HKR

HKR

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HKR episodes

  • HKR: Hard Knock Radio Monday November 17 2025
    On a recent edition of Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D sat down with organizer and scholar Dr Rosa Clemente to map the rapidly shifting political terrain from New York City to Puerto Rico and the wider Caribbean. The conversation opened with the historic election of Zorhan Mandami as mayor elect of New York, a Ugandan born South Asian New Yorker whose grassroots, affordability focused campaign energized younger voters and social media organizers. Clemente celebrated the breakthrough but warned that winning and governing are different battles, especially with Wall Street, big business, and the NYPD already poised to undermine him.
    She flagged early red flags in his choice of advisers, including the possibility of retaining NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch, who has refused to meet families seeking justice for loved ones killed or harmed by police. For Clemente, Mandami will be judged the first time NYPD officers brutalize or kill a Black or Brown New Yorker under his watch and on whether he shuts down Rikers and backs true city controlled affordable housing. Davey D broadened the lens to the national security state, noting NYPDs close ties to ICE and the danger of problematic officers shifting into federal agencies with even less accountability.
    From there, the discussion moved to militarization in the Caribbean. Clemente detailed a new buildup of US warships using Puerto Rico as a staging ground for possible moves on Venezuela, framed as drug interdiction but carried out through deadly attacks on small fishing boats. She tied this to Puerto Ricos colonial status, a right wing governor who started Latinos for Trump, deep poverty, gentrification fueled by tax breaks and tourism, and renewed independence sentiment in a younger, more politicized generation facing FBI infiltration of feminist and independence groups.
    Looking ahead, Clemente warned of converging crises: AI driven job loss, gutted labor protections, an assault on voting rights, and the risk of everyday uprisings met by state violence. Both she and Davey D closed by stressing that survival and resistance will depend on building real world community, mutual aid, and support for future political prisoners, not just posts and retweets.
    55 min
  • HKR: Hard Knock radio Monday Nov 10 2025 The Dems Betray their Constituents after Big Wins
    **Hard Knock Radio: After the Blue Wave, What Now**
    Host Davey D welcomed Jane Kim of the Working Families Party and Ethel Long Scott of the Womens Economic Agenda Project for a grounded read on a whiplash week. The show opened with the post election lift that came from victories in New York, Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and across the map. That mood met a hard check when eight Democrats voted to end the shutdown without concessions. Listeners heard relief turn to frustration in real time.
    Kim laid out why so many voters are looking beyond the traditional parties. She said billionaire money has captured both sides, which leaves working people without a consistent champion. Working Families has grown rapidly since last November and helped elect more than one hundred endorsed officials in California, from school boards to the legislature. Kim argued that wins only matter if the organizing continues inside city halls, budget hearings, and state houses. She pointed to her years on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, where constant community meetings and turnout helped push pedestrian safety and other shared priorities across rich and poor districts.
    Long Scott widened the lens to basic needs. Families are bracing for sharp jumps in health insurance premiums. That squeeze sits beside rising costs for housing, food, and childcare. She warned that demoralization and divide and conquer tactics will follow big wins, often with paid amplification online. The antidote is steady political education, unity across race and class, and clear demands that place public resources in service of public good. She cited Chicago and Oakland efforts as signs of a longer movement cycle that links elections to governing power.
    Before signing off, the guests urged listeners to stay close to the work. Tap into local coalitions. Track budget fights. Show up for hearings. Working Families is hosting in person events across California. WEAP continues to organize around healthcare and affordability. The message was simple. Keep the door open, and keep walking through it together.
    54 min
  • HKR: Hard Knock Radio Monday Nov 3 2025.. Sophia Wilfor and Feed Black Futures on SNAP
    Heres a clear look at the conversation between Hard Knock Radio host Davey D and Sophi Wilmore, co director of Feed Black Futures, about the fallout from threatened SNAP cuts and what communities can do about it.
    The discussion opens with breaking context. A federal judge has ordered the administration to keep SNAP funded during the shutdown turmoil, but compliance remains unclear. Sophi notes that California and San Francisco were already moving to cushion the blow for CalFresh recipients, yet the bigger story is older and deeper. Food deserts, soaring grocery prices, and cultural narratives that shame poor people create a steady crisis even when benefits arrive on time.
    Sophi frames the problem as food apartheid produced by an extractive economy and a white supremacist culture. The point is not rhetorical. Poor nutrition shortens lives and breaks families. While Black communities have long practiced mutual aid, government programs still matter because the current system pushes people over cliffs. SNAP often keeps children, elders, and disabled family members from going hungry. Take that away and desperation rises, which then gets criminalized.
    Why have alternatives not scaled faster. Sophi points to historic repression of Black self determination, from attacks on the Panthers to the loss of land and farming knowledge. Today small farmers face debt, water scarcity, and aging workforces. At the same time, many funders have shifted away from direct service, telling groups to teach people to fish while folks are hungry right now. Cuts to SNAP also ripple through the whole food chain. Less demand hurts stores, workers, and farmers, especially the small ones.
    Feed Black Futures is building a practical lane. The group runs a community led mutual aid fund and a Leadership Council in West Oakland, East Oakland, and Sacramento. Every fifty dollars covers a weekly produce box that feeds two people, sourced from Black and Indigenous farmers. The call to action is simple and local. Find a political home, meet your neighbors, volunteer, and contribute if you can. Sophi ends on grounded hope. There are elders and organizers who have laid the groundwork, there are solutions on the table, and there are more people who care than those who do not. For details and to plug in, visit feedblackfutures.org.
    0 min
  • HKR: Hard Knock Radio Monday Oct 27 2025 A Conversation w/ Daryl lamont Jenkins
    (HKR-10-27-25) Davey D checks in with Daryle Lamont Jenkins of One Peoples Project for a sobering read on repression, organizing, and the road ahead. Jenkins warns that the climate has shifted from slippery slope to open skating, with critics of capitalism, Zionism, and current policies casually smeared as terrorists. He points to a recent detention of a visiting UK journalist at SFO as evidence that dissent is now treated as a security threat. Drawing a through line from the Civil Rights era to today, Jenkins argues that a long conservative project seeks to roll back rights and public scrutiny, and that the new twist is a refusal to even pretend to care about rules or norms.
    On strategy, Jenkins defends the recent No Kings rallies. Even without a formal demand list, he says, they mattered because they got people off timelines and into real rooms, where relationships and next steps are forged. Movements grow when people meet, swap contacts, and build the local institutions that can withstand election swings and state pressure. Civility has a place, he adds, but only if communities remain prepared for bad actors who smile in public while pushing harmful policies.
    Jenkins recounts engaging Proud Boys who turned up in his New Jersey town during a No Kings action, stressing that de escalation and clear boundaries can coexist. He urges listeners to keep pressure on both the right and complacent Democrats, backing primaries when leaders fail to deliver. The defeats of figures like Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman, he says, reflect turnout and targeted spending, and should push organizers to double down rather than check out.
    Looking to coming state contests in New Jersey, California, and New York, Jenkins expects more scare tactics, recalls, and efforts to decide outcomes for voters. Win or lose, he insists the assignment does not change. Build independent community institutions, practice visible counter power, and use every remaining freedom to organize before options narrow. He closes by flagging ongoing smear campaigns from right wing influencers and invites folks to track the work at One Peoples Project and Idavox, an outlet named in tribute to Ida B. Wells.
    0 min
  • HKR: Hard Knock radio Monday Oct 20 2025 Tim Redmond and the Nat'l Guard in SF
    On this edition of Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D chops it up with Tim Redmond of 48 Hills about the political theater swirling around San Francisco from Dreamforce optics to displacement wars and right-wing culture plays. Redmond starts with Salesforce: yes, the convention brings bodies, hotel bookings, and late-night parties (Davey even DJd one). But he blasts CEO Mark Benioff for amplifying calls to bring in the National Guard, framing it as a classic billionaire move to socialize security costs for a private event. Redmond notes San Franciscos homicide rate is historically low and Moscone is already swarming with police; adding troops would escalate risk, not safety and neatly fits a Trump playbook that thrives on provocation and scary TV clips.
    From there, the pair track the new mayor, Daniel Lurie. Redmond says Lurie has been notably cautious nominally rejecting troops while avoiding strong pushback against Trump or Benioff. He contrasts that with firmer stances from Chicago leadership. The Board of Supervisors, elected amid heavy tech money, is split: a few members are visible on ICE picket lines; many arent.
    The deeper fight is housing. Redmond warns that state-backed upzoning along transit corridors championed by Sen. Scott Wiener is primed to turbocharge market-rate development on the citys west side, threatening small, often Asian-owned businesses and rent-controlled units. That, he argues, replicates the Missions displacement pattern and may finally unite east-side communities of color with west-side voters around a shared let us stay agenda.
    They zoom out to tech power and culture battles: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison once branded as socially liberal now enabling or aligning with Trumpist currents while platforms police speech unevenly (e.g., Palestine content throttling vs. tolerance for bigotry). Against the backdrop of attempts to sanctify Charlie Kirk (street namings, Kirk Day) and minimal consequences for vile speech from youth conservative circles, Redmond calls this what it is: the right embracing its own cancel culture.
    The hour closes with a call to refuse normalization naming the hate, demanding accountability from perpetrators and the silent bystanders alike and a plug for the 48 Hills fundraiser at El Rio, reminding listeners that independent media and community radio survive on people power.
    55 min
  • HKR: Hard Knock radio Monday Oct 13 2025-Leonard Peltier
    Leonard Peltier joins Hard Knock Radio from house arrest on Turtle Mountain, grateful to be home yet blunt about the political moment. He warns of rising fascism, culture-war censorship, and the real danger of global conflict, arguing that only broad, cross-racial unity can blunt the slide. While skeptical of both parties, he urges strategic voting and mass participation to defend what freedom remains.
    Asked about turning to Indigenous philosophies, Peltier says we cant go back, but we can move forward by restoring principles that long predated the U.S."healthy separation of religion and government, gender equity in governance, and land stewardship. He stresses Land Back as a practical goal: reclaiming federally controlled lands that rightfully belong to Native nations, but only through unity and invitation from tribal traditionalists.
    Peltier links the present to erased histories: Indigenous innovations in agriculture and health, matriarchal authority, and the trauma of stolen children"citing his own familys story"to insist that truth-telling prevents repetition. He connects that erasure to current media silence around Gaza and calls for organized pressure on outlets that obscure atrocities.
    Reflecting on the late Assata Shakur, he underscores decades-long AIM/Black Liberation solidarity and insists that kind of principled alliance must deepen now. His heroes range from Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull to the Panthers and Che, but he laments diminished eyesight and media access that make it harder to track todays leaders. Still, his core message is steady: unity, disciplined nonviolence with a right to self-defense, and sustained public action"from demonstrations to strategic ballots.
    Peltier closes with three jewels: build unshakeable unity; show up"physically and politically; prepare to defend your communities lawfully while refusing to be provoked into violence. Hes clear that he wont recant or soften his stance after decades inside"he plans to spend his remaining years speaking, organizing, and urging others to carry the struggle forward.
    55 min
  • HKR: Hard Knock Radio Monday Sept 22 2025.. Jennifer L Pozner Speaks on Censorship and Jimmy Kimmel
    Heres a ~300-word summary of the conversation:
    Hard Knock Radio host Davey D speaks with media critic and author Jennifer L. Pozner about a surge of state-pressured media censorship and corporate capitulation after the campus-rally killing of Charlie Kirk. Using Jimmy Kimmels indefinite suspension from ABC as a case study, Pozner argues the issue isnt one comedian"its a pattern: FCC chair Brendan Carr publicly urged ABC affiliates to preempt Kimmel and warned Disney to do the right thing, implying licensing remedies if they didnt. For Pozner, thats state pressure on speech, not audience feedback.
    She connects a series of recent moves: Trump-aligned lawsuits against ABC/Disney and CBS/Paramount that were, in her view, easily defensible on First Amendment grounds but were settled because billion-dollar mergers and regulatory favors were pending. She points to Colberts abrupt firing and the cancellation of *The Late Show* near a Paramount settlement and approval of a Skydance merger, and to Nexstars pursuit of Tegna alongside Carrs deregulatory signals. In that climate, small legal payouts are pocket change compared to merger windfalls.
    Davey D raises the hypocrisy around offense, noting offensive speech tolerated elsewhere and recalling post-9/11 firings (Bill Maher; his own Clear Channel exit). Pozner distinguishes community pushback against hate speech from the government using regulators to punish critics. She warns that revisionist media hagiography of Kirk ignores Turning Point USAs Professor Watchlist and its targeting of academics, often Black women, as part of a broader climate of intimidation"what she frames as stochastic terrorism.
    Beyond TV, Pozner flags the White Houses takeover of the press pool selection"historically handled by the Correspondents Association"as another red line. The pair close on action: flood executives with letters and calls, press Congress for hearings on FCC overreach, and defend journalists, educators, and comedians. Pozners forthcoming graphic nonfiction with First Second Books will document these dynamics; title TBD.
    55 min
  • HKR: Hard Knock Radio Monday Sept 15 2025 Artificial Intelligence
    (HKR " 09.15.25)
    On this episode of Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D sits down with X. Eyee, one of todays leading voices in artificial intelligence ethics, policy, and responsible tech. With a career that spans Microsoft, Google, the U.S. Department of Defense, and now CEO of consulting firm Malo Santo, X. Eyee has seen AI from every angle"and theyve made it their mission to break the jargon down for everyday people.
    AI: Superhero and Supervillain
    X. Eyee lays it out clearly: artificial intelligence is both saving lives and endangering them. Its diagnosing cancer earlier than doctors and predicting floods before they happen. But its also writing police reports that hallucinate facts, supercharging ICE surveillance, and fueling toxic data centers often placed in Black and Brown communities. What AI becomes, Eyee insists, depends on what we do in the next 18 months to set boundaries.
    Whos Behind the Wheel?
    AI is like a car, Eyee explains. Not inherently bad"but dangerous in the wrong hands. Corporate fiduciary duty pushes companies like Google and Meta to chase ad revenue instead of community benefit. But the rise of open-source AI means people can build tools on laptops or even phones without feeding giant data centers. That shift opens the door for community-based problem solving"if we choose to seize it.
    Reclaiming Imagination
    Davey D pushes back on how corporations limit imagination, turning users into passive consumers. Eyee responds with real-world solutions:
    AI that gives court defendants Uber credits to make hearings.
    AI that generates culturally relevant reading material for classrooms.
    Indigenous creators fine-tuning models to preserve endangered languages.
    These examples underscore a bigger point: the people closest to the problems are the ones who should be shaping the solutions.
    Breaking Digital Addiction
    Eyee also calls out digital drugs. Swipe-up feeds and short-form content are intentionally addictive. Companies dont care about well-being, only attention extraction. The challenge is intentionality"digital detoxing, redirecting our attention, and building tools that feed our communities rather than drain them.
    From Richmond to Google
    Sharing their personal journey"from Richmond to the military, to coding in Afghanistan, to shaping AI ethics inside Google"Eyee shows how persistence and imagination can shift the field. Their work even changed the way Googles cameras recognize Black and Brown skin tones, updates that now impact millions of devices and body-worn cameras.
    Whats Next: Hackathon in Richmond
    Before wrapping, Eyee invites the community to a free hackathon in Richmond:
    " Saturday, September 20th
    11 a.m. " 7 p.m.
    " CoBiz, 1503 Macdonald Ave., Richmond
    Participants will team up with developers to learn prompt-to-app tools and build solutions for real community needs. Beginners are welcome, and prizes will be awarded.
    Follow X. Eyee on socials: @TechWithX
    55 min
  • HKR: Hard Knock Radio Monday Sept 8 2025 Chicago Under seige
    Chicago is not a war zone"its a battleground over narrative and power. On Hard Knock Radio, Davey D spoke with activist-educator LaKeisha Gray-Sewell and scholar David Stovall about federal threats to deploy the National Guard and ICE in Chicago, and the media machinery that helps sell it. Gray-Sewell praised Mayor Brandon Johnsons recent legal pushback and alignment with community protesters, while noting early stumbles. The bigger danger, she argued, is media and tech capitulation"press blackouts on protests, platform appeasement, and propaganda pipelines that prime audiences for authoritarian solutions.
    Stovall said young people see through it. Theyre protesting, studying fascism, and naming disinformation that paints Chicago as uniquely lawless while it remains a top tourist draw. He contrasted Obama-era deportations"often border-focused"with todays show of presence ICE tactics and broader sweeps designed for optics. Both guests stressed Chicagos long memory of machine politics, from Daley to today, where elites more often buy opposition than crush it. The response now: Know Your Rights trainings, rapid mobilization, and a refusal to outsource safety to forces built for war, not community.
    The trio dismantled sensational O-Block mythologies and the click-economy around Black crime. Violence is real wherever poverty concentrates, they said"but evidence-based solutions remain consistent: healthcare access, living-wage jobs, healthy food, and quality education. Tough-on-crime waves and mass incarceration hollowed out two generations; calling in the Guard would repeat old harms with fewer restraints and worse outcomes.
    Resources named included Equity and Transformation, Black Voter Project, No Trump No Troops, Westside Justice Center, First Defense Legal Aid, Organized Communities Against Deportations, and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. Bottom line: build relationships, tell the truth about whats happening on the ground, and keep political education front and center"because communities, not occupation, make cities safe.
    55 min
  • HKR: Hard Knock Radio Monday August 25th 2025.. Needa B and John Janosco speak on Homelessness
    Hard Knock Radio: The Crisis of Homelessness
    On this episode of Hard Knock Radio, Davey D dives deep into the growing crisis of homelessness both nationally and locally in Oakland. Joined by activists Needa Bee, co-founder of The Village, and John Janosco of Wood Street Commons, the conversation exposes how government policies and media narratives criminalize unhoused people rather than provide real solutions.
    The show highlights how recent federal actions, including Trumps executive orders, have conflated homelessness with mental illness and criminality, stripping people of due process and funneling them into institutions instead of housing. This punitive approach mirrors state and local policies, where leaders like Governor Gavin Newsom incentivize cities to sweep encampments without offering shelter. In Oakland, the citys own encampment management rules"which require shelter offers before evictions"are routinely ignored. The result is devastating: people lose their medicine, documents, and belongings, destabilizing already fragile lives and leading to higher mortality rates.
    John shares his lived experience of being unhoused for eight years on Wood Street, explaining how systemic barriers such as the lack of ID, unaffordable rents, and frequent sweeps make recovery nearly impossible. He pushes back on stereotypes, stressing that unhoused people come from Oakland, often seniors and longtime residents, not outsiders. Needa Bee echoes this, pointing out how gentrification, rising rents, and disinvestment have displaced entire communities, making elders"once stable working-class residents"the fastest growing demographic among Oaklands unhoused.
    The discussion also addresses how illegal dumping has been wrongly tied to homeless encampments, a narrative manufactured by city policy and public works practices. Both guests call for permanent housing as the only true solution, rejecting sweeps as inhumane and costly. They urge listeners to support grassroots efforts, sign petitions, and challenge city ordinances aligned with Trump-era crackdowns.
    Hard Knock Radio makes clear: homelessness is not about personal failure, but about systemic neglect, rising inequality, and policies that prioritize erasure over dignity.
    0 min

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# Beyond the Blue Wave: Black Political Power, Accountability, and the Fight for Real Change