Mahmoud Khalil and America's Selective Rights

00:00:00

Nathan Brady: Oh. Uh, let me get a quick test from you.
Mike Smith: a quick test for me and I want you to hear it from my lips.
Nathan Brady: Wow. All right. I think we are ready to roll.
Mike Smith: Let us roll then.
Nathan Brady: All right. Hey everyone and welcome to another episode of the Blues Sedition Podcast. Uh, I'm your host, Nate Brady, alongside
Mike Smith: co-hosting here with his good friend Mike Smith. How you all doing today?
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Yeah. Good friend. Very good friend. Um I'm gonna have to ask my good friend. He's going to have to calm me down this episode. Keep me calm because I am I'm mad, man. I'm pretty mad.
Mike Smith: I'm
Nathan Brady: Uh
Mike Smith: going to try and bring in the the meditative state, keep my voice nice and even and low. And I think I think we can I think we can get through this.
Nathan Brady: no, I want you to get mad with me.

00:00:56

Mike Smith: Okay.
Nathan Brady: Uh
Mike Smith: What
Nathan Brady: because
Mike Smith: What are you mad about?
Nathan Brady: anything else feels like a a violation of our friendship and our trust.
Mike Smith: Wow.
Nathan Brady: Um I mean I I don't know. I I I think we just get right into it. Um
Mike Smith: Let's
Nathan Brady: let's
Mike Smith: Let's
Nathan Brady: skip all
Mike Smith: dive
Nathan Brady: the
Mike Smith: in.
Nathan Brady: skip all the pleasantries and all that other nonsense and just dive
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: right in. And today's today's episode is probably primarily going to be about Mahmud Khalil. Um, and I mean, unless you're living under a rock, you probably know the basics of the story. Um, which
Mike Smith: Since
Nathan Brady: is,
Mike Smith: you're listening to the Blues Edition podcast, you know
Nathan Brady: yeah,
Mike Smith: the bare minimum of this story.
Nathan Brady: and if and if you clicked on it because you saw the title, which probably has his name in it, you'll probably also know the basics of the story.

00:01:39

Nathan Brady: But, uh, in case you don't know, we'll get we'll do a little a quick get you up to speed. Um, Mahmud Khalil uh is a uh uh Colombia graduate student. Um he uh resides uh I believe on or around campus and campus housing or you know something like that.
Mike Smith: Yeah, I
Nathan Brady: Um
Mike Smith: think so.
Nathan Brady: he has um he has been involved in uh protests um on campus. Um
Mike Smith: These are the the pro uh Gazin people's protests that happened at
Nathan Brady: yes.
Mike Smith: the end of last year.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Uh and so he has spoken out against the um the Israeli government and the atrocities committed in Gaza. Um and because of that he has been the target of doxing campaigns um threats you know all kinds of different smear campaigns um particularly there's there have been several um organizations that have have tried to uh put words in his mouth bas basically for for a lack of better word and and say that he is pro- Hamas or engaged in terrorist activity Uh, none of which you, as you'll find out, there is any proof of.

00:03:03

Nathan Brady: Um, so I want to say I mean, how many days ago was it now? Um, I'm trying to I'm trying to uh figure out find the exact date because I I I forget. Um, but he
Mike Smith: I think
Nathan Brady: was
Mike Smith: it was about a week ago he was detained.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: If
Nathan Brady: Um,
Mike Smith: that's what you're getting at.
Nathan Brady: yeah. So ICE, the federal government came knocking on his door. or I believe they interrupted him uh you know just after dinner getting home um and said basically you know your student visa has has expired or has been revoked and we're taking you in
Mike Smith: It was
Nathan Brady: and
Mike Smith: revoked. It hadn't expired.
Nathan Brady: well he doesn't even have a student visa and so this was the first this was the first like what what's going on here is
Mike Smith: Oh,
Nathan Brady: Khalil
Mike Smith: right. All right.
Nathan Brady: Khalil
Mike Smith: The claim
Nathan Brady: said
Mike Smith: was
Nathan Brady: I

00:03:52

Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: yeah he said I don't have a student visa I have a green card and Um, so ICE agents got on the phone and was and and overheard saying, "Well, what do we do? He he he doesn't even have a student visa. He has a green card." And whoever was on the other line allegedly said, "Well, tell him his green card has been revoked then." You know, like this was very poorly planned by ICE. Um, and and so yeah, so they told him, "Okay,
Mike Smith: at the very
Nathan Brady: you know
Mike Smith: least
Nathan Brady: what? You're
Mike Smith: they didn't have proper information. I mean, it
Nathan Brady: right.
Mike Smith: shows just if not a hurried and rush response and at the very least illinformed
Nathan Brady: Right. Um, so, so yeah, so ICE took him away from his home, away from his his eight-month, you know, pregnant pregnant wife and
Mike Smith: who's
Nathan Brady: disappeared
Mike Smith: an American
Nathan Brady: him
Mike Smith: citizen.
Nathan Brady: who is an American citizen.

00:04:44

Nathan Brady: Um, her parents are from um, Syria, I believe, but she is an American citizen. Um, and they just disappeared. um no contact with his family, no contact with lawyers, they just took him away. Um and according to a website that tracks, you know, ICE detaines, he was supposedly, you know, just hours later in a location in Louisiana. Uh which is just wild. So that's that that catches you up. Um
Mike Smith: It's
Nathan Brady: I'll
Mike Smith: the kind
Nathan Brady: let
Mike Smith: of
Nathan Brady: you
Mike Smith: thing
Nathan Brady: jump.
Mike Smith: that keeps you up at night for
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: sure. as as an often dissenter against uh the terrible things that this country does all the time, both parties makes me think twice about potentially saying some things. Because if they're willing to do it to people who are here legally, which is their claim, they only want to get the violent criminals who are here illegally and yet they're going to revoke a green card of a legal United States visitor in this way.

00:05:53

Mike Smith: I don't know where that line is, right? Are they is that the line? Are they going after the violent criminals and the green card holders that they disagree with who speak out against them? Are they going to go out against anyone who speaks out against them?
Nathan Brady: Yeah. So,
Mike Smith: Are
Nathan Brady: I
Mike Smith: we
Nathan Brady: think
Mike Smith: gonna
Nathan Brady: it's
Mike Smith: Are are Nate and I going to get deported? Where
Nathan Brady: I
Mike Smith: where
Nathan Brady: think
Mike Smith: are
Nathan Brady: it's
Mike Smith: they going to take us?
Nathan Brady: Yeah. So, it's important for us to to Yeah. I mean, we are the Blue Sedition podcast, right? I mean, we're we're we're probably already on a list just for the name.
Mike Smith: I
Nathan Brady: Um
Mike Smith: guarantee we are saying the same things on this podcast on a weekly basis that that uh this person was championing as part of the protests during that time. I think that you and I both think that what Israel has done in Gaza constitutes a genocide and potentially uh uh

00:06:44

Nathan Brady: I mean, we're we're not the only ones that think this. The International
Mike Smith: No, of course not. But
Nathan Brady: Court,
Mike Smith: what I'm saying is that
Nathan Brady: you
Mike Smith: we're
Nathan Brady: know,
Mike Smith: all saying we you and I are saying the
Nathan Brady: right?
Mike Smith: same things that this guy said. Yeah.
Nathan Brady: Oh,
Mike Smith: I
Nathan Brady: yeah.
Mike Smith: guess the
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: difference is is that we don't go to Colombia.
Nathan Brady: Well, the difference is we
Mike Smith: This
Nathan Brady: don't
Mike Smith: is
Nathan Brady: we
Mike Smith: Columbia
Nathan Brady: don't have a
Mike Smith: University
Nathan Brady: green card,
Mike Smith: for those
Nathan Brady: right?
Mike Smith: just to make sure that we're we're clear. This is on
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: US soil in the United States.
Nathan Brady: Right. Um, so I I want to go through this article kind of step by step because there's a lot of things that are just alarming and that we need to call out in this article.

00:07:11

Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: Uh,
Mike Smith: Yep.
Nathan Brady: and I think it will help um set set the the proper tone for what is happening here. So this is an article from the fire.org. You can find it in our uh show notes. Uh, the title is Trump's administration's reasons
Mike Smith: Sure.
Nathan Brady: for detaining Mahmood Khalil threatened free speech. Uh, certainly the title says it all. Um, so I'm just going to kind of read through it and then maybe we can riff on the paragraphs, but there are some important
Mike Smith: Sure.
Nathan Brady: uh points in here. It's not a it's not a very long article, but I'll read through it for our our listeners in the car
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: or, you know, on other platforms. So, it's been three days since the government arrested and detained Mahmud Khalil for deportation. This afternoon, the administration finally stated the basis for its actions. Its explanation threatens free speech of millions of people. This next paragraph, I really I mean I cannot believe this next paragraph.

00:08:00

Nathan Brady: Yesterday, an administration official told the free press, "The allegation here is not that Khalil was breaking the law. This was confirmed today by White House press secretary Caroline Levit, who announced Khalil is being targeted under a law that she characterized as allowing the Secretary of State to personally deem individuals adversarial to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States of America.
Mike Smith: Yeah,
Nathan Brady: Mike, break down what this means.
Mike Smith: this is a very old uh policy. This is from US Immigration and Nationality Act uh INA shorthand. I don't even know how to read these things. section 237A4C uh which addresses the deportability of non-citizens involved in espionage, sabotage, export law violations or similar activities that threaten US national security or foreign policy. So like they said, however, it specifically states that non-citizens are deportable if they've engaged in or pose a risk of engaging in anything that might be considered espionage. This is ostensibly a McCarthy era, McCarthyism, if you will, where
Nathan Brady: Mhm.
Mike Smith: they were targeting people who simply didn't align with the goals uh of that the administration set forth.

00:09:29

Mike Smith: So, this is saying that while he's committed no crimes and has done nothing wrong, he poses a risk to do so in the future. And so, they're deporting him and canceling his green card.
Nathan Brady: Okay.
Mike Smith: I don't
Nathan Brady: So
Mike Smith: have anything better to say than than that's just that's that's thought
Nathan Brady: insane.
Mike Smith: police there and it's it's
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: bananas.
Nathan Brady: Uh so so leave it said Khalil sided with terrorists, organized group protests that disrupted college campus classes and harassed Jewish American students and made them feel unsafe and distributed pro- Hamas propaganda. She also said the Department of Homeland Security is trying to track down other individuals who have engaged in pro- Hamas activity at Columbia University. So okay, I mean there's
Mike Smith: I
Nathan Brady: so
Mike Smith: I unfortunately
Nathan Brady: it
Mike Smith: have engaged with more of the devil's advocates in these things uh than I care to mention. Um but a lot of these boil down to a few things. So first off, the pro- Hamas propaganda is their spin.

00:10:35

Mike Smith: basically
Nathan Brady: right?
Mike Smith: anything that's pro Palestinian or pro Gaza as like a independent state
Nathan Brady: Prone
Mike Smith: is
Nathan Brady: not murdering
Mike Smith: cons
Nathan Brady: innocent civilians in in Gaza, right?
Mike Smith: in the current admin there is no distinction between pro Gazin or pro uh uh Palestinian Palestinians versus pro- Hamas if you are you know pro ceasefire because It's murdering Palestinians. That is pro- Hamas. And so the first thing is just they're they're that framing makes you feel like if you're not really aware of this, it makes it sound like the guy is is a terrorist advocate, which he's not.
Nathan Brady: right?
Mike Smith: The second thing is the uh the the second the thing, the disrupted college campus classes. Okay, that's protesting, which we knew about at Colombia because they eventually called in the police to break heads. But the second part is the and harassed Jewish American students and made them feel unsafe. This was apparently in uh uh describing the events that were going on during um those protests where they had printed out leaflets that had

00:11:52

Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: iconography on them of the Star of David like stamping down on the uh uh the Gazin people, the Palestinians. And the claim here is that that's some somehow anti-Semitic when that is quite clearly the flag of Israel. Yeah, they're hiding behind the Star of David to make it seem like this is an anti-Semitic act, but that's their flag. That the flag of the the nation encroaching on Gaza and the Palestinian people. And so the iconography there doesn't really track with what they're saying. They're saying that it made and I know I can't speak to this, but they're saying it made Jewish students feel unsafe or unwelcome. I can't speak to that. What I can say is that it wasn't plastering of swastikas or throwing your hand up in the air like Elon Musk. It's nothing that is truly and obviously anti-semitic.
Nathan Brady: Okay. So, I Yeah. Everything Mike said totally accurate. I want to touch on a few things. Neither Mike nor I know Khalil, right?

00:12:59

Nathan Brady: We only know all of the information that's been presented to us, all of the public information that's out there.
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: Um, I I know Jewish Americans who also agree with Khalil. Um, and I know and I've seen interviews from Jewish Americans at Columbia University who say they have not felt unsafe because of Khalil's protests and they agree with the things that he is saying. There is a very specific group um, which I guess I'll just switch over to another article before we finish this one because I think it's in here. Um there is a uh there is another pro-Israel organization called Batar uh that in January the group posted that uh Khalil said Zionists don't deserve to live and Khalil again unequivocally denied making the statement. Uh he this was in an email to Columbia University. Khalil said he feels threatened. He feels unsafe. He needs Columbia University to step up. Khalil's arguing prove that I've made anybody feel unsafe by stating that that you know gazins that Palestinians have a right to live.

00:14:15

Nathan Brady: Um you know I haven't I haven't said anything or done anything. There's nothing out there that I've said other than this other than protesting the right-wing extremism and the the uh you know atrocities going on in Gaza. Now I'm being threatened. you know, they're they're they're making up lies. They're doxing him. They're giving his home address out. They're they're tagging ICE and and uh Marco Rubio in posts, public posts on X. I mean, you can see it all. You can see everything that this group has done to Khalil, but for some reason, you can't find any information about Khalil saying the things he supposedly said to to these other groups. It's it's just not true.
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: And and
Mike Smith: It
Nathan Brady: so
Mike Smith: feels like deliberate canvasing or or what do they call it? astroturfing of of this story like they're trying to find a scapegoat for this protest that had occurred. And he was a prominent voice in those protests at that time, but none of the evidence points to anything of of the nature they're alleging.

00:15:20

Nathan Brady: I want to just read this email before we go back to finish the other article. Um, citing the Barara Post, Khalil asked Armstrong, an administrator at Columbia, in his email. He says, and I quote, "With the stakes being so high, I ask you as representatives of Colombia University's administration, how will you protect international students from doxing and from deportation? How will you protect these students rights to free speech, expression, and association rights provided for in the US Constitution and to a lesser degree, this is me saying that Colombia's code of conduct and stop the suppression and now potential criminalization of that speech and expression. Students futures, their livelihoods, and now without exaggeration exaggerating their lives are at risk. Uh I mean first of all all well well written email well said who's who would who wants to go to Colombia now you know who after this I mean would feel safe going to Colombia Yeah.
Mike Smith: if if I'm, you know, uh, on a on a student visa or if I have a green card or if I'm not just a several generation American-born citizen, then I'm I'm not even considered.

00:16:37

Mike Smith: It's not on my short list. It has lost that in my eyes. Um, because they're not
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: going to support you. They're just
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: not. So, it's a shame. It's it's just it's one of the institutions um and and we talked about this a little bit offline, but I might as well bring it up here, but they're the institution that had basically bent the knee to uh the Trump rhetoric, the MAGA folks, and basically they were calling for a crackdown and a shutdown of these protests at the time. And this is while Biden was president. the the the minority the minority voices in the government at the time basically saying like send in SWAT teams, send in the the riot brigade, have them break these up forcibly, you know, hurt people and end these things, which they did end up doing. And now Colombia, who has done everything that they were asked of, is having $400 million in in aid cut from the federal budget of uh against them.

00:17:38

Mike Smith: I mean, it's it's a
Nathan Brady: Good.
Mike Smith: direct targeting
Nathan Brady: Good.
Mike Smith: of
Nathan Brady: I
Mike Smith: them
Nathan Brady: mean,
Mike Smith: saying, "You did exactly what we told you to do, and now we're cutting your funding."
Nathan Brady: we bet
Mike Smith: So,
Nathan Brady: we we we
Mike Smith: there's no reason for any of these other institutions to believe that any amount of cowtowing to this this administration will will keep you out of their, you know, sites.
Nathan Brady: I'm not going to read I don't have to read the rest of the article. It's basically uh then goes into a little bit about the law that Mike already kind of detailed. Um and uh but
Mike Smith: They'll be
Nathan Brady: I
Mike Smith: in
Nathan Brady: do
Mike Smith: the
Nathan Brady: want
Mike Smith: show.
Nathan Brady: to I I
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: I want to I want to point out okay, yes, there are often times when there is any um uh I don't want to say situation, but any event like the one that's happening in in Gaza right now or there's there's uh some some real divisive thing happening

00:18:30

Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: in the world, you're always going to have kind of those extremist supporters of each faction, you know, on each side. You're going
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: to have really bad people, whether they're opportunists, whether they're, you know, whether they actually believe in the cause, whether they're just trying to hurt people, whatever it is, you're going to have those types of people on both sides. If you're on one side of this issue and you don't
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: believe that there are also extremists on your side, you're just wrong. And and Mike and
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: I understand that there are people, you know, on on our side of this issue that are doing it wrong. And we wish we would they wouldn't do it that way because they make you know they make it look bad for for the rest of the cause. But there is no indication that Khalil was one of those people. So far from everything that we can see, he you know he protested peacefully. He organized peacefully.

00:19:20

Nathan Brady: He organized well within his right as a legal resident of the United States and on the campus of Colombia without violating any of their rules and any of the laws of the United States. He did he did everything within the within the bounds legally within the
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: you know
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: and and still as a legal citizen of the United States was taken away was disappeared um and and
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: by the and the campus can't even you know Colombia can't even
Mike Smith: No,
Nathan Brady: uh
Mike Smith: they're
Nathan Brady: show
Mike Smith: they're out of it here.
Nathan Brady: yeah well
Mike Smith: They
Nathan Brady: I mean they can't
Mike Smith: not only can they not show any like proof that that to the contrary here,
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: but there are a handful of people who were protesting with him and they're sharing the the artifacts that they have out of that. They're like, "Here's the pamphlets that we were handing out and you can see our deliberate messaging. here are our um scripts that we had when we were trying to talk with uh you know people who were counterprotesters.

00:20:18

Mike Smith: Basically they're they're saying like here's the way to engage with people who are not thinking the same way we are or against the protests at all and how to try and engage with them in you know in in ways that are helpful. Here's where you can see the history of this document being drafted and he's a part of it. And they have tons of evidence showing them that they're like we need this to be nonviolent. We need this to be inclusive. We need this to be disruptive but not violent. Like they have a lot of evidence that shows that. They don't have any evidence that shows him being like death to the oppressor or whatever they think he's shouting.
Nathan Brady: And and
Mike Smith: You
Nathan Brady: if
Mike Smith: know,
Nathan Brady: you and if they did, by the way, we would see it literally everywhere. You'd see
Mike Smith: it
Nathan Brady: it
Mike Smith: would
Nathan Brady: on
Mike Smith: be
Nathan Brady: X.
Mike Smith: everywhere.
Nathan Brady: You'd
Mike Smith: It

00:20:57

Nathan Brady: see it
Mike Smith: would be plastered
Nathan Brady: you
Mike Smith: to every single social media
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: site. It would be all over. It
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: would be the only thing Fox News would be running right now.
Nathan Brady: There's not one student on Colombia that can can provide proof for show. I mean, at these protests, everybody's taking video.
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: Everybody's doing whatever. I've heard
Mike Smith: Wrong.
Nathan Brady: interviews with him. I have done my I've done my research, you know. I've listened to everything he has to say. I've listened to Colombia professors speak about him eloquently. I mean, um, by by any stretch, he is probably, uh, more much more tame than I would be in
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: his
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: situation than I'm even feeling right now, how angry I am about this situation. Um, I I'm I'm really impressed with him actually. Uh,
Mike Smith: Yeah. Yeah. We were talking about this offline, but Nate was saying something along the lines of, "I'm going to have to start protesting. I'm

00:21:46

Mike Smith: gonna have to get out there and become an activist in this way." And I'm like, "There's no way that you could be as calm and as rational as this guy. They'll arrest you in a second.
Nathan Brady: no. I mean, and and I'm and I'm I'm being serious. I I mean, I I I feel the need. My wife and I before we had our son who is now six years old, we spent a lot of time um we we've we've gone to marches, we've gone to protests, we spent a lot of time in the LA area fighting for what we believed in. We were threatened on multiple occasions. I think you remember the story when we were canvasing
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: for Bernie. You know, one door that we knocked on, the guy said, "You stay right there. We're I'm going to go grab my gun." I mean, uh, there's there we've been in it and I'm ready to get back in it. I probably should have been before, but this situation, uh, is really really alarming because this threatens all of us.

00:22:38

Nathan Brady: It's not just Khalil. Um, and and his wife, who, by the way, they also said they would arrest if she, you know, because she tried
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: to get in between
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: them. Um,
Mike Smith: Yeah. I mean, she's lucky that I mean, she's not lucky. She's probably a very intelligence person and they're prepared for this. They know that that the government is very anti their protesting, anti their messaging. And so I'm sure they had a plan of when uh the feds show up, here's the, you know, the plan of what to do. So she knew stay indoors, keep your baby close, do not give them the opportunity to come in. Do not don't leave the door open for any extended amount of time. Like they they knew what they were doing in in in that. And I recommend everybody else do as well because don't trust the cops. But
Nathan Brady: Yeah. So, I I want to actually back up for a second and cor well, not really correct, but uh fix a part of the intro to this story, which is that uh the agent, the ICE agent was actually speaking to uh Amy Greer, which was Khalil's lawyer, when they were taking Khalil from into custody.

00:23:46

Nathan Brady: And the the agent was telling Greer that uh his student visa had been revoked. and Greer, his Khalil's lawyer, was the one that said he he has permanent residence. He's in possession of a green card. And then he and then the agent responded, "Well, we're going to revoke the green card instead." And
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: then
Mike Smith: Okay.
Nathan Brady: Greer said, "Well, we need to see a warrant before Khalil can be detained." And the agent hung up
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: on
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: on Greer.
Mike Smith: Just
Nathan Brady: Um,
Mike Smith: a shocking admission of the the the just the the the illegality of the situation. The fact that he knows that he's got nothing. They have an order to arrest this kid for no reason. He gets there and trumps up something about his visa expiring. when a lawyer who's well informed says he doesn't have a visa, he's he's American citizen with a he holds a green card making him American citizen. He said, "We're revoking that, too."

00:24:43

Mike Smith: And she's like, "You need a warrant for that." He's like, "I better hang up and just arrest this kid before it becomes a whole to-do."
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: Like those are the types of people that this administration, you know, employs. They just hamfisted illegal search and seizure and detain.
Nathan Brady: So, uh, so some updates here at least is we know on the 10th that a judge ordered a stay. Um, so there there was not going to be an immediate deportation. Uh,
Mike Smith: You're right.
Nathan Brady: and then um the day before on the 9th, Greer filed a writ of habius corpus. Um, and and so the next day, you know, Jesse Ferman ruled that the judge Jesse Ferman ruled that Khalil could not be removed. And then apparently today, which I was I was not up to date yet as of today, um there there was a hearing today, uh lawyers asked that he be returned to New York and then uh Judge Ferman ordered that Khalil be allowed his attorney client privilege phone calls again and that both the government and Khalil's lawyers submit plans on March 14th for further arguments.

00:25:57

Nathan Brady: So, um, at least he's now on the phone with his lawyer again. There's still no charge. There is still he is still not been charged with a crime. This is still on the whole,
Mike Smith: There
Nathan Brady: oh, Marco
Mike Smith: won't be
Nathan Brady: Rubio
Mike Smith: what they'll
Nathan Brady: said
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: so.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: You
Mike Smith: What
Nathan Brady: know,
Mike Smith: what what they're going to do and just circling back to it because we did bring it up earlier that whole INA section 237 the the the Secretary of State is basically at liberty under this ruling to to revoke uh like green card and visa statuses just as a matter of course.
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: Um, so he's not going to get charged with anything. They're going to revoke his citizenship and then say, "You're an illegal alien now, so we're deporting you." There's no crimes involved. There's no court cases there in. So, the fact that he's that that the Secretary of State's allowed to do this is ridiculous.

00:26:53

Mike Smith: and
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: that there's not going to be any actual like judicial uh uh uh remedy to it is is just furthering my rage
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: because the courts will say we have no jurisdiction there because it's a law. It's a the law on the books and it says plainly the secretary of state has this authority and so they can do it. They can revoke citizenship for the people who came here the right way, as the the Grand Old Party loves to say.
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: They did the right thing. They're they're trying to improve America by getting an education and a job here. And these are the people they claim to want. They're going to revoke his United States citizenship and deport him. No charges, no criminal activity, no violence, nothing.
Nathan Brady: And I I have to say the Democratic response to this has been abysmal. I mean,
Mike Smith: I hate to use the word flaccid again on stream, but I did I used it just now. That's what it's been because god damn it, are the Democrats willing to just roll over on things like this?

00:28:06

Nathan Brady: and the framing, you know, it's clear who is funded by Apac and who isn't, right? Because the Isn't it isn't it so
Mike Smith: Yes.
Nathan Brady: obvious?
Mike Smith: Yes.
Nathan Brady: I
Mike Smith: No, I
Nathan Brady: mean,
Mike Smith: I just but but to to just okay to put it in a different position like we're six months ago at this point, right? Maybe eight months ago. I'm not remembering the exact time frame, but it was very clear during that campaign uh the the Harris campaign that pro Palestinian positions were not welcome in the Democratic caucus. like that was not a line that they were willing to support.
Nathan Brady: right.
Mike Smith: They were kicked out of the protesters were kicked out of rallies. They were not invited to speak at public speaking events when going through the proper avenues and channels. And there was a hard party line of we do not talk about the Palestinians outside of their plight. We're not going to point fingers. We're not going to say who's responsible.

00:29:04

Mike Smith: We're going to say they need aid, but we're not going to say why and who is causing the damage that would necessitate such aid. That's not what we're talking about. And now Chuck Schumer is trying it again. Oh, it's just so painfully stupid,
Nathan Brady: They all
Mike Smith: Nate.
Nathan Brady: they're always sneaking in. You know the they're trying to find a way. Chuck Schumer is like, I got to balance all of my donors, everybody that fills my coffers. How do I do this? Okay. When I make a statement about the obvious uh illegal uh detainment of Khalil, I have to make sure that I pepper in all the anti-semitic top talking points that I can that I can fit in there. And he does it masterfully. If I can give Chuck Schumer credit for anything, it's that man, he he is able, you know, the Nancy Pelosis, the Chuck Schumers, all of these quote unquote successful politicians have such a way with peppering in uh and and and walking that very thin line of appearing Democratic, but also, you know, not pissing off their donors, right?

00:30:12

Mike Smith: Yeah. I mean it it starts from the position of a presubmission or pre uh supposition of guilt. Here his final sentences are start with if the administration cannot prove he has violated any criminal law. It's like take a stance say that we do not see from the evidence that this this he has violated any criminal law. Make a positive you know uh uh non-passive voice stance. Say we don't see that. Be a fighter in your in your caucus. But he's just like, "Well, if they can't prove it, then maybe that's fine and it's not a big deal."
Nathan Brady: We need we need more
Mike Smith: So bad
Nathan Brady: we need more uh crockets. Uh you know we need we need more of those types. So somebody says where's AOC? Uh there was um there were 14 House Democrats that signed this letter calling for the immediate release of Ma Khalil and AOC's not on here. Now I will say I didn't dig deeply into why she didn't sign this letter, but I did go to her, you know, Twitter page and see that she's yelling just as loudly about this.

00:31:27

Nathan Brady: I'm not sure why she didn't sign this. I'm not sure why every single House Democrat didn't sign this except that I am. that I that I know the reasons and we just talked about them,
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: right? Um, so we're obviously going to be following this very closely. Uh, I this is this is really important because again, he has not done or said anything that Mike and I haven't said ourselves both both on this on this podcast, on our, you know, on our platform on Blue Sky, on other platforms, publicly in other places. If if
Mike Smith: on the street r yelling at protesters from the other
Nathan Brady: If
Mike Smith: side.
Nathan Brady: if Khalil is is considered an enemy of the United States for simply speaking his mind against the atrocities going on in Ga in Gaza, then millions of Americans are are
Mike Smith: it
Nathan Brady: also
Mike Smith: it's
Nathan Brady: deemed
Mike Smith: it's
Nathan Brady: adversaries.
Mike Smith: a really it's a really simple line from the position we see with the

00:32:30

Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: evidence we've been we've been shown it's that the first amendment protects your free speech or it doesn't and it right at the moment it looks like it doesn't if you are a green card holder or on a student visa or otherwise legally in the country, but not a nationalized p*** citizen.
Nathan Brady: Right. Um
Mike Smith: Terrifying. Frankly,
Nathan Brady: terrifying.
Mike Smith: it
Nathan Brady: I
Mike Smith: it's it's not it's not altogether surprising given the way that we've talked about this administration and their stated goals and now their, you know, executed goals. This is the plan. This has always been the plan. This is what they campaigned on. This is how Trump has always spoken about immigrants. And it doesn't even it does, like I said earlier, it doesn't matter that he's nonviolent, that he's not a criminal, that he's committed no crimes because just by virtue of him being here and from somewhere else, that is a crime in this administration's view. They've done some wrong by being, you know, born in a country other than the United States.

00:33:32

Mike Smith: Come here and become a citizen.
Nathan Brady: So I you know I am I am hopeful that uh the justice system will work in this particular case and you know so far I it seems like the the federal judge who I haven't you know I don't know much about I haven't really dug in to that particular judge but they seem to be doing all the right things in in temporarily blocking the deportation, pending a hearing, um you know, opening back up attorney client, you know, privileges,
Mike Smith: privilege. And yeah,
Nathan Brady: uh you know, all of that stuff. So, um it looks like we'll get more information on the 14th. It's still crazy that he's being detained, you
Mike Smith: right.
Nathan Brady: know, uh seemingly cut off from his family and his lawyers other than a phone call. We don't know. We haven't heard from him directly. We don't know what kind of conditions um he's being held under. Um so I mean yeah this is uh if if this fails if if Khalil is deported um

00:34:41

Mike Smith: Okay, I know I'm supposed to have like the voice that calms and all that, but but this is not the issue that that will be happening on. Um, I'm going to change your statement to a when this occurs because I feel like this is the same issue that we have been talking about since his first administration. But this is this is the same thing with um with Trump and his you know and his Doge doing things that are completely illegal and judges are ordering them to stop uh the freezes on fundings and things like that. And there's only one uh remedy to these things enshrined by the Constitution. When the president is acting in a legal way and a court rules that he must not do that and he does it anyway, the only remedy is an impeachment.
Nathan Brady: right?
Mike Smith: This house has basically said bald-facedly, we are not going to impeach the president. We don't care if he's violating the law. The same will be true for this. I believe I think that he's going to win all his court cases.

00:35:47

Mike Smith: the judges will it will order that he be returned his green card and be returned as a United States citizen having committed no crimes and you know no reason to be deported. I believe the Secretary of State will flex his duly uh appointed um powers here and have him deported anyway. And we're going to have our first case of an American citizen being deported
Nathan Brady: So, I will say speaking
Mike Smith: against
Nathan Brady: to the
Mike Smith: the
Nathan Brady: impeachment
Mike Smith: will of
Nathan Brady: thing.
Mike Smith: the judiciary.
Nathan Brady: Right. Right. Uh I I will say um regarding the impeachment, I listened to an interview with Al Green on Democracy Now. I believe it was yesterday or the day before. Um, and I I think he said he was going to do it today or tomorrow, and maybe he'll have to revise it now based on what we're seeing with Khalil, but Al Green is going to introduce articles of impeachment um in the House as as it was as early as today.

00:36:44

Nathan Brady: Um, so, you know, we're getting close to the end of the day today, but I I know it's going to happen. Um, he presented, by the way, articles of impeachment against Trump during his first term in 2017, and he and he called for it again in 2019, but the House voted to table his resolution in 2019. Um, first of all,
Mike Smith: that
Nathan Brady: why is 80-year-old
Mike Smith: that's what will
Nathan Brady: Al
Mike Smith: happen
Nathan Brady: Green,
Mike Smith: again. But
Nathan Brady: right?
Mike Smith: yeah, I mean that's a fair question. Sorry. Why is Al Green the uh the last uh vestage of of protection for the American democracy?
Nathan Brady: I mean, this this this man has to hold up his cane, you know, and wave it and yell and
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: and other Democrats are going, "Shh, you got to play. Hold up your sign and hold up your little sign. What are you doing? Be
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: good. Quiet."
Mike Smith: Yeah.

00:37:32

Nathan Brady: What about
Mike Smith: Which
Nathan Brady: decorum?
Mike Smith: Democrats? Which Democrats are saying? Oh, the decorum Democrats. Yes,
Nathan Brady: What about decorum?
Mike Smith: the Schooers and the
Nathan Brady: the president
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: of the United States is at the podium calling people the rword. You know, he's he's he's tweeting from the official White House account. You
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: know, the most insane s*** you've ever seen in your life. And and Democrats are like, I agree. We censure.
Mike Smith: And he did that with this one, too, didn't he? He he I forgot about that, but Trump did post on his true social account. He called uh uh Mammu Khalil a you know a violent criminal and and everything else, right?
Nathan Brady: Yeah,
Mike Smith: He he
Nathan Brady: probably.
Mike Smith: basically said I mean he knows nothing obviously but he he it sound I I sort of remember him doing that but I mean he spouts that sort of nonsense so often that might have been crosswires.

00:38:20

Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: That's the problem is that we've got elected Democrats who are so willing to just take the L and then campaign for more money on on it on the back of it. They would really love for this to go as horribly as possible so that they can campaign on never again Khalil and then they'll they'll match your dollars up to midnight.
Nathan Brady: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly.
Mike Smith: Jesus.
Nathan Brady: You know, they'll they'll 10x match you if you rush in your donation. Now,
Mike Smith: Exactly.
Nathan Brady: I want to I want to play this stupid uh clip from Trump, which kind of lets the cat out of the bag, right? So So, let's play this here. Let's start from the
Nathan Brady's Presentation: There's been a
Nathan Brady: Hold
Nathan Brady's Presentation: lot of
Nathan Brady: on.
Nathan Brady's Presentation: uh together and if they don't vote then what you're going to do is you're going to have taxes that are going to go through the roof. You're going to have a very bad time.

00:39:08

Nathan Brady's Presentation: You're going to have some very bad things happen and people are going to blame the Democrats. And Schumer is a Palestinian as far as I'm concerned. You know, he's become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish. He's not Jewish anymore. He's a Palestinian. Okay.
Nathan Brady: Okay. So, what the what the f*** does that even mean? Well, I'll tell you what
Mike Smith: It's
Nathan Brady: he thinks it means,
Mike Smith: okay. Okay.
Nathan Brady: right? I correct me if I'm wrong. If you
Mike Smith: No.
Nathan Brady: think my reading of this is wrong, okay, first of all, Trump thinks that Palestinian is a slur. Okay? So when
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: he says that Schumer is a Palestinian, what he means,
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: what he's trying to say is that he's pro- Hamas, he's a terrorist, he's a he lets the whole g this is the whole game plan from the GOP is that anybody

00:39:54

Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: who who sides with the opposition or goes against their right-wing extremism is a terrorist. That's
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: what he's trying to say here.
Mike Smith: Yeah. They're they're washing the ideas just like we said earlier. They're they're conflating the notion of I am pro Palestine. I am pro the Gazan people with I am pro- Hamas which are not the same.
Nathan Brady: It's not the same.
Mike Smith: That's like
Nathan Brady: Not the same.
Mike Smith: me saying I am pro-America, I am pro-reublican. Those are not the same thing and I am only one of them. It's not the GOP.
Nathan Brady: It's not. It's not.
Mike Smith: And and so they're trying to get it into the zeitgeist here that being pro Palestinian or being Palestinian is somehow, you know, ancillary to terrorists. So you're like just by having that that, you know, that stigma on you so that you just won't get anything taken seriously. So he you're absolutely right. He's trying he's trying to use it as a slur here, but their whole game plan is associate being Palestinian or pro Gazin with the terrorist uh se sex sect of Hamas and we're just going to tell that narrative that way.

00:41:11

Mike Smith: Now, that's horrible and
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: just gross at its face, but I mean, I'm not surprised by this stupid orange idiot saying it that way.
Nathan Brady: Well, speaking of idiots and slurs, uh, we'll come here so I can play this clip as well.
Mike Smith: Oh god,
Nathan Brady's Presentation: and
Mike Smith: I have
Nathan Brady's Presentation: handing
Mike Smith: to listen to
Nathan Brady's Presentation: out
Mike Smith: this
Nathan Brady's Presentation: leaflet.
Mike Smith: fast.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Yeah. I I hate this guy, too.
Nathan Brady's Presentation: Free speech has limitations, but when you go to a college campus, you incite protesting and locking down and taking over buildings and and damaging property and handing out leaflets for Hamas, who is a terrorist organization. Coming to
Mike Smith: What's
Nathan Brady's Presentation: this country
Mike Smith: doing
Nathan Brady's Presentation: either
Mike Smith: that?
Nathan Brady's Presentation: on a visa or becoming a resident alien is a great privilege, but there are rules associated with that.
Nathan Brady: Okay. So, so he snuck in two new things that haven't been said anywhere.

00:42:00

Mike Smith: No one had alleged. Yeah.
Nathan Brady: Nobody has said this. So, he's he's locking down buildings and he's he's damaging property. The school would never allow that. I want to remind people maybe like I I don't think I mentioned this before but Khalil was the lead negotiator uh between the students and the you know the Gazin encampment uh group and and Colombia. He was the lead negotiator that that that managed to have talks between the administration and that group. He was doing everything the right way. He was not involved in in damaging property. He was not locking down buildings. I mean, and
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: the media, Fox News just run is going to run this willy-nilly, you know.
Mike Smith: Right. So, just for clarification, because I think that there is that they're they're purposefully doing this in a dubious fashion, so we should inform. But at the at the end of those those uh Palestinian pro Palestinian protests on Colombia's campus, there were protesters who took over a building belonging to Columbia University and they locked it from the inside and barricaded themselves against the police presence that had come to bust heads and break up the protests.

00:43:19

Mike Smith: That definitely happened.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: He was not part of that.
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: He was not anywhere near that. He
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: was begging the police to stop like shooting people with tear gas and hitting them
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: with bats.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: So
Nathan Brady: I mean he
Mike Smith: now now that fat-mouthed idiot is conflating this thing that happened with the person who didn't do it and wasn't present or
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: party to it
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: and that's why he's being deported because he's not following the rules and he's oh gosh he's lost his privilege of being a United States citizen and it's just so blatantly evil and stupid at the same time.
Nathan Brady: And I just want to be I just want to state the obvious here. He his wife is eight months pregnant. He he knows this. He He was working within the confines of the law. He was working for peace. He was he was he he ch he was the lead negotiator.

00:44:18

Nathan Brady: He knew that he was going to be a target of, you know, of ICE. He he he states that he's always had a fear of it. He emailed Colombia several times asking what are they going to do to protect their students. I mean, the kid couldn't have done things any more correctly as as you would want a protester, somebody exercising their their their constitutional rights of to protest in the United States to do. This is exactly the type of protester you want to have in the United States. If you if you care about that at all.
Mike Smith: If you think that First Amendment freedom guarantees you the right to peaceful protest and assembly, which it does if you take the words as they're written in that order.
Nathan Brady: So
Mike Smith: any any school boy can tell you that yeah those words in that order mean that we should be we should be just raising those types of voices up they are important to have in a in in a working democracy. We need people protesting when there are problems.

00:45:30

Nathan Brady: So, um, okay. Like I said, we'll be following the story more closely, um, as it develops. We're hope to hear some good news on the 14th. Not sure we'll get it by then. Um
Mike Smith: Yeah,
Nathan Brady: but
Mike Smith: it's
Nathan Brady: man,
Mike Smith: it's the same it's the same bit over and over again. It's the well I hope that this administration does what the courts have ordered them because
Nathan Brady: but we but we can't stop putting the pressure on. But it's not it's not even on us. It's about it's it's on the people that we've elected as
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: our representatives to stand up and put an end to this. I mean, for
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: God's sakes, you know, uh, Turtleman McConnell was able to prevent, uh, Barack Ob Obama from putting a a Supreme Court justice. Uh, you know, I mean, we I know we're in the minority, but we need to be the loud minority. We need to
Mike Smith: Yeah.

00:46:23

Nathan Brady: we need to do everything we can to block these types of things to to block anything the GOP wants to do, especially until things like this get resolved. This is
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: insane. It's insane.
Mike Smith: Right. Yeah. No, I agree. Um, especially when these things feel so uh emergent, like they feel like they have real like seconds and minutes importance to us as as a nation as opposed to weeks from now. Like a lot of court cases that you hear about, you're like that'll get worked out over the coming weeks and months in the courts and that'll be fine. this this type of thing, this this overreach from the administration and its dubious legality and it's and it's obviously amoral positioning is something that feels like it deserves more attention and volume from our elected officials.
Nathan Brady: It really does. It really, really does. Like I said, we need more Jasmine Crockett. Um, we need we need more people like that who are clearly um not beholdened to to some lobby and are speaking up for what's right.

00:47:31

Nathan Brady: And I am not I'm just not seeing that. I'm seeing people tiptoeing and being worried about their political careers. And man, I I'm ashamed right now. I'm ashamed of the Democratic Party. I'm embarrassed by it. Uh I'm I'm embar I'm embarrassed by the current administration. Obviously, I'm just
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: have to say it to make sure people don't say, "What about Trump?" Obviously, what I'm upset about is Trump. And everybody says this to me. The reason why I'm so mad at the Democratic party is because of how terrible Trump in the GOP is and the fact that we're not rising up to the occasion.
Mike Smith: Yeah. We've made it very clear as as you know a third of the country has anyway that Trump and his lot are you know antithetical to our way of life and to particularly our political leanings. So, like when we elect you, the Democrats, we expect you to resonate with that and maybe, I don't know, shout it a bit. Get on the news and get loud about the fact that your constituents, the people who put you there, want you to fight this very frustrating.

00:48:43

Mike Smith: And it but I I go a different direction and say that I'm never surprised when the Democrats uh fail in this regard. They they have for many years constantly failed to rise to this need and it's it's disappointing but but you can't hurt me if I don't expect it anymore.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Um, fair. Um, okay. So, do we have other stories that we want to talk about today? I mean, I could we could talk about this one for a while. I'm hoping we get more information soon. Uh but let's let's talk about some other things.
Mike Smith: You want to talk about tariffs? There's been uh basically a roller coaster ride on the tariff front for the last week. Um I think last week when we reported this uh on the podcast, um we said that there had been like a drop in the tariffs like or or maybe a stay for Canada but not Mexico. I don't even remember because we've gone up and down on tariffs
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: back

00:49:38

Nathan Brady: Now,
Mike Smith: and forth from both countries for so long now. It's just crazy to me. I think the last that I heard uh Canada, northeastern Canada had I guess for them it's southeastern Canada, our northeast had been had imposed a 25% uh tariff markup on electricity provided to the those United States uh
Nathan Brady: right.
Mike Smith: close to the border because that's
Nathan Brady: Yep.
Mike Smith: it's a sharing of resources ostensibly. And in a response to that, Trump had come out and said he's going to do reciprocal, but then double the tariffs. He's like,
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: I'm going to make
Nathan Brady: 50%
Mike Smith: it
Nathan Brady: on steel and aluminum, right?
Mike Smith: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and so the tariff game just keeps getting played out. I think that they are Where are they now, Nate? Do you do you have anything
Nathan Brady: So,
Mike Smith: more?
Nathan Brady: right now it's still at 25%. um Trump Trump uh or the Trump team had negotiation with Ontario's premier and said, "Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Please

00:50:37

Nathan Brady: don't please don't do the uh the electric tariff thing and we'll we won't do the 50% thing. Like let let everybody calm down." Uh
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: and then obviously the Trump team is trying to spin that as a win. Um there are still uh there are now a ton of exemptions um now for Canada, Mexico, and China
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: uh that are all getting added back. Um and but the the Trump administration is planning to implement global reciprocal tariffs and 25% additional tariffs on lumber and copper starting on April 2nd. So they're they're still going. They're they're Uh
Mike Smith: So there's no end in sight for tariffs is what
Nathan Brady: there
Mike Smith: you're saying.
Nathan Brady: there's no there's no end in sight. It's only going to get worse. Australia, I think, is is starting to talk about
Mike Smith: That was
Nathan Brady: reciprocal
Mike Smith: the latest as
Nathan Brady: tariffs.
Mike Smith: of today. Yeah, I saw
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Uh so I mean it's um this is so stupid.

00:51:33

Nathan Brady: Uh every everything Trump does is he he's trying well he's trying to spin everything as a win, right? Because the way that Trump sees this trade war or or or global economics as a whole is that there has to be a winner and there has to be a loser. He doesn't
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: see it any other way and he
Mike Smith: He's
Nathan Brady: has
Mike Smith: a
Nathan Brady: to be the winner.
Mike Smith: he's a capitalist. So he thinks that the world revolves around capital and pretty much nothing else. So it's an exchange of goods and services for capital. And the country with the most capital wins for lack of a better explanation.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: Um, ignoring of course that there are people involved in this process somewhat as well. Uh, because
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: that's sort of important and a lot of capitalists forget that.
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: Um, I I just looked this up because I was curious about the Australia thing and I I just was trying to figure out what Australia even exports to the US.

00:52:36

Mike Smith: And um it's like sheep and goats meat is one of their big exports as well as vaccines. Weirdly enough, apparently that's
Nathan Brady: H.
Mike Smith: one of the big issues that maybe they're taking uh there, which I'm surprised. I'm not surprised to hear about um you know, meats and things like that because they have a lot of grazing space, so they I know that
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: they have a lot of cattle. I know they have a lot of sheep, um
Nathan Brady: large
Mike Smith: pigs,
Nathan Brady: large spider meat I believe they have as well.
Mike Smith: spiders and steaks. Delicious.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: Yes. But it's it's just funny that you would pick a fight with that be like, you know, it' be like him being like New Zealand, you like New Zealand,
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Yeah.
Mike Smith: what?
Nathan Brady: It does it doesn't make any sense.
Mike Smith: But it's
Nathan Brady: Um
Mike Smith: a global trade war ostensibly because he's imposing tariffs on literally every country. Even those I guess we're no longer in the uh the uh the big free trade act anymore.

00:53:30

Mike Smith: We're out of that. So that doesn't matter. There's no allies any longer. It's just we're going to get ours economy be damned. How
Nathan Brady: um
Mike Smith: how how are the stock markets handling that Nate? Are they uh
Nathan Brady: the
Mike Smith: are
Nathan Brady: the
Mike Smith: they
Nathan Brady: stock
Mike Smith: doing
Nathan Brady: markets
Mike Smith: well
Nathan Brady: are
Mike Smith: or
Nathan Brady: not handling um the tariffs very well and the and the uncertainty of it all and like yeah I think it was funny I I forget where I saw the post but somebody somebody posted a screenshot of you know 25% % tariffs, then 50% tariffs, then back down to 25%. And they called it the first intraday tariff chart that
Mike Smith: Yeah. It's like
Nathan Brady: has
Mike Smith: a tariff
Nathan Brady: ever existed.
Mike Smith: market. Yeah.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Uh and and yeah, this the stock markets, the global markets are not responding to that well. I mean, obviously there's uncertainty

00:54:16

Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: for businesses in the United States. They don't know how much it's going to cost to make their product. They don't know how much it's going to cost consumers. Consumer confidence continues to drop. I I
Mike Smith: And we're we again, I know we said this in the last one, but it's it's becoming more prevalent. I'm hearing from my relatives in Oklahoma, for example, uh who, by the way, I do not see eye to eye with politically at all, but I'm hearing this from them now where they're saying like we're seeing signs like at I think Walmarts probably for them, but but in other stores like that, big chain stores, Target, Walmart, etc., saying that they're seeing signs that prices are going to go up because of the tariffs and we're sorry, but there's nothing we can do about it. And people are like, "Wait, what do you mean? Wait, what do you mean?
Nathan Brady: Wait. Huh?
Mike Smith: What do you What do you mean things are going to go up?" And

00:55:08

Mike Smith: then they're like,
Nathan Brady: Huh?
Mike Smith: they're showing pictures of stuff like they bought it last week and then they're showing the price this week. And I'm I'm hearing more about the eggs. I
Nathan Brady: The
Mike Smith: saw
Nathan Brady: leopard.
Mike Smith: an
Nathan Brady: The
Mike Smith: 11.99
Nathan Brady: leopard eating my
Mike Smith: a dozen eggs uh in Oklahoma this last week. $11.99 an egg for a dozen eggs. That's $1 per egg.
Nathan Brady: That's
Mike Smith: Jesus
Nathan Brady: insane.
Mike Smith: Christ.
Nathan Brady: That's insane. So, the the leopard eating my face party is actually eating faces.
Mike Smith: I'm Yeah. And so I have um not firsthand uh accounts of these. This is secondhand through my family. But uh the thing that that became very clear was they are very pro- tariff until they're shown only through dollars what tariffs do to them.
Nathan Brady: Well, they don't even
Mike Smith: They
Nathan Brady: know what
Mike Smith: they
Nathan Brady: they
Mike Smith: have
Nathan Brady: don't.
Mike Smith: heard explanations of what tariffs will do and they don't believe it.

00:56:01

Mike Smith: And now that the tariffs are in place and the stores put up the signs saying sorry prices are going up because of tariffs. Here are the new prices. And then they yell at the people working there for minimum wage. They still have to pay those prices. Now they're anti-tariff.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: So
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: it's
Nathan Brady: Exactly.
Mike Smith: it's
Nathan Brady: But it's
Mike Smith: very
Nathan Brady: always the
Mike Smith: very
Nathan Brady: way.
Mike Smith: telling.
Nathan Brady: It's always the way. It doesn't matter. I I like they're all for it until suddenly it happens to them. We could do a whole show on people affected by Trump's deportations that that voted for Trump that people that are affected by the Doge cuts that voted for Trump. Farmers that are affected by tariffs and the floodings in California from Trump turning the water on that are, you know, that voted for Trump and are now hurt by him and that are suddenly going, "Huh?" It's the

00:56:46

Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: same. It's it in in you know the the the morbid example of this is when when we saw people dying antivaxers dying from COVID there you know taking off their mask at their last breath to their to their relatives either on the phone or behind you
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: know
Mike Smith: Protection.
Nathan Brady: uh
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: you know behind glass say I wish I had taken the vaccine you know with their dying breath you know and this is this is to a lesser extent that same thing you are you are consistently voting against your own interests because you either think it it can't happen to you or
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: haha I'm gonna own the libs
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: or it's just it's just because you're so teen Trump or you know teen this one side you think everything the other side does is bad and and your side can do no harm that you keep you keep voting this way and it takes getting punched in the gut for you to realize that Uh maybe maybe this isn't the right way to do it,

00:57:48

Mike Smith: We're we're
Nathan Brady: you know.
Mike Smith: and it's just going to keep happening. you know, the the the voters have a combination of a striking lack of empathy and then just, you know, uh impetuous hubris like they just oh and then when it finally hits them that this is happening to them and it's because of their actions is the only moment where they realize it. I don't mean to laugh at people in their hardships obviously, but there are just
Nathan Brady: Okay.
Mike Smith: so many the measles thing. We talked about measles last week. These are the these staunchly antivaccine RFK fanatics in Texas and they're now at the point where their children are con uh are getting measles and being hospitalized and being physically hurt and in some cases which we'll see more of soon I'm sure are dying because of this. And it's not until those moments where they realize that they've lost everything that they're willing to say, "I wish that I had done differently.
Nathan Brady: And I I want to quickly point out I think on the last episode we uh or I mentioned that RFK was trying to compare the number of measel outbreaks in the previous year to the number of measles outbreaks in 2025 saying hey Look, it's less than 2025.

00:59:11

Mike Smith: February
Nathan Brady: And you're like, it's only February, but I want to officially announce that today the number of measles cases in 2025 has officially crossed the entire year in 2024. And so, unfortunately, this is spreading. It's getting worse. Um, it's not
Mike Smith: And
Nathan Brady: it's
Mike Smith: like
Nathan Brady: not going well.
Mike Smith: Yeah. And it's like we said, it's one of the most one of the most contagious viruses out there. It has debilitating long-term effects for many people and it can cause death in young children and adults. And so
Nathan Brady: So I
Mike Smith: we're
Nathan Brady: listen
Mike Smith: in a really bad place with that.
Nathan Brady: vaccine vaccine mandates is something that we can debate you know all the time. Uh I I understand
Mike Smith: They don't care
Nathan Brady: certainly
Mike Smith: about I want to just be really quick on this, but
Nathan Brady: okay.
Mike Smith: they don't care about that.
Nathan Brady: Okay.
Mike Smith: The
Nathan Brady: That's
Mike Smith: administration will never, the current one will never mandate that you get a vaccination.

01:00:07

Mike Smith: And they want you to think that that's as far as it goes. But they are going to try and dismantle the scientific studies,
Nathan Brady: so that's what
Mike Smith: services
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Yeah.
Mike Smith: offered
Nathan Brady: Exactly.
Mike Smith: around vaccination as a practice.
Nathan Brady: So, so what am I what I am saying is that I know people who I care about who have lost their job because they refused to get a vaccine. Um, and there were reasons behind it. Uh,
Mike Smith: That's
Nathan Brady: I
Mike Smith: fine.
Nathan Brady: know I, you know, there are even
Mike Smith: That's
Nathan Brady: medical reasons behind
Mike Smith: your
Nathan Brady: it
Mike Smith: choice.
Nathan Brady: that that I understand and it's it's your choice. And so this isn't the argument that I'm making here. The argument is what you just pointed out is that this administration doesn't want you to see the science. They don't want to do any. They want to dismantle science. They don't want there to be any studies.

01:00:51

Nathan Brady: They just want to come out and tell you what's bad and you take it at face value and that's the end of it. It's the same it's the same thing with what Congress has done for the last 20, 30 years or whatever it's been where they don't want to do studies on gun violence because if
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: you you actually
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: saw those studies,
Mike Smith: Because if
Nathan Brady: you'd
Mike Smith: you
Nathan Brady: see
Mike Smith: study
Nathan Brady: the reality.
Mike Smith: them
Nathan Brady: You'd see the reality of the situation. Um,
Mike Smith: Yeah. No, it's another mechanism of control. I mean
Nathan Brady: right.
Mike Smith: it it right because currently vaccinations in their current uh incarnation are ostensibly controlled substances. It's sort of like uh illicit drugs and things like that, right? Like you can't get human growth hormone
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: without like your
Nathan Brady: Sure.
Mike Smith: doctor's approval and heavy involvement like but okay, but you can't get a vaccine without the government's approval and letting this go out widespread this way.

01:01:40

Mike Smith: And so
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: there's a difference between not advocating as a government for mandatory vaccinations, which is one thing, and a lot of people feel that way, and I think that there's an argu there is a moral argument to have there. But then for them to say also we're not going to make it easy for you to get vaccinations. In fact, we're going to make it difficult to get them because we're going to not if not outlaw them that make them so there's so much bureaucracy in the way between you and your vaccine that it's basically impossible.
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: That is a different argument that you will never win. It's it's
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: just a mechanism of control.
Nathan Brady: And I I I want to just point out, you know, I I hear RFK say incredibly incorrect things all the time, but one of the things that he he has said regarding measles. Um I don't have the clip right now, but he he said this is that, you know, if if if we if there were no vaccines for it, well then people would gain, you know, people would get it and they would gain immunity from it and that would be the end of it.

01:02:45

Nathan Brady: And okay, let's go back and look at the charts from before vaccines and you can see exactly what you can see exactly what was happening. Uh it's just simply not true. Um
Mike Smith: I
Nathan Brady: in fact,
Mike Smith: mean, the survivors got immunity for it, but
Nathan Brady: Sure.
Mike Smith: you had to
Nathan Brady: Sure.
Mike Smith: let so many people die for that to be true. It's just it's it's not a moral stance to take. You're basically saying, I'm I want to take this this uh scientific breakthrough that has saved millions and millions of lives, and I want to do away with it. Basically, killing those millions instead because the survivors will just have immunity anyway, and they won't have these dubious side effects from from immunizations.
Nathan Brady: I
Mike Smith: These
Nathan Brady: don't
Mike Smith: are
Nathan Brady: think
Mike Smith: cases
Nathan Brady: we want
Mike Smith: I assume.
Nathan Brady: Yeah, I don't think we want four million uh four million cases of the measles. I don't think we want that.
Mike Smith: Yeah.

01:03:51

Mike Smith: For for those of you just listening, Nate's sharing some graphs with us on on how vaccinations specifically have impacted the number of lives uh with the measles vaccine, but also tonight uh uh sorry, tetanus, whooping cough, tuberculosis, and polio is probably
Nathan Brady: Now
Mike Smith: the
Nathan Brady: I
Mike Smith: worst
Nathan Brady: I
Mike Smith: one
Nathan Brady: want
Mike Smith: of
Nathan Brady: this
Mike Smith: them.
Nathan Brady: to to to this kind of speaks to what you were just saying. This is number of lives saved by vaccination. And this is obviously a rough estimate, right? But it is if you gave every child in the US measles, which would effectively happen if you didn't have a vaccine for it, there'd be a certain percentage of those that would die. That's just how it how it works. Okay? And from 1974 to 2004, it the estimate is 93.7 million lives have been saved from the measles vaccine. This means that it didn't spread. It didn't get to these people. And the estimated percentage of people that would have died didn't die because of the vaccines.

01:04:52

Nathan Brady: Tetanus
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: 28 million people. Whooping cough 13 million people. You know, polio 1.57 million people. Vaccines save lives. So yes, we can have the discussion over mandates, over your rights. You know, I believe it should be between you and your doctor, what's best for you, what's best for your health. But if it's simply a I'm going to trust what the government says to me, what I'm gonna trust what a former heroin addict uh you know who who admittedly has brainworms is saying to me without seeing any of the science, you're not doing yourself any favors and you're hurting people around you
Mike Smith: Yeah. And and I think that in a lot of this a lot of people lose the idea of scope here. I mean 93 million people is a little
Nathan Brady: over
Mike Smith: more
Nathan Brady: 30 years.
Mike Smith: over 30 years is is a little more than losing everyone in California twice.
Nathan Brady: It's it's 30% of the US population, right?
Mike Smith: Yeah.

01:05:50

Nathan Brady: I mean, it's
Mike Smith: Like
Nathan Brady: it's
Mike Smith: I I need everyone to understand the scope here. I mean, you're talking about, like you said, is probably more accurate, like a third of the United States over this 50-year period would die from measles.
Nathan Brady: so I I I have a hard time balancing or understanding where the people who are um you know, Elon Musk for instance, very anti- anti-declining birth rate. We got to do everything we can uh
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: to to
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: increase the birth rate. So, here are the things that the GOP is doing to help increase the birth rate. Making it unlivable for the working class to have children. Uh,
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: you know, uh, m putting out a bunch of scientific disinformation so that people don't get vaccinated and die. Um, only caring about babies in the womb until after they're born and and then die. Uh, you know, so what the hell
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: are you talking about?

01:06:44

Mike Smith: It's it's how I know that the entire thing is a grift from people like Elon Musk because they don't actually care about population size. If they cared about population size, they'd want to keep people alive and they'd want them to be healthy and thriving and
Nathan Brady: And
Mike Smith: an efficient, performant part of the economy because that's what they care about. But if you're trying to do aways with the measles vaccine, well, that's not what you're doing. You just want babies to be born. You don't actually care if they survive. That's not
Nathan Brady: and
Mike Smith: important to you.
Nathan Brady: I mean this is this is just biology. This is just science. Okay? If your bodies uh understand that it's in a an environment where that it's thriving, you're more likely to want to have children. That's just biology. That's just kind of how humans are built. And we are we are in a situation now where it's there are families that are that are you know waiting in line for bread.

01:07:33

Nathan Brady: You know I mean that's just
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: the way it is. Uh
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: you know they're not getting families are not getting enough vitamins in their household. They're not eating enough food. They're seriously stressed. Lots of anxiety. Uh and it's not
Mike Smith: And
Nathan Brady: getting any better.
Mike Smith: but that's that's the whole that's the whole I mean it gives the game away when you think about that exercise that we're we're going through here, right? Because you the they the billionaires uh they need these people to exist because they're in the grinder. That's what the economy runs
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: on is the
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: people who do these things. And so
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: if for instance you had cheap and afford cheap available and affordable like contraception as an example, uh then you might still be having that that sex that you love so much but maybe not the babies that the economy demands.
Nathan Brady: But if if for instance one person in the household could easily support the entire family, whether it be the the the the mother, the father, whatever type of household you're in, one person

01:08:37

Mike Smith: Mhm.
Nathan Brady: could support the family, you'd also be more likely to have children, right? And if you
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: have children, you're still, you know, the more children you have, the more you're going to be a consumer in the economy, right? You're going to have to buy more things for your kids and bigger homes and bigger things and bigger whatever. I mean, there there's clearly they don't care about the long-term benefits of the working class. They care
Mike Smith: No.
Nathan Brady: about getting rich now, benefiting themselves, and they don't care if the working class is the are the ones that are going to pay for it.
Mike Smith: And to be clear here, Nate's talking about all of the elected officials, not just the GOP. This is Schumer. This is the Democrats who bend the knee on the budget bill that's coming through. Like, these are the elected officials because they're they're richer than you and I will ever be.
Nathan Brady: I
Mike Smith: That's
Nathan Brady: mean,
Mike Smith: just
Nathan Brady: Nancy

01:09:30

Mike Smith: that's
Nathan Brady: Nancy
Mike Smith: a
Nathan Brady: Pelosi
Mike Smith: fact.
Nathan Brady: like clasps her hands at the young little kids and tells them to shut up while she gets her insider stock information, you know? So the people who are mad, like the people on the right who are mad at like Nancy Pelosi, turn around and look at the
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: people behind you because there are people like Mike and I and other people with left-leaning politics that can do both. We can
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: see that it's happening on both sides. So grow up. You know,
Mike Smith: Yeah. and and maybe uh call your elected official and tell them that they're doing a terrible job. That's
Nathan Brady: that's
Mike Smith: what
Nathan Brady: a
Mike Smith: we
Nathan Brady: good
Mike Smith: should
Nathan Brady: place.
Mike Smith: do. If
Nathan Brady: That's
Mike Smith: you if
Nathan Brady: that that's
Mike Smith: you're a Dem,
Nathan Brady: a good note.
Mike Smith: you should call your elected official and tell them that they're doing a really bad job of representing you against this horrible, horrible administration.

01:10:16

Nathan Brady: That's a good that's a good note to end on. Uh call call your reps. Um
Mike Smith: Call
Nathan Brady: call them
Mike Smith: your
Nathan Brady: about
Mike Smith: reps, like and subscribe, leave a comment. Bam.
Nathan Brady: in that order and if you can
Mike Smith: In
Nathan Brady: only get
Mike Smith: that
Nathan Brady: to
Mike Smith: order.
Nathan Brady: one, do the first thing, but then you know if you can do the first thing, do the other ones.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: All right. Um okay. Thanks everybody for joining us today. Um, we're gonna we're gonna uh keep an eye out for for all of the all the latest news and developments and all the stories that we talked about today. So, again, like Mike said, be sure to like and subscribe. You can uh find us on our website at blue-sedition.com. We couldn't put blue sedition together because it looks like Blues Edition.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: Uh, you know, so uh and then also you can find us on uh Blue Sky.

01:10:59

Nathan Brady: All of our uh links are in the uh on our bio on on YouTube. Um, but that's where we're most active is on Blue Sky. Uh, so until next time everybody, thanks for listening and we'll see you next week.
Mike Smith: Thanks everybody. Appreciate it.
Nathan Brady: All right,
Mike Smith: Yeah, it wasn't as horrible as it could have been.
Nathan Brady: it could have been worse.
Mike Smith: Didn't even get to go into the silly Canada. That's okay,
Nathan Brady: We
Mike Smith: though.
Nathan Brady: got We got fired up a little bit. That was good.
Mike Smith: We did get fired
Nathan Brady: Good
Mike Smith: up
Nathan Brady: enough.
Mike Smith: a little bit.
Nathan Brady: Was good enough.
Mike Smith: It's good enough, they'll have to deal with it. This is
Nathan Brady: They'll like deal with it. No, not
Mike Smith: If you stopped
Nathan Brady: sharing
Mike Smith: the transcription
Nathan Brady: you,
Mike Smith: and
Nathan Brady: I didn't.
Mike Smith: all
Nathan Brady: That's okay, I take I've been doing the thing
Mike Smith: I
Nathan Brady: now,
Mike Smith: can
Nathan Brady: or
Mike Smith: stop
Nathan Brady: I
Mike Smith: it. I'm gonna stop
Nathan Brady: I just
Mike Smith: it.
Nathan Brady: I just take the summer. No, don't stop it.
Mike Smith: I didn't stop it.
Nathan Brady: All right, I take the summary that I get from the notes.
Mike Smith: Really.
Nathan Brady: And I just use that, it's really good.