This evening, I listened to the news on WBAI. It was a very different kind
of newscast than you hear on NPR. They talked, among other things, about a
big meeting that was held in NYC, a huge number of people who met, perhaps
at The New School, to talk about anti Fascist actions. There's actually a
website for this movement, the name of which I don't remember. Apparently,
they streamed the meeting so WBAI had a few bits and pieces of it. There was
someone from one of the Communist parties, talking about how important it is
for everyone to begin immediately to organize resistance within any group
that they find themselves, starting with the Christmas family gathering.
Then I heard Jeremy Scahill talking about how the change in the Democratic
party 35 years ago, is a big factor in getting us to where we are now. I
love Jeremy because he is so very dedicated and so emotional. He talked
about Bill Clinton's sanctions on Iraq. Jeremy was in Iraq when those
sanctions went into effect. He described the effects on hospitals and
doctors. He talked about how babies and children died because western
trained doctors did not have any medicines or equipment with which to treat
them, as a result of the sanctions. And then he talked with tremendous anger
about the politicians who voted for those sanctions. He said, "Do you know
who voted in favor of the sanctions in 1998? Bernie Sanders did." He talked
about how everyone who found it so easy to criticize Hillary Clinton about
her foreign policy positions, managed to ignore some of the terrible foreign
policy positions that Sanders took. I need to insert something here about
Iraq. I've been reading Age of Jihad: Islamic State and the Great War For
The Middle East by Andrew Cockburn from Bookshare. It's actually a
collection of his reporting from when the US first attacked Iraq and spans
articles over many years. He was there, and doing fantastic independent
reporting. It is so horrifying to read, especially given what is happening
there now. But back in the early two thousands, I didn't have access to all
of that detailed information that I've had in the past 9 years. My life was
very different and I wasn't using the computer in the same way. When you
read in detail, what our country did, step by step, it is truly a nightmare.
Anyway, back to WBAI. After the news, I heard Laura Flanders interviewing an
organizer in Appalachia. I've heard some of her stuff on the web,
occasionally. Apparently WBAI broadcasts her podcasts regularly. Tonight's
discussion was very interesting. I know Pacifica has one or more stations
in California and WBAI in New York. If you find a station on the web and
manage to get the live stream onto your desktop, you can hear them easily,
wherever you are.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2016 8:40 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Rediscovering the Pacifica network
Interesting. I wandered around a bit, but I'll need more time to explore.
Still, I'm looking for a place to move the donations I used to make to KUOW,
the NPR station in Seattle. I'm not supportive of NPR these days, as they
slide further to the Right. Actually, I've never gotten over my anger over
the way Bob Edwards was shoved out of the anchor position on the morning
news cast. But I still donated for a while because I do listen to several
programs from NPR. Then my local KUOW channel moved Alternative Radio from
8:00 PM on Thursday nights, to 11:00 PM., I began snarling whenever I heard
their fund raisers. And of course, Prairie Home Companion has changed hosts
and format, and Car Talk is still running programs from before 2012. I do
still tune in, All Things Considered, from time to time, but by and large I
listen to a couple of smaller public radio channels. We're fortunate here
in the Puget Sound area to have at least 7 channels to select from. Anyway,
Pacifica may need supporting more than the local channels. They all have
their local base, while Pacifica is located in California.
Carl Jarvis
On 12/22/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
It started on Election night when I wanted to hear Democracy Now'sinterested. Then, at 6, there was a newscast.
reporting and couldn't get to their live stream on their website. I
thought, just possibly, I could find them on WBAI which is the New
York City affiliate of the Pacifica network. It's on my desktop. I
didn't realize that one of the buttons on my radio which sits on the
window sill in my office and can, therefore, get FM reception, was
also set to that station. I was so delighted to find Democracy Now on
election night on the radio. Then, in December, I stopped being able
to access the program download from the website. Each day, up to that
point, I could listen to the daily program whenever I chose. But
they're doing fundraising this month. So when I go to the link on the
website for the program, there's a fundraising message that has to be
closed before I can access the, "listen", link. It can be closed with
a mouse by someone who can see, but I can't close it with a keyboard
command. That means, that I arise earlier than I'd like to each day,
so I can hear the program on WBAI radio at 8 a.m. A few weeks ago,
Democracy Now had a 20th anniversary celebration, which was streamed.
I thought it would be on WBAI as well, but it wasn't. But by now, I'd
begun to turn on WBAI occasionally to see what was on. Last night at
around 5 p.m., I heard The Brad blog, which I've seen on the web.
Whoever Brad is, he talks about all sorts of things in which I'm
There was also an interview with the author of a New Yorker article on
immigrants. I can't find the article in the current Newsline edition
of the magazine. This morning I heard an American Indian guy who was
talking about the history of how his people have been treated in
America, starting with George Washington. Back in the 60's, we
listened to WBAI all the time. I learned about the Vietnam War,
feminism, consciousness raising groups, black liberation, all sorts of
things. I kept listening until the mid 70's when I became very
displeased with Pacifica's coverage of the adoptions from Vietnam. In
retrospect, I still think they were providing some incorrect
information. However, given everything that has happened, I'm not as
outraged as I was at the time. I'm sorry that I stopped listening. I
think, from some things that I've read, that Pacifica has been going
through some difficult times. But I've heard some interesting stuff
lately. You might see if you can access a Pacifica station and see
how you feel about what they broadcast.
Miriam
