Ground Game Los Angeles is a team of organizers who focus on finding hyper local solutions to local issues.
What Is The Brown Act? https://knock-la.com/what-is-the-brown-act-372bc835da88/ By: Sophie Strauss Read by: Sophie Strauss
‘The Fence is Never Coming Down,' and Other Things Urban Alchemy Told Us https://knock-la.com/urban-alchemy-los-angeles-unhoused-outreach-echo-park-lake-fence/ By: Jon Peltz Read by: Jon Peltz
After Complaints of Rampant Sexism, LAFD Gets First Woman in Charge https://knock-la.com/lafd-kristen-crowley-firefighters-sexism-discrimination/ By: Dua Anjum Read by: Dua Anjum
Willows Bridge Home Opening Shows How Temporary Housing Solutions Still Aren't Enough https://knock-la.com/willows-bridge-home-opening-shows-how-temporary-housing-solutions-still-arent-enough-564471562d88/ By: Jon Peltz Read By: Jon Peltz
"Mayor Garcetti's Chief of Homelessness Operations Moonlights as Jeffrey Katzenberg's Event Planner" https://knock-la.com/mayor-eric-garcetti-jeffrey-katzenberg-homelessness/ By Jon Peltz Read By Jon Peltz
When A Billionaire Requests A Meeting https://knock-la.com/jeffrey-katzenberg-meeting-gil-cedillo-homeless-crisis/ By Jon Peltz Read By Jon Peltz
Metro is About to End Free Buses for All: Riders Are Fighting Back https://knock-la.com/los-angeles-metro-end-free-buses/ By Alison Vu Read By Alison Vu
Beyond Cathay Manor: The Interconnected Tenant Struggles of LA Chinatown https://knock-la.com/cathay-manor-tenant-struggles-of-la-chinatown/ By: Janis Yue and Amy Zhou Read By: Janis Yue
Trabajadores de la costura celebran victoria legislativa histórica https://knock-la.com/ley-para-proteger-trabajadores-de-la-costura/ By: Sarah Michelson Read by: Sarah Michelson
Garment Workers Celebrate Historic Legislative Win https://knock-la.com/legislation-for-garment-worker-protections/ By: Sarah Michelson Read By: Sarah Michelson
Spend the hour with Nolympics, grooving to the sounds of global capital's five-ringed trojan horse.
Nolympics spends the hour with political scientist and former Team USA soccer player Jules Boykoff, plus “David O'Brien” crashes an International Olympic Committee press conference and “Ryan O'Malley” stuns IOC President Thomas Bach. CANCEL THE OLYMPICS.
Nothing About Us, Without Us https://knock-la.com/city-council-approves-anti-unhoused-camping-laws/ By: Halcyon Selfmade Read by: Halcyon Selfmade
Who Anti - Unhoused Legislation Harms https://knock-la.com/who-anti-unhoused-legislation-harms-86d137aa2d7b/ By: Halcyon Selfmade Read by: Halcyon Selfmade
Feinstein: ‘You're Not Leading, We're Not Leaving' https://knock-la.com/feinstein-sunrise-youth-la-civilian-climate-corps/ By Skye Smith Read by Zach Gatto
Gig Workers In Limbo Amidst California's Reopening https://knock-la.com/gig-drivers-in-limbo-ubereats-california-reopening/ By Ivan Salinas Read by Ivan Salinas
Redistricting Is Happening Now, So Why is Nury Martinez Cancelling Meetings? https://knock-la.com/los-angeles-redistricting-nury-martinez/ By Erin Wisti Read by Zach Gatto
Eros changed everything, now we'll find out what that means.
This week @nolympicsla takes us to Mexico City, home of the ‘68 Olympic games. We'll hear about the Mexican government's brutal crackdown on protests during the Tlatelolco massacre from an activist who witnessed it. Then, we'll hear from Lance Wyman, who designed the branding for the games, reflecting on his participation in the event.
This week, we're going to Rio, Brazil, site of the 2016 Olympics. We'll hear music and stories of revolution from the 1960s all the way up until today, including the songs from the tropicalia movement and música popular brasileira. We'll also reflect on the revolutionary work of organizers in Rio, like our anti-Olympics comrades and Marielle Franco, an organizer assassinated in 2018.
The Roci crew heads back to Eros as Miller leads a mission to destroy the station and the Protogen experiment, but things spin wildly out of control as Earth reckons with an existential threat. "What a caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly"
Things escalate between Earth and Mars as the Roci crew takes on Protogen
This week @nolympicsla examines the links between the recent mass sweep at Echo Park Lake, gentrification, and the Olympics. Plus, a conversation between @echoparkriseup’s Ayman Ahmed and @groundgamela.
This week @nolympicsla dives into the new California Olympic and Paralympic Public Safety Command (COPPSC), a massive partnership containing virtually all levels of law enforcement, what this “unified command” means for Angelenos, and how we can fight back.
LA's housing crisis is getting deeper but there's no good solutions coming out of City Hall. We also chat about the 2022 races in LA and have a big announcement about the future of the Knock podcast.
This week Amanda Pantoja from Food and Water Watch joins us to talk about getting LA off fossil fuels, then we dive into the Echo Park Lake situation and listen to some very disturbing audio captured from local news helicopters. Read Mitch's email: https://mailchi.mp/lacity/209-unhoused-individuals-at-echo-park-lake-now-housed Photo Credit: Steve Lucero (IG stevelucero.la)
This week we cover a lot of police malfeasance, specifically featuring @cerisecastle talking about her new series on KNOCK.LA: A Tradition of Violence
Spend an hour with @nolympicsla for the final installment in the Rings of Hell series, as they tie up the loose ends and assess what lies ahead for the anti-Olympic Movement. ‘Rings of Hell’ segment originally produced with @knockdotla: 11/28/18
This week we cover the penultimate episode of Season 1 as Eros goes into lock down and the malicious corporate experiment takes shape.
@nolympicsla debunk the feel good fuzzies of the LA84 Foundation, often perceived as a benign altruistic youth sports non-profit but which is – after some serious scrutiny – really an unaccountable non-profit who merely claims to promote social justice and the empowering of marginalized communities. In practice, they’re more active in whitewashing LA than they are in making it more equitable. They’re massive investors in real estate giants/slumlords like Blackstone and Oaktree Capital, and their work has been used to leverage the 2028 Olympics. To learn more about the LA84 Foundation, including a shocking look at their tax filings, check out the blog at nolympicsla.com. ‘Rings of Hell’ segment originally produced with @knockdotla: 11/20/18
@nolympicsla debunk the feel good fuzzies of the LA84 Foundation, often perceived as a benign altruistic youth sports non-profit but which is – after some serious scrutiny – really an unaccountable non-profit who merely claims to promote social justice and the empowering of marginalized communities. In practice, they’re more active in whitewashing LA than they are in making it more equitable. They’re massive investors in real estate giants/slumlords like Blackstone and Oaktree Capital, and their work has been used to leverage the 2028 Olympics. To learn more about the LA84 Foundation, including a shocking look at their tax filings, check out the blog at nolympicsla.com. ‘Rings of Hell’ segment originally produced with @knockdotla: 11/20/18
This week Rob Quan from @UnrigLA joins us to go in depth on LA's redistricting process and how things will change this year. Get the tool kit here: bit.ly/3e9SpwF Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust teach in: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tenant-opportunity-to-purchase-town-hall-tickets-142725105633
The crew is on the run in a stolen Martian warship, offered safe haven by Fred Johnson they make the call to head for Tycho Station. Detective Miller finally unravels the mystery of Julie Mao's disappearance, but loses everything in the process.
We chat with Erin Wisti about what's been going on at Echo Park Lake, cover some improving COVID numbers, and dig into the nascent recall campaign against LA DA George Gascon
Did you know that LA isn’t a sanctuary city, in name or in spirit? Even if the city was a true sanctuary city with real protections, any Olympics on US soil poses huge risks for immigrants. That’s because #LA28 is designated a National Special Security Event (NSSE), which gives the Department of Homeland Security (ICE, CBP, NSA, all the bad dudes) the express ability to coordinate with local law enforcement. Sound like a terrible idea? It is! This week @nolympicsla are joined by members of the @dsa_la Immigration Justice Committee to discuss all the ways the current Democrat establishment in LA already fall short of their pseudo-progressive pro-immigrant messaging and how the NSSE – compounded with already wildly militarized local law enforcement – poses a nightmare for communities across the Southland. ‘Rings of Hell’ segment originally produced with @knockdotla: 11/8/18
Episode 6: “Rings of Hell VI: The Humiliation of the Will” -- Hitler didn’t want the Olympics until Goebbels convinced him the 1936 Berlin Games could be a massive boom for Nazi propaganda. Then the Olympic torch relay was born. In this episode @nolympicsla explore how fascists have co-opted and manipulated the platform of mega sports through the annals of history – whether it’s Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco with soccer and the Olympics – or more recent despots or power-hungry individuals who use the games to enhance their power. It turns out the pageantry and bright shiny object-ness of mega sport gives bad people a tremendous amount of cover. ‘Rings of Hell’ segment originally produced with @knockdotla: 10/31/18
For this episode @nolympicsla invited scholar and former Olympic athlete Jules Boykoff to call in and give us a broad look at how the modern Olympics came into being, how their power is structured, and how they’ve evolved over the decades, growing more insidious at every turn. The Olympic machine has been around since the late 1800s and operated as a sort of sideshow. To this day the IOC still feels like it’s being led by carnival barkers trying to hook the next gullible sucker, and this conversation tracks how they’ve managed to stay alive and where they’re potentially vulnerable. To learn more about Jules Boykoff check out julesboykoff.org. ‘Rings of Hell’ segment originally produced with @knockdotla: 10/23/18
Episode 4: “Rings of Hell IV: A Very Special Garcetti Episode” -- No one has pushed the #LA28 Olympic bid harder than Mayor Eric Garcetti, and the majority of Los Angeles residents don’t know who he is. Only in recent months has his negligence (and coziness with the LAPD) made him something of an infamous character to those now tapped into local politics, but his background in violent neoliberalism long predates the COVID-19 pandemic and 2020 Uprising. In this episode @nolympicsla answer the question, “Who is Eric Garcetti?” in a conversation taped in 2018, long before he offered Angelenos facing eviction a limited-time $20 discount on parking tickets. For a deep dive on Eric that predates headlines you may be familiar with, start here. ‘Rings of Hell’ segment originally produced with @knockdotla: 10/18/18 Also, it bears noting Eric Garcetti spent one out of every three days in 2017 out of town, shaking hands and greasing deals for the Olympics-- he was so frequently MIA that @nolympicsla launched a website to track his whereabouts: WHERESGARCETTI.COM
Episode 3: “Rings of Hell III: The Movement Against The IOC” -- This week @nolympicsla explore Olympic resistance in both a city that was ravaged by the Games (Rio 2016) and a city that thwarted an Olympic bid (Boston 2024). Despite some local differences, the fight is against the same notoriously corrupt and unaccountable private institution: the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which creates heightened militarization, displacement, and authoritarianism in the name of extracting profit. The struggle against this form of neoliberal lotteryism is both a hyper-local and transnational one. Please enjoy a conversation with members of Rio on Watch, No Boston Olympics, and NOlympics LA. ‘Rings of Hell’ segment originally produced with @knockdotla: 10/16/18
@nolympicsla look beyond the ceremonies and sports to see who benefits from hosting an Olympics: politicians, developers, cops, phony nonprofits, and corporate sponsors like Airbnb. To learn more about the new #LocksOnMyBlock campaign to fight displacement by Airbnb hotels check out nolympicsla.com/locks. ‘Rings of Hell’ segment originally produced with @knockdotla: 10/11/18
@nolympicsla examines the not-so-glamorous reality and material consequences of the first corporate Olympic Games, Los Angeles 1984. ‘Rings of Hell’ segment originally produced with @knockdotla: 10/8/18
It's episodes 3 and 4 as the solar system hurtles towards war. Also we touch on recent developments around Joss Whedon and what that means for pop culture.
Today we're chatting weird lifestyle cults, lots of COVID coverage, and some recent policing developments
This week we talk to Trinidad Ruiz from LA Tenants Union (@justrinidad) about the Seeds of a Tenant Revolution, current tenant protections, and how we can work to keep everyone housed. We also cover COVID news, which is getting slightly less bleak, and more police misconduct. To register for the LAFD CERT meeting about earthquake response: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/21721-step-by-step-community-response-to-an-earthquake-registration-137141853977
This week we talk episodes 1 (Dulcinea) and 2 (The Big Empty) while fleshing out the conflicts roiling the Sol system.
This week: - COVID and inequitable vaccine situation in LA - Bizarre approach to school re-opening from CM Buckets - Great KNOCK pieces from last week - Amy Wakeland. Yikes.
Welcome to Beltalouder for the People in Back, a critical analysis of The Expanse. Hosts Bushido Squirrel, Chris Roth, and Logan Rapp will be looking at the politics, technology, and conflicts of the Sol system as humanity confronts a truly existential change. Live on Twitch every Friday at 7:00 PM and in podcast form Saturday at 10:00 AM.
Anti-vaxxers shut down the nation's largest vaccination center earlier this week, and while the infection numbers are improving in LA we still have a long way to go. Also the Metro Board got its arm twisted into restoring some bus service, hooray!
Gavin Newsom lifts regional lock downs in California opening the way for outdoor dining and all sorts of dangerous stuff. Vaccine rates are still lagging. We also chat about Mitch Englander's jail sentence, Gil Cedillo's plan to buy an affordable housing complex, and LASD gangs. Read more: https://knock.la Get involved: https://groundgamela.org Links LASD Deputies: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-01-15/guardado-shooting-la-deputies-under-criminal-investigation Biden's Memo: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/21/extend-federal-support-to-governors-use-of-national-guard-to-respond-to-covid-19-and-to-increase-reimbursement-and-other-assistance-provided-to-states/