Behind the Bastards - Behind the Bastards Presents: Hood Politics with Prop

Episode Date: January 5, 2025

Here are a couple of our favorite episodes of Hood Politics with Prop podcast series. The DOJ Curbed Google So Hard No, the Other Zionism Apple Podcasts Spotify iHeartSee omnystudio.com/listener for... privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 To have a murder as gruesome as Jade Beasley's doesn't happen very often down here. In Marion, Illinois, an 11-year-old girl brutally stabbed to death. Her father's longtime live-in girlfriend maintaining innocence but charged with her murder. I am confident that Julie Begley is guilty. They've never found a weapon. Never made sense. Still doesn't make sense. She found out she was pregnant in jail. The person who did it is still out there. Listen to Murder on Songbird Road, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
Starting point is 00:00:31 or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you want a shortcut to the best version of you? Here it is. Feed the good wolf. I'm Eric Zimmer, host of The One You Feed. Every week, I talk to brilliant minds and brave souls about the art of small, powerful choices. Our listeners say it all. This is a lifeline. Transformational. The best antidote to a bad mood I've ever heard.
Starting point is 00:01:00 Join the pack and start feeding your best self. Listen to the one you feed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Joel, the holidays are a blast, but the financial hangover, that can be a huge bummer. If you are out there and you're dreading the new statement email that reveals the massive balance that you may have racked up. Well, you could use our help.
Starting point is 00:01:27 That's right. I'm Joel. And I am Matt. And we're from the How to Money podcast. Our show is all about helping you make sense of your personal finances so you can ditch your pesky credit card debt once and for all, make real progress on other crucial financial goals
Starting point is 00:01:40 that you've got, and just feel more in control of your money in general. You know it. For money advice without the judgment and jargon, listen to How to Money on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together our mission on the Really No Really podcast is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like Why the bathroom door doesn't go all the way to the floor. What's in the museum of failure and
Starting point is 00:02:08 does your dog truly love you? We have the answer. Go to really no really.com and register to win $500 a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition sign Jason Bobblehead. The really no really podcast. Follow us on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Maria Tremorchi Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremorchi. And I'm Holly Frey. Together, we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime. Each season, we explore a new theme from poisoners to art thieves. We uncover the secrets of history's most interesting figures, from legal injustices to body snatching.
Starting point is 00:02:46 And tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in cocktails and mocktails inspired by each story. Listen to Criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Call Zone Media. Robert Evans here. It's the start of a new year. We are continuing. We may have a rerun going this week, but we've continued throughout the holiday season to keep a normal schedule of Behind the Bastards out. But we're also running compilation episodes. End of the Year started this one to kind of highlight other shows on our network.
Starting point is 00:03:21 And right now we've got a best of, several episodes of Prop's wonderful show Hood Politics edited together so that you get a few less ads than normal. One is on how the DOJ curbed Google and the other is on the other Zionism. Check out Prop's show now and then next week everything will be completely back to normal. Although it's not even missing episodes of Behind the Bastards they've kept running. It is our sworn, sacred oath to continue putting out episodes of that show from now until the heat death of the universe. So thank you for continuing to listen.
Starting point is 00:03:58 To have a murder as gruesome as Jade Beasley doesn't happen very often down here. In Marion, Illinois, an 11-year-old girl brutally stabbed to death, her father's longtime live-in girlfriend maintaining innocence, but charged with her murder. I am confident that Julie Beth Lee is guilty. This case, the more I learned about it, the more I'm scratching my head something's not right.
Starting point is 00:04:23 I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco. Murder on Songbird Road dives into the conviction of a mother of four who remains behind bars and the investigation that put her there. I have not seen this level of corruption anywhere. It's sickening. If you stab somebody that many times, you have blood splatter, where's the change?
Starting point is 00:04:43 Close. She found out she was pregnant in jail. She wasn't treated like she was an innocent human being at all. Which is just horrific. Nobody has gotten justice yet. And that's what I wish people would understand. Listen to Murder on Songbird Road, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:05:03 I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together on the Really No Really podcast, our mission is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like why they refuse to make the bathroom door go all the way to the floor. We got the answer. Will space junk block your cell signal? The astronaut who almost drowned during a spacewalk gives us the answer.
Starting point is 00:05:22 We talk with the scientists who figured out if your dog truly loves you and the one bringing back the wooly mammoth. Plus, does Tom Cruise really do his own stunts? His stunt man reveals the answer. And you never know who's going to drop by. Mr. Brian Cranston is with us today. How are you two? Hello, my friend. Wayne Knight about Jurassic Park. Wayne Knight, welcome to Really No Really, sir. Bless you all. Hello, Newman. And you never know when Howie Mandel might just stop by to talk about judging. Really? That's the opening? Really No Really. Yeah. No Really. Go to ReallyNoReally.com. And register to win $500, a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition signed Jason Bobblehead.
Starting point is 00:05:59 It's called Really No Really and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, do y'all still say curved or curbed? Like if somebody curved you, I don't even know if it's I don't even know if it's curve or curved. But essentially what we mean is, and maybe I'm overhead, what we mean is when you approach a young lady and she shuts you down, like, oh man, you got curved, you know, they just, I'm pretty sure it's curved, probably like curb your enthusiasm. It's probably it. I don't know if there's anything more painful because most of the time for you to get curved, it's usually because you are enthusiastic.
Starting point is 00:06:42 It lot of times is when you're super confident in the move you're finna make. Now I can't speak for every young man who finally hits his awakening of the sex that he's attracted to. And I know mine, when I was like, wait a minute, I like girls. When you have to start building up the bravery to actually admit it, or maybe ask this girl to dance or sit by her,
Starting point is 00:07:12 or maybe even possibly get a little kiss on the cheek, you know, just, you know, we was little boys. You're not really ready for like full intercourse because we're still children. I remember like rehearsing in the, I have a sister that's six years older than me. So I could ask her, like, how do I say this? What outfit should I wear? And she was like down to make her little brother,
Starting point is 00:07:36 like, she want her little brother to be fly. So I could ask her and come up with lines and like, how do I approach, what do I say, where do I stand? Like, how do I, I'm nervous, I'm scared, all for her to, all for this little girl to giggle and run to her friends and go, ugh, ugh, he not even fine. Just destroy, it took me three weeks
Starting point is 00:08:01 to get the courage to say something to her, just for this girl to be like, uh, like that's the child, which I don't know if it's everybody's story, but you have to understand like me who I went to schools in neighborhoods that were so diverse where there was just as many Filipino and Latino and Chinese, there was so many other communities that were at the spaces I was in. Like, again, I read the demographics.
Starting point is 00:08:35 Most of y'all are from Cali that listen to this. From the San Gabriel Valley, well, I was born in South Central, like I say it all the time, but I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley. And then I went to high school in the Inland Empire. And like, so I, you experienced so many cultures, you're exposed to so many types of girls
Starting point is 00:08:52 where black dude is just not that tight. This is way too long of an intro. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is it really hurts to get curbed, especially when you're really competent. And guess what? Google got cur curved. HUB Politics y'all. All right, before I go into it, but looking like nerds.
Starting point is 00:09:29 like this. Look is like this. But look at it like this. All right. Well, the darkest of holidays has hit. It is the one year anniversary of the attack from Hamas on Israel, which in retaliation to such attack unleashed the cracking towards all of Gaza and extending Palestinian areas. Way too many people died.
Starting point is 00:10:17 There was a memorial held in Israel where they played that last song before at that, you know, because the, the, the, the attack happened, like one of the parts happened during a music festival. And the last song that was being played before the attack happened and hostages were taken and people were killed. They played that song to mark, you know, the one year anniversary of a horrible, horrible situation. And from the Israeli perspective, the city is torn because you can't argue that that wasn't one of the, or maybe if not the greatest terrorist attack that they've experienced. And I think, I'm not adding snark to this because it's like, I mean, like I'm just trying to be real about it.
Starting point is 00:11:11 I think how do I say this? Since they've been in their mind, the little engine that could the whole time and everybody was against them, they felt like their only way to be safe is to be the aggressor. And they've continued to be the aggressor because they feel like everybody's being aggressive to them. So there's a kinship to the idea that America has of itself
Starting point is 00:11:38 too, you know, where we say, if you go into war, you're going overseas. Like the attack is over there. Everybody's trying to come to get us, but don't nobody wanna mess with us because they know won't play around. It only happened once. And that was at Pearl Harbor,
Starting point is 00:11:51 and we blew up whole islands after that. So they carry in their psyche that type of sort of same vibe, but that is not to diminish the atrocities that they feel in their heart and the things that had happened. That is not to diminish the atrocities that they feel in their heart and the things that had happened. So you mark it, right? On the other hand, it also marks the beginning of the absolute decimation
Starting point is 00:12:21 of Gaza with 11,000 people dead and just a completely untenable living situation that has now spread, everybody's fear has spread to Lebanon and Yemen. And now big dog Iran has jumped in. It was what everybody that works in peacemaking was hoping wouldn't happen, that we would get to a ceasefire, a two-state solution,
Starting point is 00:12:52 which clearly is the only option. I just don't understand how anybody could think any other way that this is really the only option. But with that being said, all the blood, all the carnage, all the like, let's make this happen, Gaza could not have a sort of moment to even breathe to mark the anniversary of this because it's leveled. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:13:19 There's like where, you know? They still running for cover. And Israel not even letting, they barely letting aid in. Like we got to fight to let aid in. And then with all the carnage and it becoming into a regional war, there's a ceasefire deal on the table and then Yahoo won't accept it. And you still ain't got the hostages.
Starting point is 00:13:46 All that blood. And you still ain't got the hostages. So Israel as a nation is torn because they're like, fam, can we keep our eyes on the prize here? I just we just want our loved ones back. What is you, I didn't ask you to blow the whole, like, I didn't ask you to blow the whole city up. We just want our hostages, but what is you? And then there's the other half that's like,
Starting point is 00:14:16 no, we can't let them people live. And then there's the really, really small sect of hyper conservative religious folk within the Israeli world that are like, well, this is how we bring the Messiah. We gotta control this region or the Messiah ain't coming. So like, no, they gotta go. So it's all that going on all in one place.
Starting point is 00:14:49 The JV team had their debate. Switching gears here. The my dad can beat up your dad debate. Because who really cared what the vice president think? Because the vice president will really do nothing. Now that being said, it was more substantive than any of us would have thought. And it's one of those things where it's like, be careful what you ask for. Y'all asked for civility and substance. What you didn't ask for was truth, my nigga. Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah.
Starting point is 00:15:24 The Trump ticket is getting its money's worth. He is, JD Vance understood the assignment. The assignment was to sanitize everything that Trump stand for. And even to the point of like, almost like the opposite, where it's like, nah, we ain't say that. And then when the mic slipped up and said,
Starting point is 00:15:45 well, you weren't supposed to lie, fact check this. You revealed your cards, big dog. But JD Vance absolutely 100% understood the assignment and you cannot take that from him. He was slick, he was likable and he didn't go on the full attack. They did the whole I agree with what Supposed to be doing eat and he took all this schmar now. Don't get me wrong. I personally like
Starting point is 00:16:15 dudes like that repulse me that are too polished and every like that I'm like You're clearly hiding something Anyway Everything was going great until this man could not answer the January 6th question. Now, did Trump lose the election question? Now the thing is, that's in some senses,
Starting point is 00:16:41 it's a gotcha question, because we all know that man can't answer that question. Like what y'all expect this man to say? Yeah, no, Trump tripping on that one. But we gonna win this one though. He can't say, oh Lord, he can't do that. Y'all know he can't do that. That man can't get up there and tell the truth.
Starting point is 00:17:04 Like on Boondocks, you better learn how to lie like me. You can't be telling the truth to these people. You gotta lie. That be the end of his job. Did Trump lose the 2020 election? Like, n***a duh. Like, he can't say that. He gotta be like, look, dude, we're looking forward. But didn't y'all, and then proceeded to talk backwards. Boy, I tell you, man, I love it here. All right, let's get back to it. All right, so last year we did an episode that was called get your weight up. And I taught y'all about antitrust and monopolies and the situation Google was facing.
Starting point is 00:17:52 And it was over search engines and ads showing how this is just a brand new world where what Google is facing, especially when it comes to search engines, you had suit being brought to them by Bing and ass Jeeves that was like, you're creating a monopoly. I can even giggle with the idea of Bing because it's like, bro, no one uses Bing. Google's a verb. It's a company, but it's also a verb. You Google something. They're like, you're a monopoly.
Starting point is 00:18:23 They're like, listen, I'm not, yike, Bing is not my competition. Microsoft ain't my competition. Full chat GBT is. TikTok, Amazon. I am not competing with you other browsers and search engines, y'all lame. Y'all need to get y'all weighed up.
Starting point is 00:18:39 And the argument was in this antitrust case, which I will back up and explain the term monopoly and antitrust and then give you a context. So their argument was you say we're cornering the market, we're making it impossible, but y'all could just get y'all weight up. I don't know why you mad at us for making a superior product. Now the last time you Googled something, I'm pretty sure you got frustrated because Google is trying to do the AI thing again,
Starting point is 00:19:06 to keep up with chat GPT. And so the searches have been, I've had to like retype in what I'm looking for multiple times, because I'm like, this used to be super easy. So in my anecdotal opinion, it's gotten worse as they've tried to bring AI. But the point is, the case was,
Starting point is 00:19:24 do you have a monopoly on search and ads? And when we talked about it at first, it was being brought to the Department of Justice. Well, they have decided, yes, you have a monopoly. It's not fair. And you need to break it up, break it up, break it up, break it up, break it up, break it up, break it up. Yeah. Y'all ratchet. Y'all know that's all. Y'all got to break up your company. Now, the reason why this was so big, obviously, because Google's big,
Starting point is 00:19:52 but it's because it harkens back to one that happened in 1998, Microsoft. So here's what we're going to do. I may explain to you what a monopoly is. And if you've ever sold drugs, you already know. Which means that we have to talk about capitalism and the version of capitalism that America says they love and believe in. How you protect that imaginary version of capitalism.
Starting point is 00:20:22 Why an antitrust is what it is, and why the government steps in, what happened with Microsoft, and how that informed this Google decision, and then what Google gonna have to do. All right? But I swear to you, just like the very foundational truth, the axiom of truth that this show is, you already know this stuff. All right, next. ["The Axiom of Truth"]
Starting point is 00:21:11 Okay, so capitalism. Oftentimes we have, because we live in the world we live in, we have conflated the idea of capitalism with just economics. That if you sell something, it's capitalism. You have to remember capitalism as a concept was invented. Now, the idea of trading some sort of commerce for goods and services is as old as Puka shells, is as old as when we moved from just bartering to yeah there
Starting point is 00:21:48 is currency and the currency and I'm giving you this currency and you're gonna return back to me a good and service. The institution that we talk about that includes a supply chain where the product is being created in multiple different factories that's being cobbled together into one piece the system that says each of these people that work in these factories is industrial revolution type situation that puts like if you're gonna take a pencil the eraser tip is made somewhere else but that place is really only getting raw materials from another place and those raw materials are being sent there.
Starting point is 00:22:28 And then the people carrying that stuff in the trans people that transfer it in the truck is a whole other company who brings this raw materials to this place. And then that place has to buy the equipment from a whole other company to makes the equipment for you to process this thing to make the eraser tip but still if you're the pencil company you have a contract with them with a wood company who's got a contract with a timber company who's got a contract with a lead company or a graphite company you just the people that put it all together and then it's a whole other marketing team that just was hired by the brand name of the pencil to put it all together. And then it's a whole other marketing team that just was hired by the brand
Starting point is 00:23:06 name of the pencil to put it all in one place. And then you got to hire a Shopify, right? A three PL and all of these people have employees and the price of that pencil is cobbled together in the way that makes sure or supposed to make sure that everybody, every company that was involved in this all got to pay their employees, bring that all together, get it on the shelf. And then they charge you a dollar 99 per pencil.
Starting point is 00:23:36 Now, if you make it 1 million pencils, it may not have cost you the company. They sell it for a dollar 99. It costs the company. I don't know, hopefully if they're doing it right, two cents. So the cost of the pencil, you hear all them companies all had to make their money, but if you make enough of them, you can lower the cost that it takes to make the pencil so that when it gets to the consumer, you only paying $2 and that $2, you know, multiplied by 100,000 consumers is supposed to be able to make sure that everybody's happy and everybody wins. Now, the capitalism that we exist in is to say, okay, best product at the best price wins. So if somebody
Starting point is 00:24:22 got a better pencil and they only charging a dollar 50, the idea is, damn, you made it cheaper and better. So everybody's gonna buy that. So then what do you do? You have to figure out how to make your pencil better and cheaper. Hopefully you can charge a dollar 25, right? All the way down to where, get this,
Starting point is 00:24:40 the term of elasticity to where the product is cheap enough to make to where everybody makes is cheap enough to make, to where everybody makes money. There's a, there's a number. Now you have to enter the concept of branding. Okay. I work, I'm a brand ambassador for a company called Mir, right? Y'all know the people that make my mugs and, and the poor gummies, all the coffee stuff is this company called Mir Now, Mir got a lot of clients too. And Mir was telling me about one of their clients
Starting point is 00:25:08 for which I will not name names. And because I ain't trying to worry, I ain't trying to mess up my money. This company is able to sell things at an absurd price point. But we looking at it, but my man, Mir, was looking at it and was like, okay, you're sourcing.
Starting point is 00:25:22 There's no way in the world you're sourcing at a different place than everybody else's. So you're sourcing at the same place. And he was like, and the owner looking at it was like, okay, you're sourcing. There's no way in the world you're sourcing at a different place than everybody else's. So you're sourcing at the same place. And he was like, and the owner or the buyer was like, yeah, yeah, source at the same place as our competition. They charge 3.99, we charge 8.99. It's called branding. So just the power of the branding,
Starting point is 00:25:38 the fact that your name is on it. Let me give y'all a little game about Kirkland and Costco brand. Now Costco ain't paying me for this, but I wish they was. The Kirkland brand liquor, the tequila, the whiskey, all that that they got in there. It's, they bought a recipe from, I believe it's Eagle Rare, like Maker Smart. I believe their whiskey is Maker Smart. They just bought a recipe from them and just white labeled it. It's actually very, it's very good whiskey.
Starting point is 00:26:06 It's just named Kirkland. Brilliant. So if you smart rather than buying the label name, you getting the same product. It's just cheaper. So now you take when you talk about a national economy, you take all the pieces that we talked about. If we're talking about, again, capitalism, you take every person that is on all them jobs, how much money they make, how much money is coming into the company, how much money that company is spending, how much money this the people that work at that company are spending, right, the products for which they buy, how much then products cost to make and how much profit those products produce
Starting point is 00:26:46 how much of that money is Going out to other countries how much of that money is coming back into The consumers pockets because once the company makes money The people that work at that company all get paid and then they buy other products which brings the money back. So you take the totality of all that, the combination of all those factors, all trying to get you to spend your dollar with them. Them competing with each other is called free market capitalism. All of that is capitalism and what's capitalism's goal is, if you haven't figured this out yet, the greatest amount of profit for the least amount of cost. Now, how do you pull that off if that is the goal of capitalism?
Starting point is 00:27:31 Well, you cut costs. Where do you cut costs? Most of the time, your highest cost is your employees. It's payroll, that's your highest cost. So you pay your workers at least as possible. Why did America become super superstar? Super superpower so early? Well, they didn't pay their workers at all.
Starting point is 00:27:51 It was called slavery. You was only paying for the raw materials. You only had to pay for the land. You had to pay for the workers. Of course you gonna get rich. By no stretch of the imagination is the goal of capitalism itself, human flourishing. Now that might be the person that functions within the system.
Starting point is 00:28:11 You might want to approach this in a way that centers humanity in the sense that like you're paying your workers well, you're ethically sourcing. So that means you're setting a price point that allows for you to pay workers well to treat the environment Well, you have things like certified B corps at some point I bring my homie Brian on here to talk about what it means to be an ethical capitalistic company Which some would argue is impossible. I might agree with you But again, like I say all the time, you know, she might as well swim be as truthful as possible Like I said, we're all on a big corporation.
Starting point is 00:28:45 This is I heart media. Like let's not be delusional. You don't say it. Corporation guys. So we're not delusional, but there is a way to be as ethical as you possibly can. But that's not the goal of capitalism. That might be the goal of the person.
Starting point is 00:29:03 There might be a advancement of a society to where, yeah, well, multiple people now have jobs now, which means like the way of life is just better across the board for everybody because now everybody's employed. But one would argue that like we weren't starving before we had jobs. Like before there was a factory, before you bought your food at a grocery store,
Starting point is 00:29:29 you just grew your own. For most of human history, people just had like small gardens, like where you just, and you just traded back and forth, where it's like, okay, we grow squash, well, I'm gonna walk across the street, go visit another family over there in that other village. I know they grow spinach well, you know what I'm saying? I'm gonna walk across the street go visit another family over there in that other village I know they grow spinach well you know I'm saying I'm bringing them some squash they bring me some spinach it's fine like we all we we were all right before we had to like work for like cotton pieces of dead men to turn in for our waters to work in our houses because somebody bought the lake and owns the clouds I don't know if you notice you can own the the clouds you can own the land rights and all of the lake and owns the clouds. I don't know if you noticed, you can own the clouds.
Starting point is 00:30:06 You can own the land rights and all of the sky and atmosphere above it because capitalism is crazy right now. Anyway, I haven't even talked about antitrust yet. This is absurd. So all that to say in our system, at least in America, we tried to set up this situation to say that if we keep this institution pure enough, it will police itself.
Starting point is 00:30:31 And how you do that, because people really make their decisions by their purchases. People buy what they want. And if you charge too much, but your brand is trash, and we don't believe you, people won't stop buying it. That's a price elasticity. What's the highest you could charge before people gonna be like, all right, you done lost your mind. This brand ain't worth it.
Starting point is 00:30:52 Which is how you gain the system. You know what I'm saying? It's like you make your brand worth it, but you charge as high as you can, not as cheap as you can. You take somebody like Arizona IC, they charge as little as they can. That's their brand though. For them it worked, but anyway,
Starting point is 00:31:06 we, we as in the Royal we, not me, but the concept is you need to have competition in the market. You can't just be the only person selling a thing. You can't, you can defeat your competitors by having a better product at a better price point, but you can't just box them out because when you box them out, when you're the only option, there is no reason for you to not
Starting point is 00:31:33 price gouge and the quality of your product doesn't have to be great because you're the only people. That's what I mean by drug dealer. You trying to be the only connect. If you the only connect, you charging people whatever you want. They hooked on the product. You can step on your product if you want to, cause what they gonna do? Where you gonna go?
Starting point is 00:31:53 I'm your only option. I just feel like that with gas prices, cause I'm like, what am I gonna do? There's no difference to me between mobile and ARCO. I still have to go to the thing or I don't go anywhere. Now as a side note, I went to Rhyme Fest this past weekend at the Coliseum and I took the train and I was like, no native, nobody I know takes trains
Starting point is 00:32:17 because they just don't go enough places. But this time it was like, I didn't have to switch once. And I was like, bro, why don't, every time I take the train, every time I take the Metro here in LA, I'll be like, why didn't have to switch once. And I was like, bro, why don't, every time I take the train, every time I take the Metro here in LA, I'll be like, why don't I do this? So yeah, maybe there is an alternative. Anyway, so being mad over gas prices,
Starting point is 00:32:33 I'm like, what you gonna not go fill up your tank? What you gonna not go to work? Like, I felt so hopeless. I'm like, this is a monopoly. You monopolize. So the idea was in the antitrust law, I don't know why they call it that, they just do. Antitrust law is saying,
Starting point is 00:32:52 we do not believe in the American economic system that it is legal or even in the spirit of who we are as a nation, that any one company should have a have a monopoly over a business. There needs to be competition, meaning there needs to be other companies that are pushing you because what that does for the consumer is it means we're getting the best products because y'all are fighting against each other for our dollars. They're not concerned with just one company success.
Starting point is 00:33:26 We talking overall success of the entire country because they looking at it again as the economy, as capitalism, capital C, not just are you doing all right? We mean the whole country. So the whole country got to win, which means that I don't really care if your one, your one company is doing all right. We need a whole thing to work in theory because you could go get the off brand stuff. You grew up like us. Oh, man, there was Cheerios and then there was Maltomeo. It was tastiest. You feel me?
Starting point is 00:33:57 I was like, them is nasty. I used to get so mad when my mom brought that off brand cereal. I wanted to name brand cereal. It was cheaper, but it was but that ain't like that off brand cereal. I wanted the name brand cereal. It was cheaper, but that ain't work. Now, what that meant was that made Cheerios because my mom sometimes was like, I ain't buying the Cheerios, it costs too much. So that means the Cheerios,
Starting point is 00:34:17 because there's such thing as malt-o-meal and tastios, fruit rings, not fruit loops, because those things existed, that meant that like, yo, Cheerios gotta work harder to make sure that they products they buy. And at the price point is something that we willing to pay. That's why there's a hundred different car companies. Why they fighting for our attention?
Starting point is 00:34:39 Why everybody racing to get an electric car? Like thing with Tesla is they was just there first. Well, actually Saturn was there first. You should see a documentary called who killed the electric car anyway, but they not the only ones they couldn't they couldn't get to electric cars shut the door. There's companies like Rivian who I had day trucks are amazing you know, but there's there's other companies there are other people making electric cars. So so it's like yo get your weight up. I do something great Now it could become a monopoly if they do this they take all the road mapping that they've done with a self-driving Get it perfect and then make sure every a new electric car has to buy their software
Starting point is 00:35:20 for the road mapping of self-driving like if every new electric car had Tesla's software in there for their self-driving cars, which right now would be a disaster. But if they continue to develop what they got and then they box out everybody else, it wouldn't matter if it's a disaster or not because every car comes equipped with their software. That would be a monopoly.
Starting point is 00:35:45 To which they could argue, I mean, you're welcome to uninstall it and put your own one in there. Do you know how to uninstall software on your car? Are you going to Google it? Think about the dial-up modem sounds, your AIM username, we all got sidekicks. Google it. Think about the dial up modem sounds, your aim username. We all got sidekicks.
Starting point is 00:36:10 No, I don't even know if we got sidekicks. It was in pagers there, you know what I'm saying? You about to have a sidekick. Pagers. Khhhhh. Eh, eh, eh. Boy, the early internet was feels like caveman energy. So Microsoft led by Bill Gates was young, scrappy startup.
Starting point is 00:36:34 You know, you got to remember like at this point, Macintosh, those was just the computers in the school lab. Like when you went to the computer lab at school, there was these funny looking things that we just had to learn when we did our typing classes. You know, you just did it on that. So Microsoft at the time was developing Windows, right? So Windows 9, you know, Windows 95, and that's, which was the operating system,
Starting point is 00:37:00 which you guys know already. And then Microsoft Office. So spreadsheet, you know, PowerPoint, Microsoft Word and everything that comes just Microsoft. It's like just Mike, it's Windows, like it's Microsoft. What they started doing because Bill Gates and dumb is he was taken over while while while Apple and them was working towards school and fun
Starting point is 00:37:27 and stuff like that, Microsoft was taking over the corporate world and every company, every work computer was a Windows and Microsoft office. And then eventually once we hit Windows 95, you know that whole like, you know, the Apple like, sessions where, the, the, the, the, the Apple, like, you know, sessions where they launched new products, like Windows
Starting point is 00:37:48 invented that, like that was a Microsoft, like it was just goofy. Even the, the, the user video, the training video for how to use Microsoft office and Windows 95 had, believe it or not, actors from friends, from the show friends was on it. Jay Leno did the monologue, like it was the biggest thing in the world because it was just change. You gotta remember, this is where tech was.
Starting point is 00:38:13 And what else that they did that was amazing was if you bought a laptop, you gotta remember, there was a million different types of laptops. You remember HP, you remember Acer, you could get any type of, just like before the iPod, there was Zooms, like there was a million different other products and then somebody takes over and just wins the thing.
Starting point is 00:38:32 What Microsoft did was they cut a deal with PC and laptop companies and was like, yo, so let us be your default operating system. So if anybody wants to use another operating system, an OS like a Macintosh, you got to take all that stuff off and put a new one in. Now Macintosh was smart enough to say, no, our operating system works on our products only. But sit that to a side right now. Microsoft was like, cool,
Starting point is 00:39:01 y'all can have your own little weird egg shape computers. We'll take over every other computer on Earth. And that's kind of what they did. They just cut a deal and it was just like, yeah dude, like, yo, if you're selling a laptop, you're selling a desktop, it's got Microsoft operating system already installed. So we already got a deal.
Starting point is 00:39:18 So we ain't even got to sell it to the consumers. It's already sold to the manufacturer. Kind of brilliant. I mean, why wouldn't you do that? Now, while this is happening, something else was being invented. A little old thing called the World Wide Web. The internet was being made around this time.
Starting point is 00:39:39 Talk about that next. Okay. Okay, so now that the internet's being made, you know, you got to buy your modems. What nobody thought about, because you have to remember, nobody knew what the internet was, is you have to have a way to get on there. Browser, no, you need a browser. It's so stupid. Like, it's so stupid to have to point a way to get on there. Browser, no, you need a browser. That is so stupid. Like it's so stupid to have to point that out, right? And then because there was no separate apps for your emails or for, there was no apps.
Starting point is 00:40:34 The apps were Microsoft. You need a browser to get on the internet. The browser, there was a lot of different types. There was Navigator, there was Netscape. And at the time that's all that Netscape made. They were the only browsers. I mean it was fine. Like what else did we know? You got on the internet with on a Netscape browser. You bought your little AOL disk, which we're gonna talk about in a second. You bought your little AOL disk, popped it in, you clicked the disk and then it would
Starting point is 00:41:04 throw to Netscape like you just that was the only that's how you open the Internet was the browser. Of course, now we you know, we got Chrome, Firefox, Safari. Like we got this thing. But you remember, like we didn't none of those things. They we didn't know what those things meant. Like those things existed. Netscape was how you got to the Internet.
Starting point is 00:41:23 Bill Gates ain't stupid. It was like, yo, this the future. We need a, hold up. We need a browser. His browser was called Internet Explorer. That's how you got on the internet. His browser was trash, right? Because they was too busy making too many different things.
Starting point is 00:41:41 They was making laptops, they was making office, they was making windows, they was making all these different things that they didn't laptops, they was making office, they was making windows, it was making all these different things that they didn't really make browsers, but he's not stupid. He knew that this was the future. So the browser got better and better and better, and then he realized like, wait a minute,
Starting point is 00:41:54 I have a million vendors I work with. Every laptop already has my product in it. Stupid, why don't I bundle Internet Explorer with it? And matter of fact, I'll throw in Internet Explorer free. It just comes with, it comes with Microsoft, it comes with Windows. Windows is already on every laptop. I'll just, it's so stupid. Like duh, I don't even have to sell it. I'm already, no but can you name another word processing? What's the Mac one? Numbers? Adobe Pages? I'm saying even now we don't use it. Maybe you write in Google Docs,
Starting point is 00:42:27 which we gonna get to later, but nobody writes it. Like it's, you use Word almost two decades, right? Like you, what else is there? So they were like, duh, let's just add our product. Let's just add Explorer to every laptop. Obviously Netscape's like, well, wait a damn minute, bro. Are you serious?
Starting point is 00:42:51 So you just gonna sell the product for free? Well, like, I mean, there's nothing, well, I mean, what can you, you're already on every laptop. Like this is, they were like, you're breaking antitrust laws. So they wrote a letter to the Department of Justice, like, yo fam, I can't like, can't nobody compete with this. This ain't right, 200 pays letter.
Starting point is 00:43:11 Justice Department was like, huh, you might be on to something. Because like, you're like, this is what seems to us, like this is anti-competition. Like you just boxed everybody out. Like you just gave everybody the product for free like you just gave everybody the product for free, you just gave everybody the weight free, somebody come in your hood and just passing out weed
Starting point is 00:43:29 for free, it's like, well, how can I run a business? Like, I don't understand, like if every car come through your neighborhood has already got a vape in it, like, well, I mean, what am I supposed to do? Why you think the gas company so mad, or why you think these oil companies so mad about electric cars? Because it's like, oh, nigga, I don't need you no more.
Starting point is 00:43:49 Like, wait a minute, this is leading us to obsolescence. But what's specifically about antitrust is, or this monopoly is like, this is the same product. And you guys are like, this is David and Goliath out this mug. Like you already, like there's no, I can't compete with this. This is like, there is David and Goliath out this mug. Like you already, like there's no, I can't compete with this. This is like, there's, there is no competition.
Starting point is 00:44:07 I don't want to get into the like operating system business. Like we make an internet browser and you're just giving yours away for free. And even if people don't want it, which is where we get what has to do with Google, even if people don't want it, it just comes with the lab. So of course, like just the psychology of it is like, well, this is the one that come with it.
Starting point is 00:44:26 So like, why would I go out of my way? Unless I'm a tech geek, why would I go out of my way? It just, it come with it. We don't know enough about the internet to have a preference about it. We don't know about incognito. Like that stuff don't exist no more or yet. So what difference does it make?
Starting point is 00:44:40 All right, let's Internet Explorer. And it made sense to us cause it was like, or to the, it made sense to the consumer cause it's like, what was made from the same company that when I opened the laptop, that's how it runs. They was like, yo, this is unjust. Like this ain't, they can do whatever they want there. And I remember, I remember the browser was trash. Like it wasn't, it wasn't that good of a browser. Like it just, like, what do you, I don't know what I can, I mean, and they had no incentive on making it better per se because they didn't already sold the product completely. They didn't already made their money off, off windows and off office. So there's no like, you've cornered
Starting point is 00:45:18 the market. There's no, there's, there's no one can compete with you. So they brought that case to the department of justice. Netscape did. So Netscape you. So they brought that case to the Department of Justice. Netscape did. So Netscape brings a case to the Department of Justice. They was like, just like I just explained, like, yo, this is a monopoly, dog. Like there's nothing we could do about it. Like, I mean, what are we gonna do?
Starting point is 00:45:35 It's already on your laptop. I bet you you open your, did you get a new computer today? Bet you it's already there. Like, how do I compete with that? Like that's not, what am I supposed to do? They bring in Microsoft to be like, OK, well, and this is like legendary. Like so Bill Gates and him and Microsoft come in and Microsoft was just like, OK, that's funny. Wait, what? Wait, are y'all serious?
Starting point is 00:45:58 Oh, look, this is no way in the world. You're serious right now. What is you what you saying is absolutely ridiculous. Let me get this straight. Wait, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Let me get this straight. We made a product, we made smart business moves, we used our connections, we developed a new product, we took our own product,
Starting point is 00:46:21 bundled it with our other own product and use the connections that we took years to develop and you saying that's a problem. What you mean? What like, what is the problem? You can't possibly be or you put so we're smart, you're punishing me for being so what are you talking about? You're saying this is anti capitalist. I don't understand. So should our products up? Should we not try what you want us to not make
Starting point is 00:46:44 money? What are you talking us to not make money? What are you talking about? This is absurd. Fuck you mean we made a product that we hustled. I don't understand. Tell them fools to get their weight up. Ain't nothing stopping you from finding a computer. You could you could approach them with the same contract
Starting point is 00:47:00 we approached them with. Get your weight up. I don't understand. We approach these people. We approach these people, we approach these manufacturers. They could have said no. They said yes. What do you want me to do? You want me to tell the consumers don't buy our product? What are you talking about? Absolutely ridiculous was Microsoft's argument. The problem was they just walked in super smug and super arrogant and they were just like like, I'm saying like, we smarter than everyone else.
Starting point is 00:47:26 It was our fault. We're smarter than everybody else. Department of Justice ain't like that. They ain't like your little attitude. They asked him very, very direct questions like, yo, do you remember this email? They pull enough emails where them fools was talking. This is the first time that was like a part of like, because remember, emails just now were born. Pulling up emails where they were like, knife the baby, like talking about like really,
Starting point is 00:47:47 we're trying to kill Netscape, like that's our goal. Like we're actually trying to get like just cutthroat, like Silicon Valley, like OG, like no, we're actually trying to kill it. They was like, yo, you remember this email? He was like, no, like you don't remember the one you just replied to? He's like, no, I remember it.
Starting point is 00:48:02 He was just a jerk about it. Like they were like, hey, did you have any concern about any other companies? He was like, what? I don't understand the question. And I was like, what? What don't you understand? He's like, what do you mean by concern?
Starting point is 00:48:15 I don't know what you mean by that. And they were like, do you know what concern means? I know what it means, I don't know what you mean by that. It was like, sir, do you, okay. Just this like smug, I'm smarter than you. I'm 10 steps ahead of you. Just it just turned everybody out. But they're ultimately their point was, OK, dude, you can't punish us
Starting point is 00:48:38 because their product sucks. Like that can't be that can't possibly be our fault. We're good at business, this is what happened. Department of Justice was like, no, that's a monopoly, y'all gotta break this company up. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Because the straw that broke the camel back was pairing office and windows with Explorer.
Starting point is 00:48:59 That's the part that did it. Because it's like you've made, now nobody has any other option. That's the same example I was given with Tesla because the point is on general principle consumers are supposed to have options and the argument is having options keeps everybody in check right because if you have options that's going to force you to make the better product. And if you bake in a better product, that make all of America look good. Consumers are happy. Money's flowing.
Starting point is 00:49:29 Right. That's the argument. And again, using the Tesla as an example, like I just said right now, didn't I just say that? I'm sorry, I'm just talking. If every electric car in the future, if you want to do self-driving mode, you have to use this because it's the default setting. And this gives Tesla no incentive to like, they can charge every car company whatever they want, because who else you're going to go to, which means that that is going to raise the prices for all of our cars, which means that's going to rain the price for chips and all this good stuff.
Starting point is 00:49:58 It's just like, there's no like, this doesn't help nobody. This just makes you by yourself, So like this doesn't help nobody. This just makes you by yourself rich and all of us got to suffer by it. So that's that's the theory. Nobody's happy with that except for y'all. And we just decided as a nation back in the 1700s that we wasn't going to be like that. In theory. Now, what they told them that they had to do was break the company up. You have to put Windows in one place as one company and Office as another company.
Starting point is 00:50:35 Is that how you understand Microsoft? Of course not, because that didn't happen. Essentially, what they did was just they paid the fines, they did what they had to do, and then they just promised to not be jerks. It just really, really ain't nothing happen. So ultimately nothing changed. Netscape ended up selling to AOL. Microsoft just had this ruling stand that they were operating as a monopoly. But since God is good and just,
Starting point is 00:51:06 when last time you opened an Internet Explorer browser. Now, this is what the Department of Justice was considering when they looked at this Google case. Now, let's talk about specifically the ruling. Now remember Google, the company is called Alphabet, for whatever reason. The ruling was that they illegally monopolized the search engine market. Now and here's how they did it. Now, they did it the same way Microsoft did it in the sense that you just, if you're a software company, duh, make deals with hardware companies.
Starting point is 00:52:15 So what Google did was like, I don't care if you're using Chrome, even if you use Safari, whatever phone you got, when you open it, make a deal with us where you automatically your search engine goes to Google. When the last time you said, I'm going to Bing something, I'm going to ask Jeebs something. No, you Google it. So they made deals with phone makers and other hardware folk to be like, look, just let us be your default browser. Now you all know you could go into your phone. You could go into your phone,
Starting point is 00:52:45 you could go into your settings and say like, I want this other thing to be the default, but who's gonna do that? Some people do. Like some of y'all folks who just are like anti-iPhone because you believe in freedom, you wanna Android, which is just another company, like I don't understand how y'all don't understand that,
Starting point is 00:53:04 but your belief is you wanna be able to customize it in the way that you wanna customize it because Apple tell you what to do. And one of the things that Apple tell you to do is like it's automatically gonna go to a Google. Now with that being automatically your search engine and them gathering a trillion, kajillion megabillion a trillion, kajillion megabillion,
Starting point is 00:53:30 probably, flobally, flillion megabits of information on us, they can sell ad spaces. So if you are a person like me who make they live in online, I mean, you have to use the Google market, you have to use their ad spaces. You have to do search engine optimization. You have to be able to show up in their ad revenue space because that's where everybody at. Why in the hell would you buy an ad at Bing? What is that going to do for you? And since they're the only people in town, they're the only people that it really makes sense to spend your money on,
Starting point is 00:54:04 they could charge you whatever they want. Let me tell you why Terraform cold brew wasn't on Amazon. Because I would lose $2 per can. Like I would be paying them. Like there's no, but at the same time, Terraform cold brew out of money. If you went to the website, ain't no coffee there because I'm out of money. You understand what I'm saying? Like they make it where, I mean, what are your other options? That's that phrase, like what's my other option? That is a monopoly.
Starting point is 00:54:34 Now what Google argued was the same thing and Microsoft argued, which was like, fam, I'm sorry for being good at my business, but people can do whatever they want. We just happen to try to give people an offer they can't refuse. Now what was interesting this time was the Supreme Court brought up not just X's and O's, it wasn't just business and like nerdery around the law. They brought up psychology.
Starting point is 00:55:06 And it's this concept called the psychology of the default. No, no, no. Let me say it right. The power of default. Now, you and I, I don't even have to explain that. You understand when something's just your default setting. You just, after a while, because something just becomes so normal, you don't even think about that there are other alternatives.
Starting point is 00:55:28 Like you'd have to go out of your way to do that. That's the default. And what they were arguing is that is proof of a monopoly. In our brains, Google's a verb, despite the quality of Google, because you probably experienced the same thing I'm experiencing.
Starting point is 00:55:44 When you try to Google something, it's like because of the AI thing, I'm like, y'all your products getting worse. Now, that's probably because we're old and we're not searching on TikTok, which is where the rest of the people search, which was Google's defense. Google's like, I'm not worried about Netscape or Ask Jeebs. I'm worried about TikTok. Like that's a search engine. And they're like, fam, no, it's not.
Starting point is 00:56:14 What are you talking about? The psychology or the power of the default is when your brand is so strong that you just don't think of, you don't even think, of course there's alternatives. You don't even think of it, which is like a new strategy to argue that somebody has a monopoly. So what's the solution? The solution is to break up the company.
Starting point is 00:56:36 That's usually what it means. Now, like I told you before, what happened with Microsoft was basically like they were supposed to split up Microsoft office from, from windows. So that's, that was the plan for Google. It's like, you all remember this is a, Alphabet's a $2 trillion company. So one of the suggestion was like div was like divesting the Android operating system was like the most frequently discussed option by the justice department's attorney. And then some
Starting point is 00:57:16 were suggesting the force of the ad words, like you have to sell that and Google got to let go of that program, right? The search ad program, right? A divestment from that from its Chrome like web browser. But at the end of the day, they haven't landed on an actual verdict as to how to solve this. They've just said, no, you violated antitrust laws. You want to break up this cup just curved Now, things like this is where your super conservative capitalist argues is a problem. Because it seems as though,
Starting point is 00:58:28 this is not free market capitalism. They're like, let the consumer decide. We just did good business and the government shouldn't interfere. These are the same people that don't want the EPA to exist. So if there's mad cow disease in your beef, they like people will stop buying it. So just leave us alone. That's their argument. You know, so if there's mad cow disease in your beef, they like people will stop buying it.
Starting point is 00:58:45 So just leave us alone. That's their argument. Like, well, I mean, tell everybody else get their weight up. They don't want no interference. Which I guess I would understand too, if I owned a company and was making a kajillion dollars. But I'm a consumer that really just want to be able to have good products, afford the products we have, and not hear somebody like Jeff Bezos in his rocket
Starting point is 00:59:16 that looked like a penis who didn't even actually make it in the space, and then to say, hey, you guys did this by buying stuff. Like, don't nobody wanna see that. Like, okay, listen, here's the underbelly. We know, all right? The thing is, we ain't got no choice. Amazon might be next in this. This is the deal we've made without having an option to make this deal. We know
Starting point is 00:59:48 we making y'all rich, but we also need to live. And sometimes if you that person, man, the consumer like us, it kind of feel good that there's some big homies that might be able to come in and say, Hey, y'all don't get to treat the little homies like that because man that's some hood stuff. Hood politics y'all. All right now don't you hit stop on this pod. You better listen to these credits. I need you to finish this thing so I can get the download numbers.
Starting point is 01:00:32 Okay? So don't stop it yet. But listen, this was recorded in East Los Boyle Heights by your boy Propaganda. Tap in with me at prophiphop.com if you're in the cold brew coffee we got terraform cold brew you can go there dot com and use promo code hood get 20% off get yourself some coffee this was mixed edited and mastered by your boy Matt Ossowski killing the beast softly check out his website, matausowski.com. I'ma spell it for you because I know. M-A-T-T-O-S-O-W-S-K-I.com. Matausowski.com. He got more music and stuff like that on there so go check out the heat.
Starting point is 01:01:17 H.O.B. Politics is a member of Cool Zone Media, executive produced by Sophie Lichterman, part of the iHeartMedia Podcast Network. Your theme music and scoring is also by the one and only Matt Olsowski, still killing the beat softly. So listen, don't let nobody lie to you. If you understand urban living, you understand politics. These people is not smarter than you.
Starting point is 01:01:39 We'll see y'all next week. To have a murder as gruesome as Jade Beasley's doesn't happen very often down here. In Marion, Illinois, an 11-year-old girl brutally stabbed to death. Her father's longtime live-in girlfriend maintaining innocence but charged with her murder. I am confident that Julie Beth Lee is guilty. This case, the more I learned about it, the more I'm scratching my head something's not right. I'm Lauren Bright-Pacheco. Murder on Songbird Road dives into the conviction of a mother of four who remains behind bars and the
Starting point is 01:02:35 investigation that put her there. I have not seen this level of corruption anywhere. It's sickening. A few steps and we found many That many times you have blood splatter, where's the change? Close. She found out she was pregnant in jail. She wasn't treated like she was an innocent being at all. Which is just horrific. Nobody has gotten justice yet. And that's what I wish people would understand. Listen to Murder on Songbird Road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together on the Really No Lily podcast,
Starting point is 01:03:11 our mission is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like why they refuse to make the bathroom door go all the way to the floor. We got the answer. Will space junk block your cell signal? The astronaut who almost drowned during a spacewalk gives us the answer. Will space junk block your cell signal? The astronaut who almost drowned during a spacewalk gives us the answer. We talk with the scientist who figured out if your dog truly loves you and the one bringing back the wooly mammoth. Plus, does Tom Cruise really do his own stunts? His stuntman reveals the answer. And you never know who's going to drop by.
Starting point is 01:03:39 Mr. Brian Cranston is with us today. How are you two? Hello, my friend. Wayne Knight about Jurassic Park. Wayne Knight, welcome to Really No Really, sir. Bless you all. Hello, Newman. And you never know when Howie Mandel might just stop by to talk about judging.
Starting point is 01:03:52 Really? That's the opening? Really No Really. Yeah, really. No Really. Go to ReallyNoReally.com. And register to win $500, a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition signed Jason Bobblehead.
Starting point is 01:04:03 It's called Really No Really and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app on Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Words are funny. That's how I'm opening this. Because look, there's sounds that we just decided meant stuff. To the point to where sounds can make you take somebody life. And sometimes the same sound can mean different things,
Starting point is 01:04:36 depending on their spelling, their context. Give an example. When black people say barbecue, we could be talking about three different things. We could be talking about the food barbecue. We could be talking about as in like the style of cooking barbecue, the food. We could be talking about the actual act of cooking that food to barbecue. We could be talking about an event. We are going to the barbecue, you not invited to the barbecue, what the East called a cookout,
Starting point is 01:05:07 we call it a barbecue out here, out West. You know, it's the same with the Latinos, like with Mexicans, they say the carne asada, they mean one of three things. They mean the act of grilling, we are going to have a carne asada, that is, we're gonna have barbecue, we're gonna grill, and we are going to eat carne asada, at a carne asada. That is, we're going to have a barbecue, we're going to grill, and we are going to eat carne
Starting point is 01:05:26 asada. At the carne asada. Like they just, it's the name of the food, it's the act of grilling, and it's the event. So that's the Mexican version of saying when we like, oh, you ain't invited to the barbecue. They say you're not invited to the carne asada. Like that's what they mean. The word is the same. It means three different things. And pinning on the context, when it's coming out their mouth, you could figure out what's
Starting point is 01:05:49 happening. Now, I say all that to get very serious. I want to talk about the word Zion. Oh, that's about to get... I felt like I heard the record scratch right now. Because if you've listened to reggae music, if you've heard Because if you've listened to reggae music, if you've heard anything made by Bob Marley, you've heard the word Zion many times. You a fan of Lauryn Hill? What's the name of her child? Zion. Now the joy in my world is Zion.
Starting point is 01:06:19 Black people love Zion. Mold Zion! A boy on the side of Babylon trying to front like he down with Malt Zion. Ooh la la la is the way that we rock when we do and I think. The black hotel roster you know, Chustic, defeated by Mount Zion. Is that the same Zion in Israel and Palestine? What y'all mean by that? Then what the hell is a Zionist?
Starting point is 01:06:55 So is that somebody that believe in Mount Zion? Like what is Zionism? And I'm sure if you listen to this show, they the Ops, right? You convinced Zion, like those are the Ops. So I don't know if the thought has ever crossed your mind to be like, well, is the Zionism that y'all talking about the same Zion and Zionists that the Rastas are talking about? Maybe this never crossed your mind,
Starting point is 01:07:27 but it's the, the word needs to be dissected. So I am using this moment to teach you two things. What do the Rastas mean when they say Zion? And what is Zionism and its history? All right, hood politics. Okay, listen. First, before I get into it, this week is like this. It's like this son. It's like that son. Let me take the news serious.
Starting point is 01:08:15 All right. This week is like this. Well the Olympics ended and I'm only excited about breaking. I'm sad that it's not going to be in 2028 and it's not because of Ray Gunn. They decided before her that they weren't going to do it in LA, which sucks. I don't know why they decided that, but they decided that way back in 2020. Having said that, speaking of Ray Gunn, I know she's taken over the memes. I feel bad for these amazing b boys and b
Starting point is 01:08:45 girls specifically logistics. Sorry, that's a text specifically logistics. I knock murder them fools. And while she was in the middle of slaying absolutely slaying ray gun, here's the thing. Have you ever been in a battle? Okay, now I'm from LA, so that double time kind of what you think is bone thugs and harmony chopping stuff that originates at a place called the good life project blowed this group called freestyle fellowship and that is a sound that just kind of came from the LA underground. My figure, we're gonna ride because the time because you see, but it like I don't rap like that. So if you're at a spot and you're battling somebody and they killing it on the double time it's killing the crowd. I can't compete with that.
Starting point is 01:09:33 You got to go all the way the other way. You got to get real creative and try to do something else. So for me it becomes I'm going to try to do the contrast and do sort of a slow flow with a gang of wordplay and get really creative with a pattern. My time rhymes to find a mine Saturn, roller skate rhymes to find a kind catter, boom boom boom batter, boom boom boom flatter, you will flatter, you know what I'm saying? I'll make you scatter like just something else. You got to take a chance and sometimes it lands. Sometimes it doesn't.
Starting point is 01:10:05 Okay. You get creative. You take a shot. Like take old dirty bastard. He don't rap like the rest of Wu-Tang. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. And I picked up when she was throwing down.
Starting point is 01:10:18 She was trying to rep the Ozzy land. Do animal style. Kangaroo hops to rep her soil and be creative. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it don't. Now, I don't know nothing about her husband being in charge of no thing and all that good stuff that they were saying. All I know is you have to battle a lot of people to get to the top and battling is
Starting point is 01:10:44 very subjective. And sometimes creativity and style points count, but when your creativity just swinging a miss, she clearly don't have no power moves. She was battling logistics who got style finesse, flavor, dance, intangibles and power moves. What are you going to do? I saw a head spinning there, but she clearly don't have no power moves. So she's trying to fight back with style.
Starting point is 01:11:10 It just didn't work. So I'm saying this as somebody who has been in a battle and sometimes you lose your train of thought and the words sound like gibberish. She took a creative chance and it was a swing and a miss. Sometimes it happens. On a serious note, okay, receipts are being pulled on walls and on JD and everybody involved and we trying to figure it out.
Starting point is 01:11:37 The Democrats are doing their best to make project 2025 Trump's thing, which it is not. It is somebody trying to tie it to Trump. I can't believe I'm saying this in his defense. That is a lot of overlap, but that's their own thing. Now Trump, it's all cap saying Trump. He don't know who them people are because he know who they are and he know what they want.
Starting point is 01:11:55 So that's cap, but it's in his defense is not his. Now, secondly, in JD Vance's defense, I know what it sounds like, but I'ma say it. He being dragged over this app harvest startup. So that was a company that was an agricultural company that was supposed to be in Appalachia and was going to give hundreds and hundreds of jobs to the area.
Starting point is 01:12:19 Everybody got excited. It was like, dope, man, he one of us. Or at least you told us he one of us. It's gonna be a fresh job. Now, again, he was an investor and he was just on the board. It was like dope man. He one of us or at least you told us he one of us It's gonna be a fresh job now again He was an investor and he was just on the board now I have sat on a couple boards and just cuz you on the board don't mean you in charge of operation now And just cuz you an investor don't mean you in charge of the money now. You got a lot of say obviously
Starting point is 01:12:40 but you can't Necessarily be blamed for everything that go bad and you can't necessarily take the praise for everything that go good. Now not only did this business fail, before it failed, they was talking about it was 110 120 degrees inside that building because it's a greenhouse. The conditions were terrible and while everybody was like man I can't work in here. They brought in not a couple migrant workers, not even Mike undocumented 500 of them, 500 undocumented workers, which in any other scenario. All right.
Starting point is 01:13:17 What do I care? The reason why any of us care is because you supposed to be Captain Appalachia. You called yourself that if you didn't call yourself Captain Appalachia, it would have just been a failed thing, but you set yourself up as Robin Hood of the woods. So since you did that, you I mean, what you gonna say, homie? That's on your watch. You confront like you one of us. But that ain't really hurt nobody.
Starting point is 01:13:40 Now you hurting us saying you one of us. So he won't have to answer to that. And his answer was, yeah, it sucked. I invested in I was on the board, but I mean, I wasn't in charge and in his defense, he's right. Now, if these walls can talk, y'all still calling that man tampon 10 as if you ain't all you got to do, beloved, is read it. You can read the law. It is all over Beyonce's internet. I'm a read it for you. Article one, general education, section one. 121A.212, access to menstrual products.
Starting point is 01:14:15 A school district charter must provide students with access to menstrual products at no charge. The products must be available to all menstruating students in restrooms regularly used by students in grades 4 through 12. According to the plan developed by the school district for purposes of this section, menstrual products means pads, tampons, or other similar products used in connection to menstrual cycle. That's it. That's what the law say. Now, the whole, you're putting tampons in boys bathrooms. I mean, okay, I just read you the law. That's what the law
Starting point is 01:14:50 say. So just, you know, cap down a little bit. Now the DNC has started. We looking for you to put some words to your excitement, auntie. We looking for Joe to like, you know, go out in a blaze of glory. And it's all week this week. Now, I did get to watch a lot of Mondays, not enough to do a full recap. But the thing that's most interesting right now is the comparison to the 1968 one, which was there's a lot of similarities. There was a huge protest that happened in 68 against the Vietnam War and right now There's a huge protest going on against the war in Gaza the difference in
Starting point is 01:15:30 1968 and now is the cops beat the brakes off them protesters on TV like we all saw it this time See Robert and Sophie and Gare are out there and they pretty much I kind of. It's pretty chill, you know, now we'll see. But right now it's been pretty chill, relatively speaking. And what's different this time is Joe went off script. Joe said, you know what, then protesters out there, they got a point. It's innocent people being killed on both sides. Now that would now Sophie says she got a view of the teleprompter.
Starting point is 01:16:04 That wasn't on the script. Now, of course, we're all grabbing for scraps, but good for him. That's a good scrap to grab. I'm so glad you acknowledged it rather than acting like it's just a party on the inside. The campaigns of Harris and of Trump have been hacked by Iran, according to the U.S. intelligence. It's not like this wasn't expected. Country's been tapping into our elections as a sport. They've been doing this for a long time. Iran is not happy. Iran is like you not only did you
Starting point is 01:16:37 kill Qasem Soleimani, you just popped another, we believe you just popped another person on our soil recently because you gotta remember like Israel and America are interchangeable to them They don't ain't no difference share That means that y'all need to double-check all Sources that mean you need to question everything coming at you and keep your antennas high You know another interesting difference is is that the news didn't report it They didn't report the stuff that was in the leak. You know, another interesting difference is, is that the news didn't report it. They didn't report the stuff that was in the leak.
Starting point is 01:17:06 You know, man, in 2016, this was like catnip all the leaks, you know, butter emails. It's almost like we learned a lesson, like, you know, and there's a few ways to look at it, right? It's like, hey, like if it's something in there that's like really like American people need to know, it's like, what's your duty as? The media to be like, okay
Starting point is 01:17:28 I know how we got it but like this kind of too real to talk about it to not talk about it on the other Hand it's like, you know what people make fun of your little brother and They be right about him, but you can't make fun of him. I Don't want hear from you. Like you can't say nothing about my little brother. Your mom being like, you telling on your little brother, your mom like, why you snitching? I don't wanna hear from you.
Starting point is 01:17:57 Just because like, no, you don't get to talk about it. So the news was like, I mean, thank you. Cause they sent the content of the hacks to ProPublica. They was like, yo, you can have it. ProPublica was like, okay I mean, thank you. Cause they sent the content of the hacks to ProPublica. They was like, yo, you can have it. ProPublica was like, okay, cool. Thank you. But like, I don't need to get this from you. I mean, respect.
Starting point is 01:18:13 And finally, there's another rumor of a ceasefire deal. And I say rumor because that's exactly what it sounds like. Cause Anthony Blinken like, yo, it's good. We just waiting on Hamas. Benjamin Netanyahu said like, I ain't agree to nothing. I don't know what you talking about. They still haven't met our terms and in the middle of that we just still sent 20 million dollars to them people. So uh let's be real. Can't nobody to really tell another country what to do. You can't really. There's no way an American president can stop a
Starting point is 01:18:43 country from going to war to another country. But what they can do is not pay for it. Anyway, let's get to what Zion is. All right, now I'm back. Now listen, I am going to do both these things an incredible injustice because both of these topics will take a lifetime to understand. And both of these topics could have many different interpretations depending on your understanding of history, politics, religion. Remember when I wanted to talk to y'all about the Houthis, Hezbollah, all of these different topics where I'm like, when you get into a religion, just like, listen, listen,
Starting point is 01:19:45 when I say Christian, it's the same concept. When I say Christian, we talk about Mount Zion all the time. Matter of fact, if you black, you probably went to Mount Zion AME. New Gethsemane Church of God in Christ. Now I made that up right now. There's probably is a new Gethsemane. There's probably a Mount Zion AME.
Starting point is 01:20:02 I know there is, there's one in South Central. What I'm trying to say is, we use these terms all the time because they end the Bible but when I say Christian that's what I mean now when you say Christian you may think Holy Roller Pentecostal you may think Trump you may think you may think Catholic you may think there's so many other things you might think that are all these different. So you asked 10 different Christians, what does it mean to be Christian? You gonna get 10 different answers, most likely. You remember we did the Terraform episode
Starting point is 01:20:31 with the homie Kevin Garcia, and I tried to break down in the beginning, it was tough, but I tried to give y'all a cursory understanding of like Western church history. You see how I had to give that caveat that I'm talking about Western church. Like we ain't talking Coptic, we not talking Greek Orthodox, we not talking Russian, Jesuit, like you could really get lost in the weeds. So please give me that grace that what I am about to talk to you about is grossly truncated.
Starting point is 01:21:07 Okay. But it's just to help y'all understand so that as you have your picket signs out, then at least you don't sound like a her. So first let me teach y'all what the rasta didn't, what the rasta didn't mean when they say more Zion and I'm sorry about my pet or I studied him. Okay first let me step back and say what I'm what is Rastafarianism. Now I would say like globally it's probably one of the youngest world religions getting its roots by name in the 1930s deriving from the Ethiopian emperor Hali Selassie. Okay now as I say this again like Rasta Rastafari like this is not a
Starting point is 01:22:08 Rastafari, like this is not a compartmentalized philosophy or religion. This is a way of life, right? Alivety, you know, this is, this is our culture, our heritage, our history, right? And our way of being, which some could argue is, well, that's the definition of a religion, a religion, a way of being, right? Your, um, Your liturgy. Anyway, there is an encompassing around this. Now, it is impossible to separate Rasta from the African-ness of it, okay?
Starting point is 01:22:39 So the belief is this. When you listen to Roots Reggae, when you listen to Bob Marley and them, like, there's so much to cover. Dancehall, like that's the club music. Roots reggae, like, think of this as like worship. Like this is praise and worship. There is a tie going back to the Queen of Sheba
Starting point is 01:23:00 and King Solomon. Now I'm getting into my Old Testament. This is why there's so much Judaism and Christian tied to it because there is a belief that and it's and it's and rightfully so because if you believe the Bible it's in the scriptures is that the Queen of Sheba which was it's believed to be an ancient queen from the region of Ethiopia. Now, obviously Ethiopia is a nation state, but Ethiopia as a continual connection of tribes,
Starting point is 01:23:34 Oromo, Tigray, like just the different tribes that are there, they have, Ethiopia and Thailand shares the legacy of being the only two countries that were never colonized or conquered. Not Israel, Italy almost did, right? The British almost did, but they were never able to actually colonize Ethiopia. And Ethiopia takes a lot of pride in this.
Starting point is 01:24:00 So a lot of their lineage and heritage, because their history wasn't cut off or attempted to be erased. You can know a lot about them. Ethiopia in the scriptures in the Bible is called the land of Kush also, right? It's believed that Moses's wife Zipporah was from Ethiopia when Moses, this is all Old Testament stuff, but it all makes sense. It all makes sense as to why the connection is so important to them. Moses, before the whole, let my people go, before the 10 commandments type joint, Moses supposedly, according to the story, saw one of Pharaoh's guards abusing one of the Jewish slaves
Starting point is 01:24:46 and he hopped up and killed the guy and then he had to run. And so then when he ran, he ran to Midian and he married Jethro's daughter. And it was believed that that area was Ethiopia. Okay, so like that at least the region that we now call Ethiopia. So there's this belief that Moses's first fight was you fast forward to Solomon, King David, King David's son, right? The writer of Psalms. And it's believed that according to the passages
Starting point is 01:25:19 that he had never seen anybody more beautiful or a kingdom more amazing than the kingdom that the queen of Sheba came from. Now you fast forward to emperor Selassie and emperor Selassie, a Romo Ethiopian man who became the emperor of what we know to be Ethiopia, geopolitically, but it's a belief that his bloodline can be traced back to King Solomon, right? The emperor bloodline of Ethiopia
Starting point is 01:25:55 can be traced back to King Solomon. That's the Rasta belief. Again, as many Rastas, you might get many answers, but overall, this is the belief, right? Now, set that aside, okay? Another connection is in, I know it's a lot of Bible stuff, but you gotta follow me, because we are talking about Jews and Rastas.
Starting point is 01:26:14 So of course we're gonna talk about the Bible, right? Now, the Book of Acts in the Bible has this story of this one of the apostles named Philip. And Philip runs into an Ethiopian eunuch who, according to the Bible, was reading the book of Isaiah. And Philip sees him on the road and he's like, you know what you're reading? And the dude's like, how can I know if nobody teaches him? So he sits down with him and he, according to the scripture, according to the Bible, explains Isaiah, the prophecies, the Messiah, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, and how that
Starting point is 01:26:55 stuff was prophesied in the book of Isaiah, blah, blah, so he ties all the things, and then it says that this Ethiopian eunuch got baptized right then. Now, it is then believed that he brought Christianity as we know it. Their belief is like, we saw it right there. But, Prop, I thought Rasta was Jamaican. I'll get to it. So, that's tie number three, right?
Starting point is 01:27:18 Now, the fourth tie, which is one of the most compelling things to me between the Jews, Zion and Ethiopia is the city of Axum. So the city of Axum is in the northern part of Ethiopia and is known to be, and it's truthfully the oldest, the first and oldest Christian city. Because contrary to what your little white pastor will teach you, the faith went to Africa before it went to Europe. Okay. It went to Mongolia before it went to Europe.
Starting point is 01:27:51 The point is the white man ain't teach us who Jesus was. Now it is also believed that the Ark of the Covenant from the Old Testament is an axon. There are ruins at different churches that have good archeological evidence to believe that they set up the tent with the dimensions that Exodus and Deuteronomy and them and the Old Testament scriptures have taught them to do this. There are, if you go to Israel now, black Ethiopian Jewish people.
Starting point is 01:28:27 As a matter of fact, to be able to, now getting into the modern politics, to be able to repatriate, to be able to come back to Israel as a Jew, you'd have to prove by your DNA that you have Jewish heritage. You are in fact an ethnic Jew. And the Ethiopians, there's a sect of Ethiopia that not only can prove it, but are some argue the closest like DNA related to what might be the ancient Israeli, right?
Starting point is 01:28:59 They're the like that some would argue that as far as the diaspora, not as far as like people ain't never left. I'm talking about as far as the diaspora, not as far as like people ain't never left. I'm talking about as far as the diaspora, right? So they are, it can truly say, and there's a lot of traditions that in certain parts of Ethiopia that they continued far longer and are actually far more closely related
Starting point is 01:29:18 to the ancient practices than what modern Israel looks like. This is just, it's just history. Now, because anti-blackness is universal, when they got to Israel, the modern Israel, a lot of Ethiopian women were sterilized. And if you walk around Jerusalem, just like everywhere else, the people doing all of the, all of the dirty work, all of the brunt work, all of the jobs nobody want, or the black one, unfortunately. That being said, the tie between Ethiopia,
Starting point is 01:29:53 the ancient religion of Judaism, and the ancient people of Israel, one because of the region, one because of folklore, and one because of DNA, has Ethiopia is verifiably connected to whatever the ancient Jerusalem was. Okay. You fast forward to Hali Selassie in the 1930s, who they believe, according to the Rastatim, is I want to say 225th, I think that's what my cousin told me. 225th, don't quote me on this, I'm just quoting my cousin, of the Solomonic dynasty.
Starting point is 01:30:29 So they believe that like the actual king, like a descendant of King David, right? A son of David, kind of like who Jesus was. A descendant of David, right? Was also Selassia. You following me? Okay. Now the word Rastafari comes from Hali Selassie,
Starting point is 01:30:50 which is Ras Tafari, right? It was his name, right? So he was one of the only independent black leaders in Africa at the time, right? So he bears this cultural, political, historical, and symbolic importance to just the African diaspora. Now once you get into the practices of Rastafarianism, like again like the Rastarim, the way of life, like the diet, you know, avoiding shellfish,
Starting point is 01:31:19 eating seafood, like it's pretty similar to kosher practices, again, because they have this tie to the land, the history. So there's a lot of practices that are like, that are that they have a lot of practices about being welcoming to the Sojourner, about the way that we collectively sing. Jah is a Jamaican version of saying Yah, which is short for Yahweh. is a Jamaican version of saying Yah, which is short for Yahweh. So when we say Jah Rastafari,
Starting point is 01:31:50 you know, it's your Jah is Yah, Yahweh or Jahovah, right? So these, a lot of them are vegetarian. They don't eat meat at all. Definitely not beef or pork because you keep the temple clean, right? You very rarely are gonna find an overweight Rasta. Like they're usually in incredibly good shape. The dreadlocks have to do with what's called
Starting point is 01:32:13 the vow of the Nazarite, because again, we're talking Old Testament. Samson in the Bible, you know, Samson with his golden locks, you know, the Samson and Delilah, like Samson had took what's called a Nazarite vow, which was a vow to keep himself holy to the Lord and the symbol of that holiness to the Lord was not cutting your hair. This is as a symbol of our holiness the vow of the Nazarite you grow your dreadlocks right? Dreadlocks was a term
Starting point is 01:32:39 given to us by the British that we just own. Nazi dread! So because our hair, our locks were dreadful, so, no dreadlocks. There's also sects that believe that God grabs the dead souls by their dreadlocks and brings them to heaven. Again, the symbol's beautiful, but either way, it's a symbol of the promise, your commitment to keeping yourself sanctified to the Father, right?
Starting point is 01:33:06 Is if you're being a traditional rastadim. Now, their belief different, it's still, again, so follow me, this is still an Abrahamic faith. That's why you're gonna hear terms like Mausaniah, right? Which I'm gonna get to specifically in a second. But their belief different than Christianity, although similar in a lot of ways, similar to Judaism in a lot of ways, their belief is that, like I said, Salasi was the Messiah, right?
Starting point is 01:33:37 This is an Afro centric belief. How did it get to Jamaica? The transatlantic slave trade. So it gets to Jamaica via the slave trade. We got carted off. Remember, this is an Afrocentric belief. And when Africans got brought to Jamaica, they brought their beliefs.
Starting point is 01:33:55 And then it synced, you know, had a lot of syncretism with a lot of like the Voodoo and tribal and Caribbean practices, you know, a lot of the stuff that was happening in the Caribbean that because again, this is East Africa, West Africa with the Arishi and a lot of the West African beliefs are a little more animist and not so Abrahamic, if you will, right?
Starting point is 01:34:22 All that to say, just like any other faith tradition or practice, when it travels, it takes on a lot of the personalities, traditions, and practices of the people that it traveled with and the location it lands. So the music that you hear, cause obviously if you hear music in Ethiopia, it don't sound like reggae,
Starting point is 01:34:45 because reggae is Jamaican, right? So what you consider Rastafarian, you think Caribbean, because that's, I mean, I get it, right? And Ethiopia is Christian, right? Of course, there's, obviously, it's a modern country. There's millions of religions there, not millions, but you know what I mean? There's a lot of different religions there, but Ethiopia is Christian Rasta. That's birthed out of the diaspora that has its tie to Ethiopia. Y'all following me? OK, you have people like Marcus Garvey, right? Who we need to at some point do a whole study on him and the back to Africa
Starting point is 01:35:22 movement, and I don't have time to get into the depths of Marcus Garvey. But the point was, as far as the pan-African experience were those who the diaspora, we who got separated from our land, whether it was your run of the mill black Baptist slave in Tuscaloosa, right in Mobile, Alabama, backwards, a Pritchard and you know, making Georgia that we was on the plantations. If a Bible got into our hands, it was so easy to see ourselves in the children of Israel. Like, it's not hard to see if you read the book of Exodus,
Starting point is 01:36:06 you like, well, damn, that's us. It was too, it was too, the connection is too obvious. We're like, oh my gosh, carted off into slavery from a distant land, like, and then there's a longing for a return to your promised land. The city, and the capital of my promised land is the city of Zion. You following me?
Starting point is 01:36:27 It would be the same in the Caribbean for the Rastadim. But they look at back as Salasi. It is Rastafarianism is by definition anti-colonial, obviously, and they believe that Africa is there, not only their literal ancestral homeland, but it's their spiritual homeland. And the country of Ethiopia gets a particular reverence because of the role it played in the 19th century
Starting point is 01:36:55 for the resistance of, because of Selassie, for the resistance of European imperialism. Everybody else fell, Ethiopia didn't. So the gold, green and red colors of the modern Ethiopia flag are the traditional colors of the Rastafarian because it can in some ways get its roots from there. Right? Okay. I know that was a long preamble, but you got to understand what you're talking about. So once you have this understanding of your connection to Judaism practice, anti-colonial, you know, dispersed, taken away from your
Starting point is 01:37:27 homeland and longing for a return to your promised land. Now we could talk about what Zion is. Now Rastafarian has two basic temples, Zion Babylon. You hear that stuff in all the raggae you listen to, right? So these are the theological ideologies, ideological tent poles. The dichotomy is tied again to the anti-colonial origins because Babylon, remember again in your Old Testament, is the symbol of the evil powers, the evil empire, just like in the Bible. It's the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,
Starting point is 01:38:06 the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,
Starting point is 01:38:12 the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, not only the outward person, but the inside of you.
Starting point is 01:38:28 What Christians would call your sin nature, worldly Babylon, right? So if you're following again the saga of the Old Testament, Israel fleeing Egypt or getting away from Egypt, becoming free and then being enslaved by Babylon again. Babylon's the problem. Does that make sense? Now in the Bible,
Starting point is 01:38:49 Zion is just another name for Jerusalem, right? And it can refer to the land of Israel fully. Now the Rastafarian, okay, this is where our difference is, repurposed the biblical definition to an Afro-centric direction. For the Rasta, Zion is the continent of Africa, specifically Ethiopia. But the term represents not just a physical place, because Ethiopia is just Ethiopia, but it's an ideal.
Starting point is 01:39:25 It's what we would call to become cross. It's this is paradise. This is thy kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven Zion heaven and Earth meets. So it's not just it's it's physical and so much more which in a lot of ways is the same for the Jew. But we'll get to that. It is the destruction of a worldly system
Starting point is 01:39:51 and the raising of a selected godly kingdom where all of us, what we would talk about, the Christians would talk about the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy and the Holy Ghost is to be a part of the kingdom. So it's a both place and it's an idea to strive for, right? Where the Rastas, they would equate with preserving and glorifying black African culture, right? The Iron Lion of Zion, you know, Bob Marley's song. But for more information, like Rastafari is kind of like,
Starting point is 01:40:21 like how we have denominations. There's a divided into mansions and they got it from like the Gospel of john, when Jesus says, in my father's house, there are many mansions, right? Again, I'm telling you, it's an Abrahamic faith, a lot of people don't think it's just a it's a black, you know, anti colonial African outpour of it, right? So you have like the bobo, the Ashanti, the 12 tribes. That's a that's a denomination if you will. They were called the 12 tribes of Israel. The Naya, I never pronounce it right, but the Naya, the Naya Bbingi, like I never pronounce it right, but they're a certain type. Now some, again, they're
Starting point is 01:41:01 some look more traditional than others. And then a lot of people just follow like an individual, like Rastaf way of viewing it. But at the end of the day, Ethiopia is for lack of better term, the new Jerusalem. This is Zion when we're talking about Rastadim. Okay. Now what the Zionists believe next? I'm out. All right, we're back. Now Zionism, the name, the overall name for right now, you know, if you're pro-Palestine, that's the name of the bad guys. They're Zionists. And people have tried to separate the idea
Starting point is 01:42:30 of antisemitism from Zionists, being anti-Zionists, that these are different things. Now, that would mean that you'd have to understand all those things and their history from them. Now, I'm trying to handle this, like, with as much respect as I can because I'm talking about a culture that's not mine, right?
Starting point is 01:42:50 So please grant me that grace that there's, I'm probably gonna overlook, like I said in the beginning, I'm probably gonna overlook some stuff that I'm not trying to overlook. I'm trying to give as best as I can an understanding, right, of these different things. Anti-Semite, that's, I mean, those are the Nazis. You just don't believe that it's a type of thing,
Starting point is 01:43:14 it's a type of overall term for the concept of the convolution of, just this weird idea that all that is wrong, like it's almost like you've made the Jew Babylon, you know, say like we just talked about like you they are everything that's wrong. They are both they are both the killers of Jesus. They are the vermin that I'm trying to describe anti-semitism the the the the religion and the ethnicity that somehow or another is poor and subhuman, but also quietly controls
Starting point is 01:43:50 all of the inner workings of money and power in the world. And your only solution is to wipe them out. That would be anti-Semitic. That's the idea of that, that comes from this thing called the Protocols of Zion, which again, the word Zion I'm gonna talk about, which is something that we've talked about on the Behind the Bastards episodes of the Protocols of Zion. Now that's anti-Semitic.
Starting point is 01:44:17 Now once we get into, now if you remember the, one of the you wasn't outside episodes when we pulled the clip of a rabbi explaining the idea of what makes a Jew a Jew according to the faith is their covenant with Yahweh that it's not necessarily a location. As a matter of fact, to see it as a location is to minimize it, where he was like the promised land that our claim is because we are in covenant with Yahweh and that can happen anywhere. The location don't matter. So to say that the capital has to be in Jerusalem or has to be in Tel Aviv because that's God's will is, he's like, no, you're missing the point. Like who cares where a
Starting point is 01:45:06 modern nation state plants? Like that's a secular system. That is like the Rastadim would say, that is Babylon. To worry about what other nations say, I am a part of the kingdom and the kingdom exists because I am in covenant with Yahweh. We are a covenant people. That's what makes, that's what gives us our Jewishness is our covenant with Yahweh, we are a covenant people. That's what makes, that's what gives us our Jewishness is our covenant with Yahweh. Who cares what the borders are? That would be a specific type of Judaism, right? A religious type of Judaism. Now an ethnic Judaism, that's something different. A political Judaism is something different. And that's what we're going to talk about right now. Zionism as we're talking about, not the Rastadim, but Zionism, you could say, I'd say go back to August 29th, 1897. It was a meeting on the Rhine River in this small city like in Switzerland called Basel, right?
Starting point is 01:45:57 Basel. Now this meeting had people from all over the world and it was to discuss this concept of Zionism. Now, like I said in the box, like I said, Zion is just a biblical term for Jerusalem. Right. So they choose that term because if you're paying attention to Europe, Pagras, it ain't a good place for Jews. It's been all bad for them for a while. And this con this discussion was to say say we have to have a place because it seemed like no matter where we go we not want it. Now they pull in all the way back to more freaking
Starting point is 01:46:32 Canaan to Egypt. They are talking about their deep history and they're like like no matter where we go we not want it so we need to find a place where we could just be ourselves. And they thought what better place than our ancestral homeland. Now, if you're looking around this room, you would think the same thing I would think. Y'all white as hell. Like you're European.
Starting point is 01:46:59 I don't understand in the same way that you would probably look at that Ethiopian and go, but you're African, but follow me now. So people in during the time from like Munich, from Germany, from Poland, from Switzerland, they're like, oh, what are you talking about? Like, I'm just as German as everybody. They German. They like, we speak German. Like this is just our religion. Like I never see, I never been to Israel. I never seen Israel. remember Israel's not a thing at the time that place is Palestine you know like it's not a that's not a that's it would be the same as me saying I need to go back to Nubia it was like Nubia is gone you know black
Starting point is 01:47:38 people like again a Marcus Garvey thing but that was closer to they time like you need to go back to there's no place here wanted for you I'm like well that's I don't I don't I don't even know the language. They speak a Tobo. I'm guessing that because I took an African ancestry and they were saying I'm a father side that maybe I like, oh, what do I know about? I don't think about that. So the Jews at the time were like, what?
Starting point is 01:47:59 I don't this. What did you talk about? Like it would be the equivalent to a back to Africa movement to where it's like, I mean, it sounds cool, but like, I mean, it's already people there. And I mean, it's been hundreds of years. Like I'm German, like we're German. A lot of the rabbis were like, look,
Starting point is 01:48:14 first of all, this is blasphemous. We not supposed to return until the Messiah come. Like that's what the prophecy is. And he gonna bring us back. I don't know about what the hell you doing, right? And then the others, like the more modern ones were like, well, we're not a nation. Like that was actually the point.
Starting point is 01:48:27 Like don't you, didn't you read your Torah? You don't need a king. I'm your king. You're not a nation. Like that's the point. The point is you're supposed to be different. I'm your king. You're a part of a kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven.
Starting point is 01:48:39 And I'll bring you back when it's time when the Messiah come. So like whatever y'all doing, that's not even, now I'm saying that again, this is 1897. That was the belief of them. Now, again, those were some rabbi. And not only that, like I said, they're like, well, I'm French. I don't, what?
Starting point is 01:48:56 Anyway, enter this guy named Theodore Herzl, right? Who was a journalist who covered this, actually probably one of the most radicalizing moments for anybody, for any Jew in Europe, right? And it was the case for this man named Alfred Dreyfus, right? Which basically became like the trial of the century. It was, they called it the Dreyfus affair. And the journalist who covered it was Theodore Herzl.
Starting point is 01:49:20 Basically, Dreyfus was accused of treason and found guilty and sentenced to like a work prism. Totally wrongfully convicted, completely out of nowhere. Y'all made all that up. But how that work was like, because he was Jewish, it became not just about him, but that you can't trust the Jew. And Theodore Hertzl is watching all this
Starting point is 01:49:44 and he's watching the people get whipped up into a frenzy, people that was just your neighbors. He was like, again, I'm just as German as you, I'm just as European as you are. Like fam, I remember the feeling when Trump first started taking over the brains of the white Christian, where I was like, dog, we was at Cracker Barrel yesterday.
Starting point is 01:50:05 What happened? Like, we used to, what just, what has bewitched you? Like, all of a sudden, was you like this the whole time? It was super confusing. It's like, all of a sudden, we're different? Yo, it's me, like, I've been me this whole time. So, Theodore Herzl was like, yo, okay, listen, we clearly not wanted here.
Starting point is 01:50:25 And it's only gonna get worse. Turns out he was absolutely correct. So he comes up with this idea that is like, he's like, okay, I'm going to suggest a Jewish state in in the current state of nation of Palestine. Y'all think I'm crazy right now. But in about 50 years, you're gonna see this was 1897. 50 years, you're going to see this was 1897. Guess what happened in 50 years 1948. Israel became a nation. Ain't that crazy? So now Zionism you want to be able to distinguish it between two different types of Zionism, right?
Starting point is 01:50:57 And this is where I would critique making the concept the bad guy because there's two types here. Okay, there's the types here. Okay. There's the Zionism that comes out of a longing for a home. That's where us and the Rastas actually share a place where we can be fully accepted, fully ourselves and fully safe. Because again, we're not wanted anywhere we are. Right. Because again, we're not wanted anywhere we are, right?
Starting point is 01:51:25 So there's a longing for a home that you've been ripped away from, right? Now, when they say ripped away from, like we're talking, guess who I'm talking about? King of Babylon. We're talking about the nations being scattered like 580 BC when the Ark of the Covenant went missing and this beautiful, amazing kingdom of Israel that used to exist in modern day Palestine, Israel in that region that was called Judea
Starting point is 01:51:55 at that time, where they existed. And then if you know your history, I've said this so many times in the You Wasn't Outside episodes, that little strip of land has been conquered and colonialized and ran by every possible kingdom, every possible empire in the modern world, finally by Britain. But as that was happening, the people who were ethnically Israeli, as we mean in the ancient sense, were scattered all over the world. So that's why you could be white as hell in Jewish and you could be black as hell in Jewish because they were scattered, right? And then of course, now you're not going to marry people while you're there, but somehow or another they've been able to keep on to their traditions and their
Starting point is 01:52:37 religions because they were also, it's one of those things which are ethnically and religiously and your identity. So anyway, scattered all over the world, but as we know, there's plenty of people that didn't leave. Again, I'm giving you, you wasn't outside history, which you understand. So there's this longing of being like, man, we used to have a place to be in the world. And you feel like you looking around
Starting point is 01:52:59 and everybody else got a place to be in the world. This is born from despair and rightfully so, but then there's this other type of Zionism that is more like this idea of reclaiming and enthusiasm about our heritage and our culture. Like we need to be like the same way I would be like loud and black. Like we need to be black as hell out here.
Starting point is 01:53:24 Like we need to reclaim, take up space and be ourselves rather than like shrinking ourselves. Like I want to reclaim all that it is for us to be us. Now as a minority, that shouldn't be hard for you to understand. I mean that's us sitting here in America and then you got the Republicans being like, well you're American first. And I'm like, nah, nigga, I'm black. I got my red, black and green on the wall. You know, it's the Latinos flying, they Mexican flags and like, nah, we who we are. You feel me? And you're like, well, you're American. You know, it's you're a no-savo kid.
Starting point is 01:53:55 You know, when you finally discovered the concept of Islan, you want to know a little about your own heritage. Yeah, you American, you know what I mean? You from East Los, but you want to reclaim your history, your heritage, your language. You want to learn Aztec dances. It's like, so there's that version also. So in that sense, it'd be weird to you when you like, you like, yo, like, yo, we're Jews. You're like, fool, I'm German. It's like, nigga, you French like word.
Starting point is 01:54:20 These people don't love you. Like, why you identify as that? You know, so there's you, you see that as a lens of Zionism. So those so you have these ideas happening all at the all around the same sort of time and idea with the same term Zion. So it could be seen as somebody that's like, yo, like I want to learn our ancient language. I want to learn our practices. I I wanna do the Shabbat. I wanna like, I wanna bring back, it became this umbrella term
Starting point is 01:54:48 for just what it meant to like reclaim your culture, reclaim your identity, reclaim the fullness of what y'all are. And then there's the geopolitical idea. Now this geopolitical idea borrowed from all of these particular concepts. And if you read the writings of Theodor Herzl and a lot of the people involved in this, they were all bright-eyed about the idea that like, oh, this is going to be a colonial takeover
Starting point is 01:55:23 of Palestine. You have to remove the indigenous population for this to happen because there's no way they're going to be a colonial takeover of Palestine. You have to remove the indigenous population for this to happen because there's no way they're going to give it to me. There were certain ways they tried to do it. They tried to do it peacefully. One way they said was, well, first of all, let's go talk to Britain because remember the British Empire actually drew the partition. The British Empire is the one that drew the line between Israel and Palestine because remember it used to belong to them. Another idea that the Zionists had was, yo let's go talk to the Turkish Empire, right? Because remember the Ottomans were there before the British and they was like, okay so
Starting point is 01:56:02 if you let us be a government how about we pay all the debts? Well, what if we pay y'all's debts? They were trying, but matter of fact, Israel, the location wasn't even their first choice because they was like, this is a little too complicated. They thought about going to Africa. They looked at a couple of different places as to where to land this geopolitical idea of Zionism.
Starting point is 01:56:22 I'm telling this out of order. Let me back up. So the idea that like, it's just a myth mythical idea of Zionism. I'm telling this out of order. Let me back up. So the idea that like, it's just a myth that the Zionists were not aware of the Palestinian Arab population. They were well aware of it. But the question is what to do with that information. Because yeah, as Jewish as Herzl was,
Starting point is 01:56:41 he's also a European. He saw the Arabs as barbaric. Like that they were, I mean, it's just, there's no other way around it. They were well aware that you are going to have to displace people to build a nation like this. So that was not, they knew, right? Now, again, I'm talking about the geopolitical idea of Zionism, but their idea was like, surely y'all can see that like we're not a big empire, we're not here.
Starting point is 01:57:07 Like we're just looking for a place to be, you know? And since we're from here anyway, it should, this shouldn't be a problem. So yeah, so like I said, Herzo went to the British, he went to the Ottoman Empire and he asked them like, yo, can we just go settle? Keep in mind, is like European Jews had been moving to Tel Aviv for a while. You know, they actually formed the city of Tel Aviv, right?
Starting point is 01:57:34 Those were Jewish settlers from Israel that's formed the city of Tel Aviv. This is well before Israel became a state, right? So they had already been moving. Now they were just like, we just need legitimacy. So how about we buy it from the Ottomans? And, you know, the emperor of of of of the Ottoman Empire was like, bro, I can't sell you land like it belongs to the people. And they fought to conquer this place.
Starting point is 01:58:01 I'm not just going to just just sell it to you. And not only did he not sell it to him, he started building policy to make sure that they can't just be immigrating and just buying up Palestinian land. He was like, I'm not really here for this. And like, why would I welcome like a large religious minority into my empire?
Starting point is 01:58:21 You might take it over. So like I said, he was like, I can't look, they not just letting us come, now they restricting our movement. He even, like I said, he went back to the British empire, asked for a spot in East Africa, like can we just, and the Jews back home, it was like, nigga, we're going back to Zion.
Starting point is 01:58:42 The hell you talking about East Africa for? He's, Hertha was like, bro, I'm trying, right? So eventually they found the city of Tel Aviv. They create their own, like anybody else, like you created Chinatown, you created, like you create your own community. Then them niggas got organized. Now, the timeline I'm telling you this, like I said,
Starting point is 01:58:59 remember he had this first idea in 1897. So this is all during the times between like World War I, World War II. Remember Britain didn't take over until 1917 because that's why he was building with the Ottoman Empire dudes. Once and then once they was gone, once British, once Britain took over 1917, we're about, we're seeing the end of World War One, right? You're thinking maybe this was a new world and it all hell broke loose with the Nazi empire. And at that point, once the Nazi stink started happening, it was like, oh, niggas, we got to go.
Starting point is 01:59:29 Like this, we can't be playing games. We trying to play nice. Like that, the Nazi thing kicked this mug in the high gear. So now by 1947, it's like, now it's like the Jews are like a third of the population in Palestine at the time, right? So now it's getting a little itchy, you know what I'm saying? Like now y'all just over here and if you're an Arab nation, you like, okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Starting point is 01:59:57 Okay. Why we got to lose our home because of stuff Europe did. Why are we paying the price? It's like, I feel you, you know what I'm saying? Like that's terrible what you're going through, but like, why you gotta come? Why you gotta take our house? Why, why y'all gotta be like, what's going on right now? But anyway, since nobody's handing it to them, now we got numbers.
Starting point is 02:00:18 Since nobody's just going to let us be here. The only way to do this is by force. So them dudes made a military. Now it's time to scrap for it. But as you know, this is still a British outpost. Finally, Britain's like, okay, listen, I'm done with all this. When will we gonna do?
Starting point is 02:00:34 Y'all get that part, y'all get that part. They created the partition. But they said, now y'all figure out what is what and who run this and all that, like I'm done. And there at that moment, the birth of the nation of Israel, the lines created by Britain after they left in Palestine, looking around here going, man, what? What just happened right now?
Starting point is 02:00:59 And then, like I said, in you other in other you wasn't outside episodes, rest of the Arab nations was like, oh hell no. Like if they went to war immediately, everybody jumped them. Egypt, everybody jumped. It was like, and then, and look, Israel won. Like defeated, like they just, what is y'all doing?
Starting point is 02:01:19 Like who are you? Why are you getting to be a nation? But that's what happened and we still scrapping over it. Nation states again, have more to do with the recognition of other nations and who gets to decide who gets what power and all this good stuff. Like we said, borders are made up, they're drawn by conquerors.
Starting point is 02:01:38 It's not, don't let that fool you. The concept that has people out in the streets is the type of Zionism that has to do with the displacement of an indigenous population by force because you believe God wanted you here. That's one way to look at it. And that, my friend, is just run of the mill imperialism. It's basic. Then there's the Zionism that says, like I said, I am preserving my culture. And then there's the Zionism that says,
Starting point is 02:02:23 I am longing for a place for us to belong. A Zionism that is much more an idea of a promised land rather than the hostile takeover of a place where people already exist. Spiritual, religious, political. All of that in this one term. So I am not going to tell you what to think of when you say Zionist. Just like I don't know what to tell you what you think of when you say Christian. But I tell you what, it ain't what the Rastas mean. And I tell you what, if you sitting in Palestine right now, do it even matter?
Starting point is 02:03:08 Hood politics. All right, now don't you hit stop on this pod. You better listen to these credits. I need you to finish this thing so I can get the download numbers, okay? I'm gonna get the download numbers. I'm gonna get the download numbers. I'm gonna get the download numbers. I'm gonna get the download numbers. I'm gonna get the download numbers. Alright now don't you hit stop on this pod. You better listen to these credits.
Starting point is 02:03:25 I need you to finish this thing so I can get the download numbers. Okay? So don't stop it yet. But listen, this was recorded in East Los Boyle Heights by your boy Propaganda. Tap in with me at prophiphop.com. If you're into cold brew coffee, we got Terraform cold brew, you can go there.com and use promo code hood, get 20% off, get yourself some coffee. This was mixed, edited and mastered by your boy Matt Ossowski, killing the beast softly.
Starting point is 02:03:57 Check out his website, mattossowski.com. I'ma spell it for you because I know. M-A-T-T-O-S-O-W-S-K-I.com, MattOlsowski.com. He got more music and stuff like that on there, so go check out the heat. H.O.B. Politics is a member of Cool Zone Media, executive produced by Sophie Lichterman, part of the iHeartMedia Podcast Network.
Starting point is 02:04:23 Your theme music and scoring is also by the one and only Matt Alsosky, still killing the beat softly. So listen, don't let nobody lie to you. If you understand urban living, you understand politics. These people is not smarter than you. We'll see y'all next week. To have a murderer as gruesome as Jade Beasley doesn't happen very often down here. In Marion, Illinois, an 11-year-old girl brutally stabbed to death.
Starting point is 02:05:07 Her father's longtime live-in girlfriend maintaining innocence, but charged with her murder. I am confident that Julie Beckley is guilty. They've never found a weapon. Never made sense. Still doesn't make sense. She found out she was pregnant in jail. The person who did it is still out there. Listen to Murder on Songbird Road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
Starting point is 02:05:29 or wherever you get your podcasts. Joel, the holidays are a blast, but the financial hangover, that can be a huge bummer. If you are out there and you're dreading the new statement email that reveals the massive balance that you may have racked up, well, you could use our help. That's right. I'm Joel. And I am Matt. And we're from the How to Money Podcast. Our show is all about helping you make sense of your personal finances so you can ditch your pesky credit card debt once and for all, make real progress on other
Starting point is 02:05:57 crucial financial goals that you've got, and just feel more in control of your money in general. You know it. For money advice without the judgment and jargon, listen to How to Money on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you want a shortcut to the best version of you? Here it is. Feed the good wolf. I'm Eric Zimmer, host of The One You Feed. Every week, I talk to brilliant minds and brave souls about the art of small, powerful choices.
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Starting point is 02:07:32 Maria Tremorchi Each season we explore a new theme from poisoners to art thieves. Holly Frye We uncover the secrets of history's most interesting figures, from legal injustices to body snatching. Maria Tremorchi And tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in cocktails and mocktails inspired by each story. Listen to Criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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