Gross Violation of International Law
We talked about the invasion of Venezuela that happened after we'd recorded last week's program. That was such a flagrant violation of international law and the United Nations Charter. We plan to put some more information about what we talked about up here soon, so check back for those updates.
The next regular WBAI LSB meeting will be held on Wednesday January 14, 2026, at 7:00 PM. That meeting will be held on ZOOM, even though ZOOM compromises privacy and security.
Some years ago the WBAI LSB voted to hold its regular meetings on the second Wednesday night of every month, subject to change by the LSB, so we have the following schedule:
These meetings are set to begin at 7:00 PM.
WBAI has a program schedule up on its Web site. The site has gotten many of the individual program pages together to provide links and such, so check it out.
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Here is WBAI's current Internet stream. We can no longer tell if the stream is working without testing every possible stream. Good luck.
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WBAI is archiving the programs! WBAI has permanently switched to yet another new archive Web page! This one is more baffling than the previous one. For some time I was unable to post archive blurbs, then I could, and then I couldn't again. Now I can again and there are a whole bunch of archive blurbs up there now.
This is a link to the latest version of the official WBAI archive. The archiving software appears to have been at least partially fixed. To get to the archive of this program you can use the usual method: you'll have to click on the drop-down menu, which says Display,
and find Back of the Book on that menu. We're pretty early in the list, so it shouldn't be too difficult. Once you find the program name click GO
and you'll see only this Back of the Book program. Management has fixed some problems that we'd been having with the archives.
For programs before March 23, 2019, we're all out of luck. The changes that took place once WBAI Management took control of the WBAI archives seems to have wiped out all access to anything before that date in March. You'll have to click on the same drop-down menu as above, which says Display,
and find Specify Date
, it's the second choice from the top. You are then given a little pop-up calendar and you can choose the date of the program there. Then click GO
and you'll see a list of programs that aired on that date. For those previous programs you can get the audio, but nothing else, since I can't post anything to those pages anymore. Good luck.
Since the former General Manager banned Sidney Smith from WBAI he's not alternating with us on the air. As of November 2020, Back of the Book airs weekly.
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Trump invaded Venezuela, captured president Nicholás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores after we'd recorded last week's program. The invasion used about 150 aircraft of all types and killed about 80 people, many of them civilians. Donnie Bonespur
Trump then said that we
were going to run Venezuela, but then he left the Venezuelan Vice-President and the rest of that government in place. It seems as if he's under the delusion that if he gives them orders they have to do what he says, even if it's absurd. Trump wouldn't name Maria Corina Machado as the legitimate president of Venezuela, saying that she doesn't have support there. That's nuts, she got something close to 70% of the votes in the last election they had. Trump obviously has no idea how he and his pals are going to run
Venezuela. It has been suggested that he's not naming Ms. Machado president because she won the Nobel Peace Prize and Trump did not.
In the press conference Trump held last Saturday morning he emphasizes Vanezuela's oil a lot. All he seems to know is that he's making friends with the big oil companies because he's giving them exclusive rights to the largest oil deposits on Earth! But those oil companies already support him. They may want more now because it's going to cost a lot of money to get the oil industry in Venezuela going at full speed and it will take years to do it. Will the oil companies stay interested for the long haul? What if China, which has been investing in South America for a while now, is playing the long game and has decided to wait until Trump falters or leaves office to do something there?
We also have to think about those oil companies using their profits to help right-wing candidates get elected in the United States. They'll be even more able to help with political donations if they've got oil revenue rolling in from the United States government and from the sale of Venezuelan oil. They're going to want to keep the spigot open.
Trump tried to justify his invasion of a sovereign country by saying that it was war, but Congress has declared no war. He also said that a country has the right to make sure that it's neighbors are friendly. Venezuela is pretty far away from the United States. And Trump is also talking about taking over Greenland again, he's even suggesting the use of military force to do it.
It's worth noting that Russia and the so-called People's Republic of China are watching all of this. I'm sure they're glad to agree with Trump that a country can make sure that it's neighbors are friendly toward it. Putin has been making Georgia and Ukraine friendly
for years now. If Putin takes a page out of Trump's stupid book then Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Poland and even Sweden will have to be worried about being made friendly
too. The so-called People's Republic of China has been making the same assertions about Taiwan for more than 70 years now. They also have made similar assertions about Viet Nam and the Philippines. I'm sure those large, aggressive and heavily armed countries will be glad to participate in Trump's new World Order where force and violence are all that counts.
The bottom line here is that Trump is an ignorant fool and apparently doesn't see what's going to happen if he keeps going in the direction he's been going.
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There are a lot of issues that are considered hazardous to talk about on the air at WBAI, even though the gag rule was lifted in 2002. However, there is the Internet! There are mailing lists which you can subscribe to and Web based message boards devoted to WBAI and Pacifica issues. Many controversial WBAI/Pacifica issues are discussed on these lists.
One open list that no longer exists was the WBAI-specific Goodlight
Web based message board. It was sometimes referred to on Back of the Book as the bleepin' blue board,
owing to the blue background that was used on its Web pages. This one had many people posting anonymously and there was also an ancillary WBAI people
board that was just totally out of hand.
In June 2012, I ended up having to salvage the bleepin' blue board, and so I was the moderator on it for its last seven years, until it got too expensive.
Sometimes we used to have live interaction with people posting on the Goodlight Board
during the program.
Our very own Uncle Sidney Smith, whose program Saturday Morning With the Radio On used to alternate with us, has a blog these days. You can reach his blog here.
There used to be a number of mailing lists related to Pacifica and WBAI. Unfortunately, they were all located on Yahoo! Groups. When Yahoo! Groups was totally shut down in December 2020, all of those mailing lists ceased to exist. One year earlier their file sections and archives of E-mails, had been excised leaving only the ability to send E-mails back and forth among the members. Now it's all gone. Older Back of the Book program Web pages tell a little more about those lists.
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