The a. Part . How are you welcome to the talkies I'm your host Chris Welch and here we are and the Week 2 of our 2 week fund drive for the summer and I'm delighted to say that today we're going to play some stuff that I have personally. Vibrate kill because I was honored to have met this gentleman of the many wonderful wonderful fabulous people that I have met doing this job which is such a blessing and this one certainly stands out and he's no longer with us in fact we're the reason we're playing this today is because today is the day the anniversary of his death actually and 2012. Lived a good long life born in 1925 See if you can guess who this is an American writer and public intellectual known for his patrician manner epigrammatic wit and polished style of writing you know what that is that's a quote from wikipedia so everybody knows who that is namely Gore of a doll Eugene Luthor Gore the doll room a very. Important political family his grandfather was a u.s. Senator for many many years and Mr Vidal Gore Vidal himself was. One of the funniest wouldst smartest. Best educated people I ever had the privilege of talking to here at did any events for k p f a and many of us here got to meet him and talk to him and we're blessed So today we're going to bring you a conversation a talk that he gave in 1981 in California at Stanford University to an appreciative audience as you might imagine and this was we broadcast this on 4th of July because it was about the rebirth of American democracy and the Decline and Fall of the American empire it just seemed to be really. Right on time for where we are here what. 2040 years later it's sort of scary isn't it all that stuff that seems like didn't we didn't we go through this once already I mean slightly less. Terrifying but nonetheless. A problem and here he is so we're going to start right off with this conversation and he one of the 1st things he says is he has some advice for the then president who was of course Ronald Reagan I remember that well my daughter was born just before Ronald Reagan was inaugurated and I thought for sure a future might hold and as I had trembled for the futures of my grandchildren with this guy in the White House but never mind we all have to be on our guard at all times as you will learn from Gore Vidal for sure. We're going to be asking you course to phone 180-439-5732 or to go online and keep if a dot org This is our fundraiser for the summer and you will be getting the Gore Vidal memorial collection from the Pacifica Radio Archives which is over 7 hours of this guy's plummy voice and incredible wit unmatchable ability with language unmatchable for a $120.00 donation to Cape b.f.a. And let's give you a little taste here also when he mentions he says got it his vice for Ronald Reagan which is get rid of Alexander the Great. By which he is referring to Alexander Haig who remarkably upon the occasion of Mr. Reagan's. Mental lamentable shooting someone took a shot at him and he ended up in the hospital and course what happened to Jim Brady of the same time was even much much much worse. But he was Alexander Haig then stepped in and said that he was in charge and don't worry he was going to be you know the country was in good hands with Alex who had no no. No reason to state that So Alexander the Great and is what Corba doll suggested Mr Aiken should get rid of anyway let's let him tell it he does it much better here score the doll. Thank you Mr Thorne. I would also send my best wishes to President and Mrs Reagan and I'd also send some advice to the president get rid of Alexander the Great. But. This is a fairly new talk that I have. The Rebirth part was very difficult for me. So I have done it on 3 by 5 cards remember those from the last campaign. How the candidate would say Hello I'm George Bush. And there came the moment when Jimmy Carter said about Reagan he said you just can't go in there and talk to brazenness from these people with your 3 by 5 cards and Carter was reading from them at the same time. The greatest reader of cards in my lifetime was a president we used to have called Dwight Eisenhower. And Eisenhower always read his cards with a real sense of discovery. And there. As a matter of fact he won the election in 52. Against Adelaide Stevenson We were having a war with Korea at the time and. Eisenhower was droning alone through his speech and he said and if elected president I will go to Korea. And the poor old thing had to go to Korea he got elected. Off courses and he was in a rage. Now I am going to be obliged to read some of this but I promise you that I will look up from time to time. In order to give an air of spontaneity. Because there are a great many facts here. First I'd like to get the statistics over with because I find that even the brightest I tend to glaze over when statistics are mentioned so I will fire a few as 5 Aisha's away as I can. Today we have 12 percent inflation we have nearly 8 percent unemployment. We have dropped a 10th place in the entire world when it comes to per capita income and we have an industrial product hit a productivity rate that is lowest in the Western world we have the smallest voter turnout of any western democracy 49 percent of those qualified to vote did not vote for president last November and I was one of them for reasons which will get to. Who votes and who doesn't. Well that half of the electorate which never vote 75 percent are blue collar and service workers I bet half the does vote. 48 percent are blue collar and service workers now of the 48 percent of the half who vote join the 75 percent of the half which does not vote there would be a large American Labor Party something that every democratic country has but we do not statistics like this tell us a story. That is never put into words. By our professional politicians and by their shadows in the media. Despite the eloquence of our 16th president we have never had a government of the people by the people and for the people. The founding fathers did not want such a government and our current rulers do not want such a government. Whether government by the people is a good thing or not we can argue about what is not arguable is that the United States has never been what we have pretended to be a democratic republic from the beginning we have been an oligarchy Republic and the power has always been in the hands of those whom Alexander of Hamilton referred to as the rich and the well born. The people at large have never been included in the political process. Our 2 party system is actually a single party system with 2 wings one wing is called Republican the other is called democratic. The only difference between the 2 wings. Is that the Democrats tend to be conservative. And the Republicans tend to be reactionary. That is the Democrats will sometimes pretend that they prefer human rights to property rights while the Republicans would rather die than be hypocritical. Meanwhile half the electorate ignores the entire political process. Now there can be no change. In what we have under the present system because the interests of most people are not going to be represented and so they do not. When the going was good there weren't too many complaints it was enough for almost everybody but now that we are a declining power in the world questions are being asked why do we have this is from where did it start what do the inventors of the Constitution really have in mind. Well the answer to that last question is simple. The protection of property and the Declaration of Independence the key phrase was in the original document life liberty and property a phrase taken from the philosopher luck. But Thomas Jefferson always got nervous when a spade was being called a spade so he changed the word property to the pursuit of happiness which has got to be about the loony use gold ever set for a republic. After all the Zodiac killer could claim that he was pursuing happiness in his own. Energetic way. Now it is not generally known. That the division between rich and poor in the United States is the greatest in the Western world with the exception of France but there are a lot of important things are not generally known for instance I noticed in an l.a. Times poll recently 71 percent of the people think that we have the highest standard of living in the world we don't 9 countries are now ahead of us and a dozen others seem to be catching up. But since it might be disturbing for people to be told such things they're not exactly featured by the media or by the politicians. After all is it not true in the immortal words of spiral Agnew. The United States is still the greatest nation in the country. I miss him. And they all right novels. The root of our current troubles. Is the Constitution of the United States. The founding fathers feared to fix monarchy and democracy. They wanted a government that would make it difficult for any man to become dictator and impossible for the people at large to influence a government whose principal task was the protection of the property of the men who already have it that is why the original Constitution called for a House of Representatives to be elected by those white men over 21 who could meet the property qualifications of the various States Senate to be appointed by the state legislature as a president to be chosen not by the people at large but by the managers of the different states. In $1787.00 democracy was a nonstarter at Philadelphia all civil rights were and tiredly Nord until the next year. When that unsung hero George Mason of Virginia tacked the Bill of Rights on to the Constitution so freedom of speech assembly petition freedom from a state religion these were the sublime afterthoughts of Mr George Mason. He himself was pretty skeptical about the New Republic this government he said in $787.00 will set out a moderate aristocracy which is exactly what it did Mason thought that it would then develop either into or a monarchy. Aristocracy we might say that 2 centuries later we have a bit of both. Democracy. Gore of it all we still do not have a democracy and the fact is says that we never did it was never been what we pretend to be we are an oligarchical Republic instead and of course I love that he. Quoted. To. 2 political figures that I remember I was a child during the 1st one with Dwight Eisenhower and then there was the memorable Spiro t. Agnew that saying that the Us is still the greatest nation in the country joined in the studio here I'm happy to say with my dear friend Mitch McConnell but. I know how. Much it is his his my camera my just not hearing him Ok. You're. Hearing. Their greatest. The greatest. Which is. That. That's all he ever said the politicians the Great. American people and the suggest if you know what America is you are not plugged it might. Mean everything I just said was not exactly running the ship. Do your thing Ok. Can you hear. Me Now. Going to be here what a great service we have here with. The wait so the joke was that he said it was the greatest nation in the. Tree not on the planet but on the in the country. Chris Yes I'm here to keep things in order. To help I can get. It. And Philip to share to co-host with me was to keep me under control you know. How it worked out I'm bigger than he has. Of you giving birth. You know you have to take I certainly. Know well I probably did but again I'm bigger but we're not offering that we're offering a different tape we're offering this is our summer fun drive we're offering the. Memorial collection which includes this talk that we are just beginning here at Stanford in 1901 entitled The decline and rebirth of the American republic and that's what he was referring to that the rebirth part was the hardest part for him to write it also has the patriarchal state of the Union the nation turns 125 that was in 1990 at u.c. Berkeley in Zellerbach. Vote doll in her My any gang gold I can't even imagine. J.f.k. Assassination was in that. Talk there's just tons of stuff he did his own state of the Union right about the same time as he was doing this one here at Stanford and it's just it's just Marvie poor I just love listening to his claim with the language it just. Gives me gives me chills I'm very happy we're offering it to and we're offering it to you for $120.00 donation to over 7 hours of the memorable and imitable Gore of a doll the memorial collection from the Pacifica Radio Archives when you call. 1804395732180439 Cate the f.a. And of course on line at a dot org And how has it been going kiddo and occasion and life in general just a show you want about my life and I want to not only every hour of things to sort of talk about you know things below heart of late but but anyways. The fund if which is very important because this is how we keep this radio station on the air and one of the great things that this radio station does is preserve the voices and the memories of people like it all again who died 6 years ago today and it's like you know it all right 6 years it was 6 years ago anything about other voices like Alan Watts you think of Langston Hughes Elsa Knight Thompson Paul robes and I mean these go on and on of all the great voices that we still keep with us today you know expression during fun drives when you hear these voices which I think is actually fantastic and a real service of teaching history. To the listener ship for the here in the Bay Area is our fun drive is a very serious moment for us because we have a $350000.00 goal that we have to meet by the end of this week. And we are over halfway through this short summer 2018 fun drive and Chris it's not an arbitrary number that's $350000.00 is the bare minimum that we have to raise in order to keep this radio station operational and you know going back now 69 years next year will be marking our 70th birthday. Because at this moment we've raised not even half of what that that goal is right $150000.00 so far we're very thankful everyone has already contributed during the strife but we are we are dangerously behind the. Porn and all we need to be able to do is make up that that amount of money in a very short period of time the only way we can do that is by making each of our our league ols And so it's important that if you have yet to do so to become a member and support Kate p.f.a. Today for a pledge of $120.00 or thank you gift is the goal of the doll memorial collection here on the anniversary of the 6th anniversary of his death he died on July 31st 2012 it's an m p 3 cd over 7 hours of Gore Vidal it's educational It's hilarious it's politically informed and acute and it is yours for a pledge of $120.00 the phone number is 18043957321804395732 of course you can also pledge on line and k p f 8 auto Archie indeed and please do sell whatever works for you but right now let's hear some more from Gore if it obvious that Ok here we go more from Gore Vidal speaking in 1901 at Stanford University. The average American is trained. From birth we're all programmed more or less he lives in the freest country in the world with a higher standard of living he's not told about other countries except on happy Russia where the people are indeed less free and they live a lot less well than we do. As persuading. Every American his program from birth to think that Sweden is a socialist country where everyone practices free love and then commit suicide. Actually Sweden is not a socialist country this comes as normal surprise 90 percent of the means of. Production are in private hands store and I was just talking about the Wallenberg family of Sweden on the richest families on earth and as far as sort of size we can ranks about 20th in the world I have no statistics on how free the love is. The average citizen in our country is certainly not told very much about how things are run here he takes it for granted that the state has every right to pocket as much of his income as it wants and taxes he takes it for granted that we was always just a must always do as the state tells him he takes it for granted that he can be drafted at any time into the military and he can be sent anywhere on earth in order to fight at the discretion of the president he takes it for granted that the state may imprison him. For sex for drugs or for gambling. Last year across the United States $4000000000.00 to keep over $3300000.00 people in prison the cost of maintaining a prisoner in New York State is slightly more per year than it would cost to send him to Harvard or he would learn how to commit his crimes without being detected. In. The United States was founded by lawyers now many of my best friends are lawyers. Even so if you have a Congress filled with lawyers they will do what lawyers like to do which is to make laws to give work to other lawyers. The result of too many laws is lawlessness and the solution to lawlessness is fewer and more sensible laws more just laws and if necessary more stern laws. The Current. Crime epidemic is the result of 2 things I think one is embarrassingly obvious. For 3 generations. Welfare has been the price of the white majority has been willing to pay to keep the blacks out of our economic system. For a time this seemed to be working it does not work now so either we find a way to integrate the races economically or the present guerilla war will certainly escalate. The other way the easy way to bring down the crime rate is to strengthen the police you can do this without spending a penny. Roughly 70 percent of police work has to do with prostitution with gambling frowned upon sex and drugs removed from the statute books or all of these so-called victimless crimes and 70 percent of the work that the police are now obliged to do will be eliminated that means that the police we already have will be sufficient and will be able to devote their full time to the protection of persons and property which is what we hire them for in the 1st place do I really mean that we should legalize drugs yes I do. We spend of dollars playing cops and robbers with the mafia who keep on making billions of dollars all because it is illegal to take drugs so make drugs legal and there will be no money for the mafia there will be no money for the playground pushers. There will of course be no Bureau of Narcotics but I am sure that the agents could all be transferred to the National Park Services. Where they could fight later. With presumably the same success they fight drugs. What to do about people who are addicted also what we are now doing is plainly wrong I would follow the British system where addicts get a prescription from a doctor just the way you get a prescription say for vallium as a result there are only 1500 heroin addicts in all of England and as far as I know there are no drug related crimes nationally drug should be clearly labeled speed will kill you should be on the bottle with a brief description of how disagreeable your death will be. And I realize that the founding lawyers and their Does the sentence in combination with various religious groups have tried to make the United States a paternalistic society. That means a society where the state has the right to tell you not to drink whiskey because it is bad for you not to have sex in a way disapproved of by Leviticus. Not to gamble away your life savings. Now it is my radical view. None of this is the business of the state in fact I would say that only slaves it is like the Soviet Union take for granted the state's right to regulate. An individual's private life in a grown up society every man does have the right to kill him so but no man has right to kill anybody else perhaps I'm an optimist but I do think that we're almost ready for a grown up society. Alas. Alas. I would like to hear what he had to say about this one wouldn't you I would love to hear him talking about Trump accepted probably to be discussed and he might just be like. Me sometimes even hard it's hard for comedians can can you really do what's actually happening. Frequently says you can't make this stuff up. Usually you can. Oh well so Gore Vidal that's who we're listening to and he was giving a talk and titled The decline and rebirth we haven't got that part yet the rebirth of the American Republic and he has a very controversial in my mind because I've heard it as a plot for the quote unquote other side. Method for the rebirth which is a Constitutional Congress and I have been hearing from lots of left writers that this is exactly what the Koch brothers are working for they want to Constitutional Congress to rewrite the constitution and Gore is positing it at the end of this talk as a method for the people to. Be more part of it all of it's true amen to be true because we're doing the whole process again and we're going to come up with a new constitution and let's see what comes out of it right I'm sure he will be great just like the 2000 election how that turned out after we had to hash out what was going on there after the last election what he was just talking about just now was the Supreme Court that when they 1st constructed the government what they were freaking out about was the House of Representatives because all those wild eyed people could just take over but in fact they never did and what really took over was the Supreme Court. And there we are today that was the wild card that they've bought it in and started making pronouncements about legislation which in fact they were not. Given the task of doing. So it's very interesting he is so smart I always learn so much listening to him Gore Vidal and we are offering you the opportunity to listen to over 7 hours of Gore Vidal and the Gore Vidal memorial collection from the Pacifica Radio Archives it's not an m p 3 cd 120 bucks to kape if a During this vital summer important fund drive we're asking you to call 1804395732180439 k. P.s.a. Or k p f a dot o r g on line I just managed to erase you got rid of all of our information about how we're doing and I go. Figure out how do you do that 180437321804395732 online a.k.p. Of a dot org That's where you can make a contribution to help keep a p.f.a. On the air for pledge of $120.00 we will send you the gore of the dollar memorial collection from the Pacifica Radio Archives It is a number of his speeches over 7 hours of material yours for a pledge of $120.18 online a-K. P.f.a. Dot org We're really waiting for these 1st few donations start start coming through for this hour in I want to do I actually think it was some of my fault that we didn't get any really in our 1st pitch Chris because I was a little distracted as you indicated my microphone wasn't working we couldn't figure out why my headphones aren't working as well you know we actually got to repair some of this stuff but But what was most remarkable is you fixed it but people couldn't see how you did it but I could. You were basically crawling all over the table here and following the wires where they left if you go and I was I have to admit I was a little distracted by watch that and it was amazing and done chrissake I guess and so folks pledge for Chris Welch you know that for this great radio program No I enjoy listening to you Chris I enjoy listening to you I don't know but you have this great radio presence and Kuma that comes out and you get into politics and and there's a warmth in and you just really I've learned a great deal from you and I am actually very honest about this about about how to be on the radio and the truth is you're on the trick is you're on the radio the way you are in real life and that's where it really gets to the heart of it right there you know it's like I don't really start running yet Jennifer's Yeah. Right when you hear something like I just like how these people are on the air that's actually how they are in real life it's a real person and then you're getting it so folks. Help us with that note as Opus 18043957321804395732 online a k p f a o r g The Gore Vidal memorial collection over 7 hours on an m p 3 s. For $120.00 We're listening to a talk he gave on the decline and rebirth of the American republic in Stamford in 1901 and let's go back to that what's he going to talk about next oh yes so. He was starting off. Ok. Thank you or let's go back to that. At the beginning it was fear. That the popularly elected House of Representatives would take over the government because House dominated the money supply. But the 1st wild card in the Constitutional. Was not the House of Representatives it was the Supreme Court. The court was never given the right to review much less override actions of the Congress or of the president. In fact Article 3 of the Constitution gives the court all the usual duties of an English court of law but like an English court subject always to the popularly elected House and to quote such exceptions and under such regulations as Congress shall make on. It was as we remember from history school it was Chief Justice John Marshall who seized for the court the power to review acts of Congress and that was an 1803 in the famous Marbury vs Madison Marshall declared that an act of the Congress was unconstitutional but he did nothing about it he simply set a precedent. 54 years later the court eager as always to protect property this time in the form of the slave Dred Scott would run away from his master the court declared unconstitutional the Missouri Compromise and with that harebrained decision the civil war was inevitable. Since then the Supreme Court has behaved with ever increasing recklessness. Striking down acts of that Congress which has its constitutional master while behaving generally as if it were a legislative body. Although the Supreme Court is seldom wise it is often witty. When the 14th Amendment sternly for bad the state to deprive any person of life liberty or property without the process of law the court joyously interpreted the word person to mean corporation thereby helping the robber barons to pull off their capers and avoid jail and taxes. As the population of the United States increased the franchise has now been extended to include everyone over 18 so in theory we now have a democracy but in practice we have the same oligarchy that we had at the very beginning and that explains why after 2 sentries we have never been able to develop political parties. No parties there are no parties in our own existence that represent the actual interests of a highly varied and complex people. Publicists for our system have always said. That the genius of the so-called 2 party. Arrangement is that it never divides along India logical lines now there is a sneaking suspicion that not only does the arrangement lack any ideology but it also lacks any ideas. There is no energy program there is no coherent foreign policy there is no notion how to compete industrially with other countries . In this century the only thing which the ownership of the country really understands is the preparation for war. Actual wars they try to avoid since they tend to lose them. And they lose these wars because it's very hard to get people who have no loyalty to a country that excludes them from power to fight for that country. Or as Mohammed Ali so wisely said I got nothing against them Vietcong. Meanwhile we're told that our president cannot govern. They are blocked by Congress by the bureaucracy by the special interests by the moon in Saturn. Now this is all nonsense except for the last. Our presidents have the power to do just about anything that they want to do. Through a series of executive orders Johnson and Nixon kept us at war in Vietnam without a declaration of war by Congress and was certainly without the support of the people at large. Finally after 8 years of war by decree Congress threatened to turn off the money and since the president if not Dr Kissinger was worn out the war came to an end. Yet even today whenever a president wants to overthrow a foreign government spy on an American citizen and kill a foreign leader he can do so through his strong right arm the CIA. Although the Congress has the privilege of giving the CIA some $8000000000.00 a year they may not really investigate it or control that. The CIA is the president's personal hit squad and no president will ever give it up presently I notice in Congress the CIA would like to be allowed legally for a change to spy on Americans in our own country I am sure Congress will let them do it. To date there have been more than $15000.00 executive orders and each has the same power domestically as an act of Congress even when it usurps the rights of the Congress for instance it was by executive agreement that Carter broke off relations with Taiwan without the Senate's advice or consent. It is interesting that Congress has never once over ruled an executive order while the Supreme Court has never questioned the principle a rule by decree I think that nicely takes care of the so-called famous checks and balances of our old constitution. Every 4 years we elect a dictator. In practice as well as inferi he can do pretty much what he wants to do luckily for us he doesn't ever seem to want to do much of anything. If Carter had really wanted an energy program in 1977 he could have had it through a series of executive orders but he didn't want to he would have had to tax gasoline or more ration it and this would have cost him votes 1980 so he threw his program of Congress which did not want an energy program either because they also had to face the electorate so nothing was done and Carter could blame Congress and Congress could blame Carter during the last campaign we heard a lot about a balanced budget. Every politician knows that the federal budget can never be balanced I should add of course under the present system of government. This is the way things really are or seem to be as of today the current budget for $181.00 is $739000000000.00 which will mean a deficit of anywhere from 30 to $60000000000.00 Mr Reagan would like to cut the overall budget by some $30000000000.00 while increasing the defense budget by yes $30000000000.00. In order to contain the menace a monolithic international atheistic and godless communism which is forever on the March even as we sit here today. Now all of this nonsense is designed to fool the people the Pentagon has more money than it knows what to do with as for cutting the federal budget Congress and the presidents have seen to it the practive nothing can ever be legally cut. Of the total budget 79 percent now represents service on the debt and transfer payments to people in the forms of social security Medicaid food stamps and the maintenance of former presidents which is a growth industry. Oh boy don't get me started on what they get to collect just and congresspeople to this day without working their their retirement a pension something well they get that they get Yeah you worked on Capitol Hill Yeah but I didn't get a pension for us. Is not nearly as good. Of this whole the whole trajectory of Mitch his career. In my mind is 1st there was Sacramento or maybe that was 2nd then there was Chiapas and then there was Washington d.c. And in all of them he's in his chair rolling up to people that I just I just you know so you're meeting some of these. Horrible Congress people well the funny thing is. This is interesting on Capitol Hill Republicans were always the nicest people. There were there many of them were from the south they had that Southern hospitality going on and you know are calm and would take a 2nd to chat with you Jeff Sessions would always talk to me and I always went to Jeff Sessions for my stories when he was a senator from Alabama because he would always give me something crazy and it just added so much cover to my stories right so let's go do something crazy there is Jeff Sessions never Chris Welch ever think that he would be attorney general of the United States the top law enforcement officer in this country and then the Democrats they're the ones are kind of scary they're like Craig Barbara Boxer was kind of not easy to actually go when she was a senator. Chuck Schumer and Chuck Schumer is not a very nice man I got to be very honest with you that some of them are Richard Durbin was one of my favorites actually Harry Reid who is actually a very a very nice man well you would think that Barbara might know about Kate b.f.a. I don't let him out or just let our staff and I knows I might get in trouble just saying this right now but it wasn't a nerd I mean you know. Now we're not talking politics here we're just talking you know people's personal time or is on the air or walking through the Capitol as yeah you pick up a lot just washing and you've just been so many places and done so many things Michel but now I'm trying to make the goal yes and I haven't done that yet but if we can make the goal I would be boy it were our goal for this hour it says right here on the paper is $2000.00 and we're about $450.00 Ok better at the math and I would like to think Lenin Sonoma Bless your heart thank you for calling and then Emerald hills and Oakland are all. Represented and so is Paris France where. I went to college with. Calls in almost every fun drive bless his heart Arnie even though there were times when we weren't speaking. For. Trying to get me to move all the whole family just come to France live in France. But would it terrible idea. Very attractive. So very attractive Well the idea. Don't have to worry about your health care you have to worry about your education and for your whatever is beautiful I can see my my nephew and my niece every day they live there never mind we're here and I'm blessed to be here because I would not have this opportunity to see you or to be on the air I really love my job I love. So much I've gotten so much in my life from so many wonderful wonderful connections that like ripples in the stream they go beyond this room and this building and that's big some of it is that just like the radio waves and that's where we're hoping we are reaching you community really is a community. Radio station in the Bay Area but in fact as you said you've got the. Fact it ripples throughout the world listeners throughout the world community this is a progressive community a sort of serves as this to bring it all together so that we can so that in one way or or another we can we can be in contact or we can we can have a network of people because explicitly if you are one of those crazy lefties right you're the only one in your. Family that way only one in your class that way the only one in your neighborhood that way and you're that crazy person with a k p f a bumper sticker on your car and and in through k. P.f.a. Though I think this is a way that we're not so alone this is the way we do reach people I mean I did grow up in a small town at the outskirts of the Bay Area you know like a p.f.a. Connected to me something that I wasn't actually able to get in my neighborhood or even in my my own family house right now that's one of the great reasons why this radio station is so important and that's one of the reasons we really want to urge you to support us right now because well we are in a bit of a serious moment for this radio station we have just now 3 and a half days left of this short summer fund drive and we are still $200000.00 away from our overall goal Duckie p.f.a. Has always been on the edge and you know that Chris as times are never really that great for k.b. Of a when it comes to financial media are our financial obligations but somehow we seem to get by but but every time but just because we've made it before does not necessarily mean we're going to make it again right Ev I'm always ask myself we're always asking ourselves Ok is it this time we're going to go down there. And so I hope not not during this era of Donald Trump and so much uncertainty we need the voices like we get from Paul from the Da we're having a memorial show for Gore but all as he died 6 years ago today but also many of the other people Chris Welch that you bring on this radio program that are so until exactly again after the show you bring in a digit describe what's happening right now and try to make it so hard to make sense of this very moment I struggle with this that's why I kind of going to his family or I can't take this anymore what happened in the past Wow can I be informed the past but you bring people to go on to make sense of this moment right now and that is a credibly important. And they say everybody is struggling with it that's that's the truth and that's where you need the comfort of k.p. F.a. And I'd like to get to play a little bit more do we have time even maybe we don't know the phone number Ok Well yes number 1804395732180439. Is about keeping the radio station alive and well that's that's it that's the bottom line and over the years we have taken pay cuts we have done all kinds of things is the folks that work here and and everything is at the bone and sometimes a little too close like the case there with those headphones. My microphone just had been plugged in that wasn't. Plugged into headphones now in here do not work but that stuff is minimal What is important is that the 59000 watts of power is still there and still broadcasting these alternative views alternative takes on our history on our present and on the future that has potential and on the potential that's it potential is really important hope is really important and it's. And you can't get it if you don't have anybody talking about and you certainly don't have anybody talking about it in mainstream media and from the White House like oh no or wringing your hands or or you know that's not true or what was the latest thing what was the latest thing I know I love this one though that Trump has declined said that the the Koch brothers are like a joke and they have their overblown and over that I do love it go after each other fight each other. Trump Well I think that I think Trump has a self destruction. That he can't keep from bringing it up because I was thinking before he went to go meet with Putin and this isn't really a commentary on Russia and everything but you know what's going on politically in this country in the controversies is that his relationship with Putin in light of. Election everything is cause. Before he did that I actually felt like we were witnessing this transformation of his presidency from one that was seen as accidental to one that he was becoming more of a formidable player and starting to get it and then in this last month just everything if you blow it up again it's just crazy I get up I don't think this guy can avoid it I don't think this guy can say the right thing and order we all sometimes say something we don't fully believe just for social cohesion you know what I mean I don't always say what's on the top of my head because of to do so you have to weigh what is the what's the fallout going to be from doing it and is it worth it you know he could've went to his meeting with Putin and just been like hey . You know he said in the meeting of Putin to say look I had to go out there and act like a hard ass right and be like you have course you do I get it and in fact say this about me they'll dig that up right whatever and then you know Trump comes out on the stage and says you know the the integrity of our elections are very important to us and you know my intelligence tells us that there was interference from Russia and I told them or Putin then this has to stop and we're demanding it to stop that said there's very important reasons why we should have a relationship with Russia we have issues in Syria we both have the majority of the world's nuclear weapons I don't for you know that that's what you say that's what any normal person would have said you know this guy right he just had a light the flame and drop it. And but Bill what it was it wasn't about international issues his was about lighting the flame and burning down what's happening here and knowing that this was just going to drive people further apart that's why we have Muslim residents I think that was to me very instructive and his his base has got to keep energized in order to. Go to the polls in November much less than 20 basis like the crazy Right and so. I have one of my best friends in the entire world is I don't know if she will actually vote for him but she is very pro Mr Trump living in the Bay Area I mean that's part of his appeal right we all like that one person who's willing to say anything you know get everyone angry. And he says it about you and everybody has been everybody but you know China has treated our. What you call it our. Stuff badly intellectual property thank you and like school property and there and there are people that feel that we have been treated unfairly on the international stage that we do all the heavy lifting. How do we get here but the price of Empire Kris 10439572 let go of the doll tell you about that because he does it in his beautiful beautiful language and irrefutable understanding of what has happened and why he is anti imperialist an anti militarist in particular how the history of the United States and the society have been reduced he says to a decadent empire by a militaristic foreign policy. That there is no plan there there might not be a plan as he says there's no coherence but. It certainly has an impact we're. Offering you the one we've offering you the m p 3 cd with over 7 hours of the Gore Vidal memorial collection that's what our gift is for this hour Mitch and I are pitching together to try to raise $2000.00 toward our goal we're asking you to call 180-439-5732 extension 4120 dollars we will be delighted to send you and you will be delighted to have the Garvan Dolma Morial collection 7 hours of his stuff he's we listen to we've been listening to one talk that he gave in 1981 at Stanford in entitled The decline and rebirth of the American republic get it all 1804395732180439 k.p.s. a Here's one an evening for solidarity and Merican workers an artist for solidarity in New York City Susan Sontag e.l. Doctorow Studs Terkel Gore Vidal Kurt Vonnegut etc. And there's his speech this is all in this m p 3 cd 180-439-5732 we're desperately looking at homes Oh hi Ed you know it Ed does the greatest nose kissing I have ever had in my entire life. Now it's no yes. Is nose kissing in well as are those. At least when it does it that Holmes is the best Dick Cheney oh yes he is also the best Dick Cheney. Ever meet. He that and that was the voice of the December voice of sing a song who is coming up very shortly and has never been down actually he's always been up so yes we're going to offer at homes as a thank you and some time 180-439-5732 that we will Chris we're short and I need to pick it up and we have a minute to do it and we've been honoring kind of. Orbit all this hour on the anniversary of his death $420.00 pledge it entire collection of his speeches the war of it all memorial collection from the Pacifica Radio Archives 120 dollars 180-439-5732 that's the phone number 180-432-9573 extension 21 line a cape b.f.a. And of course Chris people can still call that will still count for us the next couple of minutes after this hour but you got to go to our phones right now thank you Mitch so much for joining me today Always a pleasure and many thanks to Eric abridgement at the controls and thank all of you for listening and for pledging to see tomorrow 180-439-5732 online a k t f a o r g. And you are listening to 94 point one k. P.f.a. And 89.3 k p f e n Berkeley 88 point one K.F.C.'s in Fresno 97.5 k. 248 b. Are in Santa Cruz and on line. Org at the time is 12 noon state to next for against the grain. Today on against the grain getting older is no fun death is to be feared old age means being frail and helpless and then along comes from dos who takes on and baboons all of that conventional thinking time C.E.O.'s song from dos the prominent spiritual seeker best selling author psychologist and former Harvard professor talks about teaching changing living and dying after these news headlines. I'm Christina on a stud with these k. P.f.a. News headlines firefighters from at least 15 states as far away as Maine are helping fight California 17 large blazes are on their way federal officials have asked Australia and New Zealand to send nearly $200.00 firefighters who specialize in fighting wildfires 2 of the wildfires in northern California counties of Mendocino and Lake grew to a total of 115 square miles yesterday firefighters say they still have containment of under 10 percent at a morning briefing to a meeting of the Lake County Board of Supervisors a count fire official says state resources are already stretched thin before the 2 fires broke out Friday. There is a higher demand for resources or in Shasta here are we having hard fire Ferguson far off from the sorry dude in your Simone. Tonight continue the problems and then there is a fire going on in Riverside County which is it is experiencing the same thing then the Mendocino complex.