Generated Summary of Video Below:

Video Description:

N.O.R.E. & DJ EFN are the Drink Champs. In this classic flashback episode we chop it up with the legendary Black Star (Yasiin Bey and Talib Kweli) and comedy icon, Dave Chappelle!

This extended version of our episode includes more stories, more laughs and more shots from everyone!

Lots of great stories that you don’t want to miss!!

Make some noise for Black Star and Dave Chappelle!!! 💐💐💐🏆🏆🏆

This episode was originally released on September 9th, 2022

Generated Summary:

Introduction and Musical Context

• The video begins with a musical introduction, creating an engaging atmosphere as the host, DJ EFN, greets the audience and introduces the guests.
• DJ EFN expresses surprise at seeing two influential figures, referred to as brothers, reunited, highlighting their individual journeys and recent musical endeavors.
• The conversation shifts to the release of a new album by these artists, which was specifically released for their fans, rather than through mainstream platforms like Spotify or iTunes.
• DJ EFN emphasizes the lyrical prowess of the artists, indicating they have maintained their quality and relevance in the music industry despite the passage of time.

Personal Reflections on Music and Life

• One of the guests reflects on their personal struggles with motivation and passion for music, sharing that they often revisit a particular clip that inspires them to keep going.
• The discussion touches on themes of self-identity and the importance of recognizing one's own greatness, with the guest recalling their early confidence in their talent as a lyricist.
• There is an honest admission about the challenges of staying passionate about music in the face of industry pressures and personal doubts.
• The guest recounts their experiences of falling out of love with the music business, distinguishing the art of music from the commercial aspects of the industry.

Travel and Cultural Experiences

• The conversation transitions to the guest's travels, particularly a time spent in Africa where they encountered bureaucratic challenges regarding their travel documents.
• The guest shares a humorous anecdote about misconceptions regarding travel requirements, particularly vaccinations, and how they navigated these experiences with a friend.
• A dialogue ensues about the significance of their music and how it resonates with fans, emphasizing the need for artists to connect authentically with their audience.
• The guests reflect on the impact of their work on the culture and the responsibility they feel to produce meaningful art that resonates with their community.

Navigating the Music Industry

• The discussion highlights the challenges faced by artists in the current music landscape, particularly regarding fan engagement and the distribution of music.
• There is a critique of the younger generation's approach to music, suggesting that despite having access to resources like Google, they still struggle to support artists effectively.
• The guests discuss their strategic decision to release their music on Luminary, a subscription-based platform, emphasizing the importance of controlling their art's distribution.
• They express the belief that artists should have the autonomy to choose how and where they distribute their work, reflecting on their journey and the evolution of their artistic choices.

Cultural Impact and Artistic Integrity

• The conversation delves into the cultural significance of their music and how it reflects broader societal issues, particularly within their communities.
• The guests discuss the importance of addressing and representing the realities of their experiences through their art without glorifying negative stereotypes.
• They emphasize the need for artists to be mindful of the narratives they promote, advocating for responsible storytelling that uplifts rather than demeans their communities.
• The dialogue underscores the idea that their music serves as a historical document, capturing the essence of their experiences and the cultural zeitgeist.

Celebrating Cultural Contributions

• The guests express gratitude for the opportunity to create art that resonates with people, acknowledging the support of their fans and the cultural significance of their work.
• They reflect on the legacy of their contributions to hip-hop and the importance of recognizing and celebrating the achievements of their peers.
• DJ EFN closes the segment by emphasizing the importance of giving flowers to those who have shaped the culture, highlighting the collaborative spirit of the hip-hop community.
• The conversation concludes with a toast, symbolizing camaraderie and the shared journey of the artists in the ever-evolving landscape of music and culture.

About Channel:

The most professional, unprofessional podcast… PERIOD! #DRINKCHAMPS

Honduras has threatened to expel United States troops, retaliating against incoming President Donald Trump’s plans to carry out mass deportations of refugees and asylum seekers entering the US from Central America.

“In the face of a hostile attitude of mass expulsion of our brothers, we would have to consider a change in our cooperation policies with the United States, especially in the military field, where for decades, without paying a cent, they maintain military bases on our territory, which in this case would lose all reason to exist in Honduras,” she said in a Spanish statement broadcast on national television.

Soto Cano, which became operational in the 1980s to combat perceived communist threats in the region, hosts more than 1,000 US military and civilian personnel. It is also one of the few locations capable of landing large planes between the US and Colombia, apart from Guantanamo.

“The hypocrisy to say that they’re using it [Soto Cano] to fight drug trafficking when the US was shoring up, legitimating and pouring millions of dollars into the president of Honduras and his corrupt police and military,” Dana Frank, professor emerita of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told Al Jazeera.

Hondurans play a key role in the US economy, particularly in labour-intensive sectors. In the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore in March 2024, one of the six construction workers killed was a Honduran national, while others were immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

Trump has pledged swift deportations of undocumented immigrants, but his team has provided no concrete plans, leaving Latin American governments uncertain as they try to prepare.

To be sure, Soto Cano played a key role in the 1980s in the US-backed Contra War against Nicaragua and supported operations in El Salvador.

“It has a long and nasty history,” Frank noted, including its use during the 2009 military coup in Honduras, when removed President Manuel Zelaya’s plane refuelled there.

“The US military has been considering its withdrawal from Soto Cano for some time,” Olson said, adding that missions such as counter-narcotics and emergency response could be conducted from other locations.

“This will likely be spun into a broader anti-communist Cold War framework,” she said.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/23861196

Generated Summary of Video Below:

Video Description:

Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) interviews Retired General Wesley Clark. Clark talks about his opposition to a U.S. attack on Iran; the impeachment of President Bush; the use of cluster bombs; the bombing of Radio Television Serbia in the Kosovo War under his command; U.S. service members refusing deployments to Iraq. (3-2-2007)

Generated Summary:

U.S. Military Actions and Iran

• General Wesley Clark discusses the potential for a U.S. attack on Iran, drawing parallels to the lead-up to the Iraq War, particularly the allegations of weapons of mass destruction.
• Clark expresses concern that history may repeat itself, noting that Iran was a more significant threat compared to Iraq, a point he made during his congressional testimony in 2002.
• He recounts a conversation shortly after 9/11 when military officials indicated a decision had already been made to go to war with Iraq, despite lacking evidence linking Saddam Hussein to al-Qaeda.
• Clark reveals that a memo he saw outlined plans to take out seven countries, including Iran, within five years, highlighting a broader strategy beyond Iraq.
• He elaborates on Iran's perception of U.S. presence in Iraq as both a threat and a blessing, as it removed Saddam but also made them feel vulnerable.
• Clark indicates that Iran has engaged in building its influence in Iraq, providing military assistance to insurgents and militias, which complicates the situation further.
• He emphasizes that while military action is an option, it should be a last resort, advocating for dialogue instead of confrontation.

Pentagon Planning and Covert Operations

• Clark discusses a report by Seymour Hersh indicating that the Pentagon has established a special planning group to prepare for a bombing attack on Iran.
• He highlights the involvement of Saudi Arabia in funding covert operations to strengthen Sunni groups in the Middle East, which includes supporting jihadist factions against Iranian-backed Shia forces.
• The conversation touches on the implications of U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, suggesting that a power vacuum could lead to the rise of extremist groups like al-Qaeda.
• Clark warns that early withdrawal could inadvertently empower Sunni extremists and destabilize the region further.

Military Leadership and Morality

• The discussion shifts to the moral responsibilities of military leaders, with Clark recalling a time when generals faced ethical dilemmas regarding military interventions.
• He reflects on the importance of asking moral and ethical questions before engaging in military action, highlighting a historical context where military decisions led to unnecessary loss of life.
• Clark expresses encouragement for military leaders who question the legality and morality of current operations, emphasizing that such scrutiny is vital for responsible leadership.

Conscientious Objectors and War Legality

• The conversation includes a mention of soldiers refusing deployment to Iraq, particularly focusing on First Lieutenant Ehren Watada, who declared the war illegal and immoral.
• Clark acknowledges the courage of such refusals but also stresses the need for discipline within the armed forces to ensure operational effectiveness.
• He distinguishes between legal and moral objections to war, stating that while the Iraq War is authorized, it is strategically misguided.

Guantanamo Bay and Military Commissions

• Clark advocates for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, arguing that it undermines American values and legal principles.
• He calls for the repeal of the Military Commissions Act, expressing concern over the use of evidence obtained through torture in military trials.
• Clark emphasizes the need for a cooperative international approach to counter-terrorism, arguing that military force should be a last resort.

Impeachment and Accountability

• Clark discusses the possibility of impeaching President George W. Bush, suggesting that the focus should first be on understanding the intelligence failures that led to the Iraq War.
• He expresses frustration over the lack of investigation into the administration's use of intelligence to justify the war, emphasizing the need for accountability.
• Clark touches on the implications of war crimes, indicating that there should be consequences for individuals responsible for unlawful military actions.

Military Strategy and Cluster Bombs

• Clark reflects on the use of cluster bombs during military operations, acknowledging their effectiveness but stressing the need for careful control and regulation.
• He recounts incidents from the Kosovo campaign where civilian casualties occurred, reinforcing his belief that military force should only be used when absolutely necessary.
• He supports the idea of banning cluster bombs but recognizes the complexities involved in military strategy and the need for appropriate weaponry.

Conclusion and Future Engagement

• In conclusion, Clark emphasizes the importance of a comprehensive strategy that incorporates diplomatic, economic, and military elements to address conflicts in the Middle East.
• He advocates for direct engagement with countries like Iran and Syria to foster stability and peace in the region.
• Clark expresses his belief that the U.S. must change its approach to foreign policy to effectively address the challenges it faces, rather than focusing solely on military solutions.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/23798208

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17197150

1. Gen. Wesley Clark, Democracy Now! interview, 2007. Objective: take out 7 countries in 5 years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Iran.

A song of war and peace, but mainly a song of personal responsibility which cries out not against the ‘little guy’ but against the ‘guy who knows better,’ against those who work or fight in an unjust cause, who turn their heads or shut their eyes or cross to the other side of the street."

Taken from the back cover of It’s My Way!^[[1] https://genius.com/Buffy-sainte-marie-the-universal-soldier-lyrics]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/23791494

Generated Summary of Video Below:

Censorship and Control of Information

• The discussion begins with the acknowledgment of the significant censorship practices employed by major digital platforms, which include removing posts, disabling accounts, and restricting user interactions.
• Shadow banning is highlighted as a technique where the visibility and reach of a person's content are significantly reduced without their knowledge.
• The recent escalation of censorship has been linked to the geopolitical situation in Gaza, where efforts to control information have intensified, particularly by Israel and its allies.
• Critics within tech corporations, including Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Meta, have faced repercussions for speaking out against these censorship practices, with some employees being terminated for their activism.
• Specific examples include the firing of Microsoft employees who organized a vigil for Palestinians, as well as Google staff who criticized the company's contract with the Israeli military.
• Meta's actions have been scrutinized for deleting posts that condemn violence in Gaza and banning accounts that advocate for Palestinian rights, with reports of mass deletions occurring across their platforms.

Corporate Influence and Employment Consequences

• The discussion reveals that employees in major tech companies have faced severe consequences for their activism, including firings and investigations, particularly when advocating for Palestinian rights.
• For instance, two Microsoft employees were dismissed for organizing protests against the company's involvement in Israeli military operations.
• Apple's significant investments in Israel, including the establishment of a major research center, have drawn criticism for complicity in the ongoing conflict.
• The narrative suggests a systemic bias within these corporations that favors pro-Israel sentiments while suppressing pro-Palestinian voices, leading to a culture of fear among employees.
• The testimonies of former employees illustrate a pattern of retaliation against those who challenge the status quo or express solidarity with Palestinian causes.

Manipulation of Narrative and Content Moderation Policies

• The power dynamics within these corporations are explored, particularly how leadership ties to the Israeli government influence content moderation practices.
• Policies at Meta, for example, are criticized for being biased against content that supports Palestinian perspectives while promoting narratives that support Israel.
• Examples of content suppression include the removal of posts advocating for ceasefires or peace in Palestine, contrasted with the amplification of pro-Israel sentiments.
• The conversation highlights the role of algorithms in enforcing these policies, which are often influenced by the personal biases of those in power within these companies.
• The narrative suggests that the systemic bias against Palestinian content is part of a broader pattern of digital colonialism, where tech companies prioritize profit and political alignment over ethical considerations.

Real-World Implications of Digital Censorship

• The implications of digital censorship extend beyond social media, impacting real-world perceptions and actions regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
• The use of algorithms and AI technologies in military operations, particularly by the Israeli military, is discussed as a concerning trend, with claims that these technologies are utilized to conduct targeted operations against Palestinians.
• Specific systems, such as those developed by Israeli tech firms, are described as enabling the military to classify Palestinians as terrorists and target them effectively.
• The connection between tech companies and military operations raises ethical questions about the role of technology in modern warfare and the responsibilities of corporations in these contexts.
• The conversation emphasizes the need for greater accountability and transparency from tech companies regarding their involvement in military operations and their role in perpetuating narratives that justify violence against Palestinians.

Personal Accounts of Activism and Retaliation

• Personal stories from former employees illustrate the risks associated with advocating for Palestinian rights within their companies, highlighting a culture of fear and retaliation.
• One employee recounts being fired shortly after publishing an op-ed criticizing Apple's policies and their lack of support for Palestinian issues.
• Another former employee describes being subjected to an internal investigation simply for questioning the company's stance on human rights, illustrating the lengths to which corporations will go to suppress dissent.
• These experiences underscore the broader implications of corporate policies that prioritize profit and political alignment over ethical considerations and social justice.
• The testimonies serve as a call to action for greater solidarity among employees and the need for continued advocacy against corporate complicity in human rights abuses.

Conclusion and Call for Accountability

• The discussion concludes with a call for increased accountability from tech companies regarding their role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the need for transparency in their policies.
• Activists emphasize the importance of collective action and solidarity among employees to challenge corporate practices that enable oppression.
• The testimonies shared highlight the urgent need for a reevaluation of corporate ethics, particularly in relation to human rights and social justice.
• The narrative advocates for a future where technology serves to uplift marginalized voices rather than suppress them, promoting a more equitable digital landscape.

Joining host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report are three courageous individuals who chose to put their careers on the line to fight against Big Tech suppression of voices fighting for Palestinian lives.

Saima Akhter, a former data analyst at Meta; Hossam Nasr, a former software engineer at Microsoft; and Tariq Ra’ouf, a former tech expert at Apple, speak about the internal struggles they dealt with in light of the genocide, which ultimately led to each of their dismissals.

Covering US foreign policy, economic realities, and civil liberties in American society.

Singer Iyah May has emerged as the new darling of the political right after her latest track, "Karmageddon," became a viral hit on social media.

Erasing any doubt about the lyrical targets, May's website describes the track as "addressing the pandemic narrative, corruption within political, pharmaceutical, and health institutions, the Israel-Palestine conflict, violence against women and the social chaos that has swept through the world in the past few years."

Her musical journey, states the site, "began as a broke medical student researching HIV in New York. A chance ride in an NYPD car to rapper Shaggy's house, where she performed a cover song and ate his hummus, marked the start of her solo career."

"To me this shows that sooo many of us have felt unseen, excluded, confused and disheartened during the last few years," she continued. "I hear you, I see you and you're not alone.

• Corporations swear they never lie
• Politicians bribed for life
• More than war, it's genocide
• This is Karmageddon^[[1] https://genius.com/Iyah-may-karmageddon-lyrics]

Since Kamala Harris’s catastrophic electoral defeat last month—the first time since 2004 that the Republican candidate has gotten the most votes in a U.S. election—a lot of criticism has been focused on the campaign’s message. That criticism is warranted, and long before Election Day, this publication had been among those warning that Harris was failing to effectively counter Trump’s populist appeal. But a campaign is not just a candidate and a message. It is also an organization, one with a budget and staff that makes decisions about actions that can be taken to transmit the message and convince people to turn out for the candidate. And any election postmortem needs to analyze Harris’s operation in addition to her words.

The New York Times, for instance, has reported that even as the Harris campaign splurged on celebrity-filled events (including paying Oprah’s production company $1 million), in Philadelphia, many of the field offices “were filthy and lacked basic supplies like tables, chairs, cleaning products and printers, staff members said,” with city campaign staffers “being forced to raid the campaign’s better-stocked suburban offices or to raise money independently.” That is when they even had field offices, and in many predominantly Black neighborhoods “campaign staff members were operating out of public parks, grocery-store parking lots and church basements.” A volunteer told the Times: “There were no yard signs, there was no visibility, there were no T-shirts… There was nobody handing out literature. There were no bumper stickers. There was no sign that we were in the fight of our lives in the most important city in a presidential campaign.”

Even when there were T-shirts, they could be slapdash (one box of them said “Harriz-Walz”). A “get-out-the-vote bus tour for [Pennsylvania’s] Black mayors” had its funding pulled without explanation. The head of a pro-Harris group “recounted frantic campaign staff members in Philadelphia, Detroit and North Carolina calling him in the final weeks of the race to say they did not have enough money to provide food or water to volunteers.” In Georgia, a county party chair “said the Harris campaign’s get-out-the-vote operation had been nonexistent, even as he had pleaded for resources.” Black staff members reportedly felt that the Black vote was being taken for granted, and when they aired their complaints in a post-election call, Harris’s deputy campaign manager “told staff members that talking to the press would ruin their career prospects.” There appears to have been racism in the allocation of resources, with the campaign deliberately choosing to more heavily fund operations in white suburbs and neglecting Black urban centers. (Perhaps on the theory that the Democrats had already successfully appeased Black voters by selecting a Black woman.) Organizers “said they were told not to engage in the bread-and-butter tasks of getting out the vote in Black and Latino neighborhoods” and instead were turned “into glorified telemarketers.” As a result, Harris staffers resorted to going rogue and setting up their own unauthorized operations in a desperate attempt to get out the Black vote.

Some of this seems to have been simply bad decision-making. Harris made the same error that Hillary Clinton did in 2016, deploying resources in states like Texas that she was clearly not going to win that could have instead been used in states she desperately needed to win. “We spent money in stupid ways because we had a really bad strategy,” a former DNC consultant told Puck. They even bought an expensive TV ad in Florida, a state Harris knew she wouldn’t win, just to “troll” Donald Trump. Other aspects make the Harris campaign look like little more than a multi-level marketing scheme. For instance, they spent “$111 million in online ads seeking donations,” in other words ads asking for money to pay for more ads asking for money! I was struck over this campaign season by how many texts I got just pleading with me urgently to SEND MORE MONEY. I never did, even though I did not want Trump to win the election, because I had zero confidence that the money would actually end up being spent on anything useful. Turns out, this lack of confidence was fully justified, because your donation might well have gone to a drone show production company, or Oprah’s staff, or to pointlessly build a set for a podcast (which reportedly cost $100,000 yet had “cardboard walls,” raising the question of who got the money), or just toward sending you even more texts. What it did not go toward, apparently, was adequately funding field offices in Black neighborhoods.

...All they know how to do is demand money and spend it on nonsense, like a big light-up sphere or a concert with celebrities. It is not quite a scam on the level of Bernie Madoff or the crypto industry, but it is certainly a kind of fraud, because it relies on convincing good people to part with their money, thinking they are paying for one kind of thing when they may in fact be paying for something they wouldn’t want to fund if they understood where the money goes. It’s deceptive and wrong, and I suspect we haven’t heard the last of the damning reports about how spectacularly this campaign failed.

P.S.: Sabby Sabbs discussed this article, so I decided to share it with y’all.

Stuart Thompson has monitored right-wing media since 2020. He watched 47 hours of video on Rumble for this article.

As soon as President-elect Donald J. Trump won the presidential race, influencers on Rumble, the right-wing alternative to YouTube, flooded the platform with a simple catchphrase: “We are the media now.”

The idea seemed to capture a growing sense that traditional journalists have lost their position at the center of the media ecosystem. Polls show that trust in mainstream news media has plummeted, and that nearly half of all young people get their news from “influencers” rather than journalists.

If Rumble was the media now, I wondered what it would be like to consume an all-Rumble diet. So on Nov. 18, about two weeks after the election, I deleted my news apps, unsubscribed from all my podcasts and filtered all my newsletters to the trash. And for the next week, from early morning till late at night, I got all my news from Rumble.

...they fixated on a cast of perceived enemies to blame for America’s troubles — from Democratic politicians to TikTok personalities to Republican adversaries.

Just a few hours into the experiment, it was clear that I was falling into an alternate reality fueled almost entirely by outrage...

I received a statement from Tim Murtaugh, a representative for Rumble who was also Mr. Trump’s communications director for his 2020 campaign. He said: “The New York Times and its fellow legacy media outlets have lost their monopoly on deciding what information people can have, so of course they’re rushing to attack Rumble, a key alternative in the news marketplace.”

‘You’re going to become part of the show.’

After watching Rumble nonstop for days, I realized this very article was likely to fuel its own cycle of outrage on the platform. But I was surprised when that happened before it was even published.

I wrote to everyone mentioned in the article to ask for their perspective about Rumble and its popular shows, but few replied. Instead, people like Russell Brand, the former actor turned political commentator, took one of my emails and made an entire segment out of it. Mr. Bongino called me “public enemy No. 1” and claimed my story would focus on Rumble’s fringiest voices in a bid to get the site banned.

“Don’t ever email us,” he warned. “Don’t. Because you’re going to become part of the show.”

Mr. Pentland, the co-host of “The Roseanne Barr Podcast,” posted the email I sent him to his X account. Rumble’s chief executive reposted it, then Elon Musk reposted that to his more than 200 million followers.

P.S.: Glenn Greenwald discussed this article, so I decided to share it with y'all.

Sam Mohawk, a Boeing employee of 13 years, claimed some factory workers took flawed airplane parts from storage and installed them on airplanes in order to keep production moving. Boeing and other aircraft manufacturers have dealt with staggering supply-chain issues since the pandemic.

“There’s so much chaos in that factory that there’s a desperation for parts because we have problems with our parts suppliers,” Mohawk told CBS News in an interview published Sunday evening. “In order to get the plane built and out the door in time, I think, unfortunately, some of those parts were recycled back onto the airplanes in order to keep building the airplane and not stop it in production.”

“Guerra” es una canción en la que Residente primero personifica la guerra y suena aterrador, tal como es la guerra. Luego Residente se pone del lado bueno y humilla a la guerra:

"La guerra es más débil que fuerte"

"No aguanta la vida por eso se esconde en la muerte"

[The war is weaker than stronger

It can't handle life, so it hides behind death]

Durante su viaje por el mundo, Residente pasó por Osetia y Georgia, y para llegar a estos países tuvo que pedir permiso. Residente dijo estar un poco asustado porque era una zona de conflicto e ISIS opera en los países próximos a estos.

El conflicto armado se conoce como Guerra de Osetia del Sur de 2008.

Residente logró algo asombroso en este tema. Él combinó los tambores de Osetia, el panduri de Georgia y las voces Chechenia. Países en conflicto tocando juntos.^[[1] https://genius.com/Residente-guerra-lyrics]