Podcasts about Copwatch

(2/14/2025-2/21/2025) Copwatch. Tune in.patreon.com/isaiahnews#applepodcasts⁠ ⁠#spotifypodcasts⁠ ⁠#youtube #amazon⁠ ⁠#patreon⁠

This week: Innovation Forum's Natasha Bodnar introduces the 2025 scope 3 innovation forum, returning to Amsterdam on 11th-12th June. She highlights agenda themes and latest confirmed speakers, click here for information on how to get involved.   Plus: speaking following attendance at COP29, Owen Bethell from Nestlé, gives final reflections on the discussions at the meetings. In conversation with Ian Welsh, he highlights disappointment over the climate finance agreement, while acknowledging the importance of maintaining multilateral discussions.   Host: Ian Welsh

This week: Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh and Natasha Bodnar share updates on the upcoming 2025 responsible sourcing and ethical trade forum, taking place in London on 19th-20th March. They discuss latest speaker confirmations and agenda updates to look forward to, including discussions around how to adapt supply chains without leaving smallholders behind, and give detail of an exclusive podcast listener offer. For more information on how to get involved, click here.   Plus: speaking from COP29, Owen Bethell, global public affairs lead for environment at Nestlé, gives some on-the-ground reflections. In conversation with Ian, he discusses the limited progress in the first week but also highlights key breakthroughs such as carbon market agreements and optimism surrounding the broader economic transition toward decarbonisation.

Speaking live from COP28 in Dubai, Owen Bethell, environmental impact lead, global public affairs, at Nestlé shares on-the-spot reflections with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about the increasing focus on the global stocktake and lack of progress of agreement on fossil fuel phase-out. They discuss some progress so far, such as on food systems and methane, as ongoing negotiations take place.

Episode Summary This week on Live Like the World is Dying, Inmn is joined by author and activist, Michael Novick. They talk about just how horrible fascism really is. Thankfully, there's a simple solution, antifascism. Michael talks about their work with Anti-Racist Action Network, the Turning The Tide newspaper, and his newest book with Oso Blanco, The Blue Agave Revolution. Host Info Inmn can be found on Instagram @shadowtail.artificery. Guest Info Michael (he/they) and The Blue Agave Revolution can be found at www.antiracist.org If you want to take over the Turning The Tide newspaper, find Michael at antiracistaction_ la@yahoo.com Publisher Info This show is published by Strangers in A Tangled Wilderness. We can be found at www.tangledwilderness.org, or on Twitter @TangledWild and Instagram @Tangled_Wilderness. You can support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/strangersinatangledwilderness. Transcript Live Like the World is Dying: Michael Novick on Antifascism Inmn 00:15 Hello, and welcome to Live Like the World is Dying, your podcast for what feels like the end times. I'm your host Inmn Neruin and I use they/them pronouns. This week we are talking about something that is very scary and, in terms of things we think about being prepared for, something that is far more likely to impact our lives than say, a zombie apocalypse. Or I mean, we're already being impacted by this. It is actively killing us. But, if I had to choose between preparing for this and preparing for living in a bunker for 10 years, I would choose this. Oh, golly, I really hope preparing for this doesn't involve living in a bunker for 10 years, though. But the monster of this week is fascism. However, there's a really great solution to fascism...antifascism. And we have a guest today who has spent a lot of their life thinking about and participating in antifascism. But first, we are a proud member of the Channel Zero Network of anarchist podcasts. And so here's a jingle from another show on that network. Doo doo doo doo doo. [Singing the words like a cheesy melody] Inmn 02:00 And we're back. And I have with me today writer and organizer Michael Novick, co founder of the John Brown Anti Klan Committee, People Against Racist Terror, Anti-racist Action Network, the TORCH Antifa network and White People For Black Lives. Michael, would you like to introduce yourself with your name, pronouns and kind of...I guess like your history in anti-racist, antifascist struggles and a little bit about what you want to tell us about today? Michael 02:34 Sure. Thanks, Inmn. So yeah, Michael Novick. Pronouns he or they. I've been doing anti-racist and antifascist organizing and educating and work for many many decades at this point. I'm in my 70s. I got involved in political activism in kind of anti-war, civil rights, student rights work in the 60s. I was an SDS at Brooklyn College. And I've been doing that work from an anti white supremacist, anticapitalist, anti-imperialist perspective. And I think that particularly trying to understand fascism in the US context, you have to look at questions of settler colonialism. And, you know, people sometimes use the term racial capitalism. I think that land theft, genocide, enslavement of people of African descent, especially is central to understanding the social formation of this country. I was struck by the name of the podcast in terms of "live like the world is ending," because for a long time, I had an analysis that said that the fear of the end of the world had to do with the projection of the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie feels that its rule is coming to an end and therefore thinks the world is coming to an end, but the world will get on fire without the bourgeoisie and the rulers and the imperialists. Except that because of the lease on life that this empire has gotten repeatedly by the setbacks caused by white and male supremacy and the way it undermines people's movements, the bourgeoisie is actually in a position to bring the world to an end. I think that's what we're facing is a global crisis of the Earth's system based on imperialism, based on settler colonialism, and exploitation of the Earth itself. And so I think it's not just preparing for individual survival in those circumstances. We have to think about really how we can put an end to a system that's destroying the basis for life on the planet. And so I think that those are critical understandings. And the turn towards fascism that we're seeing across the...you know, Anti-Racist Action's analysis has always been that fascism is built from above and below and that there are forces within society. I think particularly because settler colonialism is a mass base for fascism in this country, as well as an elite preference for it under the kind of circumstances that we're looking at, in which, you know, as I said the basis for life itself has been damaged by imperialism, capitalism, and its manifestations. And so the need for extreme repressive measures, and for genocidal approaches, and exterminationist approaches are at hand. So, I think that, again, I think that the question of preparation is preparation for those kinds of circumstances. I think we're living in a kind of low intensity civil war situation already, in which you see the use of violence by the State, obviously, but also by non state forces that people have to deal with. So I think that that's the overall approach that I think we need to think about. And that comes out of, as I said, decades of doing work. I think that there are a few key things that we have to understand about this system, which is that it's not just issues that we face, but there is an enemy, there is a system that is trying to propagate and sustain itself that is inimical to life and inimical to freedom. And that if we want to protect our lives and the lives of other species and if we want to protect people's freedom going forward, we have to recognize that there's an irreconcilable contradiction between those things and between the system that we live in. So that's kind of a sobering perspective. But, I think it's an important one. Inmn 06:20 Yeah, yeah, no, it is. And it's funny, something that you said, kind of made a gear turn in my head. So, you know, normally, yeah, we do talk about in preparing to live like the world is dying, we do usually come at it from this context of that being a bad thing that we need to prepare for bad things to happen. But, the way you were talking about like fascism and empire and stuff, I suddenly thought, "Wait, maybe we should live like that world is dying and like there is something better ahead." Because, you know, we do like to approach the show from...I feel like we like to talk about the bad things that are happening and could happen but also the hopefulness and like the brighter futures that we can imagine. Michael 07:15 I think that's right. And I think it's really important to have both of those understandings. I think that, you know, people do not actually get well organized out of despair. I think they do, you know, you want to have...You know, there used to be a group called Love and Rage. And you have to have both those aspects. You have to have the rage against the machine and the rage against the system that's destroying people, but you have to have the love, you have to have that sense of solidarity and the idea of a culture of not just resistance but a culture of liberation and a culture of solidarity. And I think that, you know, there's a dialectic between the power of the State and the power of these oppressive forces and the power of the people and to the extent that the people can exert their power and to the extent that we can free ourselves from the, you know, the chains of mental slavery is...[Sings a sort of tune] you hear in reggae, you know, that actually weakens the power of the State and the power of the corporations. And they [the State] understand that sometimes better than we do. So there is, you know, there's some lessons I feel like I've learned and one of them is that every time there is a liberatory movement based out of people's experiences and the contradictions that are experienced in their lives, whether it's the gay liberation movement, women's liberation movement, or Black liberation and freedom struggle, there's always an attempt by the rulers to take that over and to reintegrate it into, you know, bourgeois ways of thinking. And, you know, people talk about hegemony and the idea that ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling class, and I think that, you know, I've seen it happen over and over again with different movements. And so, you know, I was involved with the Bay Area gay liberation in the 80s and, you know, one of the things that happened there is that you saw very quickly a different language coming up and different issues coming up. And so suddenly the question of gays in the military was put forward, or we have to be concerned about the fact that gay people have to hide when they're in the military, and the question of normalizing gay relationships in the contract form of marriage came forward. And those were basically efforts to circumscribe and contain the struggle for gay liberation and to break down gender binaries and stuff within the confines of bourgeois conceptions of rights and bourgeois integration into militarism and contractual economic relationships. And you saw that over and over again in terms of the Women's Liberation Movement, and then all of a sudden you've got bourgeois feminism and white white feminism. And I think that that's really important to understand because it means that there's a struggle inside every movement to grasp the contradiction that...and to maintain a kind of self determined analysis and strategy for how that movement is going to carry itself forward in opposition to what the rulers of this society--who rely heavily on, as I say, white supremacy, male supremacy, settler colonialism, and its manifestations--to try to contain and suppress insurrectionary...And you see the same thing within the preparedness movement. There's the dominant politics of the preparedness movement I think that I've seen over many years are actually white supremacist. They're maintaining the homestead of settler colonial land theft. So you have to understand that that's a contradiction in that movement that has to be faced and overcome and struggled with. I think having an understanding is critical to really trying to chart a path forward that will kind of break...create wedge issues on our side of the of the ledger, so to speak, and begin to break people away from identification with the Empire, identification with whiteness, identification with privilege. And, you know, one of the issues I've had over a long time, for example, what I struggle for is people's understanding about the question of privilege. You know, I come out of the...as I said, there were struggles in the 60s and early 70s about what we called white skin privilege. And I think that it's critical to understand that privilege functions throughout the system all the time. It's not a burden of guilt, it's a mechanism of social control. And anything you have as privilege can be taken away. Privilege is a mechanism of actually obtaining consent and adherence to...You know, parents use privileges with their kids to try to get their kids to do what they want. Teachers use privilege with students to get the students to do what they want, Prison guards use privileges with prisoners to get the prisoners to follow the rules and stay incarcerated. And so, you know, that's a mechanism of Imperial domination, of settler colonialism, and certainly within that context. So, it's not an illness or a...It's not something to be guilty about. It's something to contend with and deal with and understand that if there are things you have as privileges that you think are used by right or by merit, you're deluding yourself and you can't actually function facing reality. So when you understand that they are privileges, you understand that they're there to obtain your consent and your adherence, and your compliance, your complicity, your complacency, and then you have to actually resist those privileges or turn those privileges into weapons that you can use to actually weaken the powers that be. And I think that that approach is important to understand that, you know...I used to do a lot of work with people in the Philippines struggle, and they talked about the fact that, you know, on some of the...outside the US Army bases that were imposed in the Philippines, there was a rank order of privilege, like where people could dig in the garbage dumps of the US military to get better quality stuff that was being thrown out by the military. And so that kind of hierarchy and sense of organizing people by by hierarchy, by privilege, is how the system functions at every level. In the workplace they find different privileges that people have to try to divide workers from each other and get people to struggle for privilege as opposed to actually struggle for solidarity and resistance and a different world. And I think that having that understanding begins to free people. Steven Biko was the leader of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa that really helped propel it moving forward. One of the things he said is that, "The greatest weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the minds of the oppressed." And, you know, I think to the extent that we can start to free our minds of these structures, we can actually begin to weaken the oppressor and strengthen the struggling and creative powers and energies of people to really build a different world. Inmn 14:00 Yeah, yeah. Sorry, this is gonna seem like a silly question because it feels very basic. But, I love to kind of break things down into their base levels. But, what is fascism? Michael 14:11 Yeah, good question. I think that an important analysis of fascism that I came across is from Cesare Amè. And what he said is that, "Fascism is the application in the metropole (of the colonizing power) of the methods of rule that have been used in the colonies." I think that that has a critical understanding because, as I said, the US is a separate colonial system, so elements of fascism have always been present within the political, economic, and social structure of the United States because they're internally colonized people and stolen land. So, if you're looking at elements of fascism, there's hyper masculinity, there's hyper nationalism, there's obviously slave labor, there's incorporation of a mass base into kind of a visceral identification with a leader. And all of those things really have manifest themselves in US history before we used the term, "fascism." And so, the US is based on land theft, on genocide, on exterminationist policies towards the indigenous people, the enslavement of African people, and also on the incorporation of a mass base based on settler colonialism and the offering of privileges to a sector of the population to say, "Okay, you know, we're going to participate along with the rulers in this system." And so I think that it's important to get that understanding because people often think that fascism is an aberration or it's a particularly extreme form of dictatorial rule or something like that. But I think that it's really a way of trying to reorganize people's personalities around their role within an empire and within, you know, it's trying to control the way people think, and control the way people see themselves in relation to other people. And so, you know, that's why I think that idea that fascism is built from above and below is important because we do see fascist elements that have some contradictions with the state. And we've seen, for example, in January 6th. You know, the government has gone after certain of these elements because they have moved too quickly. Or, the same way that there were premature antifascists during the World War II period and they went after the people in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Sometimes there are sort of premature proto-fascist in this society that have contradictions with the State, and they're operating somewhat independently. So, you know, I think that it's important to understand that and that there are elements in the State and within the different sections of the State that have their own operative plan. So, you know, when you look at the question of police abuse and police brutality, there's one approach to it that certain elements in the State take, which is about command and control. They want to make sure that they control the police forces and that individual officers are not acting independently but are carrying out cohesive state strategies. At the same time, there are elements within law enforcement that are trying to organize individual cops for organized white supremacy. And, it's the same thing in the military. And so there are contradictions there that we have to be aware of, but at the same time, they're operating within a framework of settler colonialism, of organized white supremacy, So, one of the things that's come up recently, for example, is this idea that there...how can there be non-white white supremacists? And, you know, I think it has to do with the fact that it's not just your identity, or your racial identity that's there but who do you...What's your identification? Are you identifying with the Empire? Are you identifying with the bourgeois? Are you identifying with the settler colonial project that has shaped, really, the whole globe over the course of half a millennium? Or, are you identifying with the indigenous? Are you identifying with the struggling people? And it's less a...It's not a question of your particular skin color but which side of the line are you on? Inmn 18:12 How does attempts by the State or by society to kind of like assimilate various oppressed people into the Empire? Like, how does that kind of factor factor into this? Michael 18:24 Well, if you look at the history of, let's say, Central America is one case in point, that there were fascist forces in Central America and their base was not really within their own society. Their base was within the Empire. And so, you had death squads operating, you had mercenaries operating, you had contras [counter revolutionaries] operating in Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, carrying out genocidal policies, in many cases, against indigenous people and people of African descent within their own societies. And so, you know, that's not exactly fascism in the same way, but it certainly is aspects of police state and death squad activity that has to be resisted. So I think that, you know, when you see Enrique Tarrio and some of these people that are, quote unquote, "Hispanic," operating as proto-fascists with the Proud Boys or these other formations in the United States that's a manifestation of the same thing, that there are people who have identified themselves with a system of white supremacy and a system of domination, a system of exploitation, and they're trying to make their own individual piece with it and they have collective mechanisms that reinforce that. And they see...So, you know, I think that the fascism has presented itself at times as a decolonizing element in Latin America and Asia and other places where...For example, when the Japanese Empire was trying to strengthen itself and formed an alliance with Italian fascism and German Nazism, they also presented themselves in Asia as liberators of Asia from European colonialism. And, you know, then they carried out atrocities of their own in China, Indochina, and Korea. So, I think that nobody is exempt from this. It's not a genetic factor. It is what ideology...What's the organizing principle that people are operating under to form their society and generate their power? If that's militaristic, if it's hierarchical, if it's exploitative, then regardless of what the skin tone of somebody carrying that out is, it can be fascistic in its nature. Inmn 20:44 Yeah, I like something that you said earlier, which I think is an interesting frame. So, I feel like people in the United States, you might hear people like, talk about the rise of fascism, or the like, emergence of fascism, as if it's this new thing, you know? And I like how you read it, in the formation of the United States as a nationalistic identity with this idea that fascism has always been here, fascism has always been a part of the settler colonial project of the United States. Michael 21:27 Well, I was gonna follow up that is if you look at the countries in which fascism came to power in Europe, they were mainly countries where they felt they were not adequate empires in their own right. In other words, Spain, even Portugal, France, England, you know, had empires. Germany came late to imperialism. And even to the formation of a German state, the German bourgeoisie was not able to really unify all the Germans into a single nation. Same thing with Italy. Italy was, you know, a bunch of kind of mini states and city states and came late to the formation of a national sense of Italy. And so I think that fascism presented itself as a overarching ideology that could galvanize a nation and launch it into an imperial mode where it could compete with other empires. So the US context is a little different because, as I say, from the very beginning it had that element of settler colonialism and cross-class alliance in which not only the bourgeoisie but even working people could be induced to participate in that project of land theft and genocide. There's a famous book called "How the Irish Became White" by Noel Ignatiev who talked about, you know, how white supremacy affected Irish workers. And what he didn't really look at was that there was some Irish involved right from the very beginning and trying to overturn the land relationships between settlers. They wanted, you know, there was a land theft and a land hunger that they had, and so, for example, even before the question of relation between Irish workers and Black workers came up, there were Irish in the United States that wanted to overturn the agreements that had been reached in Pennsylvania between the Quakers and the indigenous people in Pennsylvania. The Irish wanted land and they wanted to participate in taking that land from the native people. And then that had repercussions back in Ireland itself because that the US Empire and those land thefts then affected the consciousness of the Irish within Ireland itself and weaken the Irish struggle for independence from British colonialism because there was a safety valve of the US Empire. And so I think that it's critical to look at these things because it gives us a sense of what is at stake at different times and what's at issue. And I think that looking at the question of decolonization, looking at the question of solidarity and unity, is the flip sides to this. If we only look at the power of the bourgeois, if we look at the power of the fascists, it can be intimidating or overwhelming or depressing. And I think that that's the...You know, when you talk about preparedness and some of these things, you're talking about what are the generative powers of the people themselves because Imperialism and Capitalism are based on a kind of parasitical relationship. They're extracting wealth from the Earth itself and from the labor of people and turning it into a power over the Earth and over the people. And I think that understanding that actually all that wealth that the system has, all the power that the system has is actually coming out of the people who are oppressed and exploited in the land gives us a sense of what our own powers are and what our own capacity to be creative and generative are. To the extent we exercise those, it weakens them. And I think that that's a critical understanding. Inmn 25:16 Yeah. Are there ways that fascism is currently manifesting that feel different from say, I don't know, like 40 years ago? Michael 25:29 Well, I think the whole phenomenon of social media and the way in which they very effectively organized these Neofascist forces through the gaming...hypermasculine gaming stuff and, you know, I think...We talked a little bit about the..I think the reason that people approached me to do this podcast had to do with my essay in "¡No Pasarán!: Antifascist Dispatches from a World in Crisis." And so that's a piece where I talked about, you know, some of this history of different struggles and how they...what lessons to extract from them. But the other book I've been working on and put out recently, is called "The Blue Agave Revolution: Poetry of the Blind Rebel." This was a book...I was approached by Oso Blanco, an indigenous political prisoner here in the United States who was involved with actually robbing banks to support the Zapatistas in Mexico, and he was getting "Turning the Tide," the newspaper I've been working on for many years that we send free to prisoners, and he approached me. He wanted to work on a book and he said he wanted me to work on the book with him. And he had..."The Poetry of the Blind Rebel" is a story arc and poetry arc of his work that is a story about the Mexican Revolution of the early 20th century, the 1910s-1920. It's kind of magical realism. But, he asked me to write some fiction. And so I wrote kind of a short story cycle of a three way fight between vampires, zombies, and humans. And the vampires are basically--I mean, it's Dracula--but, you know, there's one point where there's a woman who has been trying to grapple with this and she forms a cross with two wooden tent stakes and he kind of laughs and says, "Oh, you bought that old wive's tale. We totally integrated into the church and into the State," you know. Basically, the vampires represent the bourgeoisie because they [the bourgeoisie] are vampiric and parasitic and they have powers. The zombies in this story are a group of incels that have captured a vampire and they think that they can create a potion from vampire blood that will give them power over women and make them...you know...And instead, they turn themselves into zombies. And so then there's a sort of three way fight between the bourgeoisie on the one hand, these vampires, the fascists from below, these sort of incel zombies that have to eat brains, and then the humans who are trying to deal with both of them. And I think that that's an important understanding that, you know, there are contradictions between the vampires and zombies but they're both our enemy. And so, I think that that's an approach that we have to understand that they're....You know, it's not a simple linear equation that's going on. There's a lot of things happening. I think that the fascists from below have contradictions with the fascists above, and we can take advantage of that. And then...but, we have to understand that their, you know, it's not...I think there are weaknesses...[Trails off] Let me go back to this. You know, historically, people have talked about antifascism and anti-imperialism, and there's been an element in both of those of class collaboration. A lot of people in the anti-imperialist movement think, "Oh, well, there's a sort of a national bourgeoisie that also doesn't like the Empire and wants to exert itself. And we have to ally with them. And a lot of people in antifascist movements have thought, "Oh, well, there's, you know, bourgeois Democrats who also hate fascism," and I think that those have been weaknesses historically. And also the contradiction between people who concentrate mostly antifascism, the people who concentrate mostly on anti-imperialism has weakened people's movements. I think having a kind of overarching understanding that fascism is rooted in Empire, particularly in settler colonialism, and that there isn't a contradiction. We have to find the forces of popular resistance that will overturn both fascism and imperialism...and capitalism. And, that we have to, you know, have a self determined struggle for decolonization and recognize people's self determination in their own struggles and their own capacity to live in a different way and to begin to create, you know, the solidarity forever, we say, you know, "Build a new world from the ashes of the old." And, I think that in terms of my own work, I've tried to--although, you might think I'm aging out at this point, but I've been involved at every point that there's an upsurge in struggle. I've tried to participate in that as part of Occupy LA. And more recently, I've been involved with some of the dual power organizing that's going on. And I don't know how much your people are familiar with that, but it is a conception related to, let's say, Cooperation Jackson, in Mississippi, where they're trying to figure out ways of organizing themselves economically and also resisting the power of the State. And so I was at the Dual Power Gathering that took place in Indiana last summer and there's one on the West Coast that's coming up in the Portland area. Inmn 31:06 Yeah, could you explain what--for our listeners--what is dual power? Michael 31:11 Yeah, so dual power is the concept that we have a power and we can exercise that power, and within the framework of this contemporary society, which is so destructive, we can begin to generate and exercise that power, and that there's, as I said, a kind of dialectic between the power of the people and the power of the State, and the corporations, and the power of the fascist, and that the different prefigurative elements of the kind of society we want to live in in the future can be created now. And, that as we exercise that power, it weakens the power of the State. It weakens the power of the bourgeoisie and the power of the imperialists. I went to that Dual Power Gathering in Indiana--I mean, it's not my bio region, but I did used to live in Chicago--and I felt some affinities with it. You know, they were...To talk about the idea of, you know, what's the relationship between dual power and our three-way fight, with a different conception with what the three-way fight is, that we are having to contend with two different enemies, you know, these fascists from below and the fascist from above, the State, and corporate power, and then also right-wing elements. And I think that in terms of both of those, we have to understand what are the powers that we have to organize ourselves to, as they say, to apply the generative and regenerative powers to...So that people have a sense of what they're fighting for. It's not just anti-this and anti-that. So for example, the newspaper I've worked in for many years, "Turning the Tide," originally, we called it the "Journal of Anti-Racist Action," or "Anti-Racist Action Edcuation & Research," and then we changed the subtitle a few years ago to, "The Journal of Intercommunal Solidarity," in the sense that you have to say what you're fighting for? What are we trying to build? What are we trying to create? What are we creating? And how does that give us the capacity to continue to resist and continue to shape the future, not just react always to what they're doing but actually have a proactive, generative stance. And so, you know, people's creative cultural expressions, people's capacity to do permaculture in urban environments or many other things like that, that say, that we want to restore the biological diversity, you know. We want to restore the capacity of the soil. We want to restore the clarity of the water and the air in the process of struggling for our own liberation. And that, you know, those are things that can happen and must happen now. We can't wait for some revolution that will happen in the future in which you know, we'll create a better world. We have to start in the context and the interstices of the system in the place that people are being pulverized. And so, you know, in Los Angeles, people are involved in various kinds of mutual aid work and working with the homeless, working with people being evicted to take over homes and restore them. And I think all those manifestations, that's the question of dual power there. We're looking at the incapacity of the people ruling this society to actually meet basic human needs and we're trying to figure out how to meet them. So, I think that's where it coincides with this question of preparedness is that I think that is a sense that people have to rely on their own resources, their own energies, and understanding that there's a contradiction between the system, the way it functions, and its implications and impact on us. And it's incapacity, its powerlessness, to really protect people from the kinds of calamities it's creating, whether it's flooding, or firestorms, or, you know, all the other manifestations of this global crisis of the Earth's system that is growing out of Capitalism. We have to deal with that now. We can't wait, you know, till sometime in the future when we have, you know, "power," quote unquote, you know? We have the power to start to deal with it. Inmn 35:17 Yeah, and, I feel like there have been different ways that people have tried to do exactly that in the past. And I don't know, like, I'm thinking of a lot of the stuff that the Black Panthers were doing, like creating communities that they...like, declaring that they had power and that they had the power to build the communities that they wanted and to preserve those communities. And then they faced an incredible amount of repression, like, as much for arming themselves as for giving kids lunch and breakfast. And I'm wondering, in what ways does the State try to like...or in what ways has the State tried to destabilize dual power movements in the past? And what can we kind of expect them to do now? Or what are they doing now? Does that make sense? Michael 36:35 Yeah, I think there's always a two-pronged approach by the state. And, sometimes it's referred to as, "The carrot and the stick." You know, it's co-optation ad coercion. And so they always attempt both to control as they modify people's thinking and try to create bourgeois alternatives to liberatory thinking and liberatory organizing. And then simultaneously, they have the repressive aspects, the criminalization of those efforts. And so in relation to the Black Panther Party, for example, they were simultaneously pushing what they called Black Capitalism, and saying, "Oh, yes, you know, we'll give you, you know, we'll find the sector of Black community that can integrate into the system." And then, along with that, they were carrying out COINTELPRO, which was a war strategy of creating contradictions inside Black Liberation organizations, setting one against the other, trying to execute and/or incarcerate people who were not willing to compromise their principles. So I think we have to be aware that you're seeing the same thing go on around policing issues. You know, they constantly want to put forward different reforms and accountability measures and ways that people can participate in civilian oversight mechanisms that really don't do anything. And at the same time, they're, you know, attacking people who are doing Copwatch or groups like the Stop LAPD Spying Network, which has exposed a lot of stuff about this constantly being targeted. So, I think that those, that the two-pronged approach by the State is something we have to be very aware of. It's not only coercion and criminalization and repression, but it's also co-optation and, you know, giving people individual solutions and mechanisms that are...they call it the nonprofit industrial complex, you know, this whole mechanism of structures that are set up to get people involved in grant writing and looking to philanthropists to somehow support them in their work. And I think that trying..You know, one of the things the Black Panther Party did was it had its own self generated funding by going to the base community they were trying to organize in, talking to small shopkeepers, and talking to churches, and trying to integrate that into these Liberatory efforts. So, I think that, you know, looking at that model, when I started doing, for example, People Against Racist Terror, there were a lot of small anti-racist groups around the country and a lot of them ended up going the route of looking for grants and looking for nonprofit organizations that they could fold themselves into, and I think that that kind of denatured them. They became, you know...As opposed to being grassroots, they became board and staff organizations, and individuals would create careers out of it. And I think that that mechanism of transforming popular movements into nonprofit organizations or nongovernmental organizations that accommodate themselves to existing power structures, existing economic realities, is one of the things that we need to try to avoid happening in this current period. Inmn 40:18 That makes that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, it's, it's funny, because I feel like I'm seeing a lot of groups involved in mutual aid, who are, I think, taking that lesson of the nonprofit industrial complex but are also trying to access larger swaths of money than the communities that they're part of can provide, like this model of, it's important to involve your community base in those things and to generate those things ourselves, but there is this problem sometimes of like, you're passing the hat and the same 20 people are kicking into the bail fund. And I don't know, I think maybe this is just me being hopeful, but I'm seeing a lot of mutual aid groups kind of dip into grant writing or dip into utilizing nonprofit statuses more so than structures in order to access funding and things like that. But what I'm seeing is people coming at it from like, hopefully, what is a different perspective of taking these lessons of the past and being like, "Well, we don't want to become some horrifying, large nonprofit, but we do want the State to give us 10 grand so that we can build infrastructure. Like I guess my question is, are there ways to responsibly interact with that? Or is this a trap? Michael 41:57 I guess I'd have hear more details. I think it's imperative that it has to come from below and from the grassroots. I think that, you know, I've been involved with the opposite, for example, Pacifica Radio, and Pacifica is listener sponsored radio and is a constant struggle about how much can we accept cooperation of broadcasting funding. They cut us off some years ago and we're trying to get it back Or, there's struggles about trying to get some underwriting. It depends who you're accountable to for the money that you're getting. Are you accountable primarily to the funder? Are you accountable primarily to the people who are using that money and the people who are self organizing for community power and community sustainability, and, you know, some of the things we're talking about of self determined strategies. And, you know, I do think that what happened to a lot of the 60s movements is that there was an ebb in the mass movement. And then people made their separate peace. People were like flotsam and jetsam as the tide of people's power movements were negatively impacted because of white supremacy, male supremacy, COINTELPRO, and an inadequate response to deal with it. Then, you know, people ended up in labor unions where they were doing some good work, but basically they became part of a labor bureaucracy where they ended up in government social services/ They were doing some good work, but they became part of that mechanism. So, I think the critical thing is trying to keep control of what's going on in the hands of the people who are actually organizing themselves and their communities. Inmn 43:55 Yeah. No, that makes sense. What are strategies that we should be embracing for countering this current current escalation in fascist tendencies? Michael 44:10 Well, you know, I've done a lot of work over the years, and as I say, "Turning the Tide" is a newspaper, we send a couple of thousand copies almost every issue into the prisons and we're in touch with a lot of stuff that's going on in the prisons. And I think that that's a critical place to look for some understanding about how to deal with this because we do see under what are essentially very naked fascist conditions of domination inside the prisons, which are very hierarchical. There's a lot of negative activity within the prisons themselves. There's the power of the guards and the wardens in the system and yet you find struggles going on against racism, against sexism, for solidarity against the solitary confinement of people who have been victims of torture are organizing themselves. And I think that understanding of that capacity and looking at that, those are some of the leading struggles in the United States. There have been hunger strikes, there have been labor strikes, the Alabama Prisoners Movement [Free Alabama Movement] here in California and elsewhere. And I think that sense that people under the most severe repression are actually capable of making human connections among themselves and beginning to actually, in a self critical way, look at how they incorporated toxic masculinity and racism into their own approach to reality, and by beginning to purge themselves of those things, they can begin to create multiracial solidarity among all prisoners to actually resist the conditions of incarceration and resist enslavement. So I think that that's very important to look at. I think that here in Los Angeles, there are, as they say, organizations like LACAN, that are working among homeless people and with homeless people to organize themselves to have street watches. They have a community garden on the roof of a building. They have cultural expression. They have theatrical groups...coral...You know, it's like all those things connect people's love and rage, as I say, people's ability to generate creative cultural expression and to use that to strengthen their solidarity and their unity and their ability to resist the coercive power of the State or the police sweeps or to expose what's going on and begin to put out a challenge to the way that society is organized. So I think that those are some critical things. I think that having the capacity to defend ourselves, both physically and also legally is very very important. I think that if you look at stuff like the Stop Cop City struggle that the escalation of repression and the use of charges of terrorism on people that are obviously not terrorists is indicates that the State sees this as a very, very serious threat and is trying to eradicate it and is trying to intimidate people. And I think to the extent that we can turn that around and use it to say to people, you know, "Is this the kind of State you want to live in? Is this the kind of society you want to have?" is a way to begin to change minds and hearts of people who have been going along with the system. I lived through a whole period where we freed many many political prisoners. We freed Bobby. We freed Huey. We freed Angela. And, you know, even the Panther 21 in New York, you know, it's like the jury met for about 30 minutes and acquitted them all because the power of those organized forces affected the consciousness of the jurors. And I think that understanding that we actually have the power to begin to shape not just own consciousness, to ways that struggle with people, to, "Which side are you on?" and to give people a sense that there is a side that they can identify with and become part of, and transform their own lives, and transform society in the process of doing that. So, I think, you know, for example, the stuff around preparedness is vital that, you know, we're living in a world in which there are incredibly destructive wildfires, floods, tornadoes, and it's very clear that the state is incapable of even dealing with it after the fact, let alone preventing it. And so I think that gives us an opening to talk to very wide sectors of the population in cities and in rural areas as well. I think that, you know, for example, Anti-Racist Action Network in its heyday had hundreds of chapters around the country in small towns because young people were, in their own high schools and music scenes, were suddenly faced with this threat of fascism and said, "Hey, we have to get organized." And so I think that, you know, we need to see these things as opportunities to really very massively begin to engage with people and begin to offer an alternative way of thinking about the world that gives some hope and some prospect of dealing not just with the crises and the repression but a way forward for people. Inmn 49:48 Yeah, yeah. And that kind of ties into--I love that you use this phrase. We've had this phrase come up lot with Cindy Milstein, who we've interviewed on the podcast before and who we've published their newest book last year, "Try Anarchism For Life," and they talk a lot about prefigurative organizing and prefigurative spaces. And I think this kind of ties into what you're talking about, but I was wondering if you could kind of give us your take on the importance of building prefigurative spaces? Michael 50:31 Yeah, I think that we have to find ways to bring people together and to give people a sense, as I say, of our own power and our own creative and generative capacity. So I think that that says that whether it's free schools, or it's breakfast for children, or any of the things that the Black Panther Party did and that many other people of color movements did in a certain period are here at our disposal. I know that, for example, there's a crisis in childcare and child rearing that's going on and so organizing people into childcare collectives and people jointly taking responsibility for each other's children and creating trust relationships that make people feel comfortable with that would be one example of that. In food deserts, organizing people to break up some sidewalks and grow some food and I think they're...One of the things that I've come to understand from doing this work for a long time is we live in a kind of fractal or holographic world in which the same contradictions are shot all the way through the system. It's at any level of magnification in fractals. If you look at the coast of Norway, something in the fjords, you know, it's the same pattern is reproduced at every level. And, you know, in a holographic image, any piece of the hologram has the whole hologram in it. So, I think that any area that people want to choose to struggle in, I think as long as they understand that they're struggling against the entirety of the system in that area and that there's an enmity built into that relationship between the system and we see what they're trying to do, I think that's the critical understanding. So if people are engaged in, you know, community gardens, as long as they understand that that's a piece of a larger struggle to create a world in which nature has, has space to reassert itself, and that people can eat different food and better food. And any area that you know, whether it's the struggle over transgender, nonbinary, or anything else, once people see that it's the same system throughout that they're struggling with, it lays a basis for solidarity, for unity, and for a struggle on many fronts simultaneously that says, you know, sort of the "War of the Flea," [A book on guerrilla warfare] the system is vulnerable in a million places because the system is in all those places simultaneously and, you know, they have a lot of money, a lot of power to deal with that, and they're organized in these systems of command and control and artificial intelligence and all the rest of it to keep track of everything, but we're in all those places simultaneously as well because we're everywhere. And trying to coordinate those things, I think, is very important. Inmn 53:51 This is a little bit of a backup that I remembered that I wanted to ask you about it. So, like, we're currently seeing like a pretty horrific and intense wave of legislation against against trans people and against queer people, and nonbinary people. And, yeah, I'm wondering what your take on that is as a kind of indicator, if we have to imagine like fascism as a spectrum of where we could be going, like what is that kind of legislation and repression an indicator of? Michael 54:38 Yeah, you know, I think that obviously fascism always tries to target the people they think are the most vulnerable. And also, as I say, I think they want to create what they see as wedge issues that they can use to divide people and segment people off. And so I think, to the extent that we can reverse that and we can try to unite people around a different conception. You know, one of the things that struck me is that you saw that they sort of had this victory with controlling the courts and overturning Roe v. Wade, for example. And, what that revealed was actually how narrow that really was, the forces that were pushing for that. Because then, you know, Nebraska and Kansas and these various states suddenly had electoral reinforcement of abortion rights happening. And I think the same thing can happen here. I think that there's so many families that they're concerned about their own kids or...and the parental rights. It reveals that these fault lines go through the whole system. That's what I'm trying to say is all of their power is based on repression and exploitation, and to the extent that people begin to see that and how it impacts on them, it opens up the vistas of possibility to say, you know, if you're concerned about your child's right to get the medical assistance they need, why is the State coming in to prevent you from doing that? And what are the interests that are trying to pick this as a threat to the stability of society? Inmn 56:46 And, yeah. Michael 56:48 So, you know, I think that since every crisis is an opportunity, I think the other thing I did want to talk about a little bit was the whole Covid pandemic, you know, going back to the prepper thing. I think you saw, again, you know, a lot of right-wing exploitation of that issue. And I think that the extent that we can get out ahead of that and look at...Okay, for example, in a society like Cuba, which had a completely different relationship to this because they're organized in a different way and, you know, they actually have a public health system and they actually created their own vaccines, not the ones from big pharma here in this country, and begin to get people to think about that and why Cuba is stigmatized by this society? Why are they embargoing Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, all these countries? You know, the connection to a global sense of what are the possibilities in the world? What are the prefigurative formations that are happening inside imperialism by countries that are actually resisting it? And so, if you look at, you know, the medical care system in Cuba, for example, you know, they have...Every neighborhood has a doctor that lives in the neighborhood--and nursing staff and other people--and [the doctor] works door to door with the people in that neighborhood to be concerned about their health and their well being not just, you know, responding to a particular medical crisis, and they have that systematized and they...So in that context, they were able to vaccinate people, not through coercive measures but through trusted people that were part of their community that could reassure them about the fact that they developed the vaccines themselves and that the Cuban pharmaceutical industry came out of their effort to deal with chemical and biological warfare by the United States. The US was like putting in swine fever as a way to destroy pigs that every family in Cuba had their own little pig to raise and, you know, supplement their food. And so they developed animal vaccines first to protect those animals and then they work their way up from there. So I think that that sense of, you know...I had a good friend recently who passed away from complications of diabetes and the Cubans have developed treatments for diabetes and to prevent amputation of limbs and other stuff. And all of that is unavailable to us because of the US imperialist embargo on Cuba and blockade. And giving people a sense that, you know, there actually are people living in the world in much better conditions. The United States is number one in incarceration, number one in many social ills, number one in overdose deaths, and, you know, on and on and on...number one in evictions. And we can begin to, you know, really give a sense to people that this system has nothing to offer them but destruction and that we have the capacity to create something different. Inmn 1:00:13 Yeah. Thanks. I have only to say that...yes. Yes to all of that. We are nearing the end...of the recording, not of the world. [Said as a dry joke] And, yeah, is there any any kind of last things that you want to say before--I'll ask you to plug anything that you want to plug at the end--I mean, that was such a beautiful wrap up, I feel like. But, if there's anything else you want to talk about, that we haven't talked about? Michael 1:00:45 Well, you know, years ago, I was part of a group in Berkeley that took over the California College of Arts and Crafts to create an anti-war poster making facility during the Vietnam War. And out of that group, there was a singing group called the Red Star Singers, and they had a song called "The Power of the People's the Force of Life." And I think we really have to have that sense. It's, you know, it is a dialectic. That's what I think the main thing I want to try to convey is that, you know, to the extent that we can build the people's power, it actually weakens that system. And, you know, just that sense that all the power that they have is actually derived from their exploitation and oppression of people. And that's our power, you know, manifest that against us. And if we take our power back, it actually does weaken them and increases our possibilities of struggling to for a different world. So, I will do the plugs. I, for 35 years, I've been working and I actually wanted to sort of break the story here. I'm looking for a collective that will take over "Turning the Tide." I've been putting it out for a long, long time. Volume 35 # 2 is just about to come out. It's up on antiracist.org. You can reach me at antiracistaction_ la@yahoo.com. But, you know, like I say, I'm 76. I'm currently the interim general manager of KPFK radio in Los Angeles and it's a huge time commitment. And I want I want to see the paper, you know, become, in some way or shape, institutionalized, to continue to meet, you know, send out the 1700-1800 copies to prisoners. And so, if anybody's interested in taking over that project and fulfilling that commitment, I'd love to hear from them. And then, as I say, I have a chapter in "¡No Pasarán!: Antifascist Dispatches from a World in Crisis" edited by Shane Burley from AK Press. And I contributed a lot of material archival stuff and was interviewed extensively for "We Go Where They Go: The Story of Anti-Racist Action" from PM press. Two really, really important books and well worth reading. And then I did, self published and co-authored "The Blue Agave Revolution: The Poetry of the Blind Rebel" with Oso Blanco, Byron Shane Chubbuck. And you can get that again from Anti-Racist Action. So it's PO Box 1055, Culver City, California 90232. And online, just Antiracist.org. Inmn 1:03:27 Wonderful, in "The Blue Agave Revolution," is that Is that where we can find your short story about the three-way fight between vampires, zombies and humans? Michael 1:03:37 It's a kind of a novella. There's about seven chapters of a longer thing. And there's also a shorter one about a group of teenage mutants called Black Bloc, that they have these kind of minor powers. One of them can, you know, it's Jackpot and Crackpot. Crackpot can kind of break out of anything and Jackpot can just affect the odds slightly in their favor and a bunch of other young people, nonbinary and so on. But they're also some different essays of mine in there and a lot of poetry and, yeah...Just the mathematics of the enormity of social economic inequality. People don't understand exactly what it is, but essentially, about 45% of the US population has the equivalent of 50 cents in assets. You know, people don't understand exactly what the class divide and the contradictions inside the society are, you know. We're we're duped into thinking that this is the richest country on the face of the Earth and the most powerful, you know. There's an enormous, hidden social cost and pain behind that and we have to figure out how to galvanize that into the power that actually those people possess and the creativity that they have. Inmn 1:05:03 Yeah. Great. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Yeah, of course. And I'll we'll drop links to all the things that you mentioned in the show notes for people to find. And yeah, thank you. Michael 1:05:23 Okay. Take care. Have a great day. Inmn 1:05:25 You too. Inmn 1:05:26 Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this podcast, then go out and live like the Empire is dying. And then tell us about it. And if you'd like to support this podcast, you can do so by telling people about it. You can support this podcast by talking about it on social media, rating, and reviewing, and doing whatever the nameless algorithm calls for. But, if you'd like to support us in other sillier ways, you can also support us on Patreon at patreon.com/strangersinatangledwilderness, which is our publisher. Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness is a radical media publishing collective that puts out this podcast as well as a few other podcasts. Our Patreon helps pay for things like transcriptions or our lovely audio editor, Bursts, who is the host of The Final Straw, as well as going on to support Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness and a few of the other podcasts we put out like our monthly anarchist literature podcast Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness, as well as the Anarcho Geek Power Hour, which is a podcast for people who love movies and hate cops. And we would like to give a very special shout out to a few of our Patreon subscribers, Princess Miranda, BenBen, Anonymous, Funder, Jans, Oxalis, Janice & O'dell, Paigek Aly, paparouna, Milica, Boise Mutual Aid, theo, Hunter, Shawn, SJ, Paige, Mikki, Nicole, David, Dana, Chelsea, Cat J., Staro, Jenipher, Eleanor, Kirk, Sam, Chris, Michaiah, and the infamous Hoss the Dog. Thank you so much. We could not do this without you. And I hope that everyone out there is doing as well as they can right now with everything that's going on. And we'll see you soon. Find out more at https://live-like-the-world-is-dying.pinecast.co

​​​​Dr Astha ​Tomar on gender-appropriate in-ward psychiatric care, Truth Not War rally, slumberkitty on Trans Queer Solidarity contingent, George Newhouse on upcoming CopWatch re-launch. Acknowledgement of Country// Headlines// ​We are joined by Dr Astha Tomar to cover the report on women-only psychiatric wards from the Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System. Dr Astha is the current Chair of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Victorian branch (RANZCP), as well as Head of Youth Mental Health Service at Peninsula Health. She has over 20 years' experience in psychiatry across multiple countries and jurisdictions including India, New Zealand and Australia. Please be advised that this interview contains distressing content addressing gender based violence that may be upsetting for some listeners. Please take a moment to consider tuning out now if this content is not suitable for you. If you require immediate support, you can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14. For LGBTQI peer support call QLife on 1800 184 527. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can call 13YARN for mob only support on 13 92 76.//​​Then we are joined by Shirley Winton, a Co-convenor of the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network's Victoria branch, member of No AUKUS Victoria Coalition and Australian Anti-AUKUS Coalition, and has been involved in organising the mass rally calling for truth not war and commemorating the 20th anniversary of the US-led war on Iraq, on 13 February 2003 in Melbourne, which will be held outside the State Library 1pm Sat 18th of March. Shirley is also a long time unionist and organiser with CWU and NTEU, and member of Victorian Peace Network and Western Suburbs Peace Group.// slumberkitty, an activist involved in fighting for liberation from the western, patriarchal binary gender system and organising with Trans Queer Solidarity, speaks with us about the solidarity contingent planned to resist two anti-trans events scheduled for this coming Saturday the 18th of March at Victoria's Parliament House steps. One event features UK anti-trans activist Kellie-Jay Keen, while the other is led by far-right networks protesting queer and trans children. Saturday's Trans Queer Solidarity contingent will be one of a string of well-attended national protests against Keen's speaking tour, so if you're in Melbourne this weekend, please show up if you can. You can find out more by heading to @transqueersolidarity on Instagram or @transqueersoli on Twitter.// George Newhouse, CEO of the National Justice Project, joins us to speak about the upcoming re-launch of Copwatch, a campaign to empower Indigenous people to protect themselves from police overreach and discrimination. Copwatch was first launched in 2017, and involves an app, website and community education program teaching Indigenous people how to legally record and document police misconduct for community safety and police accountability.​//​  Songs// Ripple - Syco, Flume, Chrome Sparks// Sweat You Out My System - MAY-A// Spring to Life - Tia Gostelow//    

Today we speak to reporter George from Greece's "Copwatch" about the recent clashes in Thessaloniki after a cop shot a teenage Roma lad in the head. - www.patreon.com/popularfront - www.popularfront.co - www.twitter.com/jake_hanrahan - www.instagram.com/popular.front

Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/body-cam-shows-baltimore-county-police-arresting-citizen-watchdog-at-gunpointAn unnamed motorist was stopped by Baltimore County police, held at gunpoint, and manhandled by multiple officers before being arrested. Body cam footage reveals the motorist, who has requested anonymity, requesting multiple times to speak with a supervisor and know the crime he was being arrested for to no avail. Police claim the 60-year-old motorist was doing donuts in his car in a local parking lot. TRNN reporter Stephen Janis was unable to find any sign of skid marks at the scene, and further deduced that the area was likely too narrow for such activity. The police statement further reveals that the motorist was known to local police as a citizen watchdog, raising the question of whether this arrest was a form of political retaliation. Police Accountability Report reviews the available footage and the details of the case, as well as what this man's ordeal can tell us about the police war against our civil rights.Studio: Stephen JanisPost-Production: Stephen Janis, Adam ColeyHelp us continue producing Police Accountability Report by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-pod-parSign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/nl-pod-parGet Police Accountability Report updates: https://therealnews.com/pod-up-parLike us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnewsFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealnews

Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/body-cam-shows-baltimore-county-police-arresting-citizen-watchdog-at-gunpointAn unnamed motorist was stopped by Baltimore County police, held at gunpoint, and manhandled by multiple officers before being arrested. Body cam footage reveals the motorist, who has requested anonymity, requesting multiple times to speak with a supervisor and know the crime he was being arrested for to no avail. Police claim the 60-year-old motorist was doing donuts in his car in a local parking lot. TRNN reporter Stephen Janis was unable to find any sign of skid marks at the scene, and further deduced that the area was likely too narrow for such activity. The police statement further reveals that the motorist was known to local police as a citizen watchdog, raising the question of whether this arrest was a form of political retaliation. Police Accountability Report reviews the available footage and the details of the case, as well as what this man's ordeal can tell us about the police war against our civil rights.Studio: Stephen JanisPost-Production: Stephen Janis, Adam ColeyHelp us continue producing Police Accountability Report by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-pod-parSign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/nl-pod-parGet Police Accountability Report updates: https://therealnews.com/pod-up-parLike us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnewsFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealnews

Reckitt's global head of sustainability David Croft gives some in-person insights from the COP27 meetings in Egypt. He reflects, talking with Ian Welsh, on what progress was made in the opening few days as the conference leaders scrambled to keep the 1.5C warming pledge fully in focus. They discuss the importance of non-siloed solutions, some reasons for optimism, and what future COP meetings should focus on to avoid the accusations of greenwash that have been levelled at the Sharm el-Sheikh conference. Ian Welsh also briefly rounds up some of the other events of the first week.

This week, it's something slightly different: Nate and Cynthia discuss the 22nd season of Law and Order, a show that's definitely copaganda but has the distinct honor of also becoming a hollow shell of its former self. Gone are the glory days of Lenny Briscoe, and instead we're met with a world in which computers can solve everything and juries convict podcasters of murder charges, because of their podcasts. Hope you enjoy!   For more CopWatch and much more bonus content, check out our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/Hellofawaytodie   *SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT* We now have a storefront to sell the patches, buttons, and magnets that we also give out as flair for our $10 tier. Buy some sweet gear here: https://www.hellofawaytodie.com/shop We have a YouTube channel now -- subscribe here and get sweet videos from us in which we yell in our cars like true veterans: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwlHZpNTz-h6aTeQiJrEDKw You can follow the show on Twitter here: @HellOfAWay Follow Nate here: @inthesedeserts Follow Francis here: @ArmyStrang

DadChat ends at 19:01! This week, Nate and Francis discuss a recent ad put out by the U.S. Army's psychological operations recruiting unit (should we be calling them MISO? PsyWar? We can never tell) that ascribes a hell of a lot of power to a small section of the military. If you join them, you can help inspire the next Tiananmen Square (??) but also put on Joker makeup. Fires burn backwards because it's extra scary. No one has any idea what is going on. Read about the ad and watch the video itself here! https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/05/16/unsettling-army-recruitment-video-ignites-debate-over-its-mysterious-intent.html For this week's bonus, Nate is joined by Cynthia to discuss police procedurals. Why does Cynthia like them so much? Because in her words, they're opposition research--they're what right-wingers think the police are actually like, and nothing is more indicative of this trend than the CBS show Blue Bloods. So, for this first episode of a sub series we're calling CopWatch, Nate has to sit through Blue Bloods S12E18, 'Long Lost,' an episode about how you should respect the Troops, but never think they have what it takes to be the real Troops (cops who do brutality but for good causes). Get it on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/66348926 *SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT* We now have a storefront to sell the patches, buttons, and magnets that we also give out as flair for our $10 tier. Buy some sweet gear here: https://www.hellofawaytodie.com/shop We have a YouTube channel now -- subscribe here and get sweet videos from us in which we yell in our cars like true veterans: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwlHZpNTz-h6aTeQiJrEDKw You can follow the show on Twitter here: @HellOfAWay Follow Nate here: @inthesedeserts Follow Francis here: @ArmyStrang

This week, Francis speaks with Shocks about male birth control. Well, one particular part of it: getting a vasectomy. There's been a lot of discussion about vasectomies in light of our howling fundamentalist Supreme Court motioning that it plans to allow abortion bans in America. Francis has actually had a vasectomy and discusses it with Shocks in hopes of demystifying the process.   For this week's bonus, Nate is joined by Cynthia to discuss police procedurals. Why does Cynthia like them so much? Because in her words, they're opposition research--they're what right-wingers think the police are actually like, and nothing is more indicative of this trend than the CBS show Blue Bloods. So, for this first episode of a sub series we're calling CopWatch, Nate has to sit through Blue Bloods S12E18, 'Long Lost,' an episode about how you should respect the Troops, but never think they have what it takes to be the real Troops (cops who do brutality but for good causes). Get it on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/66348926   *SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT* We now have a storefront to sell the patches, buttons, and magnets that we also give out as flair for our $10 tier. Buy some sweet gear here: https://www.hellofawaytodie.com/shop We have a YouTube channel now -- subscribe here and get sweet videos from us in which we yell in our cars like true veterans: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwlHZpNTz-h6aTeQiJrEDKw You can follow the show on Twitter here: @HellOfAWay Follow Nate here: @inthesedeserts Follow Francis here: @ArmyStrang

Russia backs off in Ukraine… a NYPD cop argues he shouldn't lose his job.. but he doesn't want to talk about it and the mayor and videotaping the police.. 11 years since a labor disaster changed New York forever.

Biden calls Putin a thug and asks China for help… The United States plans a massive rearming of Ukraine … The threat of accidental nuclear war… Covid and the Koch brothers and the mayor says he's putting an end to the public videotaping police.

In this episode we'll be talking about crime watch and corruption with cop watch especially the New York City police department how they are so blatantly corrupted and around the world --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/jr-bell8/support

The first daily podcast covering the COP26 meetings in Glasgow, with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh. All the news from the opening day as delegates struggled with train delays and venue queues, and including reflection on the opening comments from David Attenborough, Boris Johnston, Joe Biden and Narendra Modi's 2070 net zero pledge for India. Plus insight from climate journalist Mike Scott on what to look out for over the coming days.

- Wir sprechen am Telefon mit Lisa von "Copwatch", über die diesjährigen KEW (Kritische Einführungswochen) an der Universität Leipzig. Im Vorfeld und während dessen war einiges passiert, von geplatzten Raumzusagen bis zu Polizeibeamten, die plötzlich in den Hörsälen standen. - Ein wenig Sachsen und der ganze Rest

42. Did He Call The Cops On Himself? - NEWS NOW OMAHA COPWATCH NEWS NOW OMAHA COPWATCH YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/c/NEWSNOWOMAHACOPBLOCK ASD - Andre Shouldn't Drink Podcast Clips YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyxDVz79hfaDzv_NFw81eSA Guys, please do us a huge favor and give the audio version of the podcast a 5 star rating! It would really help us out - ANCHOR - https://anchor.fm/andrecandrink SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3jrUmaRphdcmBFYkvSnoa6 APPLE PODCAST - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/asd-andre-shouldnt-drink/id1482933908 Please help me hold Fairfax County PD Accountable for all the corruption going on in their department. Anything helps, Thank you! Please donate on GoFundMe here - https://gf.me/u/yibi3a ASD-DOCS Uncensored - https://www.patreon.com/m/ASDDOCS Hey guys welcome back to another episode of the ASD-Andre shouldn't drink podcast... Before I go into the rest of this intro I want to mention to you guys that I have a second channel… where I upload podcast clips for those individuals that don't necessarily want to listen to an entire hour long podcast… The link to the ASD-Andre Shouldn't Drink Podcast Clips YouTube Channel will be in the description & show notes…. Now let's get into this intro… Today's guest is popular activist & first amendment auditor, Floyd Wallace aka Omaha Copwatch! In this podcast episode I ask Floyd some hard hitting questions regarding the two big controversies that he has faced since starting his activism... we talk about how he got started in first amendment auditing, we talk about the different locations that he likes to conduct first amendment audits, we talk about the amount of times Floyd has gone to jail, we talk about the different charges that Floyd has faced, we talk about Floyd's unique first amendment auditing style, we talk about whether or not Floyd files complaints or lawsuits against many of these officers that violate his rights, we talk about what the future holds for First Amendment Auditors, we talk about whether or not there are good cops out there, we talk about Floyd's views on drug legalization, we talk about the top three worst jails Floyd has gone to when he was arrested, we talk about whether Floyd's family supports his activism, we talk about the camera gear that Floyd carries with him on all First Amendment audits, & finally we talk about what Floyd does when he isn't working or on a First Amendment Audit. Guys, I want to give a huge shoutout to Omaha Copwatch. As usual, I'll be linking his YouTube Channel in the description & in the show notes… With all of that said let's get right into this podcast episode! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/andrecandrink/message

Full Episode 6-14-21 - In this episode, we discuss Burma updates, history of Juneteenth, leadership, Brad Pitt, and Copwatch.

Touch on the ways we as black people can and are problematic. Question why folks don't have 'podcast' conversations in their everyday or close friend/partnerships Flex.Mami podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0YfoUeDnMl63wt1M1QLUfr?si=k6cyYkFmR06yJccDydQIGA&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A5P75s7GZlPYfSWi6VDiPHD Please enjoy. Sit back listen and as always rate us five stars and let us know how you enjoyed this episode. A very full podcast that we hope you enjoy. Be sure to rate us 5 stars on Itunes and reach us through  https://www.instagram.com/itsalookpod/ Elyonna's Socials: https://www.instagram.com/elyonna_mone/ Elizabeth/Izzy's Socials: https://www.instagram.com/undertheoven/ https://twitter.com/VortexPussy KNOW YOUR RIGHTS ask: "why am I being stopped" ask: "am I free to go, or am I being detained?" ask if there is a search warrant and ask to see it Say: " I do not consent to a search" Ask: "am I free to go?" Say: "I will not talk. I want my lawyer" Remember: Remain silent; and you do not need to show ID Call 1-800-LAW-REP-4 www.AssatasDaughters.org/Copwatch  If you are in any domestic violent situation and need someone to call or help: https://www.thehotline.org/help/  **All of our podcast are recorded a week prior to release so some dates we mention may have past** --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsalook/support

Please enjoy. Sit back listen and as always rate us five stars and let us know how you enjoyed this episode. A very full podcast that we hope you enjoy. Be sure to rate us 5 stars on Itunes and reach us through  https://www.instagram.com/itsalookpod/ Elyonna's Socials: https://www.instagram.com/elyonna_mone/ Elizabeth/Izzy's Socials: https://www.instagram.com/undertheoven/ https://twitter.com/VortexPussy KNOW YOUR RIGHTS ask: "why am I being stopped" ask: "am I free to go, or am I being detained?" ask if there is a search warrant and ask to see it Say: " I do not consent to a search" Ask: "am I free to go?" Say: "I will not talk. I want my lawyer" Remember: Remain silent; and you do not need to show ID Call 1-800-LAW-REP-4 www.AssatasDaughters.org/Copwatch  If you are in any domestic violent situation and need someone to call or help: https://www.thehotline.org/help/  **All of our podcast are recorded a week prior to release so some dates we mention may have past** --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsalook/support

We buss out the Reflex card game and ask some critical thinking questions. Please enjoy. Sit back listen and as always rate us five stars and let us know how you enjoyed this episode. A very full podcast that we hope you enjoy. Be sure to rate us 5 stars on Itunes and reach us through  https://www.instagram.com/itsalookpod/ Elyonna's Socials: https://www.instagram.com/elyonna_mone/ Elizabeth/Izzy's Socials: https://www.instagram.com/undertheoven/ https://twitter.com/VortexPussy KNOW YOUR RIGHTS ask: "why am I being stopped" ask: "am I free to go, or am I being detained?" ask if there is a search warrant and ask to see it Say: " I do not consent to a search" Ask: "am I free to go?" Say: "I will not talk. I want my lawyer" Remember: Remain silent; and you do not need to show ID Call 1-800-LAW-REP-4 www.AssatasDaughters.org/Copwatch  If you are in any domestic violent situation and need someone to call or help: https://www.thehotline.org/help/  **All of our podcast are recorded a week prior to release so some dates we mention may have past** --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsalook/support

Bang bang gang gang! Our guest on this episode was once part of NYC’s largest gang. Corey Pegues was once a cop. Because of the times we living in some of the cast members on the spaceship told me FTP. We still here tho’ internets because we been here and we gonna be here until brothers work this shit out. It’s always up to the brothers to work this shit out.

In an interview with Dave Glowacz on the Chicago Reader's Ben Joravsky Show, Ben and Dave listen to audio from the July 2020 meeting of the full Chicago City Council, including: why council members fear tenant protections; how (and whether) the mayor blindsided an alderman around a landmark district; the city gropes toward a police complaint database; and a lengthy tribute to a mayoral staffer. Length 52.5 minutes.

In an interview with Dave Glowacz on the Chicago Reader's Ben Joravsky Show, Ben and Dave listen to audio from the July 2020 meeting of the full Chicago City Council, including: why council members fear tenant protections; how (and whether) the mayor blindsided an alderman around a landmark district; the city gropes toward a police complaint database; and a lengthy tribute to a mayoral staffer. Length 9.1 minutes.

We talk about what got him started in the movement. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

When we talk about technology we always talk about the future—which makes it hard to figure out how to get there. In Future Histories: What Ada Lovelace, Tom Paine, and the Paris Commune Can Teach Us about Digital Technology (Verso), Lizzie O’Shea argues that we need to stop looking forward and start looking backwards. Weaving together histories of computing and social movements with modern theories of the mind, society, and self, O’Shea constructs a “usable past” that help us determine our digital future. What, she asks, can the Paris Commune tell us about earlier experiments in sharing resources—like the Internet—in common? Can debates over digital access be guided by Tom Paine’s theories of democratic economic redistribution? And how is Elon Musk not a visionary but a throwback to Victorian-era utopians? In engaging, sparkling prose, O’Shea shows us how very human our understanding of technology is, and what potential exists for struggle, for liberation, for art and poetry in our digital present. Future Histories is for all of us—makers, coders, hacktivists, Facebook-users, self-styled Luddites—who find ourselves in a brave new world. Lizzie O’Shea is a lawyer, writer, and broadcaster. She is a founder and the chair of Digital Rights Watch, which advocates for human rights online, is a special advisor to the National Justice Project, and also sits on the board of Blueprint for Free Speech and the Alliance for Gambling Reform. At the National Justice Project, she worked with lawyers, journalists and activists to establish a Copwatch program, for which she received a Davis Projects for Peace Prize. In June 2019, she was named a Human Rights Hero by Access Now. Dr Alexandra Ortolja-Baird is a visiting researcher at the British Museum and teaches Digital Humanities at University College London. Her research intersects intellectual history, digital humanities and cultural heritage studies. She can be reached at aortolja-baird@britishmuseum.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When we talk about technology we always talk about the future—which makes it hard to figure out how to get there. In Future Histories: What Ada Lovelace, Tom Paine, and the Paris Commune Can Teach Us about Digital Technology (Verso), Lizzie O’Shea argues that we need to stop looking forward and start looking backwards. Weaving together histories of computing and social movements with modern theories of the mind, society, and self, O’Shea constructs a “usable past” that help us determine our digital future. What, she asks, can the Paris Commune tell us about earlier experiments in sharing resources—like the Internet—in common? Can debates over digital access be guided by Tom Paine’s theories of democratic economic redistribution? And how is Elon Musk not a visionary but a throwback to Victorian-era utopians? In engaging, sparkling prose, O’Shea shows us how very human our understanding of technology is, and what potential exists for struggle, for liberation, for art and poetry in our digital present. Future Histories is for all of us—makers, coders, hacktivists, Facebook-users, self-styled Luddites—who find ourselves in a brave new world. Lizzie O’Shea is a lawyer, writer, and broadcaster. She is a founder and the chair of Digital Rights Watch, which advocates for human rights online, is a special advisor to the National Justice Project, and also sits on the board of Blueprint for Free Speech and the Alliance for Gambling Reform. At the National Justice Project, she worked with lawyers, journalists and activists to establish a Copwatch program, for which she received a Davis Projects for Peace Prize. In June 2019, she was named a Human Rights Hero by Access Now. Dr Alexandra Ortolja-Baird is a visiting researcher at the British Museum and teaches Digital Humanities at University College London. Her research intersects intellectual history, digital humanities and cultural heritage studies. She can be reached at aortolja-baird@britishmuseum.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When we talk about technology we always talk about the future—which makes it hard to figure out how to get there. In Future Histories: What Ada Lovelace, Tom Paine, and the Paris Commune Can Teach Us about Digital Technology (Verso), Lizzie O’Shea argues that we need to stop looking forward and start looking backwards. Weaving together histories of computing and social movements with modern theories of the mind, society, and self, O’Shea constructs a “usable past” that help us determine our digital future. What, she asks, can the Paris Commune tell us about earlier experiments in sharing resources—like the Internet—in common? Can debates over digital access be guided by Tom Paine’s theories of democratic economic redistribution? And how is Elon Musk not a visionary but a throwback to Victorian-era utopians? In engaging, sparkling prose, O’Shea shows us how very human our understanding of technology is, and what potential exists for struggle, for liberation, for art and poetry in our digital present. Future Histories is for all of us—makers, coders, hacktivists, Facebook-users, self-styled Luddites—who find ourselves in a brave new world. Lizzie O’Shea is a lawyer, writer, and broadcaster. She is a founder and the chair of Digital Rights Watch, which advocates for human rights online, is a special advisor to the National Justice Project, and also sits on the board of Blueprint for Free Speech and the Alliance for Gambling Reform. At the National Justice Project, she worked with lawyers, journalists and activists to establish a Copwatch program, for which she received a Davis Projects for Peace Prize. In June 2019, she was named a Human Rights Hero by Access Now. Dr Alexandra Ortolja-Baird is a visiting researcher at the British Museum and teaches Digital Humanities at University College London. Her research intersects intellectual history, digital humanities and cultural heritage studies. She can be reached at aortolja-baird@britishmuseum.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When we talk about technology we always talk about the future—which makes it hard to figure out how to get there. In Future Histories: What Ada Lovelace, Tom Paine, and the Paris Commune Can Teach Us about Digital Technology (Verso), Lizzie O’Shea argues that we need to stop looking forward and start looking backwards. Weaving together histories of computing and social movements with modern theories of the mind, society, and self, O’Shea constructs a “usable past” that help us determine our digital future. What, she asks, can the Paris Commune tell us about earlier experiments in sharing resources—like the Internet—in common? Can debates over digital access be guided by Tom Paine’s theories of democratic economic redistribution? And how is Elon Musk not a visionary but a throwback to Victorian-era utopians? In engaging, sparkling prose, O’Shea shows us how very human our understanding of technology is, and what potential exists for struggle, for liberation, for art and poetry in our digital present. Future Histories is for all of us—makers, coders, hacktivists, Facebook-users, self-styled Luddites—who find ourselves in a brave new world. Lizzie O’Shea is a lawyer, writer, and broadcaster. She is a founder and the chair of Digital Rights Watch, which advocates for human rights online, is a special advisor to the National Justice Project, and also sits on the board of Blueprint for Free Speech and the Alliance for Gambling Reform. At the National Justice Project, she worked with lawyers, journalists and activists to establish a Copwatch program, for which she received a Davis Projects for Peace Prize. In June 2019, she was named a Human Rights Hero by Access Now. Dr Alexandra Ortolja-Baird is a visiting researcher at the British Museum and teaches Digital Humanities at University College London. Her research intersects intellectual history, digital humanities and cultural heritage studies. She can be reached at aortolja-baird@britishmuseum.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When we talk about technology we always talk about the future—which makes it hard to figure out how to get there. In Future Histories: What Ada Lovelace, Tom Paine, and the Paris Commune Can Teach Us about Digital Technology (Verso), Lizzie O’Shea argues that we need to stop looking forward and start looking backwards. Weaving together histories of computing and social movements with modern theories of the mind, society, and self, O’Shea constructs a “usable past” that help us determine our digital future. What, she asks, can the Paris Commune tell us about earlier experiments in sharing resources—like the Internet—in common? Can debates over digital access be guided by Tom Paine’s theories of democratic economic redistribution? And how is Elon Musk not a visionary but a throwback to Victorian-era utopians? In engaging, sparkling prose, O’Shea shows us how very human our understanding of technology is, and what potential exists for struggle, for liberation, for art and poetry in our digital present. Future Histories is for all of us—makers, coders, hacktivists, Facebook-users, self-styled Luddites—who find ourselves in a brave new world. Lizzie O’Shea is a lawyer, writer, and broadcaster. She is a founder and the chair of Digital Rights Watch, which advocates for human rights online, is a special advisor to the National Justice Project, and also sits on the board of Blueprint for Free Speech and the Alliance for Gambling Reform. At the National Justice Project, she worked with lawyers, journalists and activists to establish a Copwatch program, for which she received a Davis Projects for Peace Prize. In June 2019, she was named a Human Rights Hero by Access Now. Dr Alexandra Ortolja-Baird is a visiting researcher at the British Museum and teaches Digital Humanities at University College London. Her research intersects intellectual history, digital humanities and cultural heritage studies. She can be reached at aortolja-baird@britishmuseum.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When we talk about technology we always talk about the future—which makes it hard to figure out how to get there. In Future Histories: What Ada Lovelace, Tom Paine, and the Paris Commune Can Teach Us about Digital Technology (Verso), Lizzie O’Shea argues that we need to stop looking forward and start looking backwards. Weaving together histories of computing and social movements with modern theories of the mind, society, and self, O’Shea constructs a “usable past” that help us determine our digital future. What, she asks, can the Paris Commune tell us about earlier experiments in sharing resources—like the Internet—in common? Can debates over digital access be guided by Tom Paine’s theories of democratic economic redistribution? And how is Elon Musk not a visionary but a throwback to Victorian-era utopians? In engaging, sparkling prose, O’Shea shows us how very human our understanding of technology is, and what potential exists for struggle, for liberation, for art and poetry in our digital present. Future Histories is for all of us—makers, coders, hacktivists, Facebook-users, self-styled Luddites—who find ourselves in a brave new world. Lizzie O’Shea is a lawyer, writer, and broadcaster. She is a founder and the chair of Digital Rights Watch, which advocates for human rights online, is a special advisor to the National Justice Project, and also sits on the board of Blueprint for Free Speech and the Alliance for Gambling Reform. At the National Justice Project, she worked with lawyers, journalists and activists to establish a Copwatch program, for which she received a Davis Projects for Peace Prize. In June 2019, she was named a Human Rights Hero by Access Now. Dr Alexandra Ortolja-Baird is a visiting researcher at the British Museum and teaches Digital Humanities at University College London. Her research intersects intellectual history, digital humanities and cultural heritage studies. She can be reached at aortolja-baird@britishmuseum.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Retrospect Reviews, I review "Copwatch", the Black Lives Matter-themed, Tribeca Film Festival entry in the recently-held We Are One online film festival, and discuss Spike Lee's masterful - and still relevant - third feature film - 1989's "Do the Right Thing" - with Ricardo Medina and special guests Tracy J. Hutchings and Claude Lilford. 02:26 - Copwatch 16:16 - Individual histories with "Do the Right Thing" and other Spike Lee joints 31:20 - Do the Right Thing MOVIE REVIEW (1st Half) 2:40:34 - Final Thoughts and Ratings AUDIO CLIPS COURTESY OF (c) Universal Studios 1989 All Rights Reserved FOR MOVIE REVIEW REQUESTS: https://www.fiverr.com/share/qDLoPV FOR MUSIC REVIEW REQUESTS: https://www.fiverr.com/share/BR1yGd Matthew Bailey on Social Media: https://twitter.com/beerbeatbailey https://www.instagram.com/beersbeatsandbailey https://facebook.com/mattbaileyTT https://facebook.com/legallyblackMJB https://legallyblack.wordpress.com Ricardo Medina on Social Media https://twitter.com/Rmeddy https://facebook.com/ricardo.medina.7169 Claude Lilford on Social Media: https://twitter.com/CC_the_martian https://www.instagram.com/cc_the_martian/ https://www.facebook.com/claude.lilford https://www.linkedin.com/in/c-c-lilford-59469b135/ CHECK OUT HIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCorFgU7XH72A-gAajMX7YIQ Tracy J. Hutchings on Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/joshanabetaknerai https://www.youtube.com/user/stealahb https://www.instagram.com/wearetracy/ https://vimeo.com/user11319107 Music by Jason Donnelly (audioblocks.com) Thanks for listening!

The Black Panther's first initiative "Copwatch" ensured the Republicans would restrict guns in America! And the cops were left to escalate things further! #BlackPanthers #BlackLivesMatter #SecondAmendment Donate to Black Visions Collective: https://www.blackvisionsmn.org New album pre-order for a dollar: https://bit.ly/PolitelyAngry I’m donating 50% of ticket sales to various grassroots organizations and venues! Grab your tickets to all of the June Citizen Revolution shows: https://bit.ly/CitizenJune Sources: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/17/black-panther-party-oakland-free-breakfast-50th-anniversary https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/30/black-panthers-prison-interviews-african-american-activism https://thegrayzone.com/2017/01/17/fbi-honors-martin-luther-king-jr-neutralize-him/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-martin-luther-king-had-75-percent-disapproval-rating-year-he-died-180968664/ https://truthout.org/articles/martin-luther-king-jr-warned-that-the-poor-pay-for-war-with-their-lives/ https://youtu.be/4e7gm5JZc9M https://youtu.be/bqxwTABwtnU https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/workers/black-panthers/1966/10/15.htm http://www.itsabouttimebpp.com/Survival_Programs/survival_programs.html Written, Edited & Filmed by Krish Mohan Music: "Blue" by Old Game Download their album: https://oldgame.bandcamp.com SUPPORT THE SHOW BY BECOMING A SUSTAINING MEMBER OR A ONE TIME DONATION!: http://ramannoodlescomedy.com/donate TOUR DATES: http://ramannoodlescomedy.com/shows/ EXCLUSIVE MATERIAL: https://ramannoodlescomedy.bandcamp.com/ Weekly Updates: http://bit.ly/WeeklyKrish Subscribe: http://eepurl.com/oOJ45 Podcast: http://taboo-table-talk.libsyn.com FFON Podcast: http://ffonkrishmohan.libsyn.com Download my NEW album "Empathy On Sale": http://bit.ly/EmpathyOnSale-1 Download my album "Approaching Happiness": http://bit.ly/ApproachHappy STEEMIT: https://steemit.com/@krishmohanhaha MINDS: https://www.minds.com/KrishMohanHaha Thanks to our current Patrons: Adam & Swarna, Aiden, Lee & Eleanor, Eduardo, Gregory W., Gregg, Hayley, Jason, Joseph, Michael, Uli, Vickie, Jay, Kathryn, Zack, Amy, Bharat, Andrew S. & Don!

The Black Panther's first initiative "Copwatch" ensured the Republicans would restrict guns in America! And the cops were left to escalate things further! #BlackPanthers #BlackLivesMatter #SecondAmendment Donate to Black Visions Collective: https://www.blackvisionsmn.org New album pre-order for a dollar: https://bit.ly/PolitelyAngry I'm donating 50% of ticket sales to various grassroots organizations and venues! Grab your tickets to all of the June Citizen Revolution shows: https://bit.ly/CitizenJune Sources: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/17/black-panther-party-oakland-free-breakfast-50th-anniversary https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/30/black-panthers-prison-interviews-african-american-activism https://thegrayzone.com/2017/01/17/fbi-honors-martin-luther-king-jr-neutralize-him/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-martin-luther-king-had-75-percent-disapproval-rating-year-he-died-180968664/ https://truthout.org/articles/martin-luther-king-jr-warned-that-the-poor-pay-for-war-with-their-lives/ https://youtu.be/4e7gm5JZc9M https://youtu.be/bqxwTABwtnU https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/workers/black-panthers/1966/10/15.htm http://www.itsabouttimebpp.com/Survival_Programs/survival_programs.html Written, Edited & Filmed by Krish Mohan Music: "Blue" by Old Game Download their album: https://oldgame.bandcamp.com SUPPORT THE SHOW BY BECOMING A SUSTAINING MEMBER OR A ONE TIME DONATION!: http://ramannoodlescomedy.com/donate TOUR DATES: http://ramannoodlescomedy.com/shows/ EXCLUSIVE MATERIAL: https://ramannoodlescomedy.bandcamp.com/ Weekly Updates: http://bit.ly/WeeklyKrish Subscribe: http://eepurl.com/oOJ45 Podcast: http://taboo-table-talk.libsyn.com FFON Podcast: http://ffonkrishmohan.libsyn.com Download my NEW album "Empathy On Sale": http://bit.ly/EmpathyOnSale-1 Download my album "Approaching Happiness": http://bit.ly/ApproachHappy STEEMIT: https://steemit.com/@krishmohanhaha MINDS: https://www.minds.com/KrishMohanHaha Thanks to our current Patrons: Adam & Swarna, Aiden, Lee & Eleanor, Eduardo, Gregory W., Gregg, Hayley, Jason, Joseph, Michael, Uli, Vickie, Jay, Kathryn, Zack, Amy, Bharat, Andrew S. & Don!

This week we discuss friendship, friendship break ups, and holding ourselves accountable within our interpersonal relationships. Apologies this episode has so scratch ups but only at the beginning smooth sailing after that. Please enjoy. Sit back listen and as always rate us five stars and let us know how you enjoyed this episode. A very full podcast that we hope you enjoy. Be sure to rate us 5 stars on Itunes and reach us through  https://www.instagram.com/itsalookpod/ Elyonna's Socials: https://www.instagram.com/elyonna_mone/ Elizabeth/Izzy's Socials: https://www.instagram.com/undertheoven/ https://twitter.com/VortexPussy KNOW YOUR RIGHTS ask: "why am I being stopped" ask: "am I free to go, or am I being detained?" ask if there is a search warrant and ask to see it Say: " I do not consent to a search" Ask: "am I free to go?" Say: "I will not talk. I want my lawyer" Remember: Remain silent; and you do not need to show ID Call 1-800-LAW-REP-4 www.AssatasDaughters.org/Copwatch  If you are in any domestic violent situation and need someone to call or help: https://www.thehotline.org/help/  **All of our podcast are recorded a week prior to release so some dates we mention may have past** --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsalook/support

"We have a real opportunity at this turning point of the digital revolution to make sure that we remember alternatives are possible" — Lizzie O'Shea In today's episode, we discussed how different technologies are impacting us and how we can navigate these challenges in the age of AI. Lizzie discussed some of the technologies deployed to fight and manage COVID-19 and how we can use this challenging time to determine our digital future. Lizzie is a lawyer, writer, and broadcaster. Her commentary is featured regularly on national television programs and radio, where she talks about law, digital technology, corporate responsibility, and human rights. In print, her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Guardian, and Sydney Morning Herald, among others. Lizzie is a founder and board member of Digital Rights Watch, which advocates for human rights online. She also sits on the board of the National Justice Project, Blueprint for Free Speech and the Alliance for Gambling Reform. At the National Justice Project, Lizzie worked with lawyers, journalists and activists to establish a Copwatch program, for which she was a recipient of the Davis Projects for Peace Prize. In June 2019, she was named a Human Rights Hero by Access Now. As a lawyer, Lizzie has spent many years working in public interest litigation, on cases brought on behalf of refugees and activists, among others. I was proud to represent the Fertility Control Clinic in their battle to stop harassment of their staff and patients, as well as the Traditional Owners of Muckaty Station, in their successful attempt to stop a nuclear waste dump being built on their land. Lizzie’s book, Future Histories looks at radical social movements and theories from history and applies them to debates we have about digital technology today. It has been shortlisted for the Premier’s Literary Award. When we talk about technology we always talk about the future—which makes it hard to figure out how to get there. In Future Histories, Lizzie O’Shea argues that we need to stop looking forward and start looking backwards. Weaving together histories of computing and social movements with modern theories of the mind, society, and self, O’Shea constructs a “usable past” that help us determine our digital future.

Release Ramsey Orta! / Housing Struggle in Asheville Sean Swain's segment on Bernie Sanders withdrawal the Democrat candidacy. [00:03:20-00:12:27] Release Ramsey Orta! [00:12:27-00:38:00] This week, we hear from Deja, the fiance of incarcerated cop watcher Ramsey Orta. Ramsey has been in prison since 2016 and during his short time inside has he's been transferred around a lot and spent over a year in isolation. Ramsey's name may be familiar as the police accountability activist who recorded the killing by police of the unarmed community member and grandfather, Eric Garner, in New York in 2014. Ramsey Orta's video went viral and drew NYPD harassment and attention to him and his family and since his incarceration led to many threats by cop-sympathizing CO's. Orta is currently about 90 days from his release date for his non-violent conviction and falls within the categories of prisoners that NY is considering releasing before the pandemic is in full swing. If you can help lean on the powerful in NY to get Ramsey Orta released, you can email officialramseyorta@gmail.com or wecopwatch@gmail.com. You can learn more about Ramsey's case at RamseyOrta.com, or the SupportRamseyOrta fedbook page, as well as WeCopWatch.org or that groups fedbook page. News just came out that Midstate Correctional, where Ramsey is currently being held, has shown its first infections of covid-19, so this issue of securing Ramsey Orta's release is dire. He is being denied showers, soap, tissue, enough food. Ramsey is also not being giving cleaning supplies for his cell. A source of his mistreatment is Sgt Mayo at Midstate. Supporters suggest phones contact the following officials and share freedom for Ramsey. Ramsey's prison number is 16A4200. Office of Special Investigations (OSI) - DOCCS OSIComplaint@doccs.ny.gov 844 674 4697 William Burns / Deputy Superintendent for Security 315-768-8581 ext 5000 William.burns@doccs.ny.gov William D. Fennessy / Superintendent 315 768 8581 ext 2000 william.Fennessy@doccs.ny.gov Housing Struggle in Asheville [00:40:14-01:28:52] Then we hear from two activists from Unemployed Humans Organzing Help, or UHOH Asheville, talking about tenant organizing for a rent freeze and pushing the government and hoteliers to open up those empty rooms to houseless folks in Asheville. More at their fedbook page, or by emailing uhohavl@riseup.net. Apologies for the sound in this second portion. . ... . .. Featured tracks: Pete Rock - Return Of The Mecca (instrumental) Lee Reed - The Sixth Massive  

In today’s episode, Lizzie O’Shea discusses the great power of data and AI — and how we can use them to empower people rather than oppress them. She’ll discuss which technologies should be off-limits, compares data policies around the world, and proposes a code of ethics for engineers building these influential technologies. Lizzie probes who holds the power of AI and data and who should be responsible for ethics in this realm — corporations or the government — and who is better equipped to do so. Lizzie raises important questions about privacy concerns in our digital lives and even poses the question — do machines already rule the world?About Lizzie O’Shea:  Lizzie is a lawyer, writer, and broadcaster. Her commentary is featured regularly on national television programs and radio, where she talks about law, digital technology, corporate responsibility, and human rights. In print, her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Guardian, and Sydney Morning Herald, among others.  Lizzie is a founder and board member of Digital Rights Watch, which advocates for human rights online. She also sits on the board of the National Justice Project, Blueprint for Free Speech and the Alliance for Gambling Reform. At the National Justice Project, Lizzie worked with lawyers, journalists and activists to establish a Copwatch program, for which she was a recipient of the Davis Projects for Peace Prize. In June 2019, she was named a Human Rights Hero by Access Now.  As a lawyer, Lizzie has spent many years working in public interest litigation, on cases brought on behalf of refugees and activists, among others. I was proud to represent the Fertility Control Clinic in their battle to stop harassment of their staff and patients, as well as the Traditional Owners of Muckaty Station, in their successful attempt to stop a nuclear waste dump being built on their land.  Lizzie’s book, Future Histories looks at radical social movements and theories from history and applies them to debates we have about digital technology today. It has been shortlisted for the Premier’s Literary Award.  In this episode we cover the following topics: 4:00 How does the modern day compare to times in decades past as it pertains to rights—is technology a force for good? How can we take back the power of technology to benefit humanity?  8:00 How can we manage AI and digital technology in a more intentional way? How are automated processes already determining the course of many people’s lives? Lizzie explains how the future when machines takeover is, in many ways, already here. Should technology be regulated in order to help solve problems, and what problems have already occurred? 16:00 Lizzie discusses the state of regulation across the world, including GDPR and New York’s data fiduciary law. Should we move beyond contractual ideas of privacy?  18:00 Lizzie explains her stance on facial recognition. Should facial recognition be limited in the same way as chemical warfare—a line that is not to be crossed? How can facial recognition technology be oppressive, and what can you do to protect yourself?  22:00 Is the social credit system in China far-fetched in the West? Lizzie discusses the modern surveillance state.  26:00 How does technology mirror power structures in the analog world? Lizzie discusses predictive policing technology and the biases that exist within it.  31:00 Should we create a code of ethics for engineers developing these technologies? What practical things could an engineer do if a project’s implications make them uncomfortable? 38:00 Lizzie discusses the influence of large companies, social media, and why some issues they face are better suited to politics than corporations.  46:00 We converge to talk about the politics behind data and AI, the need to educate our regulators, and speak with our younger generations who will one day create the rules surrounding the tech that rules the world. 

Whilst there should have been only scenes of celebrations in the Sydney derby in Kogarah this past Friday as the Wanderers won their first away derby since the 2013-14 season, there were scenes that should not be seen not just in the A-League, but in sports in general and towards the fans none the less. In this special ATB, Tats and Jaush discuss the situation that unfolded between the travelling away fans (notable in the RBB) and the police geared up in riot squad uniform.

Episode 70 of Real Black News features public relations and crisis management expert Rachel Noerdlinger discussing her Olivia Pope-like media activism work over two decades with everyone from Johnny Cochran to Rev. Al Sharpton. In a rare interview, Rachel discusses black media, dealing with her personal media crisis, being adopted by a white family, and her mother’s suicide. Other topics include the Mississippi prison protest, Ethiopia’s #BringOurStudentsHome campaign, an update on the Charleston AME case, and more.

Episode 69 of Real Black News features news on the death of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna Bryant, Malawi’s dreadlock school ban overturned, Iraqi protests across the US, an update on the Flint Water crisis and more. While former investment banker and CEO of Kids Who Bank, Jatali Bellanton, shares money-making investment tips on “The Black Wall Street Report.”

11.26.19 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: 3 Wrongfully convicted men in Baltimore walk free; Cop convicted of killing a Black man after jury deliberates for two hours; Groups like Copwatch are key when it comes to cases like the one in Alabama. We'll talk with one of the men watching the cops; Turkey Leg Hut case; 14 million Americans were purged from voter rolls and most of them were poor, black and students; In a case of gentrification Turkey Leg Hut in Houston is under attack by people who say they're a health hazard. #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: 420 Real Estate, LLC To invest in 420 Real Estate’s legal Hemp-CBD Crowdfunding Campaign go to http://marijuanastock.org -

Episode 64 of Real Black News features Emmy and NAACP Image Award-winning producer P. Frank Williams. He discusses his latest hit docu-series Copwatch, inspiring more to record the police and his own experience with police brutality. Frank also shares thoughts on the murder of Biggie, Tupac, and how the mental health epidemic among black men moves him to share his struggles. Other topics include the uprising in Chile, HBCU’s connecting to universities in Africa, the latest Hollywood diversity report, and Nas.

On this episode of #ConnectingtheDots, we were joined by Pat from Cop Watch America to discuss Trump rally in Atlanta, Cop Watch America and more! Subscribe to Innovative Black on YouTube: https://goo.gl/N1sqiD http://innovativeblackstation.com https://twitter.com/InnovativeBlack https://www.instagram.com/innovativeblackstation/ https://www.facebook.com/innovativeblackstation1/ Innovative Black is an online platform that entertains, educate and provide exposure through original content.

The program all about TV. Our guests: Julie McQueen, president of Carbon TV, a programming service devoted to outdoor living and adventures, distributed through smart TV sets and TV-connected devices, and P. Frank Williams, executive producer of Copwatch America, BET's unique weeky late-night series exploring allegations of police brutality and other abuses of power.

We talk about the Elyonna's trip to the court house to fight for an organization that offers housing and security for homeless youth. We touch on the synonomous identity of struggle and discomfort when it comes to being black. We talked about misnaming murdered transwomen therefore jeopardizing their cases.  Sit back listen and as always rate us five stars and let us know how you enjoyed this episode. A very full podcast that we hope you enjoy. Be sure to rate us 5 stars on Itunes and reach us through  https://www.instagram.com/itsalookpod/ Elizabeth/Izzy's Socials: https://www.instagram.com/undertheoven/ https://twitter.com/VortexPussy Elyonna's Socials: https://www.instagram.com/elyonna_mone/ KNOW YOUR RIGHTS ask: "why am I being stopped" ask: "am I free to go, or am I being detained?" ask if there is a search warrant and ask to see it Say: " I do not consent to a search" Ask: "am I free to go?" Say: "I will not talk. I want my lawyer" Remember: Remain silent; and you do not need to show ID Call 1-800-LAW-REP-4 www.AssatasDaughters.org/Copwatch  If you are in any domestic violent situation and need someone to call or help: https://www.thehotline.org/help/  **All of our podcast are recorded a week prior to release so some dates we mention may have past** --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsalook/support

We got a 2 parter for you this week. We talk NFL Jay Z and how to black up the NFL  A very full podcast that we hope you enjoy. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bobo-and-flex/id1451036362?i=1000444988676 Be sure to rate us 5 stars on Itunes and reach us through  https://www.instagram.com/itsalookpod/   Elizabeth/Izzy's Socials:  https://www.instagram.com/undertheoven/   https://twitter.com/VortexPussy   Elyonna's Socials:   https://www.instagram.com/elyonna_mone/   KNOW YOUR RIGHTS ask: "why am I being stopped" ask: "am I free to go, or am I being detained?" ask if there is a search warrant and ask to see it Say: " I do not consent to a search" Ask: "am I free to go?" Say: "I will not talk. I want my lawyer" Remember: Remain silent; and you do not need to show ID Call 1-800-LAW-REP-4 www.AssatasDaughters.org/Copwatch  If you are in any domestic violent situation and need someone to call or help: https://www.thehotline.org/help/  **All of our podcast are recorded a week prior to release so some dates we mention may have past** --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsalook/support

Josh flies solo with the Masked Maniax, as we talk about the process of joining a vigilante bike gang, social justice, and who has the best thighs.

From event FB page: FILM SCREENING AND DISCUSSION ON GENTRIFICATION AND RESISTANCE FROM NEW ORLEANS TO SOUTH AFRICA. This event is co-sponsored with Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative, Gallery of the Streets, and Anti-Gentrification Action Group. Not In My Neighbourhood (86 minutes, 2018), directed by Kurt Orderson, Screening with the short film Displacement in Central City New Orleans (15 minutes, 2017), directed by Trupania Bonner. Discussion after the film featuring filmmakers Kurt Orderson and Trupania Bonner, urbanist and advocate Sue Mobley, and artist and organizer kai lumumba barrow, moderated by Charmel Gaulden. NOT IN MY NEIGHBOURHOOD FILM SUMMARY: Not in my Neigbourhood depicts citizens on the frontlines of intersectional struggles against gentrification in three cities. The film follows the daily struggles, trials and triumphant moments, as residents try to shape the cities they live in from the bottom up. Over 3 years South African filmmaker Kurt Orderson followed the anti-gentrification and police brutality monitoring collective Copwatch in New York, occupation movements in Sao Paulo, and gentrification in Woodstock, Cape Town. Making connections through the inter-generational stories of people fighting for the right to their city, Not in my Neighbourhood takes the viewer on a journey into the everyday lives of community members and how they experience and battle the violence of displacement on a daily basis. TRAILER: https://vimeo.com/237044326 FILMMAKER BIO: Kurt Orderson is an award-winning filmmaker from Cape Town, South Africa. He has worked for the South African Broadcasting Corporation, producing, shooting and directing magazine shows and numerous documentaries for television. He is the founder and director of Azania Rizing, a production company that aims to inspire young people through creative storytelling about Africa and African Diasporas. The company has aims at mapping the influence of African legacies around the world to facilitate international dialogue by linking local and global stories. Kurt has directed and produced multiple documentaries and narrative films that have screened at international film festivals and on various broadcasts outlets. FILMMAKER BIO: Trupania Bonner is an organizer, award-winning filmmaker, and director of Crescent City Media Group based in New Orleans, LA. For nearly ten years, Trupania has worked at the intersection of film, civic engagement and social change throughout the South. In 2013, Trupania was selected as a National Micro-Fest Fellow and as an Aspen Ideas Festival Scholar in 2012 honoring Trupania’s innovative approach to community building and voter engagement. From 2008-2012, he served as Executive Director of Moving Forward Gulf Coast, Inc., a community-based organization building potential in communities of color across the Gulf Coast. Trupania currently serves on the board of Project South, the 2025 National Black Men and Boys Network, and the National Men Against Violence Network. Crescent City Media Group anchors communication projects for the Southern Movement Alliance.

Human rights lawyer Lizzie O'Shea joins Jeff to discuss police violence in Australia and the United States, as well as her involvement in the Copwatch program for Indigenous communities.

BHL This Week - Join Courtney Stewart ,Derrial Christon, and Jesse Janedy recall the top stories of the week on This Week for September 28st, 2017. Todays topics include: 1.) Jordin Sparks NFL 2.) B.O.B. Seeks Crowd Funding 3.) DANIELLE BROOKS DESIGNING CURVY CLOTHING COLLECTION 4.) Rihanna’s FENTY SKIN INCLUSION SETTING NEW STANDARDS 5.) COPWATCH DOC 6.) MARLON WAYANS NEW NETFLIX SPECIAL

Listen to Anthony Beckford who manages the Brooklyn CopWatch sector talk about his experience keeping the police on their toes by filming their interactions with the public. We talk about why there is no such thing as a good cop, Anthony's amazing first experience with activists (you have GOT to hear this story) and more. The music on the intro of the show is by William Malsam. soundcloud.com/williammalsam #copwatch #fuckthepolice #RealTalkwithAnthonyB #Whatwouldsavetheworld #radiofreebrooklyn #politics #anarchy #fucktheprisonsystem #prisontopipelinesucks

Elsa Waithe is a super rad Comedian and Activist. This week on What Would Save the World? hosted by Took Edalow you can hear her discuss The Police, Black Lives Matter and more. Follow her at @elsajustelsa for more on her comedy and to hear about seminars coming up with CopWatch

Chaos Theory Radio: Methane Demons, 6,000 Year Old Earth and the Real Enemy Within!   Intro Links Anti-Austerity Fever Spreads Across Europe http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/12/21/spanish-election-results-anti-austerity-fever-spreads-across-europe Documentary on the Threat to Democracy in Greece https://theintercept.com/fieldofvision/thisisacoup-episode-four-surrender-or-die/   Absurd Theater Agrabah the Land of Magic Written by JKD   Freedom Fries Does the CISPA Threaten Internet Access? http://motherboard.vice.com/read/internet-freedom-is-actively-dissolving-in-america?trk_source=popular   CopWatch No Indictment for Tamir Rice Murderer http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/cleveland-officer-who-fatally-shot-12-year-old-tamir-rice-will-not-face-charges   I Call Bullshit US Outstrips Other Countries as World’s Arms Dealer http://www.sipri.org/research/armaments/milex/recent-trends LA’s Methane Leak is Biggest Environmental Disaster in the US https://motherboard.vice.com/read/why-we-cant-stop-the-enormous-methane-leak-flooding-la Young Earth Theory Fan Legislator Leads Arizona Education Panel http://www.12news.com/story/news/2015/12/21/arizona-legislator-who-believes-earth-6000-year-old-leads-education-committee/77715744/   Healthcare Pulse Single-Payer Health Care On Colorado Ballot http://singlepayerhealthcarenow.com/2015/12/27/single-payer-health-care-on-colorado-ballot-in-2016/   Forgotten History Civil Rights Leader Ella Baker http://zinnedproject.org/materials/baker-ella/   Music and Sound Effects Countdown News Intro Sound Effect #1: FreeSoundEffects: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcuhpKQj998 Nuclear Explosion sound effect: TechnoStickman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxNnUU3eRD0 Free Dream Sound Effects - Harp & Piano HIGH QUALITY HD HQ: FesliyanStudios https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEuFMOyr6JQ Tom Morello: Marching on FergusonNine Inch Nails: Ghosts III - 26Want to hear more from our co-hosts?Follow Chaos Theory Radio on Twitter!https://twitter.com/chaostheorynowJohnny K Dangershttps://www.facebook.com/greenpeoplesmedia/https://twitter.com/johnnykdangershttps://www.facebook.com/Johnny-K-Dangers-386667151463739/?fref=tsDan Markshttps://twitter.com/DanMarks99David Geitgey Sierralupehttps://twitter.com/occupyradio23occupyradio23@gmail.comhttp://www.occupyradio.org/http://occupythemedia.podomatic.com/Sue Sierralupehttp://www.thepracticalherbalist.comhttp://www.realherbalismradio.comhttp://occupy-medical.orghttp://www.herbalistmanifesto.com/herbs/  

Interview with Executive Director of Aspiration Tech which helps nonprofits use technologyTRANSCRIPTSpeaker 1:You're listening to k a Alex Berkeley 90.7 FM, university of California listener supported radio. And this is method to the madness coming at you from the Public Affairs Department here at Calyx celebrating the innovative spirit of the bay area. I'm your host aliene czar. And today we have Alan Gunn joining us, the executive director of aspiration tech. What's up? Got Her. How you doing? I am well thank you. Thanks for coming to the studio today. Um, and um, uh, Alan is the a r u founder. I am not, you know the founder, but you're the the the leader. I am [00:00:30] aspiration tech. So, um, the first question I always ask the leader of an organization like aspiration tech is, give me the problem statement. What are you trying to solve? Speaker 2:Uh, there are a lot of people working to make positive change in this world. Uh, there's a lot of technology in the world that we know today and the people making positive change in the world rarely are able to make effective use of technology. There's a range of reasons for that from they don't prioritize it to, they get taken advantage of. And I have a somewhat embarrassingly [00:01:00] specific, uh, preoccupation with really focusing on what we call preventive tech care, helping those who are working for social justice to use technology in sustainable ways that supports their mission as opposed to detracting from it. Speaker 1:Yeah. Well that's very concise. Thank you. It's interesting cause I have a little bit experience of this and it's, it's this huge gap between the Social Justice Entrepreneur, I like to call them, who have this really incredible vision and passion. But when you get down to the nuts and bolts of the execution, there's a big gap. [00:01:30] Absolutely. And so how many, um, or tell me first of all, how did aspiration tech come come about? How did this organization get created? Speaker 2:Aspiration was founded in 2001 our founding board chair, Jonathan Pizer, and I'm Melissa Pale Thorpe, was the founding director. They realized that there were not appropriate market dynamics to get the need of nonprofit software created. And so aspiration was initially founded with the idea of actually creating the missing software applications for the U S nonprofit sector. And then, uh, the vision [00:02:00] became more global. Uh, the, the organization sort of realized that as a tiny us NGO, they weren't about to go writing enterprise software. And so, uh, I came in a few years later and sort of reshaped the mission around sort of a different approach to building that same technology capacity. Speaker 1:Okay. And, um, so tell us a little bit about, uh, your client base today. Like how does, how does it work? Have someone come and get services from aspiration tech? Speaker 2:Oh, the simple answer is they ask. Um, we work, uh, with a very broad and diverse [00:02:30] set of stakeholders. We do about half our work in the U S and about the rest, uh, outside the u s around the world. Uh, and we work, as I describe it across the so-called, uh, nonprofit technology supply chain. Grassroots NGOs call us up all the time. One of our most subversive offerings is a free proposal review service. So if a tech vendor has written you a document saying they'll charge you x dollars for deliverable Y, we'll take a look at it and we'll tell you if we think it's a fair deal, we'll look for the hidden intellectual property [00:03:00] clauses and Gotchas and lock-ins. The sad story I tell a lot, because it's true, there's a Bay area nonprofit that we've worked with that uh, the director was leaving and signed a five year, 5,000 a month web hosting contract. Speaker 2:And if you know anything about web hosting, that's a bit high. 500 x exactly. And so, yeah, that's $300,000 down the drain just because they didn't have somebody look at that proposal and didn't put a, an opt out into the contract. And so yeah, I mean, so does [00:03:30] this kind of stuff happen a lot? It does. One of the things that's been most disturbing, I started as an accidental nonprofit techie. I was a silicon valley guy back in the 90s and when I first saw the web, I was like, this could be big. And so I started thinking about how all my Greenpeace housemates and all my other tree hug and friends might use the web. I specialized in criminally ugly websites in the nineties I could build those by hand at volume. We all, we all do that. I look back and I'm proud of my flushing animations and other poorly, poorly conceived design judgments. Speaker 2:But I'm, [00:04:00] as I've come to sort of make it a full time job. The thing that has really struck me as most unfortunate is that every level of the market, there's predators. We maintain what we call a clueless vendors list of all of the people that actually misrepresent their services have hidden lock-ins or otherwise exploit the knowledge differential when they're trying to deal into this market. Wow. It's mind blowing that someone would be so cynical to be, you know, be a Predator on nonprofits. But I guess that there's a, [00:04:30] there's someone for every kind of angle out there. There is. So let me ask you about, um, you see so many different, um, business models and, and uh, nonprofits. What is the biggest gap that you see in the tech stack of all these people coming to you needing help? The great unsolved problem of the nonprofit universe, and this is global, is the a supporter database. Speaker 2:Uh, I point out that there's several hundred of these out there and all of them, pardon my French suck. They are just um, brittle. [00:05:00] Uh, some of them are extremely uh, shortsighted in what they let you do. Their extensibility is limited, but most of them simply don't do what nonprofits want to do. And there is this ongoing tension in nonprofit technology about do you bend to fit the tool or do you keep looking until you find a tool that fits the way you do what you do? So that's one great unsolved problem. I think now you're talking about like, um, a CRM type thing for, for donations. Something as simple as a constituent relationship [00:05:30] management system. It is astoundingly difficult for grassroots nonprofits to find inappropriate one a, the most powerful ones out there are sold by some of the most predatory vendors. I can't say enough non-positive things about Blackbaud, which is a company that deliberately locks nonprofits in, charges them hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and just exploits the fact that nonprofits need fundraising and CRM tools. Wow. And is that their primary focuses on nonprofits. Wow. So, um, when you Speaker 1:come in and you're looking at like someone asked for [00:06:00] your help, what's the process for, uh, kind of the assessment of what [inaudible] Speaker 2:they need? It's a good question. It's very dialogue based and we, our belief is, uh, technology is tragically almost all the time seen as a tech problem. And our belief is that it's always a people problem. And my background between Silicon Valley and what I do at aspiration, I worked for a great organization called the Ruckus Society and got a lot of exposure both there and living in a Greenpeace house. Two principles of community organizing. And so what we work with people to do [00:06:30] is to treat their technology challenges as community organizing opportunities. And by that I mean treats your users as your community members, arguably your marginalized community members. And so much as they don't tend to really get any voice in the technology they use. They tend to get told what tools they're gonna use and it tends to be the wrong tools for what they're trying to get done. Speaker 2:So we work with whoever is what we lovingly call the accidental tech lead or accidental tech decision maker to really get them into an engagement stance and a dialogue process where they actually talk [00:07:00] to the people that need the tools they're trying to identify and treat it as an organizational development growth opportunity rather than just a go to Walmart and get a new thing shopping spree. And that turns out to be a fairly effective model to teach them to fish. Is that tired? Uh, phrase goes, it's really fun to get people into a stance of believing they can actually do their own tech planning. Speaker 1:Interesting. Well, we're talking to Alan Gunn, he's the executive director of aspiration tech, a San Francisco based nonprofit that's focused on helping solve tell tech challenges for nonprofits [00:07:30] in the bay area and beyond. And um, that sounds like a pretty, um, people intensive engagement process. So tell me a little bit about the aspiration tech organization. Like who, who is it besides you? Speaker 2:It is seven of us. We're based in San Francisco at 16th and mission street. We run a happy little workspace called The San Francisco nonprofit tech center and have some great housemates. They're with us. Freedom of the press foundation, open whisper systems, upwell, Ruckus Society, peer to Peer University. [00:08:00] So it's a real fun nonprofit tech space. And uh, we work on a range of things. We've got folks that work on so-called human rights technology, helping people to think about digital security, others who work on capacity building across the state of California. Uh, it's easy to get volunteer tech support here in San Francisco. In fact, too easy, far too many people over deliver overly complex technology solutions. Uh, but our passion is the central valley in the rural parts of the state. So we do as much work as we can in Fresno, Sacramento and, and [00:08:30] down highway five. Basically. We've done a number of events at Coachella and places where you don't normally see a real density of tech folks. We're trying there to really help build local tech skills and really tried to build a statewide network of people that share tech, uh, in ways that we think are sustainable. Speaker 1:So, um, as you go through that, you know, you've written this amazing man has fit manifesto online that I think is really great. I want to ask you some questions about it. And one of the things that you just mentioned is taking concept of applying technology to scale organizations and make them more [00:09:00] powerful, um, to places that maybe this isn't something that they're used to. Um, so you have one in your manifest. So you talk about, um, the language for the end user, which, you know, in my experience is so critical. So tell me a little bit about that part of your ethos here of how do you, how do you engage in a way that's not scary to the executive director of WHO's focused on social justice issues and not the latest Tech Gizmo? Speaker 2:Great question. Um, our analysis, uh, we, we refer to it as, as what we call language [00:09:30] justice. And the idea is that if you look at power and class and privilege dynamics with regard to how technology plays out in this sector, technologists are uniquely privileged class and part of their privilege lies in the fact that they use this specialized language that marginalizes virtually everyone else. They'll drop some jargon, use an acronym, and they do it with a disdain that sort of conveys a don't bother asked me about this, you'd never understand it. Sort of a Hubris and so we work with organizations and activists and we say claim, claim your power, [00:10:00] claim your language power and describe what you think you need technologically in your language. Don't feel like you need to say http. Don't feel like you need to say database, but really try to focus on the strategic things you're trying to get done and the outcomes that you're trying to achieve. Speaker 2:One of the myths of technology, this is both in the nonprofit world and the broader world. A lot of people think that tech knows what you want and knows what you need and can do what you need. I'll go out the refrigerator and the microwave and the sad truth [00:10:30] about software and nonprofit technology in particular, it doesn't. And so we try to get people not to assume the tech will magically deliver a solution, but instead to get them to think strategically about the outcomes they're trying to achieve, the strategy that they'll use to get to those outcomes. And then last, the role of technology in those outcomes. We keep all of the dialogue and the vocabulary of the end user, but put it in formats where that same vocabulary makes sense to the techies. We've got sort of a universal format for describing what tech should do that is designed [00:11:00] both to be readily usable by those writing or delivering solutions, but also fully understandable by those little actually have to use them. Speaker 1:Well, it sounds like your engagement process is pretty well defined that you've, you really thought about it. You guys have been doing this for over a decade, it sounds like. So tell me a little bit about how that works. So if someone says I need help and they come to you and you're going to start talking to them in a language is not tech, but how far do you guys go? Do you guys actually implement the technology or do you just a consulting company or what are you guys, Speaker 2:we don't, we lovingly call ourselves pre procurement. Uh, but we'll stay with you all the way through. And [00:11:30] so what we try to do there, there is the other pathology I've seen over the years. People who do social change work are passionate, shockingly about social change. And so when, when you're talking to them about technology and explaining that it's going to take some time, they get fidgety in the big sense of fidgety. They're not happy with that. And when you say, Hey, if you want to do this right, it's an organizational commitment. It requires focus, they go nuts. And so we have a one step, a time model. We try to get them to focus on who will use the technology and then how they'll use it. And to the community organizing [00:12:00] paradigm. We actually get them to get some of their users actively involved in the process. We run live events where we actually get users to react to technology plans and beat them up in a loving way. And so the idea is to really walk folks through the actual visualization of what the tools will do before they pay the money before they get locked in. Speaker 1:So you guys are really generating the, the architecture and requirements of what the organization is gonna spend its money on to go implement. But then you guys step back, someone else is going to go actually [00:12:30] implement it, but you're there as a consultant throughout. Speaker 2:Exactly. At that point, if I can use a boxing metaphor, we then become the trainer in your corner. You're out there, Mano a Mano with somebody that you've got to contract with to make your website or your database or your other application. Uh, there's a certain game theory to dealing with technology vendors and so we basically coach around that. A good example would be, uh, when you're putting out a request for proposal, many earnest nonprofits will actually put the new number of their full budget. They'll say, we only have $30,000 [00:13:00] to do this. Our first coaching advice is don't say 30,000, save a little bit, come in a little bit lower. If you put out a proposal request for 30 K, they'll all come back at 29, nine 99. And so we tried to teach people to sort of keep some gas in the tank and then once projects get going, show them how to track progress and hold vendors accountable. Most vendors disappear into a void and say, oh, it'll be ready at some point. We try really hard to get early engagement around the deliverables so that [00:13:30] the nonprofits know they're getting what they want and they correct errors earlier in the process. Speaker 1:And Are you advocating for a certain type of, um, development methodology like agile, like in a rapid iterative process? Speaker 2:We describe a lot of what we do is grassroots agile. Um, we, we use that term only when it's appropriate to use it. But the concept in the agile software methodology of iterating and pivoting those words drive me crazy, but they're useful words. Uh, and so we try to get people to do minimum viable versions of things. I often described nonprofits, [00:14:00] they have a technology procurement ethic that parallels what people who live far, far out in the country do when it shopping time. They go into the city and they pack that vehicle is full of stuff as they can so they don't have to go back to the city anytime soon. And that doesn't work with tech procurement. If you do the, I want my website with every bell and whistle now you get what we call bloatware. You get technology that doesn't do what you want and it's hard to drive because it's big and it's complicated. So we try to focus on minimalism. Uh, when in doubt, leave [00:14:30] it out. And just a general sense of what we lovingly call subsistence technology because our belief is in the long haul, the less technology you're moving forward, if it meets your basic needs, that's a more strategic footprint than technology. That quote unquote does everything and costs you huge switching pain and legacy costs as you go to evolve with all these technologies are guaranteed to evolve. Speaker 1:When in doubt, leave it out. I love that one cause I use that because that is an awesome one. All right, so we're, we're speaking with Alan Gunn, the executive director of aspiration [00:15:00] tech here on KLX Berkeley 90.7 FM. This is a method to the madness and I'm your host, Ali and Huizar. Another part of your manifesto that I really loved is, um, and it's something that I think is so important, yet people just miss it, which is the fact that it's not about the software is not about the hardware. It's about the data that, tell me about your kind of, you know, the importance you put on the data and, and why is it so important for nonprofits? Speaker 2:Um, at the end of the day, all technology exists to manage information [00:15:30] in some sense, whether that is your digital music player or your radio or whatever. And one of the tragedies, and I think we point this out in that manifesto, software and hardware have cost associated with them. They are budget line items and most nonprofit budgets data rarely does your list of supporters, your list of, um, data samples from an environmental super fund site. No one really assigns a value to that. And so first order problem is that nonprofits think straight to dollars. And if it doesn't [00:16:00] have a number associated with it, they tend to undervalue it. The thing that has become much more of an issue since we wrote that manifesto is that with the proliferation of data acquisition capabilities, mobile data acquisition and crowd sourcing and cloud x, Y, z non nonprofits are now amassing data sets that actually put the people whose data is amassed at risk. Speaker 2:And you know, we see that in so many ways, there are sort of urban legends that are at least part true. Uh, you know, examples that people that [00:16:30] do, um, heat maps, in other words, they do a Google map of places where hate crimes have occurred. The problem with that is that then gives the haters a pretty good clue on where they can go do hateful things. And so there really is a need to do what is often referred to as responsible data practices. We work with a great organization called the engine room that's moving forward a responsible data program. And the idea is to teach nonprofits that with large data sets comes large responsibility and again, when in doubt leave it out. And so as you're collecting data, uh, [00:17:00] there are many times when you want to be circumspect about how that data could be used against you or others in the future. Speaker 2:One other example I use, uh, we worked with groups in the Central Valley that support undocumented folks, uh, in immigration advocacy work. Uh, we are quite sad when we discovered that they keep those folks contact info in Google spreadsheets and you're like, wow, that's just one Faeza or government subpoena away from getting some people deport it or worse. And so we try to make people aware that just because the tool is easy or just cause it's real nice [00:17:30] to see it all in those rows and columns. Uh, you'll want to think about what you're collecting and you'd just as importantly want to think about where you're storing it. Speaker 1:Yeah. I mean it's such a, it's such a huge problem and it's relatively new to humanity cause we never had this much access to information exactly. But this week apple made their big announcement with their new products and one of them is I think health kit where there are research kit where they're, they've created a framework for um, uh, hospitals do research. You can download an app and they can monitor stuff that you're doing, but there's this huge, [00:18:00] you know, HIPAA issues with that as, you know, be putting all this health information on apple servers and they can do whatever they want with it. It's really a fascinating time to be an understanding kind of the privacy laws around data. Yup. Um, now as you look at all of the different, um, you know, engagements that you're doing, um, what are some of the biggest, uh, kind of, you know, um, transformational or disruptive technology trends that you're seeing and nonprofits that are really starting to, you know, you know, we're [00:18:30] talking about some of the negative side with some of the positive things. The technology is so amazing in terms of its rapid advancement. What are you seeing that wasn't around 10 years ago that is really changed, transforming how effective nonprofits and social entrepreneurs can be? Speaker 2:That's a good question. Uh, I tend because we are technology minimalists, I tend to do less compellingly on questions like this. Uh, I'm old school in the sense that I think what really is a magical truth is that publishing a really effective website is now a well-defined process. I thank [00:19:00] the universe that a thing called wordpress came along and I thank the universe that when you outgrow wordpress, there's a thing called Drupal. And those two software packages really do help. The vast majority of grassroots and mid nonprofits publish extremely professional, powerful websites they have control of. I think you can overstate the ways in which mobile is changing the game. I think mobile, when you look at great organizations, you know Copwatch here in Berkeley that's now able to use mobile devices to hold police accountable. I think that's really exciting, but I think you know [00:19:30] whenever people ask me about exciting developments in tech, I I feel like the buzz kill do the glass half empty guy because mobile is a great example. Speaker 2:The power of what mobile can do. If you look@anorganizationlikewitness.org the human rights organization based in New York, they worked with another nonprofit called the Guardian project to put together some incredible human rights documentations, tools and I've been attack and other groups from Palo Alto has also contributed some incredible software. But the problem is that when you're using those phones, you are giving them in [00:20:00] a tremendous amount of data. Anytime you're connected by an actual mobile signal. And so just as you are documenting and collecting, you are almost always putting yourself at risk. Certainly being surveilled and so we try to teach people, as trite as it sounds, there ain't no magic technology bullets. And with every technology opportunity you must model the present and future costs. So to your question, mobile technology is exciting. I'm grateful as someone focusing increasingly on the so-called human rights technology space. Speaker 2:I think digital [00:20:30] security tools have turned a corner, and I think that there really is now a set of tools that really changed the game in terms of what human rights activists can do to be safe wherever they are. You'll never be fully safe. But when you look at where the tor browser has come to and the fact that you can browse online, when you look at what the Guardian software can do on mobile phones, certainly on Android, and when you look at what open whisper systems has done with their red phone and signal apps, which let you have genuine encrypted voice calls on your iPhone and android [00:21:00] devices. To me that's the most exciting thing because I think at the end of the day it's less about the sexy bell or the sexy whistle. It's more about the tools that really help you continue to be effective at scale. Speaker 2:And I'm a bit of a cynic. I think we're in an interesting honeymoon period in the sense that I think right now we see technology as this wonderful, compelling thing. We live in silicon valley and butterflies fly out of, you know, SD ram cards. But I think in the future we really need to model for a fairly dark world where those tools are actually used to surveil us. They're locked down. People have to connect [00:21:30] to the Internet with a global unique numeric identifier. And so I think it's really critical as we use these tools to focus on those that give us longterm agency and longterm autonomy, the people's tools and to that extent, open source and free software. I believe that depending on Google and apple and Microsoft is death unto itself as overstated as that might sound to some people, those corporations have one thing they got to do well and that's make money for shareholders and God bless them or goddess bless them, they do damn well at that particular pursuit here and now. Speaker 2:But [00:22:00] I think it's critical to understand that when the nonprofits get the freebies from Google or the freebies from Microsoft and one of these days, apple apparently is going to give some freebies to um, those are lock-in tricks. Those are surveillance hooks, those are addictions to unhealthy fatty technology. Foods then in the long run are going to kill the movement. And so we practice a, as an preach, if I may a certain rather strident voice around the fact that we need to be consuming open tools, free software technology controlled by the people, for the people, and making that our priority. [00:22:30] So instead of the shiny air or the newer or the more compelling, let us use the open and the free and the stable and maintain control of our longterm technology destiny. Speaker 1:Well, it's a really a powerful, um, image that you're portraying there. And, um, I almost see like a dystopian future novel coming from you at some point in time. Like you, you've got the vision. We've got to, if only more about it. Only Cory Doctorow hadn't already written it. All right. So, um, we're talking to Alan Gunn. He's an executive director of aspiration tech [00:23:00] here on KLX Berkeley 90.7 FM. And uh, we're talking about is a nonprofit that helps other nonprofits use tech for good. And, um, so let's talk a little bit about, um, some stories. So, um, you're in a consultative capacity. You probably see all sorts of transformations from the time you come in to the time you leave working with a organization. So can you tell us a little bit about a couple of, you know, you know, transformations that you really love that are really encapsulate [00:23:30] the kind of mission of aspiration tech? Speaker 2:I'd be glad to. Um, a story I tell a lot just because they're wonderful people that we adore and we're grateful we get to work with them. There's a wonderful organization in Fresno called Barrios Unidos and they work with young mothers to help balance, ah, workforce development and being able to stay employed with childcare, which is a tough double to pull when you're in your teen or early 20 years. And we first started working with them, goodness, about five years ago, our program director, misty Abila, uh, was [00:24:00] the lead on that. And the idea when we got there, they were really just trying to figure out technology basics and they bought into what we were selling in terms of the process that we advocate. The idea that you, you don't count on the tools, you count on your own ability to drive the tools and you count on the tools changing and trying to design processes that sustain your messaging, your engagement and your information management. And they now come to our events and train other nonprofits and everything they do and they've innovated in ways we could have never imagined. And so Yasmin and all [00:24:30] the folks at Barrios Unidos are an ongoing inspiration to us because they're doing the work that inspires us. They're actually making the world a better place and working with them to figure out appropriate tech is sort of really in a, in a nutshell, what aspiration exists to do Speaker 1:to what kind of innovations have they done. Speaker 2:They're using social media to reach people. They're using mobile phones and clever ways to, it's, you know, I think to a silicon valley ear, it's not that innovative, but I think when you're working with zero technology dollars, just the fact that they're sustaining some very compelling online communications [00:25:00] and really mobilizing people using technology to participate in, to be part of what they do, that to us is a big win. Speaker 1:Yeah. And that was a, the one of the, one of the questions I want to ask and follow up to kind of the biggest disruptors in the nonprofit space was social media, just because the democratization of the ability to access so many people I would think would be a great driver of fundraising capabilities for nonprofits. We've seen all sorts of crowdsourcing and stuff like that. Um, and so that's, you got to see that as a positive, right? I mean, in terms of new [00:25:30] developments or what's your take on that? Speaker 2:Um, it's a tough question. I think social media is an astoundingly powerful infrastructure and I, you know, we certainly advise people to play in those fields, but I think it really depends on a lot of variables. One thing that the fundraising professionals, uh, of which I do not, uh, myself identify as one. Uh, the fundraising professionals will tell you, social media is not actually a really good fundraising mechanism. We certainly talked people down from there. I'm going to make this video and it's going to go [00:26:00] viral. Delusions on a regular basis. Um, if there's anything everyone that we work with agrees on what goes viral cannot be predicted. Uh, you know, and even upworthy, bless their souls, work overtime to drive the stuff that they drive viral. So I, you know, I think on a lot of levels it's important to really think about social media, like all of their technologies in the context of what it is or is not appropriate for a cautionary tale. Speaker 2:I'm sorry, I keep coming back to the buzzkill side of your questions. Look at what happened with the Arab spring. A incredible use of Twitter and social media [00:26:30] to mobilize, to put people into Hater Square, to actually let the people's voice be heard. And then as soon as there was a government turnover, uh, they went back to those Twitter logs and they took those people and they put them in jail. Uh, and a close friend and ally of ours, ally still actually in jail, just got sentenced to a number of years in jail in no small part because of its online a writing. And so I think social media, it's a critical tool and it's a place, you know, one of things we say to people, meet people where your audiences are. A lot of people on Facebook, a lot of people on Twitter, but we encourage people [00:27:00] to really strike a healthy balance because Facebook is a great example of an incredibly powerful tool that will double back to bite you. Speaker 2:There's a cautionary tale from a couple of years ago, uh, Facebook, uh, was, uh, I'm trying to think what year this was. I believe it was pre IPO target. The CEO of target was funding hate legislation in Minnesota, anti gay marriage stuff in Minnesota. And some earnest Facebook users set up a boycott target page, which Facebook instantly froze. It got 75,000 likes in one day. Facebook froze it because, [00:27:30] oops, target is a major advertiser on Facebook and you know, their whole patronizing language was that they wanted to maintain the civility of Facebook. You're like, dude, I can show you a lot of Facebook real estate where that is not being enforced, but a point being a, you know, there's that, that old phrase about, you know, whether or not it's going to work to, you know, use the master's tool to dismantle the master's house. I think we're really playing an unleveraged game to depend on Facebook and corporate social media to bring about change because at the point that we start to bring revolution to bear, they'll close our account. [00:28:00] And I think we need to be humble to the fact that the end of the day, social media is a revolution. It is an evolution. It is a powerful infrastructure, but we must distrust it as much as we leverage it because it's going to be taken away at the point that we use it effectively against power and against the corporations that control it. Especially the advertising corporations that generate the CR prices, the generate the dividends that make the 1% do what they do so wonderfully well. Speaker 1:Yeah. And all these companies, Twitter, Facebook, they're all, you know, publicly traded companies now at the holding of their own shareholders [00:28:30] and they're in the rat race of quarterly reports and all that stuff. So well said. So I wanted that close by. Um, you know, you've, you've stated a powerful case for, uh, you know, a, a manifesto that you have online of how to apply, you know, learnings to nonprofit world, which was probably quite a few people listening who that resonates with. So how can they get involved if someone wants to help aspiration tech's mission, how would you suggest they help? Speaker 2:That's a great question. Uh, we do a lot of trainings [00:29:00] at our tech center. We welcome to come by their free trainings. We love to mentor mentors. You know, we, we don't presume to be the smartest men or in the room, but our belief is that, uh, as we teach others that they can go teach others how to do this stuff and what we consider to be sustainable ways. We as a set of movements and a movement supported by a set of techies with certain value orientations around social justice as opposed to whizzbang shiny. Um, we welcome folks that want to sort of grow in that mentoring role, that teacher role [00:29:30] and that tech support role. Because doing that well is really hard. And I say that as somebody who's been doing it for about 20 years. Um, we're available whether you're in California, on the other side of the world, uh, at aspiration tech. Speaker 2:Dot. There's lots of ways to contact us. We can't always help, but we'll always try to find you someone who can, uh, for those that are more techie oriented. Our annual conference in Oakland, it's in November every year. The last full week before Thanksgiving, a the nonprofit software developers summit is a time where so-called open techies, people that are committed to making open [00:30:00] and free software and other technology come together to meet with one another. But at the end of the day, the answer to your question is, if you think we can help, call us up and we'll do our best to see if we, uh, can prove you're right. Speaker 1:Right on. Well, I appreciate you coming in today, gunner and we, you've been listening to Alan Gunn, the executive director of aspiration tech, a San Francisco based nonprofit, really focused on helping other nonprofits utilize technology for good. You can check them out@aspirationtech.org and you, and this has been method to the madness on KALX Berkeley 90.7 FM. Thanks for listening. [00:30:30] Have a great Friday. Everybody. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this episode of Tea with Queen and J., females, women and bitches are allowed to rap again, water in Detroit ain't free, J. sells her soul to go to New York Comic Con, and it will be #FergusonOctober all year around. Drink up! Some show notes! If you'd like to help restore water to the residents living without in Detroit, check out www.DetroitWaterBrigade.org To learn more about #FergusonOctober visit www.FergusonOctober.com Look for a #Copwatch training session in your area and other ways to help in the fight against police brutality: www.copwatch.org www.copwatchnyc.org www.peoplesjustice.org @peoples_justice www.caaav.org @CAAAV Hashtag #TheVotingBlock on all of your posts about voting, voter rights, community involvement, and progressive action and mobilizing of any kind. Don't forget to subscribe to us on iTunes, follow us on Soundcloud, like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/TeawithQueenandJ, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/teawithqj, on Instagram www.instagram.com/teawithqj, and email us at teawithqueenandj@gmail.com

A couple of weeks ago I followed my friend Jenevieve to work. Jenevieve works for Big City Walls, an institution, that coordinates murals with youth organizations in schools across New York City. She recently completed a mural at the corner of Knickerbocker and Myrtle avenues with teenagers and young adults aged 13-21 from the Bushwick area of Brooklyn. The mural took four weeks to complete, from conceptualization to realization, and was funded by several organizations including Make the Road New York, CopWatch and Big City Walls itself. The role of such community outreach associations is to bring awareness and help to kids and their families on topics such as educational, immigration and housing justice, youth programs, and police brutality, which are relevant to the Bushwick population. In this podcast episode you will hear Jenevieve, her coworker Emilia and their students discussing the themes pictured on the mural and how they apply to the students personal lives.