Behind the Bastards Presents: Hood Politics with Prop

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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. A lot of times is when you're super confident in the movie 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, or maybe even possibly get a little kiss on the cheek, you know, just you know, it was little boys, you're not really ready for like full

intercourse because we're still children. I remember like rehearsing, and I have a sister that's six years older than me, so I could ask her, like, how do I say this? You know, what outfits should I wear? Like, you know, and she was like, down, to make her little brother, like you know, she wanted a 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 off of her to offer this little girl to giggle and run to her friends and go eh, he not even fine, just destroy. It took me three weeks to get the courage to say something to her, just with this girl to be like h 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 you know Chinese there was such as there was so many other communities that were at the spaces I was in. Like again, I read the demographics. Most of y'all are from Cali

that listen to this from the San Gabril Valley. Who I was born in South Central like I say it all the time, but I grew up in San Gavel 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 where black dude is just not they tight. This is way too long of an intro Anyway. The point I'm trying to make is it really hurts to get curved, especially when

you're really confident. And guess what Google got curved hood politics, y'all? All right, before I go into it, but look at like nerds.

too many people died. There was a memorial held in Israel where they played that last song before at that, you know, because 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 you know, one of the orb if not the greatest terrorist attack that they've experienced. And I think, like, I'm not adding snark to this because it's like I mean, like I'm just trying to be real about it. 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 cause they feel like everybody's being aggressed to them. So a A there's a kinship to the idea that America has of itself too. You know where we say if you go in the war, you're

going overseas, Like the attack is over there. Everybody's trying to come to get us, but don't nobody want to mess with us because they know won't play around. It only happened once and that was at Pearl Harborn. We blew up Pole Islands after that, so they carried 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, so

you mark it right. On the other hand, it also marks the beginning of the absolute decimation of Gaza, with eleven thousand people dead and just a commpletely intenable living situation that has now spread. Everybody's fear has spread to Lebanon and Yemen, so and now big dog Iran has jumped in. It was what everybody that works in peacemaking was hoping wouldn't happen, that like we would get to a ceasefire, to state solution, which clearly is the only option.

I just don't understand how anybody could think any other way that like 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. I mean there's like where you know, they still running for covers and is were not even letting it. They barely letting aid in,

Like we got to fight to let aid in. And then with all the carnage and it be coming 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. All that blood and you still ain't got the hostages. So Israel as a nation is torn because they're like, fam, uh, can we keep our eyes on the prize here? I just we just want our

loved ones back. What did you and ask you to blow the whole Like I ain't ask you to blow the whole city up, or it's just one of our hostages, but what is you? And then there's the other half that's like, no, we can't letting people live. And then there's the really really small deck sect of hyper conservative religious folk within the Israeli world that are like, well it's 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. The JV team had their debate switching gears. Hear the my dad can beat up your dad debate because who really cared what the vice president they 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 asked for. Y'all asked for civility and substance. What you didn't ask for was truth. My niggad, the

Trump ticket is getting his money's worth. He is jd. Vance understood the assignment. The assignment was to sanitize everything that Trump stands for, and even to the point of like almost like the opposite where it's like, now, we ain't say that. And then when the mic slipped up and said, well, you weren't supposed to lie fat fact check this a you revealed your cards, big dog. But JD. Vance absolutely one hundred percent 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 we're supposed to be doing heat and he took all the smart Now, don't get me wrong, I personally like dudes like that will pulse me that are too polished in every like that, I'm like, you're clearly hiding something. Anyway, everything was going great until this man could not answer the January sixth question.

Now did Trump lose the election? Elect question. Now, the thing is that's in some senses 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, now, Trump tripping on that one, but we gonna win this one though.

let's get back to it like this, 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. 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 like search engines. You had suit being brought to them by like you know, Bing and like ass ge. That was like you're creating a monopoly.

I can even giggle with the idea of like being because it's like, bro, no one uses bing. Google's a verb like it's a company, but it's also a verb. You Google something, They're like, you're a monopoly. They're like, listen, I'm not like 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 lay,

y'all need to get y'all weight up. And the argument was in this antitrust case, which I will back up and explain the term monopoly or 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's trying to do the AI thing again to keep up with chat GBT and so the searches have been I've 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 it AI. But the point is the case was 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, 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, but it's because it harkens back to one that happened in nineteen ninety eight Microsoft. So here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna 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, 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's 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

noticed stuff, all right? Next, 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 is currency and the currency and I'm giving you this currency and you're going to return back to me a good in 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 indust your revolution type situation that puts like, if you're going to 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, and then the people carrying that stuff in, the 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 who 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 lad 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 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 ninety

nine per pencil. Now, if you're making one million pencils, it may not have cost you the company they selling it for a dollar ninety nine. It cost 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 two dollars. And that two dollars, you know, multiplied by one hundred thousand 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 got a better pencil and they only charging a dollar fifty, 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 could charge a dollar twenty five right all the way down to where get this the term of elasticity, to where the product is cheap enough to make to where everybody makes money. 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 mer. Right, y'all know the people that make my mugs and the poor Gami's all the coffee stuff is this company called mer. Now.

Mir got a lot of clients too, And Mir was telling us, telling me about one of their clients for which I will not 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 Maman and Miir was 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 or you're sourcing at the

same place. And he was like and the owner or the buyer was like, yeah, yeah, source is the same place as as our competition. They charged three ninety nine, we charge eight ninety nine. It's called branding. So just the power of the branding, 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 ego rare like makers Mart. I believe they're whiskey is makers Mark. They just bought a recipe from them and just white labeled it. It's actually very it's very good whiskey. 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're talking 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 the people that work at that company are spending right the products for which they buy, how much them products

cost to make, and how much profit those products produce. 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 try to get you to spend your dollar with them them competing with each Other's 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, will 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 becomes up a superstar, so a superpower so early, Well, they didn't pay they workers at all. 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're 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 with in the system. You might want to approach this in a way that centers humanity in the sense that 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'm bring Mahomie 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. This is iHeart media. Like, it's not be delusional, you know what I'm saying. Corporation guys, So we're not delusional. But there's 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.

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. You just grew your own every 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 squashed. 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 gonn bring them some squash.

They bring me some spinaches. It's fine, Like we all 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 clouds, 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. 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 are going to be like,

all right, you don't lost your mind. This brand ain't worth it, 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 work. But anyway, we as in the Royal weed 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 defeature 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 price GOUG and the quality of your product doesn't have to be great because you the only people. That's what I mean by drug dealer. You trying to be the only connect. If you the only connect, you've charged the

people toever you won't they hooked on the product. You could step on your product if you want too, because what they gonna do where you go go? I'm your only option. I just to feel like that with gas prices, because 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

like I now. As a side note, I went to Rhymefest this past weekend at the Coliseum and I took the train and I was like, no, native, nobody I know takes trains because it 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 in La I'd be like, why don't I do this? So yeah, maybe there is an alternative anyway, So being mad over gas prices. I'm like, what do what you

gonna not go fill up your tank? What you're gonna You're 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 anti trust law. I don't know why they call it that, they just do. Antitrust law is saying we do not believe in the American economics 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. We're talking overall success of the entire country because they looking at it again as the economy as capitalism capital scene, not just are you doing all right? We mean the whole country.

So the whole country gotta win, which means that I don't really care if your one company is doing I 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 Maulto meal. There was tasty os. You feel me? I was like them is nasty. I used to get so mad when my mom brought that off brand Cereal. I wanted the name brand Cereal. It was cheaper, but that ain't like that ain't work.

willing to pay. That's why there's one hundred different car companies while they fighting for our attention, Why everybody racing to get an electric car like thing with Tesla's 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 car and shut the door. There's companies like Rivian who they trucks are amazing, you know, but

there's there's other companies. There are other people making electric cars. So it's like, yo, get your weight up, like, do something great now. It could become a monopoly if they do this, they take all the road mapping that they've done with their self driving, get it perfect, and then make sure every a new electric car has to buy

their software for the roadmapping of self driving. Like if every new electric car had Tesla's software in there from 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, 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 user name. We all got sidekicks, but I don't even know if we got sidekick. It was in pagers there. You know what I'm saying, you about to have a sidekick, and boyd, the early Internet feels like Caveman energy. So Microsoft, led by Bill Gates was young, scrappy startup, you know. You I remember like at this point McIntosh. Those was just the computers in the school lab.

Like when you went to the computer lab at school, there was these funny look at 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 Night, you know, Windows ninety five and that's that, which was the operating system, which you guys know already. And then Microsoft Office so spreadsheet, you know, PowerPoint, Microsoft Word and everything that comes just

Microsoftice like just mic It's Windows, like it's Microsoft. What they started doing because Bill Gates ain't dumb, is he was taken over while while while Apple and them was working towards school and fun and stuff like that, Microsoft was taken over the corporate world and every company, every you know, work computer was a Windows and Microsoft Office.

And then eventually once we hit Windows ninety five, you know that whole like you know, the the Apple like you know, sessions where they launched new products like Windows invented that like that was Microsoft, Like it was just goofy. Even the user video, the training video for how to use Microsoft Office and Windows ninety five 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 because it was

just change. You gotta remember this is where tech was. 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 what Microsoft did was they cut a deal with PC and laptop companies and was like, yo,

so let us be yo default operating system. So if anybody wants to use another operating system and OS like a Macintosh, you got to take all that stuff off and put a new one in. Now, MACINTOS was smart enough to say, no, our operating system works on our products only, but set that to a side. Right now, Microsoft was like cool, y'all can have your own little weird egg shape computers will 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. So we didn'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 thing called the World Wide Web. The Internet was

being made around this time. Sorry about that. Next, Okay, so now that the Internet's being made, you know, you gotta 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. I have to point that out right. And because there was no separate apps for your emails or for there was no apps, the apps were Microsoft. You need a

browser to get on the internet. The browser, there was a lot of different types. There's Navigator, there was Netscape, and at the time, that's all the 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? But your little AOL disc,

which we're gonna talk about in a second bunch. Your little AOL disc, you popped it in, you clicked the disc and then it would throw the Netscape like you just that was the only how you opened the Internet was the of course, now we you know we got Chrome, Firefox, Safari, like we got those things. But you gotta remember, like we didn't none of those things. We didn't know what those things meant. Like one of those things existed. Netscape was how you got to the Internet. Bill Gates ain't stupid.

He 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. They was making Laptouser was making office, they was making windows. It was making all these different things. It 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, 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? As a matter of fact, I'll throw an Internet Exploorer 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 nobody. Can you name another word processing? What's the mac with numbers? Adobe pages? I'm saying, even now, we don't use it. Maybe you write in Google Docs, which we're gonna get to later, but nobody writes it like it's 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? So you're just gonna sell the product for free? Well, like, I mean there's nothing, Well I mean, what cash, 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 two hundred

pays letter. Justice Department was like, huh, you might be on the 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 freech gave everybody to wait free. Somebody come in your hood and just passing out weed for free. It's like, well, how can I run a business? Like I don't understand, like if if every car come through your neighborhood has already got a vapor in it, Like well,

I mean what I'm 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, Like wait a minute, this is leading us to obsolescence. But they're but but what's specifically about an anti trust 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 no competition. I don't want to get into the like operator 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, ah, which is where we get what has to do with Google Even if people don't want it, it just comes with the lap So of course, like just the psychology of it is like, well, this is the one that come with it. 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's 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? All right, let's Internet Explorer. And it made sense to us because it was like or to the it made sense to the consumer because it's like, well it's made from the same company that

when I open the laptop, that's how it runs. They was like, yo, this is unjust like this ain't they can do whatever they want. And I remember remember the browser was trashed 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 done already sold the product completely. They didn't already made day money off off Windows and off office. So

there's no like you've cornered the market. There's no there's there's you, no one can compete with you. So they brought that case to the Department of Justice. Netscape did so Netscape bring brings 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. It's already on your laptop. I bet you open your door 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 okay, well, and this is like legendary, like so Bill Gates and and Microsoft come in and Microsoft was just like okay, that's funny. Wait what wait are y'all serious? Hold up this. There's no way in the world you're serious right now? What did you What you're saying is absolutely ridiculous. Let me get this straight. Wait, hold on, hold on, hold hold on,

let me 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, 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, like, what is the problem? You can't possibly be or you're so we're smart. You're punishing me for beists. What are you talking to You're

saying this is anti capitalists. I don't understand. So should our products up? Should we not try what you want 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 foods to get their weight up. Ain't nothing stopping you from finding a computer? You could You could approach them with the same contract we approached them with, get your weight up.

I don't understand. 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 I'm saying, like we smarter than everyone It was our fault. We're smarter than everybody else. Apartment just

ain't like that. Dain't like your little attitude. They asked him very very direct questions, like Yo, do you remember

this email? They pulling up emails where them Foods was talking this is the first time that was like a part of like because I remember emails just now were born, pulling up emails where they were like knife the Baby like talking about like really 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 kill it. They was like, yo, you remember this email? He was like no, Like you

don't remember the one? You just replied He's like, no, I remember it. It was just a jerk about it. Like they were like, hey, uh, did you have any concern about any other companies. He was like, what, I don't understand the question. It was like what what don't you understand? He's like, what do you mean by concern? I don't know what you mean by that? And they were like do you know what concern means? Like 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 ten steps ahead of you. Just it just turned everybody out, but they're Ultimately their point was Okay, dude, you can't punish us 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 Adjustice was like, no, that's a monopoly.

Y'all gotta break this company up because the straw that broke the camera back was carrying office and windows with Explorer. That's the part that did it. Because it's like you've made now nobody has any other options. That's the same example I was given with Tesla, because the point is, on general principles, consumers are supposed to have options, and the argument is having options keeps everybody in check, right, because if you have options, that's gonna force you to

make the better product. And if you baking the better product, that make all of America look good, consumers are happy. Money is flowing, right, that's the argument. And again using the Testla as an example, like I just said, right now, then 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 could charge every car company whatever they want, because who else you're gonna go to, which means that that is going to raise the prices for all of our cars, which means it's gonna ranse the price for chips and all this good stuff. You're just like, there's no 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 seventeen hundreds that we wasn't gonna 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 in office as another company. 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. This really really ain't nothing happened. 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 when last time you opened then 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. So what Google did was like, I don't care if you using Chrome, you if 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 gonna bing something, I'm gonna ask Jeeves something, No, you google it. So they made deals with phonemakers and other hardware folks to be like, look, just let us be your default browser.

app will 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 mega coad billion probably flowbally fillion megabits of information on us, they can sell ad spaces. So if you are a person like me who make they living online.

I mean you have to. 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 the hell would you buy an ad at Binga? What is that gonna do for you? And if and since they're the only people in town, they're the only people that really makes sense to spend your money on, they could charge you whatever they want.

Let me tell you why terraform cobrew wasn't on Amazon because I would lose two dollars per can, like I would you like I would be paying them like there's no But at the same time, terrify and call brew out of money. If you went to the website, it ain't no coffee there because I'm out of money. Un see 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? 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 happened to try to give people an offer they came to use. 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.

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 is 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, 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 when you try to Google something. It's like because of AAI thing, I'm like, y'all, your product's 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 jeeves I'm worried about talk like that's a search engine, and they're like, fam, no, it's not. 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. That's that's 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, I remember,

this is a alphabet's a two trillion dollar company. So one of the suggestions was like divest divesting the Android operating system was like the most frequently discussed option by the Justice Department's attorney. And then some were suggesting the force of the ad words like you have to sell that and Google gotta let go of that program, right, the search ad program, right, a divestment from that from

its Chrome 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 have to break up this company, just curved them. Now, things like this is where your super conservative capitalists argues is a problem because it seems as though 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. You know, so if there's mad coal's disease and your beef, they like, people will stop buying it, so just leave us alone. That's their argument, Like, well, I mean till 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 products we have, and not hear somebody like Jeff Bezos in his rocket 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 want to 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 we're 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 hummies like that, because and that's some good 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. Okay, so don't stop it yet, but listen. This was recorded in East Lost Boyle Heights by your boy Propaganda. Tap in with me at prop hip hop dot com. If you're in the Coldbrew coffee we got terraform Coldbrew. You can go there dot com and use promo code hood get twenty percent off get yourself some coffee. This was mixed, edited and mastered by your boy Matt Alsowski. Killing the

Beast Softly check out his website Mattosowski dot com. I'm a spelling for you because I know M A T T O S O W s ki dot com Matthowsowski dot com. He got more music and stuff like that on there, so gonna check out the heat. 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 nobly Matdawsowski. 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. Words are funny. That's how I'm opening this because look, they're sound that we just decided meant stuff to the point of where sounds can make you take somebody life. And sometimes the same sound can mean different things 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. The what the East called a cookout, we called a barbecue out here out west. You know. It's the same with the Latinos. Like with Mexicans. They say the kasada, they

mean one of three things. They mean the act of grilling. We are going to have it. Cardoyna SAIDA. That is we're gonna have a barbecue. We're gonna grill, and we are going to eat. Cardia 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 be like, oh, you ain't invited to the barbecue, they say, you're not invited to the Cardia SAIDA, Like,

that's what they mean. The word is the same. It means three different things depending on the context and when it's coming out their mouth. You could figure out what's happening. Now. I say all that to get very serious on to talk about the words zion, Oh, it'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 anything made by Bob Marley. You done have heard the word Zion many times. You're a fan of Lauren Hill.

What's the name of her child? Zion? Now the joy and mild in Zion? Black people love Zion, Moltzion. A boy on the side of Babylon trying to front like you're down with mozoyon u la la la is the way that we rock with. We're doing out they the black hotep rosta, you know, chew stick. We'd love Zion. We're chanting down Babylon. Babylon is will be 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? So is that somebody that believe in Mount Zion? Like? What how? What is Zionism? And I'm sure if you listen to this show data ops, right, you you convince Zion like those are the ops. So I don't know if the thought has ever crossed your mind to be like, well, is is the Zionism that y'all talking about the same Zion? And Zion is that the rosters are talking about? What? What? What? Maybe this's never crossed your mind, but it's the the word needs to be dissected. So I am using this

moment to teach you two things. What do the rosters mean when they say zion and what is Zionism and its history? All right, to a politics, Okay, listen first before I get into it. This week is like this.

over to memes. I feel bad for these amazing bee boys and be girls, specifically Logistics. Sorry, that's a text. Specifically Logistics. I knock murdered 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. Min figured rymee looking at a time 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 you have. You I can't compete

with that. You gotta go all the way the other way. You gotta get real creative and try to do something else. So for me it becomes I'm gonna 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 the mind saturn roller skate rhymes to find the kind kattern pump a bone battern for the full flatter you will flatter you know what I'm saying. I'll make you scatter her like just something else.

You gotta take a chance and sometimes it lands, sometimes it doesn't. Okay, you get creative, you take a shot like take old dirty bastard, he don't rap like the rest of uteg Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. And I picked up when she was throwing down. She was trying trying to rep the Ausie Land, do animal style kangaroo hops to reper 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 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, finess, flavored dance, intangibles and power moves. What are you gonna do? I saw a headspinning there, But she clearly don't have no power moves, so she's trying to fight back with style.

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 gibber is she 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're trying to figure it out. The Democrats are doing their best to make Project twenty twenty five 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 caps saying Trump he don't know who the people are because he know who they are and he know what they want. So that's cap but it's in his defense, is not his now. Secondly, in JD. Vance's defense, I know, I know what it sounds like, but I'm gonna 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 an Appalachia and was going to give hundreds and hundreds of jobs to the area. 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. Now I

have sat on a couple boards. And just because you're on the board don't mean you in charge of operation now. And just because you're an investor don't mean you in charge of the money now. You got a lot to say, obviously, but you can't necessarily be blamed for everything to go bad, and you can't necessarily take the praise for everything that

go good. Not not only did this business fail before it failed, and they was talking about it was one hundred and twenty 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, five hundred of them, five hundred undocumented workers, which in any other scenario, all right, 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 Robinhood of the Woods. So since you did that, you. I mean, what you're gonna say, Homie, I saw your watch you confront like you one of us. But that ain't really hurt nobody. Now you're hurting us saying you one of us. So he's gonna have to

answer to that. And his answer was, yeah, sucked. I invested and I was on the board, but I mean I wasn't in charge. And in his defense, he's right now if there's walls, could tark y'all still calling that man tampon ten 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 an read it for you. Article one, General Education, Section one one twenty

one a dot two twelve. Access to menstrual products. 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 four through twelve, 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, not the whole reputting tampos and boys bathrooms. I mean, okay, I just read you the law. That's what the law 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 uh, 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 nineteen sixty eight one, which was there's a lot of similarities. There was a huge protest that happened in sixty eight against the Vietnam war, and right now there's a huge protest going on against the war in Gaza. The difference in nineteen sixty eight and now is the cops beat the breaks off them protesters on TV like we all saw it this time. See Robert and Sophie and Garre are out there and

they pretty much kind of behaved. It's pretty chill, you know. Now we'll see, but right now it's being pretty chill relatively speaking, and What's different this time is Joe went off script. Joe said, you know what, them protesters out there, they got a point. Innocent people being killed on both sides. Now, now, Sophie says she got a view of the teleprompter 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 US Intelligence It's not like this wasn't expected. Country has 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 kill Cosumsulamani, 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, and man in twenty sixteen, 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, I know how we got it, but like it's kind of too real

to talk about it. To not talk about it. On the other hand, it's like, you know when 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 to 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 want to hear from you, just because like, no,

you don't get to talk about it. So the news was like, I mean, thank you because they sent they sent the content of the hacks to Pro Publica. They was like, yo, you can have it pro public. It was like, okay, cool, thank you, but like, I don't need to get this from you, I mean respect. And finally there's another rumor of a ceasefire deal, and I say rumor because that's exactly what it sounds like because Anthony Lincoln like, yo, it's good. We just waiting on

her mask Benjamin. Then Y'ALLHO said, like, I ain't agree to nothing. I don't know what you're talking about. They still haven't met our turns. And in the middle of that, we just still sent twenty million dollars to them people. So 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 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 like this 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 whothi's husblah, all of these different topics where I'm like, when you get into a religion, just like listen, listen when I say Christian, it's the same concept. When I say Christian. We talk about Manzion all the time. Matter of fact, if you black, you probably went to Mount zion A and me new geth semity Church of God at Christ Now I made that up right Now, there's probably is a new guest. There's probably a Mount zion

A and me. I know there is is one in South Central. What I'm trying to say is we use these terms all the time because they in the Bible. But when I say Christian, that's what I mean. Now, when you say Christian, you may think Holy Roller Pentecosta, 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, you asked ten different Christians what does it mean to be Christian?

You're gonna get ten different answers most likely. Remember we did the Terrorform episode with the hommy 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, were not talking Russian Jesuit. Like there's this You could really

get lost in the week. So please give me that grace that what I am about to talk to you about is grossly trunk cadd Okay, But it's just to help y'all understand, so that as you have your picket signs out that at least you don't sound like I heard. So first let me teach y'all what arasam mean when they say mon Zion and I'm sorry about my patois Rastadi. 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 nineteen thirties, deriving from the Ethiopian emperor Hali Selassii. Okay, now, as I say this again, like a rasta Rastafari, like this is not a compartmentalized philosophy or religion this is a way of life, right, a liberty. 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. Religion a way of being right, your your liturgy. Anyway, there is an encompassing around this. Now it is impossible to separate Rasta from the africanness of it. Okay, So the belief is this when you listen to roots reggae, when you listen to you know, Bob Marley and them, like, there's so much to cover. Dance hall like, that's the club music, roots reggae, like you think of this as like worship, like this is praise and worship. There is a tie going back

to the Queen of Sheba 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 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 a Romo Tigrei 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. It's 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, 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's Poora was from Ethiopia when Moses. This is all Old Testament stuff, but it's all makes sense. It all makes sense as to why the connection is so important to him. Moses before the whole let my people go, before the ten Commandments

type joint. Moses supposedly, according to the story, saw a one of Pharaoh's guards abusing one of the Jewish slaves, and he hopped up and killed the guy, and then he had to run. And so then when he ran, he ran to the to Midian and he married Jethrow'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 bite 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, that he had never seen anybody more beautiful or a kingdom more amazing than the kingdom that the

Queen of Shiba came from. Now you fast forward to Emperor SALASSII and Emperor SALASSII a Romo Ethiopian man who became the emperor of what we know to be Ethiopia, right, geopolitically, but it's a belief that his bloodline can be traced back to King Solomon, right, the emperor bloodline of Ethiopia could be traced back to King Solomon. That's the roster belief. Again, as many rostas 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, so of course we're going to 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

dudes 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 barely on resurrection of Jesus, and how that stuff was prophesied in the Book of Isaiah. So he ties other 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

prov I thought Rostell was Jamaican. I'll get to it. So that's that's tie number three right now. The fourth tide, which is one of the most compelling things to me between the Jews, Zion and Ethiopia is the city of Axom. So the city of Axom 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 yellow white pastor will teach you, the faith went to Africa before it went to Europe. Okay, hell,

it went to Mongolia before it went to Europe. The point is the white man ain't teach us who Jesus was. Now. It is also believed that the arc of the Covenant from the Old Testament is int Axom. There are ruins at different churches that have good archaeological evidence to believe that they set up the tent with the dimensions that Exodus and Deuteronomy and and the all Testament scriptures have taught them to do this. There are if you go

to Israel now black Ethiopian Jewish people. As a matter of fact, they to be able to now getting into the to the modern politics, to be able to repatronize, 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,

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, 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 to the ancient practices then 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 the all of the dirty work, all of the bront work, all of the jobs, nobody won't are the black. Unfortunately, that being said, the tie between Ethiopia 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 Halli Selassia in the nineteen thirties, who they believe according to the Rasta jim is I want to say two hundred and twenty fifth. I think that's what my cousin told me two hundred and twenty fifth. Don't quote me on this,

I'm just quoting my cousin of the Solemonic dynasty. 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. Ya ya ya aa, you following me? Okay? Now, the word Rastafari comes from Hali Selassi, which is Ras Tafari, Right, It's 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 rastadim the way of life, like the diet, you know, avoiding shelfish, eating seafood, like it's pretty similar to like kosher practices again because they have this tie to the land, the history.

So there's there's a lot of practices that are like that are that they they have a lot of practices about being welcoming to the sojourner, about the way that we collectively sing ja is a Jamaican version of saying yah, which is short for yahweh. So when we say jah rastafari, you know it's your ja is yah yahweh or jahovah. Right, So these a lot of them are vegetarian. They don't

eat meat at all. Definitely not be for 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 what what's called the valve the Nazarite because again we're talking Old Testament Samson in the Bible, you know Samson with his golden lock, you know the Samson and Delilah, like Samson that 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 crust 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 given to us by the British that we just own naughty dread so because our hair our locks were dreadful, so dreadlocks. There's also sex that believe that like God grabs the dead souls by their dreadlocks and bring them to brings them to Heaven. Again, there's the symbols beautiful, but either way, it's a symbol of the promise, your commitment to keeping yourself sanctified to the Father. Right

is if you're being a traditional rostad Am. Now their belief different than it's still again so follow me. This is still at Abrahamic faith. That's why you're gonna hear terms like mauzaion 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, Selassie was the Messiah. Right, this is an afro Centric belief.

How did it get to Jamaica the trans Atlantic 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 and then it sinked, 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 the you know, and a lot of the West African beliefs are a little more animus, you know, and not so a rahammock if you will. Right, 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 because obviously if you hear music in Ethiopia, it don't sound like reggae 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, You have people like Marcus Garvey, right who we need to at some point do a whole study on him in the back to African movement. And I don't have time to get into the depths

of Marcus Garvey. But 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, backwoods, a pretching 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.

You like, well, damn, that's us. It was too. It was too If the connection is too obvious, we're like, oh my gosh, cart it off into slavery from a distant land, 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.

It would be the same in the Caribbean for the rastadem But they looking back at Selassii, it is Rastafarianism is by definition anti colonial obviously, and they believe that Africa is their not only their 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 nineteenth century for the resistance of because of SELASSII,

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 it roots, gets its roots from there. Right. Okay, I know that was a long preamble, but you gotta understand what we're told me.

So once you have this understand of your connection to Judaism practice anti colonial you know, dispersed, taken away from your homeland and longing for a return to your promised land. Now we could talk about what Zion is. Now, Rastafarian has two basic tent poles Zion Babylon. You hear that stuff in all the raget you listen to, right, So

these are the theological ideology 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 epitome. It is everything that's wrong in the world. It's the system is symbolized in king Nebukan, the in the in the Kingdom of Babylon,

and we long to see Babylon fall. We chant down about this worldly system that in slaves and attacks and seeks to control not only the outward person, but the inside of you 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, 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 repurpose the Biblical definition to an Afrocentric 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. 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 and the raising of a

selected godly kingdom where all of us. What we would talk about the Christians woul talk about the Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, enjoying, the Holy goth 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 you know song, but for more information, like Rastafarai is kind of like 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 twelve tribes, that's a that's a denomination if you will, they would call it twelve

tribes of Israel. N I never pronounced it, right, But the Naya be the Naya b BINGI like, I never pronounced it right. But there are a certain type now some again there are some look more traditional than others, and then a lot of people just follow like an individual like rostof 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 Rastadam. Okay,

now what the Zionists believe next? All right, we're back. Now, Zionism the 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 Zionis. And people have tried to separate the idea of anti Semitism 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, 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 and understanding, right of these different things anti Semi that's I mean, those are the Nazis. You just don't believe that it's a type of thing.

It's a type of overall term for the concept of the convolution of of idea, this weird idea that all that is wrong. Like it's almost like you've made the Jew Babylon, you know what I'm saying, Like we just talked about like 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 religion and the ethnicity that somehow or another is poor and subhuman, but also quietly controls 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 to 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. 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 they're 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 modern nation state plants? Like that's a secular system that is like the rastadem 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 and covenant with yaw. We are a covenant people. That's what makes that's what gives us our Jewishness is our covenant with y'awe. Who cares what the borders are?

That would be a specific type of Judaism, right, a religious type of Judaism, now an ethnic Judaism, but 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 Nadar Rastadem. But Zionism, you could say, I'd say, go back to August twenty ninth, eighteen ninety seven. It was a meeting on the Rhine River in this small

city like uh in Switzerland called Basil, right um Basil. 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 bio, 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 discussion was to say we have to have a place cause it seemed like no matter where we go, we not want it. Now they pull in all the way back small freaking 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 you're European. I don't understand 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, what is you talking about? Like I'm just as German

as everybody. They German. They're like, we speak German, like this is just our religious Like I ain't never seen I never been to Israel, never seen Israel. 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, but like Nubia's gone, you know, black people like again a Marcus Garvey thing, but that was closer today time, like you need to go back to

there's no place here wanted for you. I'm like, well, that's not I don't I don't even know the language they speak at Tobo. I'm guessing that because I took an African ancestry and they were saying I'm my father's side, that maybe I'm like, what do I know about? I don't even think about that. So the Jews at the time were like, what I don't this what did you

talking 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 year, like I'm German, like we're German. A lot of the rabbis were like, look, first of all, this is blasphemous. Were not supposed to return into the Messiah come, Like that's what the prophecies that, and he gonna bring us 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, Like don't you then you read Yo yo taura, 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, 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 eighteen ninety seven. That's 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 what anyway, Enter this guy named Theodore Herzel, 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 journalists who

covered it was Theodore Hurt. Basically, the 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 Hurzel's watching all this and he's watching the people get whipped up into a frenzy. People that was just your neighbors.

Like again, I'm just as German as 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. What happened? Like we used to what just what has bewitched you?

of Palestine. Y'all think I'm crazy right now, But in about fifty years you gonna see this was eighteen ninety seven. Guess what happened in fifty years nineteen forty eight shoots Israel? Bekay? But day ain't that chrisy. So now Zionism, you want to be able to distinguish it between two different types of Zionism, right, And this is where I would critique

making the concept the bad guy, because there's two types here. Okay, there's the Zionism that comes out of a longing for a home that's where us and Erastas 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 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 what I'm talking about,

King of Babylon. We're talking about the nations being scattered like five eighty BC when the Arc 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 at that time where they existed.

And then if you know your history, I've said this so many times in the Usn't Outside episodes, that little strip of land has been conquered and colonialized and ran by every possible king, every possible empire in the modern world, finally by Britain. And then but as that was happening, the people who were ethnically Israeli, as we mean in

the ancient sense, we're scattered all over the world. So that's why you could be white as hale in Jewish and you could be black as hale in Jewish because they were scattered, right And then of course now you're not gonna marry people while you're there. But somehow or another they've been able to keep on to their traditions and their religions because they were also it's one of those things which you're ethnically and religiously and your identity. So anyway,

scattered all over the world. But as as we know, there's plenty of people that didn't lead. Again, I'm giving you you wasn't outside history, which you understand. So there's this longing of being like, man, this we used to have a place to be in the world, and you feel like you're looking around 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 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, 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 their Mexican flags and like, nah, we who we are? You feel me? And you're like when you're an American, you know, it's you're a Nosavo kid. You know when you finally discovered the concept of Azline. You want to know a little

about your own heritage. Yeah, you're American, you know what I mean, from East Lost, 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're like yo, like yo, we're jewsh You're like, ooh, I'm German. It's like nigga you French like word. These people don't love you, like why you identify as that? You know? So there's you see that as a lens

of Zionism. You those So you have these ideas happening all around the same sort of time and idea with the same term zion. So it could be seeing as somebody that's like, yo, like I want to learn our ancient language, I want to learn our practices, I want to do the shabbat, I want to like I want to bring back. It became this umbrella term 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 Theodore Herzel and a lot of the people involved in this, they were all bride eyed about the idea that like, oh, this is 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. And 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 Thesion has 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 if you let us be a government, how about we pay all the debts? Well,

what if we pay off debts? They were trying. Matter of fact, Israel. The location wasn't even their first choice because they was like this a little too complicated. They thought about going to Africa. They looked at a couple different places as to where to land. This geopol political 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 as Hurtzel was, he's also a European, so that like 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 Zionists. But their idea was like, surely y'all can see that, like, we're

not a big empire. We're not here like we're just 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, Hertzel went to the w 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, 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 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. I'm not just fin 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 I'm not really here for this, and like, why would I welcome like a large religious minority into my empire? You might take it over. So, like I said, he was like, I can't. Look, they're not just letting us come now,

they're restricting our thing, 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. The hell you talk about East Africa for He's Perzel 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 nem niggas got organized. Now now the timeline I'm telling you this, Like I said, remember you had this first idea of eighteen ninety seven. So this is all during the times between like World War One, World War two. Remember Britain didn't take over until nineteen seventeen, 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 nineteen seventeen, 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 Nazis things started happening, it was like all, nigga, we gotta go like this, We can't be playing games. Were trying to play nice like like that. The Nazi

thing kick this mug in a high gear. So now by nineteen forty seven, it's like now it's like the Jews are like a third of the population in Palestine at the time, right, So so now it's getting a little itchy, you know what I'm saying. Like now y'all. Just 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 okay. Why we got to lose our home because of stuff Europe did?

Why are we paying the price? 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 y'all gotta be like what's going on right now? But anyway, since nobody's handing it to them, now we got numbers, since nobody's just gonna 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 were we gonna do? 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? And then, like I said in other you wasn't outside episodes, the rest of the Arab nations was like, oh hell no, like if they went to war immediately everybody jumped them ere everybody junking was like and then and look Israel one like like they just what did y'all do? 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. I like, we said, borders are made up, they're drawn by conquerors. 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, it's 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 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 turn. So I am not going to tell you what to think of when you say Zionists, 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 rosters mean. And I tell you what if you're sitting in Palestine right now, do it even matter the 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, so don't stop it yet,

but listen. This was recorded in East Lost, boil Heights by your boy Propaganda. Tap in with me at prop hip hop dot com. If you're in the Coldbrew coffee we got terraform Coldbrew. You can go there dot com and use promo code hood get twenty percent off get yourself some coffee. This was mixed, edited and mastered by your boy Matt Alsowski killing the Beast Softly. Check out his website Matdowsowski dot com. I'm aa spell it for you because I know m A T T O s

O W s ki dot com Matthowsowski dot com. He got more music and stuff like that on there, so gonna check out. The heat. Politics is a member of cool Zone Media, executive produced by Sophie Lichtermann, part of the iHeartMedia podcast network. Your theme music and scoring is also by the one and overly mattow Sowski. Still killing the beats 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.