Ancient Sufi Invocations and Forgotten Songs from Aleppo is a beautiful album of sacred chanting and haunting melodies-a collection of ULTRA rare SUFI recordings captured in SYRIA months before civil war erupted. It was recorded by Jason Hamacher in the courtyard of a 500-year-old-house in Aleppo, one of the world's oldest cities.  In 2009 in Aleppo, Syria, A small group of Sufi musicians band together to preserve the nearly forgotten melodies, songs, and poems unique to the ancient city. In 2010 Jason Hamacher was in Aleppo to document the ancient prayers, hallowed rituals, and sacred spaces of Syria's religious minorities.  Hamacher heard about a secretive group of Sufi musicians that practiced “the old traditions.”  Intrigued by the mysterious description, Hamacher sought an introduction to the group through a mutual friend & became the first Westerner to hear  NAWA preform. NAWA performed in public a handful of times before Syria erupted into civil war. The group’s displaced members are now scattered throughout Europe and the Middle East. 12” Vinyl Record + download card  & bonus material (180-gram black vinyl w/ full color labels & metallic gatefold jacket Limited to 400)

Fasel Al Sawi & Fasel Kesmet Al Sawi

Oracle

Time had no manners
As it stole all of the moments away
I tried to get back a fleeting few
But there was nothing time would trade for you

Memory will be the death of me
Keeping a little leash on my destiny 
Always pulling me back, dragging me back to the place
Where I fell from your grace.

Is there any future left for us
Or did our dreams get buried under the rust
Of a kingdom without a queen of love
The lights shut off from above. 

Now its time we take back our peace of mind
That was stolen in this deadly grind
Can we say no to the kings of lies
And give our souls a chance to ignite

So here I wait, treading this tainted ground
Hoping you have the heart to come around
 I refuse to believe, that you will forever leave
Shutting me out in the cold, shivering in the breeze

Love and Lies

Comedians Jay Whitecotton and David Spector join the show to talk stand up, entertainment news, and HOLLYWOOD BABY! Which means there's even more pedophilia on this one than usual.

Listen to the full ep by subscribing at patreon.com/poddamnamerica

Bonus Ep Teaser -- Talking Bread

Matt, Will & Chris sum up the aftermath of the midterm elections, defend Western civilization from those who would destroy it, and check in on insufferable public intellectual Bernard Henri Levy's one twat show.

Chapo Trap House

262 - Blood and Cheesecake (11/12/18)

Natalie Wynn a.k.a. ContraPoints stops by the Trap to discuss deprogramming incels, Swedish Muscle Nazis, small king Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson's messiah complex, and of course, the Immutable Law of Bone.

please check out all the great ContraPoints videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/ContraPoints

Episode 264 - The Golden Ones feat. Natalie Wynn a.k.a. ContraPoints (11/18/18)

Chapo News Network senior political analysts Franklin Darrow and Taft Hartley run down the winners and losers of DC in 2018. Then, Matt and Virgil engage in a freewheeling discussion of predictions for 2019. New Years, baby, gimme dat new ass year.

Episode 276 - Under the Hood at the Beltway Garage (12/30/18)

In the two years since Pineal Express has been running, we, its operators, have sought to raise awareness about the major problems facing our species. Such problems include climate change, the risk of technological dystopia, and the latest rise of the authoritarian far-right worldwide.

These problems have been worsened by the United States. But the United States also has the potential to ameliorate them, provided that its government is functional enough to do so. For that reason, among others, it is important that the United States government not fall into chronic stagnation, dysfunction, or in the extreme case: collapse or despotism.

Presently, there are numerous structural weaknesses which threaten the efficacy and long term health of the United States government. Among these weaknesses is the electoral college, which has contradicted the popular vote in the election of two out of the last three presidents in their first terms. For demographic reasons and electoral vote apportionments over time, that kind of incongruity between the electoral college and popular vote may become more frequent, not less.

Another structural weakness is legislative district gerrymandering on the state and federal level, now aided by precise, computer-driven optimization of legislative maps for partisan advantage, thereby making control of some legislative districts effectively voter-proof.

Yet another structural weakness is the states’ leeway to enact laws which suppress voter turnout, chiefly among minorities, the poor, and the young.

Still another weakness includes the campaign finance system, which allows for a kind of legalized corruption in government, with candidates at every stage of the electoral process disproportionately influenced by, if not outright dependent upon, those entities which bankroll them most.

There is also the inherently unrepresentative nature of the US Senate, where right now the 40 million people living in California get two senators, whereas the 40 million people living in the least populated states get a combined total of forty-four senators. The scale of this problem may grow even more severe with demographic change over time.

Lastly, there’s the Supreme Court, which is theoretically vulnerable to a cadre of ideologues capitalizing on their lifetime tenure to spend decades setting aside legal precedent in favor of enacting a partisan judicial agenda. One wonders precisely how close we are to that now. 

These structural weaknesses threaten the functionality and stability of the United States government because they make the government less representative of and less responsive to the general public. Furthermore, they raise the chances that an oligarchic minority can use government to stymie anti-corruption reforms or to consolidate undue power.

It is worth mentioning that elected Republicans benefit disproportionately from each of these structural weaknesses, and therefore, they have an incentive to maintain the status quo insofar as they can. Hence there is great challenge in pursuing a reform agenda.

Joining us today to talk about the pressing need to solve these fundamental problems of representation in the US government is Harvard Law Professor, Lawrence Lessig. Professor Lessig has argued that the United States has become “ungovernable” and that new, unprecedented efforts to reform the system are necessary. These efforts could include specific reform-minded election strategies, or an Article V Convention to propose constitutional amendments. Professor Lessig details his strategies for fixing our broken government on his podcast, Another Way. We do recommend listening to Another Way in tandem with this episode of Pineal Express.
--
Thanks to EllE for this episode’s intro.

EllE (electronic music):
https://soundcloud.com/evynn3

EllE (rap):
https://soundcloud.com/cycleofhands

Episode 28 - Lawrence Lessig on Fixing the Broken Government

Pineal Express is a progressive and educational podcast based out of Binghamton, NY. The podcast features a variety of academics, thinkers, and activists who provide listeners a glimpse of the world through the lens of their field of expertise. Forward looking and multidisciplinary, Pineal Express touts itself as the place “where trains of thought intersect.” Amid that intersection, podcast hosts Julian Willard and Jim Mack aim to explore the human potential to solve existential challenges and usher in a better world.

Pineal Express (TM)

Episode 28 - Lawrence Lessig on Fixing the Broken Government

Pineal Express

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