes thru the FY2020 auditor’s report, citing page numbers, one can use the withdrawn draft, viewable & downloadable at https://mega.nz/file/gc9h3SDQ#SG2SVOaJaniikB8-1oWcohAcp6KZVfd36dsLK4uYBsA. At the meeting, Chair ‘hapless’ Eileen missed an opportunity to partially redeem herself, forgetting to ask the Cttee if it wanted to carry out one of its crucial legal duties, so instead it passed the Cttee by, like a ship in the night: no motion was moved for the Cttee to accept the auditor’s report, as required by CA Government Code § 12586(e)(2). Oh.]

~

For the FY2019 audit, the auditors never appeared publicly, in front of either the PNB Audit Cttee or the Pacifica National Board. Their last time in the limelight was Th16July2020, at the PNB (TS). Name. They also turned up x days before, at the Audit Cttee (TS). LINKS

The FY2020 auditor’s report filing with the CA AG fiasco …

What underlies all this is the cosy relationship PNB Audit Cttee Chair Eileen Rosin has developed with Pacifica’s bookkeeper & accountant, NETA, & with a NETA principal, Anita Sims, who is also Pacifica’s CFO. A consequence of this is that the PNB Audit Cttee has failed to maintain its strict independence from management, as required by both the established norms governing an audit cttee’s actions, & the California Government Code. LINK to the §, & to the audit cttee guides from KPMG et al. https://mega.nz/folder/Vd82AKJK#-i5tz0eVe5ejeWKSK8vR9w (& https://pacificaradiowatch.home.blog/auditor-s-reports/the-auditor-speaks-audiofiles-2004-present/)

. . . challenging . . . challenging management . . . KPMG Audit Committee Institute, Audit Committee Handbook, 2017, page 7 – https://mega.nz/file/Nd0FSaaY#8y-qjhpk3-78GULa5x4X_PTZyV4NgUC8a-OWNe6U7gU . . .

~

Chair Eileen Rosin apologising to Cttee peeps for preventing them doing their legal duty – and explaining why she chose to do this

By the California Government Code, a charity corporation with Pacifica’s turnover has to have an audit cttee that has to … . LINK The Cttee has done none of this. Chair Eileen Rosin (WPFW listener-delegate) is responsible for this. She needs to make two apologies: for preventing the Cttee doing its work; & for causing Pacifica to break state law. But don’t expect any Cttee member to ask for these two apologies – and to ask her to explain why both deficiencies arose. For that, this public charity needs a culture of accountability – this it patently lacks.

Pensions audit fiasco

The latest publicly available info is that the last pensions audits attempted were XX. One needs to say attempted coz with them not being publicly available one can’t assume they were completed. Big difference. No-one has ever remarked on what the auditor’s opinion has been over the years – just the uninformed, commonplace, ‘the audit’s done’. For all anyone knows, maybe for years they’ve been issuing a disclaimer of opinion, even an adverse opinion. We simply don’t know – partly because all the pensions auditor’s reports are kept secret, & especially because no Audit Cttee member or director bothers to ask in a public meeting.

Liquidity gibberish

No-one noticed this, either on the PNB Audit Cttee or the PNB:

screenshot: $32 651 magically becomes $297 251

. . . beyond the year can never be of the year – MEGA LINK; & see https://pacifica.org/finance/audit_2019.pdf (page 14; p. 16 of the PDF) . . .

FY2020 (dated 30June2021, & never filed with the CA AG), Notes 4 & 5: p. 14; p. 16 of the PDF … $129 823 magically becomes $218 023

The gibberish: “[f]inancial assets that are available for general expenditures within one year of the statements of financial position date” (emphases added) – so necessarily excluding “[c]ontributions receivable” that are “[d]ue in one to five years”. Yet Rogers include this amount as available “within one year”. But as ED Lydia says, in Kurtian fashion, there you go.

And what’s Pacifica’s liquidity policy? “The Foundation strives to maintain liquid financial assets sufficient to cover 90 days of general expenditures” (FY2019 a’s r, p. 14; p. 16 of the PDF). Seems harmless, but what does it mean, what does it add up to? The 90 days is ~$11.868m ÷ 4 ≃ $3m (ditto – loc. cit. in Academese, loco citato, the same passage). And the corrected figure for the coming year’s available liquid assets is $89 678, not the stated $354 278 (sic); & assuming the $32 651 contributions receivable come in at a uniform rate, the 90-days total figure is ~$22 420 – stacked up against the $3m, that’s <0.75% (sic) of what’s required per policy, just 1-in-133. That’s the picture of a financially troubled public charity.

Covenant gibberish

No-one noticed this either:

ss of “Bequests received by the Foundation beyond April 19, 2021 are subject to additional interest charged by the lender to varying percentages depending on the direction and restriction of the gift (0% if restricted, 50% if a general, unrestricted gift and 30% if directed to a particular station).”

. . . cap . . .

FY2019: Note 7, p. 16; p. 18 of the PDF

FY2020 (dated 30June2021, & never filed with the CA AG), Note 7: p. 16; p. 18 of the PDF

The gibberish: “[b]equests received by the Foundation beyond April 19, 2021 are subject to additional interest charged by the lender” – the Foundation for the Jewish Community, operating as FJC, is charging interest on a particular kind of income received by Pacifica?

Net current liabilities concealment

The last time net current liabilities were disclosed in an auditor’s report was FY2016 (p. 2; p. 5 of the PDF) – https://pacifica.org/finance/audit_2016.pdf. That was the last audit done by Regalia & Associates. Once Rogers & Company came in, things changed: net current liabilities weren’t disclosed – neither on the balance sheet nor in an accompanying note. Even if Rogers gave no disclosure in the report they presented to the PNB Audit Cttee, the Cttee, & indeed the PNB, could have asked for a change. If it valued financial transparency, facing reality, it would have.

But there’s an external reason too. Disclosure is desirable for a financially troubled public charity like Pacifica because any possible grantor, for example, will simply apply the g-dhead of accountancy, auditing, & risk assessment, namely, prudence, & in erring on the side of caution they’re more likely to overestimate Pacifica’s net current liabilities. Concealment is counter-productive.

The last time Pacifica had audited net current assets at year-end was 30Sep2009 – https://pacifica.org/finance_reports.php.

On the sorry tale of Pacifica & liquidity, please see https://pacificaradiowatch.home.blog/auditor-s-reports/auditor-s-reports-from-fy2005/ (note 8)

So the $3.165m owed to the Foundation for the Jewish Community, operating as FJC, becomes a current liability in 3mths’ time, on 31Oct2021, because contractually Pacifica has agreed to pay that debt by 30Oct2022 (FY2019 auditor’s report, p. 15; p. 17 of the PDF – https://pacifica.org/finance/audit_2019.pdf).

A motion to remove Chair Eileen Rosin for dereliction of duty

. . . Maybe the Cttee peeps don’t realise the legal duties they acquired, maybe they just wanted to be on the Cttee. Maybe they don’t care if they break California law – I mean, it’s hardly the first time, & who’s going to do anything, this is PacificaWorld, right, it’s not RealWorld, is it?

~

The questions that need to be asked of Chair Rosin, the Rogers’ auditor, CFO Sims, ED Brazon, & all the directors

• re an alleged extension of the 30June2021 deadline for filing the audited financial statements (& accompanying notes) with the CA AG, why has no-one cited a letter from the AG granting such an extension?

• raising the question, why has no Pacifica director or other LSB delegate even thought to insist on seeing the supporting evidence for the assertion?

• indeed, correlatively, why is Pacifica’s alleged request for an extension not in the public record of the AG, the Registry of Charitable Trusts, in the section named, surprise, surprise, Filings & Correspondence?

• &, surprise, surprise, why is there no AG extension letter in the Registry?

• why have all concerned consistently spoken of the auditor’s report being completed, & never of its filing – which is the actual nature of the task in hand? Yet again, words are shown to matter.

• what is the claimed sequence of events:

when did Pacifica request an extension for filing the FY2020 auditor’s report?

who submitted it – the CFO, the ED?

how did the CFO & ED find out that an extension is possible, not least because the AG’s own webpage says, unambiguously, “[Q:] Does the extension for filing IRS Form 990 also apply to the completion date for the audit? [A:] No. The statute does not provide for an extension of time.” (emphases added – https://oag.ca.gov/charities/laws#collapseFAQs8)?

(This fact is consistent with what the law says, it ascribing no discretionary power to the AG or anyone else: “[t]he audited financial statements shall be available for inspection by the Attorney General and by members of the public no later than nine months after the close of the fiscal year to which the statements relate” (emphases added), CA Government Code § 12586(e)(1), so for Pacifica this is 30June, given its 30Sep year-end.)

when did the AG grant their extension?

when was this received by Pacifica?

by whom?

when did each of the ED & CFO learn of the AG’s decision?

https://pacificaradiowatch.home.blog/non-financial-pacifica-data/the-knell-pacifica-membership-passing-over-time/

• (But let’s be honest, there is no extension correspondence, is there? As quoted above, the law gives no discretionary power to the AG, or to anyone else, neither CA’s governor nor any former AG, even if they now happen to be the current vice-president of the GOC, G-d’s Own Country.)

• [UPDATE: re the important revision of the pensions liability estimate, what is the sequence of events, not least what new evidence turned up after W30June, & when? who discovered it? how quickly did Rogers & Co. change their mind on the estimate? Also, when did ED Brazon instruct what she called “the non-profits lawyer” to halt their review of the FY2020 auditor’s report they had received on Deadline Day at 6.30pm EDT from CFO Sims herself (her report to the Tu13July2021 PNB Finance Cttee, 56:46 – https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/finance/210713/finance210713a.mp3; & (approved?) minutes, unpaginated but p. 2 of the PDF – https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/finance/210713/finance210713_7122_minutes.pdf)? 7.30pm? 8.30pm? 9.30pm? If it wasn’t because of the pensions matter, what was the reason? Also, why would a lawyer – any lawyer – be paid to look at an auditor’s report, to what purpose? what expertise could they provide? And this from a lawyer who is only “licensed to practice law in both Pennsylvania and Florida”, so neither in California nor in Washington, DC where lives the Corporation for Public Broadcasting – https://www.lawyers4nonprofits.org/team. This is all a crock, yes?

The lawyer: turns out it’s Jeff, Jeff the Brief, trading as Lawyers for Nonprofits – proudly denoted in its logo emblazoned across the masthead of its homepage, & then twice again, as “VIRTUAL LAW OFFICE”: https://www.lawyers4nonprofits.org/. So, Jeff, maybe working out of Mom’s basement. Jeff, apparently scrutinising an already done-‘n’-dusted auditor’s report – what for? Spelling errors? arithmetical errors? typos? formatting inconsistencies? Maybe a director, this side of the Styx, will ask ED Brazon what expertise Jeff, uniquely Jeff, brings to ‘the Pacifica family’.

Lawyers for Nonprofits: well, not so much ‘lawyers’ as Jeff, witness the ‘Our Team’ tab mentioning … only Jeff. Just Jeff. So, Jeff for Nonprofits. But Jeff Fromknecht is a busy guy. The bottom of each webpage says, “Lawyers for Nonprofits is a project of Side Project Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity”. “Project”? The ‘About’ tab adds nothing, but money often talks, & the ‘Get Involved’ page, alongside more caps, “DONATE”, is more literal: “Side Project, Inc, [is] a 501(c)(3) public charity that operates Lawyers for Nonprofits”. Finally a verb, not a noun. Disclosure of a control structure. And surprise, surprise, who’s their CEO & Managing Attorney? Yup. With another Fromknecht, young Daniel, being a director – Side Project, Inc.’s website, https://www.dosomeorganizing.org/officers-and-board. Indeed: ‘do some organizing’. Charity, literally, starts at home.

Lastly, when Brazon et al. mentioned Lawyers for Nonprofits in July2021 they said it was itself a 501(c)(3) – which is untrue. But the two sites cited are written in such a way that one can easily make this mistake. We get this ambiguous formulation, no doubt carefully crafted & reviewed many, many times in draft: “[s]ince 2012, Lawyers for Nonprofits, a project of Side Project Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity, has provided [blah, blah]” – https://www.lawyers4nonprofits.org/about. But in the mentioned footer, things swing the other way, having “©2020 Side Project Inc.”, evidence of hierarchy. Nevertheless, Lawyers for Nonprofits, strangely, but modestly, doesn’t appear on their project page – https://www.dosomeorganizing.org/projects. If you’re also confused, why not take a swim. A swim, you say? Yes. But where? Well, capping it all, the footer also makes the misleading claim that Lawyers for Nonprofits itself has a “Corporate Headquarters”. Nice. An HQ nicely located, on the beach: West Palm Beach.

Why is it that the sellers of specialist services to The Liberal Conscience of the Nation, non-profits, never themselves end up in North Kennedy Tract, or the Fashion District, or Far North, or Brentwood, or Hunts Point?

•••• ••••• •••••

~~~

The basics

• another disclaimer of opinion, the 4th (FY, ). Paying auditors so that they find themselves forced to say ‘materially’;

• another going concern warning, the 7th (FY, );

•

• unaudited net loss of ~$1.060m ($893 363 per NETA-prepared management accounts + ~$170k depreciation (the unaudited FY2019 charge was $188 398 – p. 6))

~~~

. . . a double-edged sword, putting off uncomfortable decisions . . .

[A temporary post, superseded by an elaboration of the political & organisational context & effects of the decision for Pacifica, as intimated by the above comment: https://pacificaradiowatch.home.blog/2021/01/29/diamonds-are-the-eggs-laid-by-the-devil-in-pacificaworld-it-is-windfalls-putting-off-hard-decisions-ed-brazon-announces-1m-plus-paycheck-protection-program-decision-th28jan2021-pnb/. The PNB audio is now in the Pacifica archive: https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/pnb210128/pnb210128b.mp3 (59:28). A contemporaneous clip of ED Brazon’s announcement is embedded below, & ‘clouded’ at https://mega.nz/file/QYcWFTxT#2KsjcbKmkkgjz0g2Gt1RCVFlYrlk7f1ujC-oS06Bws4. The audio ‘blip’ has still not been rendered as a number; maybe a director will ask one day.]

~

Unfortunately, there was a blip in the livestream, at the crucial moment, so one hears “one point [blip] million”. It might be $1.2m, the same as in the first PPP disbursement per 23June2020 PNB Finance Cttee approved minutes – https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/finance/200623/finance200623_6513_minutes.pdf (unpaginated, but page 1 of the PDF; minutes approved, without objection, at the next meeting, https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/finance/200714/finance200714_6514_minutes.pdf – again, unpaginated, & p. 1 of the PDF); note however, contrary to the minute, that the only mention of a figure in the 23June audio is expressed not firmly as a definite number but probabilistically, in a recollection: “I’m pretty sure it was one-point-two”, said Chief Financial Officer Anita Sims (49:28), it having taken almost an hour (sic) before any of Pacifica’s Finance Finest thought to ask the PPP amount – https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/finance/200623/finance200623a.mp3.

ED Lydia, last nite (0:01-1:31):

[UPDATE: embedded audio doesn’t work, for some reason – but it plays at the link.]

[UPDATE, Su9Aug . . . these topics were to be separate posts but, hey, life moves on – so now a digest. (Hence the change of title & deletion of the final one-sentence paragraph; given that Pacifica relies on donations, & so normal life, including childcare, added is a note on a study finding that “children under 5 with COVID-19 have a higher viral load than older children and adults, which may suggest greater transmission”.)]

~

Twelve topics, in chronological order:

• what are Pacifica’s chances of getting CPB money? Its disbursements: structure, size, distribution criteria. A reality check, not a cheque
• Trump goes all Guevarista! One, two, three Vietnams! Scenarios of US excess deaths thru summer 2021. This is the red ground spreading out before Pacifica, the principal force structuring its immediate prospects thru all sorts of mediations. (Can you recall the last time you read or heard discussion of the excess deaths question? For a society this is the focus, not death from a pandemic.)
• the passed by-laws amendments: surely, as the breakers have warned, Pacifica will now be sued. Why? One simple reason: for trying to restrict a right of members, “materially and adversely”, without going thru the final step, namely a vote of all members agreeing to such a diminution (by-law Article 17, Section 1(B)(3)(v)). Yes, that again. The right affected is that of voting, by making it more difficult to vote on a by-laws amendment. Moreover, the change is also discriminatory, applied solely to voting on a proposed amendment brought by just one of the three possible routes, a members’ petition: the threshold has been raised from 1% of members to 5% (so today, from ~435 to ~2 175). How difficult is this? At the last LSB voting round, Aug-Oct2019, a provisional 6 085 voted; given this, it can be said the effective threshold has been raised to something like 35%, a third of typical voters, so beyond the clouds, from 7.1% to 35.7% (435 ÷ 6085, & 2175 ÷ 6085; the 6 085 is provisional because National Elections Supervisor Renee Penaloza, presumably breaching her contract, still fails to submit her final report!; note, the Feb-Mar2020 referenda had 10 226 voters, breakers being 3 450). The petition route has been rendered infeasible; that right of members has been, in practice, abolished – and not done legally: members’ consent can’t be given indirectly but only directly, not by decision of Pacifica boards but by a referendum. Silly question I know, but before voting on Th25June did the PNB inform themselves by getting an estimate of the cost of litigation? https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/pnb200625/pnb200625_6541_minutes.pdf (pages 9-11)
• on a matter that no-one would deem trivial, & is indeed a test of morality, why were all the directors silent, even those from KPFA? And what about Margy Wilkinson’s dad, & the forgotten Smith Act?
• (A post will not be made on the unsavory attempt to remove PNB Chair Alex Steinberg (WBAI listener-delegate) & PNB Secretary Grace Aaron (KPFK listener-delegate) from their positions, Th2 & 9July. Pacifica boards are nasty. Toxic. The dynamic brings out the worst in people. It’s as if they enjoy their symptom. Here, yet again, the observing ethnographers were able to record a typically sly manoeuvre by Chris ‘Cowardly’ Cory (KPFA listener-delegate). This time it was a sorry-I-couldn’t-get-the-motion-to-you-in-time-for-the-proposed-agenda-as-I-was-still-writing-it (8:56, https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/pnb200702/pnb200702a.mp3 & https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/pnb200702/pnb200702_6464_minutes.pdf). There’s a pattern here. His most disingenuous was when he was Chair of the PNB Finance Cttee the day after the WBAI coup, faking amnesia (what-day-is-it?), feigning ignorance, then largely faking empathy, laced with guilt, wrapping his arms around R Paul, WBAI’s treasurer, at the end of the meeting, “I-I-I I can’t express how much grief I have over this-this last-uh few days […] I don’t have words for it […] if it were my place to apologise I would” (0:01, 5:40, 20:37 & 27:46 https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/finance/191008/finance191008a.mp3, & 1:05:41 https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/finance/191008/finance191008b.mp3). Self-denigration is a sorry spectacle. And as mom must have told him, no-one likes a liar.)
• why are directors choosing to omit a lil detail in their latest reports to their local station board, that the PNB has rejected an offer to buy WBAI’s broadcasting licence? (Note, this was not a proposed signal swap.) The circling opportunists sleep less than Fauci – more indefatigable, too. https://pacifica.org/documents/pnb_exec_200709.pdf
• Chris Cory exaggerates Pacifica membership by ~15%, roughly 1-in-7 (50k rather than the 43.5k figure, Mar2020, of the National Elections Supervisor) . . . & has Peter Franck got dementia? The wonders of KPFA’s pseudo-town hall
• FY2018 draft auditor’s report repeats the previous year’s judgment: fair financial statements don’t exist (so, the ones provided by NETA, yet again, aren’t materially accurate), but something does exist, “substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern”. NETA also came up with an unaudited ~$7 800 loss – which means an unaudited ~$735k loss without the benefit of an extraordinary event, the sale of Nakapon, it functioning as an internal bequest, the death of an asset, thru autophagy, “an adaptive response to stress” (Wiki)
• the WPFW praetorian guard just can’t help themselves. Rather than the hammer seeing any problem as a nail, here outsiders are the problem. So make the problem theirs: set up barriers, make them jump thru hoops. But what to do with a town hall? Obvious: make it difficult. WBAI posts in their notice the URL & password of the Zoom. Absurd. WPFW posts “[f]or security and integrity, we ask you to email your interest in participating to wpfwlsb@gmail.com. You will receive a link to enter the zoom room. See you there!” (emphases added). The authoritarian & bureaucratic tone exuded effortlessly, serenely. The cynical politeness, the cheery good humour, the added twist of experienced operators. No Gatekeeping 101 here
• (My own experience with the WPFW LSB ruling clique is condensed in the saga arising from my attempt in Nov-Dec2018 to send an email to each of the delegates. Secretary Ellen Carter & Chair Robb Simms blocked it. Sample, a complete email from Our Robb: “Knock this off, OK? I will not waste time sending your materials to our Board. The WPFW LSB pretty much know about what you wrote in your essays. Please stop communicating with me as your messages will be ignored.” Nice. The Politics of the Gate. Eat y’ 💗 out, Lew. The write-up is linked from here: http://wbai-nowthen.blogspot.com/2018/12/jara-handala-reports.html.)
• Barry Brooks, KPFK. Nobly addressed as the business manager so can’t be an emperor with no clothes, although he has a touching faith in the imminence, & efficacy, of ‘a vaccine’, a vaccine jabbed into KPFK listeners, magically making the last three quarters of FY2021 boomtime in Tinseltown, making redundant any need to stem the current station losses (running at ~$150k a month, according to Our Grace, hallow’d be Thy name). Warped, or what? Whistling Barry seems oblivious to the contrary vaccine evidence (itemised below). Illusions delude, they inspire false optimism, they provide poor counsel – particularly when a principle of accounting is prudence (its patron saint), its embodiment & expression of the precautionary attitude
• lastly, Pacifica is suing John Vernile, the executive director who organised – and most fail to recognise this – the coup not simply against WBAI but against Pacifica. Running dog! “The Pacifica National Board met in executive session and voted to authorize its Legal Counsel, Arthur Schwartz, to initiate legal action against its former interim Executive Director, John Vernile, for breach of his fiduciary duties toward Pacifica” (Th30July private PNB session: https://pacifica.org/documents/pnb_exec_200730.pdf). As they say back in the olde country, revenge, a dish best served cold.

As it’s of general interest, it’s worthwhile itemising here the stubborn evidence confronting Pangloss Brooks. That, to be quite blunt about it, no vaccine exists, just a hope, albeit a hope motivating research; that acquired immunity has proven ephemeral, a matter of a few months; that the efficacy of any vaccine may itself be short-lived, requiring new jabs, be it annually or quarterly; that, & this is crucial, existence of a vaccine is quite different from there being a vaccination programme; that even the reality of such a programme is the laborious result of the organisation, diffusion, & mobilisation of resources, not least a stock of 330m units (see below note) for immediate distribution; & that, last but not least, there’s the lil problem of Joe & Joanna Sixpack having a certain resistance to Faucicide, of surrendering to The Evil Sorcerer’s warp-speed potion coursing their veins.

Barry could also acquaint himself with a US report, Tu21July, bearing the sub-title From Information Catastrophe to Empowered Communities. It coldly puts the US in its place, soberly exposing the anarchic & patchwork infrastructure it’s trying to use in its attempt to protect the public’s health. From the report’s opening para: “[u]nlike many other countries such as Germany, Senegal, South Korea, and Uganda, the United States does not have standard, national data on the virus and its control” (emphases added); next sentence: “[t]he US also lacks standards for state-, county-, and city-level public reporting of this life-and-death information.” This applied to an average behaviour of brazen ego individualism trumping basic human solidarity. The result, obvious, as night follows day. A long, dark night. No sun in sight. Just the glow of the pyres. Administrative anarchy. Irrationality ruling. A failed state. A society in decline. https://preventepidemics.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/RTSL_Tracking-COVID-19-in-the-United-States_-7-23-2020.pdf

(A special mention in the BB post has been earnt by KPFK’s very own Diva J.Lo, the exalted & revered Margaret Prescod, who recently insisted not on specified flowers adorning her dressing-room table but on her very own leased desktop printer sitting in her office, frequently maintained by an outside contractor, Wells Fargo (all-in, a snip at $142 a month for two!), this done so she’d never be frustrated again by finding that the communal copier/printer had run out of toner. I’m serious. And so was Margaret. Interesting, as Chris Cory would say. This is the nitty-gritty of how institutional Pacifica programmers fight over what listener donations get spent on (1:56:47). But, heaven forbid, don’t let this stop you donating. Have to support ‘the station’. Spoiler alert . . . the decisive Anyel had overruled the frugal Barry; this upset Barry. https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/kpfkfin/200722/kpfkfin200722a.mp3)

https://www.luriechildrens.org/en/news-stories/young-kids-could-spread-covid-19-as-much-as-older-children-and-adults/ (the first quote, by lead author Taylor Heald-Sargent), & https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2768952/ (published 30July); [UPDATE . . . https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-1016-z.pdf (infectivity peaking when symptoms start has a 95% confidence interval of −0.9 to 0.9 days; this was a correction, issued F7Aug, of peaking inferred to occur 0.7 days before onset of symptoms (95% CI, −0.2 to 2.0 days; &, yes, I too noticed that the −0.7 falls outside the 95% range) – page 1)]

~

And some remarks on the FY2018 draft auditor’s report (year-end 30Sep2018), not least because it remains unpublished, despite being accepted by the PNB over two weeks ago, on Th16July (so keep checking https://pacifica.org/finance_reports.php):

• the unaudited loss, ~$7 800, is immaterial, in the jargon, $1 lost for every ~$1 500 of the unaudited ~$11.6m volume of activity
• (To keep saying, & writing, the u-word is somewhat tedious, even irritating, but we need to get used to the fact that all publicly available Pacifica figures since 30Sep2016 lack the approving nod of a key alien visitor to PacificaWorld, the arrival of a strange guy, an expert, someone drawing on a quiver of skills & knowledge, the auditor; it should be noted, it’s not known whether this alien has managed to elude Houston’s very own very stable genius, its fave doc, Stella Immanuel MD.)
• it bears repeating, without the gain on the sale of Nakapon there would have been an unaudited loss of ~$735k (8k + 727k); this is comparable to the $771 408 of FY2014
• ignoring the mitigation of that extraordinary event, the unaudited loss was x~8½ that of FY2017’s (735k ÷ 86 640 = 8.48); the auditor, at the Tu14July PNB Audit Cttee, didn’t just fail to mention the scale of the underlying deterioration, he failed to recognise its very existence
• listener & grant income was 84% of the unaudited total (~$11.6m x 0.84 = ~$9.744m), making the balance ~$1.856m. Gain on Nakapon sale was $727k, so leaving $1.129m as other income. As this is comparable to the previous year’s other income of an unaudited ~$1.135m, it means the net income statement itself only gives a net figure for Nakapon – so not disclosing the proceeds & the costs of sale. (It was due to be sold for $1.1m, according to the FY2017 auditor’s report, p. 23.) Hopefully a note to the statement provides transparency, giving the gross figures; & remember, $500k + costs came out of the sale’s gain to pay off ‘the small loan’, going to Manpearl-Heron-Heron-Reilly-&-co, including interest at 7.5% a year. You won’t be surprised that no PNB Audit Cttee member asked about this – but then they were as quiet as mice the whole time, not even meekly asking for the cheese wrappers . . . what’s become of Point-of-point-madam-chair Adriana & Bellicose Bella? Perish the thought, but it was as if no-one could understand the document they were supposed to interrogate
• so the unaudited year-on-year increase in revenue, from ~$10.9m to ~$11.6m, is solely down to the gain on Nakapon – in a word, stagnation
• but expenses didn’t stagnate – which is of especial interest today, given both the ongoing KPFK revenue collapse, & the current attempt to create FY2021 budgets for all Pacifica units. Effectively breaking even means that, year-on-year, expenses rose an unaudited ~$600k, all the time whilst units lacked budgets, with no central control given inadequate real-time data. That’s ~5.5%, 1-in-18 (from ~$11m to ~$11.6m); this arose from each of programming & “management & general” growing by an unaudited ~$300k, or 6% (0.3m ÷ 5.0m, & 0.3m ÷ 4.9m, respectively). Again, passed the auditor by. (And the Cttee.)
• but that’s nothing: they ignored the 2018 elephant, the unaffordable ESRT contract for housing the WBAI transmitter, & how Pacifica was able to both pay the rent arrears & pay to end the contract early. It was as if the trident from Hell never existed: the 2017-8 bankruptcy panic; the $3.085m settlement with the Empire State Realty Trust; & the $3.7m loan from the Foundation for the Jewish Community, operating as FJC. Pacifica came out of this with the largest loan by far in its now 74-year history. There’s almost a mystical quality about how so much turmoil, emotion, & confrontation is embodied in that over 30-page auditor’s report without so much as a mention that Tuesday evening. It’s as if none of it had ever happened. A mere figment of the imagination. But that’s PacificaWorld for you.

~

Before ending, I wonder if, in the spirit of diversity, inclusion, free speech, & ‘the mission’, Stella Immanuel MD can get invited onto KPFT? Stella, besides running what’s called an ‘urgent care center’ in built-up Houston, is a woman of the cloth, in Katy, on marginal land at the western edge of the city. (Ideal for carrying out exorcisms, in the seclusion of the woods.) She’s been reincarnated as an “Emergency Medicine Specialist”, having been an experienced, get this, paediatrician: Stella was trusted with children. It seems she recently came to TX from Louisiana, having got into bad trouble (nod to Mr Lewis), allegedly running from a malpractice suit after her patient died six days after the consultation. 🔥🙏🏾❤️🔥❤️🙏🏾🔥

But is KPFT up to the task? Does it have the dynamic, innovative, inspiring leadership it so badly needs? Can it seize the moment? After all, Stella has the experience, hosting her own Pentecostal radio & TV show, Fire Power, serving the Mountain of Fire & Miracles Ministries, so maybe she can be offered a trial slot? And think of the fund-drives! Stella MD could not just rival Christine Blosdale & Gary Null but exceed them, pushing self-promotion beyond the terrestrial limit, going astral, excelling as a role-model: a woman of colour, an immigrant, a recovering victim of media ridicule. Come to think of it, DeWayne DeLark could become her manager, arranging her PR, negotiating her endorsements. The possibilities, the possibilities. 🔥🙏🏾❤️🔥❤️🙏🏾🔥

https://www.bbc.com/pidgin/tori-53574144 (profile on the good doc – not Fauci, silly, but Houston’s most trusted prophet-preacher-paediatrician), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_News_Pidgin (amazingly, this isn’t a spoof but a BBC service, in a West African creole, that’s been running almost three years now), & https://www.mountainoffire.org/ (the mother ship, a site with presence values that any Pacifica station would be proud of)

🔥🙏🏾❤️🔥❤️🙏🏾🔥

And here’s some thinkfood, about the poof who puts the p into preppy, who at least on this occasion (rather than on Israelised Palestine) had some fidelity with substantive rationality: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/07/how-jared-kushners-secret-testing-plan-went-poof-into-thin-air

~

. . . no flowers in their office, no flowers in their hair . . .

[This synthesises, & develops, the comments made to the seven separate doc posts. It’ll be completed W25Sep (apologies for the delay).

[Obviously, this post will come before the docs, but, as it’s written after the posting of the seven, a copy of this intro will appear with a 25Sep date for a week or so, to alert readers who use the home page or blog roll/feed.]

~~~

context (post-Sep2006 financial decline; Cali push for breaking up Pacifica) — summary of the new constitution — will the resistance prevail? (assessment of both sides’ constituencies) — why have the resisters never developed a plan, let alone a persuasive plan? (the need to transition from resistance to leadership; the aspiration, by becoming the majority, to transform Pacifica, restoring health & achieving growth)

[not EH, Office in a Small City, 1953]

. . . no flowers in their office, no flowers in their hair . . .

[This synthesises, & develops, the comments made to the seven separate doc posts. It’ll be completed W25Sep (apologies for the delay).

[Obviously, this post will come before the docs, but, as it’s written after the posting of the seven, a copy of this intro will appear with a 25Sep date for a week or so, to alert readers who use the home page or blog roll/feed.]

~~~

context (post-Sep2006 financial decline; Cali push for breaking up Pacifica) — summary of the new constitution — will the resistance prevail? (assessment of both sides’ constituencies) — why have the resisters never developed a plan, let alone a persuasive plan? (the need to transition from resistance to leadership; the aspiration, by becoming the majority, to transform Pacifica, restoring health & achieving growth)

[not EH, Office in a Small City, 1953]