Latest news with #RageAgainsttheMachine
USA Today
01-08-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
'Rage Against the Regime' protests planned against Trump. Why on JD Vance's birthday?
The protests across the United States also fall on Vice President JD Vance's birthday. Tens of thousands of people are expected to gather nationwide on Saturday, Aug. 2 to ‒ as organizers have dubbed it ‒ 'Rage Against the Regime' of President Donald Trump. Organizers say the demonstrations, the latest in a series of peaceful summertime protests in hundreds of locations across the country, are meant to mobilize masses of people against the administration's actions. They are particularly concerned about aggressive immigration enforcement, dismantling of government programs and agencies from Medicaid to the National Weather Service, and attacks on democratic institutions, according to a news release. They also want to draw attention to the Trump administration's refusal to release more information about deceased child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein. The name of this day of protest is both a play on the name of the American rock band Rage Against the Machine, and an expression of public frustration. 'People don't know what to do with their rage,' Hunter Dunn, a national spokesperson for the 50501 protest group, which is organizing the rally, told USA TODAY. 'Let's give them something productive.' In June, people demonstrated in 2,100 locations as part of the 'No Kings' protests, scheduled to coincide with both President Donald Trump's 79th birthday and the military parade honoring the Army's 250th anniversary. They argued that the president was taking too much power for himself, directly contradicting the nation's original purpose, declaring independence from the King of England. On July 17, protesters took to the streets in 1,600 cities and towns for 'Good Trouble' demonstrations honoring the late Georgia Congressman John Lewis, a Democrat and former civil rights activist, who argued that people should get into "good trouble" by peacefully protesting social ills. Saturday is also Vice President JD Vance's 41st birthday, though Dunn said most organizers hadn't considered Vance in setting the date on the first Saturday of August. The White House referred questions about the protests to Vance's office. A spokesperson for Vance didn't immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment. The band Rage Against the Machine, which played from 1991 until disbanding in 2024, was known for its leftist politics, including anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian messages. USA TODAY reached out to the band for comment but did not get an immediate reply. In Kansas, 50501 event coordinator Scott McFarland said he had never heard of the band. He sees the protest he's organizing for outside the state Capitol in Topeka, as both an outlet for people to express their anger and to show them they aren't alone in what he called an autocratic society seeking to divide Americans. A Massachusetts protest is billed as a 'festival of nonviolent resistance." At Cambridge Common, near Harvard University, the festival includes music, ice cream and art, and also calls for action, including mutual aid to help immigrant rights and learning about boycotting, a a news release said. 'It starts at a very local and personal level, and then becomes a collective thing,' Samantha McGarry, a local volunteer, said. 'Over time, the hope is that it kind of weakens the pillars that are upholding an authoritarian regime using nonviolent measures.' Dunn, of 50501, said there are upwards of 400 "Rage Against the Regime" demonstrations planned ‒ far fewer than the 1,500 "Good Trouble" protests.
Daily Mirror
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Ozzy Osbourne told pals his dreams for the future just days before death
EXCLUSIVE: Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne showed a softer and emotional side at a photoshoot with family and pals just days before the music icon died Proud grandpa Ozzy Osbourne welled up with pride during his last photoshoot with many of his closest rock star pals and family - just 18 days before his death. The rock icon told friends at the shoot the focus of his life 'was dedicated to being with the family and grandchildren'. Emotional Ozzy told a raft of superstar performers that his grandson Sid will follow in his footsteps as an entertainer. The 76-year-old had built a terrific bond with the two-year-old, whose mother is the Black Sabbath rocker's daughter, Kelly. Friends of the star say Ozzy boasted that Sidney, who was born in November 2022, already showed signs of having musical talent during his visits. One musician, who asked not to be named, recalled how Ozzy "could not stop beaming as he spoke about Sidney and how he doted on the kid". Ozzy had photos taken with family members and with Sidney on his lap taken by photographer and long term friend Ross Halfin on July 4. The gathering was a celebration and thank you for the acts, who'd agreed to appear in what would become the highest grossing charity show of all time. There were also pics taken of Ozzy with the biggest stars from Rock and metal who would go on to appear alongside him in the Back To The Beginning show a day later at Villa Park. Lass than three weeks later, Ozzy would pass away. The insider said: 'Ozzy just loved boasting about Sidney's talent and voice. There was a real bond between them when he had him on his lap fooling around and laughing. You could see at that moment, he was still Ozzy, but actually the smitten grandpa, whose child was his star. Ozzy had told many of the people there that Sidney would be the next generation of musician flying the flag for the family. 'They sang together at home. He said that being with family and being a grandfather was now his main focus in life. He loved all of his grandkids so so much. His loss will be hard for them.' Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine along with Sharon were the driving forces of bringing the talent together. Bands and stars playing the bash included Steven Tyler, Metallica, Axl Rose and Slash of Guns N' Roses, Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins, Alice in Chains, Pantera, Tool, Grija, Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit and Jonathan Davis of Korn. The photoshoot was filmed as part of the Ozzy documentary about Back To The Beginning on Paramount. The source added: 'Ozzy was really touched to see so many big names to come out and support his farewell. As they praised him, he kept saying things like 'I dunno what to f***ing say'. It was overwhelming really, but very powerful.' Speaking to the Guardian in May, Ozzy also suggested after the gig his time would be spent away from the spotlight. He said: 'It's time for me to spend some time with my grandkids. 'I don't want to die in a hotel room somewhere. I want to spend the rest of my life with my family.' Ozzy Osbourne: No Escape From Now, covering the singer's struggles with a series of health issues, will premiere on Paramount + in late 2025. Ozzy died on Tuesday, his family confirmed in a statement sent from his hometown of Birmingham. The statement read: "It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time. Sharon, Jack, Kelly, Aimee and Louis."
India Today
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- India Today
Mapping conflict and its ‘flawed' characters
On the surface, Siddharthya Roy's The Company of Violent Men: Dispatches from the Bloody Fault Lines of the Subcontinent chronicles a series of essays based on his investigative reporting between 2016 and 2023 across Bangladesh, Germany and India. They are vignettes compiled from 'reported notes that didn't make it to the final edits'.These 'unfiltered dispatches' attempt to 'un-trope' the characters they feature—militants, refugees, clandestine agents, insurgents, reporters, wheeler-dealers and so on, whose lives have been flattened into familiar tropes of 'good and evil' and 'us and them' by the news book succeeds spectacularly well in this regard. Roy is so good at narrating what historian Hannah Arendt called the 'banality of evil' that what might, in another iteration, feel like atrocity tourism becomes instead an edifying the same time, the book is supposed to be a 'bit like a memoir'. We learn that Roy grew up affluent, was a Communist during his youth, likes Rage Against the Machine, and had a job as a programmer in a former life. At some point, he gave up on this conventional life and moved into investigative journalism. Because of his 'late' entry into journalism, Roy was advised by some editors to credential upward by getting a 'very expensive stamped paper' from the Columbia Journalism School, which he does, earning not just a degree but also a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. But piecing together this narrative of Roy's adult life is somewhat hard to do because the references are stochastic and intersect with the vignettes in oblique ways. So, yes, it is a 'bit like a memoir'.What is most impressive about the book, however, is that it is a primal scream, expressed in written words, against a world in which we are asked to live between right and wrong, and with both, and given no sense of what we are supposed to do with the anger we feel as a result of this. Anger against, among other things, state brutality (India, Bangladesh, the US's Global War on Terror); higher education (Columbia advisers obsessed with newsworthiness); journalists (who don't give credit to those who do the legwork, who glorify the 'untouched beauty of the forest' in which people die because of the lack of infrastructure, the German press nonchalantly buying stories from journalists from the Global South and running them with bylines of German journalists); the moral absolutists who have no regard for human rights, autonomy or dignity (religious fundamentalists of all stripes, Dalits, the Rohingya Salvation Army, Maoists, Kashmiri militants, the Tamil Tigers); and the power brokers, con artists, conspiracy theorists and 'middlemen' who profit from a global violence-industrial to India Today Magazine- Ends
Los Angeles Times
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
The Neighborhood Kids' viral rage rap anthem during ICE raids turned them into Tom Morello's ‘new favorite band'
In times of turmoil, music can clarify a moment and a feeling, or at least briefly cut through the noise. And as California has been under siege by newly aggressive federal immigration enforcement by masked agents, a biting hip-hop track called 'Kids in Cages' by the Neighborhood Kids has gone viral, reflecting on this drama from the perspective of those being hunted. In a video clip shared widely on Instagram these last few weeks, a young couple of Latino rappers from San Diego — named Amon the MC and Verde — face the camera to recite a confrontational rhyme from an urban pedestrian bridge made of concrete and chain-link fence: 'We are the hard workers ... We are the ones that'll work in constructionAnd we are the ones that'll fix your destructionAnd we are the ones that pick fruit on your tableAnd we are the ones that been given a labelAnd we are the ones that you're blamingFor taking your jobs, whatcha pay me?We are the ones working minimum wagesAnd we are the ones with our kids in the cages.' The track was originally self-released by the Neighborhood Kids in 2023, but found renewed resonance as Americans in Los Angeles and across the country watched alarming video of day laborers, construction workers and restaurant employees being swept up in raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. It caught the attention of several established musicians, including Cat Power and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, who shared the clip with their devoted social media followings. The song first emerged from a freestyle rhyme during a band rehearsal, then was recorded with rapid-fire vocals from the two rappers, a beat created by turntablist DJ JG, and blasts of swirling electric guitar from Niko Rosy. It first appeared on their 2023 EP, 'Every Child Left Behind.' The song's title, 'Kids in Cages,' was taken from the first Trump administration's notorious policy that separated immigrant children from their parents and warehoused them in makeshift chain-link holding cells. 'People think that it started just now,' says Verde, who appears in the video clip in a T-shirt emblazoned with an Aztec god, her hair twisted into braids. 'This has been years of this, and we just feel this rage. And it's OK to feel upset.' The song's focus on working-class immigrants was the point, reflecting their core mission of testifying for those without a voice. 'Some people are like, 'Oh, but we're also doctors and lawyers' and all these things, but these are the people that are getting snatched up,' says Amon. 'These are the people that don't get the light of day, the unsung heroes that really make this nation work, make this nation what it is. And that's why we had to really shout them out and let the people know.' Amon says the track has deeply connected now because 'there's a collective outrage, not just with what's going on with the mass deportation and raids with ICE, but it's the dehumanizing [aspect] of it and, and the separation of families. 'People think it's just happening to the Latino and the Mexican communities. But people forget about the Filipino, the Taiwanese, the Vietnamese, and the Haitians here. There's so many communities that are affected by it.' When Morello quickly organized a last-minute concert called Defend L.A. at the Echoplex for June 16, both as an act of protest and a fundraiser for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, he called on several like-minded artists, including B-Real of Cypress Hill and Pussy Riot founder Nadya Tolokonnikova. He also connected with the Neighborhood Kids through a mutual friend, the singer-songwriter Grandson. A few weeks earlier, Morello had never heard of the Neighborhood Kids, but was immediately hooked by 'Kids in Cages.' 'It's delivered with such conviction and authenticity. I just thought that they were lyrically brilliant and that they were committed to their music being a sledgehammer for social justice,' Morello says. 'Saw them on Instagram and 20 seconds into the first clip, I was like, this is an incredible band that captures the spirit of what the greatest rock 'n' roll and hip-hop and punk rock is all about.' When the call to be part of Defend L.A. came in, the band was scattered. Amon, Verde and DJ JG were playing a gig in Sacramento, where they shot a video clip for their hard-hitting Spanglish-language tune 'Third World Problems' in front of the state Capitol. Rosy was on a trip to Rome without his guitar, and the rest of the band were in San Diego. No one wanted to miss the show with Morello, so Rosy flew directly to L.A., and the group reconvened in a nearby rehearsal studio the day of the performance. The Neighborhood Kids opened the night, after Morello introduced them as 'my new favorite band.' The Neighborhood Kids can operate as either a stripped-down hip-hop trio of the two rappers and turntablist DJ JG, or as a full band, with Rosy on guitar, bassist Emmerson, and drummer Gatoz Locoz. At Echoplex, they landed at full force, backing up the rhymes like an eruption of rage (and Rage). The rappers wore military vests and keffiyeh scarves, and performed 30 minutes of protest songs that collided hip-hop, funk and metal. 'Biddi Bomb' was an antiwar tune that Amon says reflects ongoing tragedies in Gaza, Sudan, Congo and Armenia. 'And the Kids Say' is built on wild DJ scratching, with echoes of Rage Against the Machine in the repeated line, 'I won't do what you tell me…' and references to Billie Holiday's 'Strange Fruit.' Later in the night, Morello invited them back onstage to freestyle on Woody Guthrie's 'This Land Is Your Land.' The Neighborhood Kids are a self-sufficient and self-managed young act, though have yet to embark on a national tour. The vocal duo at its core are clearly lovers of hip-hop in the classic mode, and show the influence of Dead Prez and Immortal Technique. So it's fitting that the band will perform at Rhyme Fest at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Aug. 17, with a lineup of esteemed hip-hop vets including Xzibit, Dilated Peoples, DJ Quik, the Alchemist and more. 'We're just advocates of pure hip-hop,' says Amon, standing on the back patio of Echoplex just before their Defend L.A. sound check. 'So we do sample-based stuff, but we also have a live band. We're a band collective. This is our team and family, so whether we make music with them or without them, they figure out a way to be a part of it.' Amon and Verde are also a rare romantic couple fronting a rap group, and say their relationship adds more fuel to their work. 'It's beautiful being that there's high tones and then low,' says Verde of their overlapping voices. 'It's beautiful creating with someone that you love. Every song is like a baby almost. It's like nothing else.' These last few weeks of ICE activity and protest has already inspired new songs. Asked about their goals as a group, Amon says nothing of awards and chart action, and talks of reinvesting any rewards back into their community in San Diego. He says the desire is to help create more grassroots voices like their own. 'Eventually, we would love to have a nonprofit school of arts and music,' says Amon. 'We have a turntablist as DJ, and we'd like him to teach kids how to keep the art of DJing alive. We'd like to teach spoken word and songwriting and other instruments, and keep the creativity flowing. 'And apart from that, we just want to take our message across the whole world.' While the high-profile Defend L.A. show was meaningful confirmation that the Neighborhood Kids' message is reaching farther out into the world, they've learned to appreciate all crowds, big or small. 'Even if it's just one person, I learned that it doesn't matter who's watching you,' says Verde. 'Whether it be a whole crowd or just a couple people, they could change the world too, you know?'
The Herald Scotland
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Anti-woke stormtroopers are gunning for Superman. The world's gone mad
If you tootle over to the Reddit website, where folk ask questions about every subject under the sun, you'll find a page called "What's the most ridiculous thing you've ever seen described as 'woke'?" It's one long point-and-laugh at the puce-faced puffins who evacuate into their underpants over anything which doesn't accord with their 1950s Pathé News version of reality. Here are some examples: the novel Frankenstein was called woke by the tabloids because the monster is portrayed as a "misunderstood victim"'. Spoiler alert: the monster is misunderstood. That's Mary Shelley's point. Or there's the poster for the film of the computer game Legend of Zelda. It's woke as it features a girl. Spoiler alert: Zelda is a girl. Then there's Rage Against the Machine. Their lyrics are woke, apparently. Spoiler alert: it's Rage Against the Machine. Read more by Neil Mackay There's the Welsh person who was called woke for speaking Welsh … in Wales. The computer game Far Cry 6 is woke as it features Hispanic women. Have you guessed yet that it's set on a Caribbean island…? A documentary about Tyrannosaurus Rex was woke as the dinosaurs didn't kill enough. Lego is woke. Afros – woke. Allotments – woke. Jam-making – woke. Disney – woke. I mean, it's Disney, what do they want from the people who brought us Bambi and Dumbo? The movies of Leni Riefenstahl? On it goes. A stream of absolute, sweaty-eyed, frothy-lipped absurdity. Being anti-woke has become a joke. Look, there's been plenty of absolute blazing stupidity from the so-called world of woke. We saw over-reach and insanity at the height of MeToo and Black Lives Matter. We've seen bad behaviour, including threats, from trans rights campaigners. The left in general has undoubtedly engaged in silencing and cancel culture. But holy moly, the right-wing over-reaches daily. Misogyny and racism drip from the anti-woke mob. The bullying and abuse from the anti-trans brigade is simply mass dehumanisation. The right is currently – not in general but as a matter of policy – engaged in wholesale silencing and cancel culture. For pity's sake, someone was charged under terrorism laws in Glasgow this weekend for wearing a t-shirt reading "Palestine Action". I repeat: for wearing a t-shirt. The latest anti-woke crusade encapsulates the pitiful madness of the right perfectly. Superman has gone woke, seemingly. Cue right-wing commentators hurling themselves from skyscrapers. It began when Dean Cain, who played Superman on telly in the 1990s, thought he'd seek some relevance. Trump-supporting Cain didn't like an interview given by James Gunn, the director of the new Superman movie. Gunn said that Superman 'is the story of America'. It features an 'immigrant', and is about 'basic human kindness … something we have lost'. Cain wailed: 'How woke is Hollywood going to make this character?' Well, sorry Dean, but Superman is an immigrant. Here's a clue: he's a refugee from planet Krypton. The opening pages of the first Superman comic in 1938 describes the hero thus: 'Superman! Champion of the Oppressed, the physical marvel who has sworn to devote his existence to helping those in need!' Some may call this woke, others may just call it "Superman being Superman" or "acting nice, like your mum told you". Cain was on a roll, though, envisioning vistas of woke horror opening up before his eyes. 'How much is Disney going to change their Snow White?' he lamented. Mate, Snow White hangs around with seven dwarves, I don't think they could make her more woke if they tried. The anti-woke mob holler go woke and go broke. When I hear that I picture a bull defecating in a field, because the reverse is true. Who single-handedly trashed every brand he owned with his obsessive, endless, 3am anti-woke squawking? Elon "Hammer of the Woke Mind Virus" Musk. The anti-woke cult is just an update on the witch-hunt. Devotionals sound like Senator McCarthy at the height of his paranoid unravelling over communists in America. Instead of Reds under the Bed, anti-woke stormtroopers see the woke creeping from every cranny in culture. They've lost their very tiny, very over-heated minds. It would be funny if so many people in power didn't tag along behind as they think that's how to win approval from the English tabloids. One recently ran an article about how sandwiches were woke. GenZ is apparently 'waging war on our sandwiches', and 'ditching English classics like ham and mustard in favour of fancy woke fillings'. Yes, readers, fancy woke fillings! Is this why my grandfather fought the Nazis, so we could eat falafel!? A quick perusal of the British media of late will show you that the new Pope is woke; architecture is woke; new banknotes are woke; as are Jaguar cars. The woke are everywhere. Can't you feel their eyes boring into you? Don't you hear them whispering about you? They're plotting to ban patriotic fish and chips, they're going to make our children read The Colour Purple everyday. Soon we'll be forced to dye our hair pink and listen to Kneecap. Elon Hammer of the Woke Mind Virus Musk. (Image: PA) The next James Bond will be trans! Doctor Who will be disabled! Won't someone think of the children! The anti-woke league manages to be both sad, embarrassing and nasty simultaneously. It's a clubhouse for people who hate kindness. To the anti-woke, anything which doesn't conform to their rigid, tyrannical and petty worldview must be smashed. Such narcissism is breath-taking. By all means defend old-fashioned, conservative values. But have some proportion and perspective, lest you fall victim to the law of diminishing returns. If you scream about woke bogeymen every five minutes, eventually folk just switch off. Who wants to listen to the same repetitive drivel about ideological phantoms from minds both fevered and dull? When we see the symptoms of the anti-woke mind virus today, the rest of us just snigger. You're not a culture warrior, you're a joke. Neil Mackay is The Herald's Writer at Large. He's a multi-award-winning investigative journalist, author of both fiction and non-fiction, and a filmmaker and broadcaster. He specialises in intelligence, security, crime, social affairs, cultural commentary, and foreign and domestic politics
