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40 YEARS OF HIP HOP

40 YEARS OF HIP HOP

“THE HOOD INTERNET presents 40 YEARS OF HIP HOP Over 150 songs from more than 100 artists representing 40 years of hip hop all crammed into 4 minutes. It’s no… ” – My Comments : “Over 150 songs from more than 100 artists representing 40 years of hip hop all crammed into 4 minutes. It’s not a chronological history of hip hop. It’s rappers from different eras finishing each other’s rhymes over intersecting beats, all woven together to make one song.”

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Dan Rather

Dan Rather

“Depravity is not depth, nor is it a strategy.

Careless statements that deepen divisions are not leadership. These truisms as I ponder today the recent terrorist attack in London. These vicious attacks are a threat to an open and free society. Coping with them, trying to counter them–to defend against them–is extremely difficult.

This much we know: we stand in solidarity with our allies, the great British people. Also, we must process and think carefully about how our President publicly responded. Understandably, many people around the world viewed his remarks as insensitive and peevish, mixed with flagrant misrepresentations of facts. It is important for the world to know that his statements do not represent the sentiments and reaction of most Americans.

The democracies of the world, the societies who promote rationality, science, the rule of law, and human rights, are fearful of what they believe is happening in and to our country. They fear that we have a head of state who consistently disappoints in word, thought, and deed when it comes to expressing and demonstrating the best of what has been traditional American values; that the tone and substance of his leadership is alien to what the world had come to know as Americanism.

Besides the President’s outbursts over the London attacks, the damage done by America’s withdrawal from the Paris agreement on climate change is real. It threatens to tear apart an order that was built by Republican and Democratic Presidents over decades.

Where are the self-described serious foreign policy minds in the GOP, the ones who often lecture the nation on the meaning of patriotism and leadership on the cable talk shows and Sunday morning public affairs programs? They have enabled an administration that strikes many people in both parties as unmoored from many of the norms our Constitutional republic. The arc of history may very well judge them all with the broad brush of complicity if they do not stand up now and say that this has gone too far. (Some Democratic party leaders have also been too quiet and/or hesitant to voice strong opposition. This is noted with no intention of falling into the trap of false equivalence.)

Sometimes it takes a view from outside one’s circle to bring clarity in a moment of crisis. I suggest you read the following article in the German news site SPIEGEL ONLINE. I don’t necessarily agree with everything in it, but it is well reported and, taken as a whole, rings with some tones of truth. Unpleasant truths, to be sure; but truths nonetheless. It’s long but worth the length. It shows what the leaders of our allied nations think when they are confronted with President Trump, his words, and his actions. And it outlines where we may be heading, an unprecedented path into an unknown and disquieting future. ” – My Comments :

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Smosh

Smosh

“The secret recipe the world is talking about! HOW TO MAKE COVFEFE! Thanks Trump! ” – My Comments :

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Dan Rather

Dan Rather

“There are few things I feel confident in predicting with any certainty, but of this one I am certain. History will judge mercilessly President Trump’s reported decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement as the height of folly, where greed, cynicism, shortsightedness and ignorance triumphed over intelligence and leadership.

The implications for this action are far-reaching. There is hope that the rest of the world will move on, and the forces in this country at the state, local, and corporate level can lessen some of the repercussions. Renewable energy is on the rise, thanks also to market forces. But more is needed. Much more. This is not an issue with which we can trifle, and although Mr. Trump at his age and with his wealth will likely be immune to most of the long term consequences of his action, his descendants and those of his willing enablers will not.

That is the headline, but what is also clear is that the United States is no longer a leader. We have ceded the moral high ground to countries like those in Europe and even China who have no trouble understanding science and reason. This is a long-term threat to our own health and prosperity. We are retreating where we should be charging forward. We say we can’t when we should be saying we can. We are buying into an antiquated view of our global environment that will only isolate us and diminish us.

These are the stakes. Time is running out on the environment. It is time for some profiles in courage of Republicans in Congress to push back on the denialism that has wracked their party. And it is time for all of us to say that this is an issue of the top priority. Our elected leaders need to feel the heat – not only the thermostat but at the ballot box. ” – My Comments :