Trump is Judge, Jury, and Executioner in International Waters

00:00:00

Nathan Brady: taking notes. I'm taking notes. I'm remembering how to do this. Okay, here we go.
Mike Smith: I don't I am Mike Smith.
Nathan Brady: Oh boy. Hey everyone and welcome to another episode of the Blue Sedition podcast. I'm your host, Nate Brady, alongside my co-host. Hey, Mike.
Mike Smith: I'm back to share the news with you.
Nathan Brady: We're back. It's been a month. Uh, we went on a little hiatus. I mean, we were still on our socials. If you follow us on Blue Sky, um, we had a short or two come out on on the YouTubes. Um, and a lot has happened in the last in the last month, which isn't shocking if you've been alive since 2015. Uh, and this month that we uh have
Mike Smith: Yes. And longtime listeners will recall that we complained that every week feels like a month or two in in this this world. Oh Trump sending troops to every, you know,
Nathan Brady: been absent feels like a couple years worth of news has has happened from the Charlie Kirk assassination um to I I mean I I there's so much floating around in my head I can't even uh I

00:01:25

Mike Smith: Democrat major city in the United States.
Nathan Brady: guess that's a thing where we're where uh but but that's good, right? Like uh we have troops in Chicago now, in Portland, um in DC. Uh I that's good, right? Just the National Guard just roaming the streets for is that not good? Yeah, it doesn't seem good, guys.
Mike Smith: Not great. No, it's uh very GPA Gaspacho.
Nathan Brady: Um, and you know, it's really unfortunate because the trend in all of these places is that crime has is down and has been down.
Mike Smith: No, Gestapo vibes. Just very secret police type stuff going on.
Nathan Brady: And I don't know if you saw uh JD Vance maybe yesterday or the day before um you know a reporter basically asked him what's the justification for this when crime is down and he's like well no crime isn't down it just wasn't reported because they were so overwhelmed at the at the bureaus that report these statistics that they just didn't enter anything.
Mike Smith: Yeah, it's it's very telling that they're living in an alternate reality.

00:02:32

Mike Smith: They're just they'll they'll yell any lie that they can to further their goal, which is basically a military takeover of the United States.
Nathan Brady: It's it it it truly is scary. And they're going to use the fact that the the trend continues to go in the right direction. Uh they're going to use the fact that because of the National Guard being there, that's what has caused the results when in reality we were already trending that way. and they're going to use that as the justification to invade more cities. Um, I don't know if you saw Trump today was talking about taking the World Cup away from Boston because he doesn't like the mayor. He was talking about taking the Olympics away from Los Angeles because he, you know, how he feels about California.
Mike Smith: Well, he doesn't have any say over that.
Nathan Brady: Um, neither of which he can do.
Mike Smith: That's Yeah, that's like him claiming.
Nathan Brady: Sure. Uh, but as Okay.
Mike Smith: Yeah, never mind.
Nathan Brady: Okay. So, so then let me ask you this.

00:03:28

Nathan Brady: Can he uh kill Venezuelans uh off the coast of Venezuela, 1400 miles from Florida, if he feels like they might be members of a drug cartel?
Mike Smith: Okay.
Nathan Brady: Can he do that?
Mike Smith: I don't know the answer to that. Uh my guess is the answer is yes with a bunch of asterisks.
Nathan Brady: Well, Uh yeah, the answer is
Mike Smith: I remember a time when certain Democrat presidents were, you know, drone striking people without any habius corpus or anything else either. So there's there's some precedent for that. Do I think it's good? No. Really?
Nathan Brady: the answer is he probably can't do that. Um but he's doing it anyway. And uh yeah, he's doing it anyway. And just today um there there was another strike uh which now I think the total is 27 uh 27 Venezuelans um at least 20 at least 27 people have been killed um from the Trump administration's coordinated attacks what on what they're calling narco terrorist networks um with no due process um No, no transparency, no proof provided, just we've we've killed these three people on this on this boat.

00:04:52

Nathan Brady: And here's an image. Um the the caption says it's from September uh 15th and shows the the US military strike on a boat that was allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela. Um now again, I I just said it. This is these drone strikes are happening about 1,400 miles from Florida for some context, right? Like uh Nebraska is 1,600 miles from Florida. I mean, you know, this this stuff isn't isn't happening that far away. Um, and it's and it's scary that they're they're not providing any any any pro even Okay, let's let's play devil's advocate, Mike. Okay.
Mike Smith: Right. Right.
Nathan Brady: Um, there's a couple of kilos of fentinel uh in the back of that that boat there that we can see in the image here. Um, and we I we don't know where the boat is headed. Maybe they're going to another country in in um South America. You know, we don't we don't know what's happening here. But let's say there is proof that there's fentinel on the back of that boat.

00:06:05

Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: Um, right.
Mike Smith: So, he's got the intel on it.
Nathan Brady: So drones strike and set everyone on fire in the boat. Is that correct? is that.
Mike Smith: I think that that seems like a heavy hand.
Nathan Brady: So now I mean it does it certainly seems like a better use of our armed forces um to maybe
Mike Smith: Like if you know the boat's there, I mean, just deploy the Navy and like go on board, seize the drugs, and then, you know, I don't know, send them to the jail of your choosing, right? If they're committing that kind of crime
Nathan Brady: g given that they had jurisdiction um investigate something like this or do as you said you know intercept the boat um verify that they have on board what you believe the intel is saying that they have instead of maybe sending troops to DC where they're getting sandwiches thrown at them. I I I just I uh I'm having a hard time. And of course, you know, if you say any of this to anyone on the right, then it's like, oh, so you're okay, you know, so you're justifying these uh fentinel dealers who are killing our children or killing Americans or whatever.

00:07:21

Nathan Brady: Um, and that's just not how that's not how any of this works, right?
Mike Smith: Well, it shouldn't be, right? I mean, you want to like I was alluding to the Obama era doing drone strikes on would be terrorist targets in the Middle East before and like these are the same sort of circumstances, but I feel like that the terms are higher, right? They're alleged. They they claim to have intel proving that person X is, you know, known terrorist, sympathizer, coordinator, conspirator, etc. And they need to perform, you know, one of these assassinations on him because it's, you know, it's an eye for an eye. He's been killing people and you need to stop the killing. Whereas in this case, it's like, well, these people are transporting stuff, stuff you don't like, maybe dangerous stuff, but they're not breaking any of your laws. They're right. They're not in your water space. As far as I can tell, it's international waters, right?
Nathan Brady: Well, I mean I and once again, we're doing the the whole like, oh, I'm going to do this and then basically tell Congress, not even ask for forgiveness, but where where we know it's supposed to be the other

00:08:22

Mike Smith: Like, so there's a lot of weirdness going on here where I'm like, you shouldn't be able to just kill people and say that they deserved it.
Nathan Brady: way around. And um congressmen on both sides of the aisle um have said they haven't received any evidence, physical evidence or otherwise, that there were narcotics or cargo logs or anything to verify that there were drugs aboard these vessels, just
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: straight drone striking them. And now I don't know about you, um but I I'm not sure that I trust like the cash patells, etc. of the world to provide credible uh evidence that that to to the contrary basically I I just don't
Mike Smith: Yeah. Well, and we're obviously not in in uh in the security spaces, so we wouldn't have this sort of information, but like what if what what where are you getting this information, right?
Nathan Brady: there's but there's been no independent yeah where and I mean sure There there can there there can be situations like that where maybe they do, maybe they have informants, maybe they have something like that.

00:09:36

Mike Smith: You have a man on the ground and he saw them put it on the boat or what? What are we talking about here?
Nathan Brady: It all goes back to well I mean seems like this is something that Congress should authorize. Um, and even even if there were drugs on the boat, um, is this approach the, you know, just murdering everyone on a boat, murdering human beings on a boat.
Mike Smith: Right. And you could and you could, like I said, you have the world's greatest navy in terms of both size and manpower. Just send some boats out there, board them, and you've solved the problem, right? But I guess it's it's too expensive to do that is probably the rationale. So that we need to we need to go now. We can get a drone up there in 15 minutes. It's going to take a week to get, you know, some cruisers out to intercept them.
Nathan Brady: And you know, I think it's also important to talk about what Pam Bondi said uh the other day uh which well okay well well th this this is just concerning and Pam Bondi said publicly that

00:10:41

Mike Smith: Never true. It's never important to talk about something Pam said because it's a lie. I don't know what she said, but it's a lie.
Nathan Brady: she was going to take the same approach on Antifa uh Antifa as as they're taking right now with the drug cartels referencing that recent military action um on these alleged
Mike Smith: Right. So that tells me that this is probably also made up. This doesn't because Antifa isn't a real thing. So these guys where they claim that they have like drug support, it seems like you probably just made that up because you wanted to kill some Venezuelans.
Nathan Brady: Right. And well, so now the concern is it feels like every time they they're testing the waters, they're dipping their toe in the waters to see how much they can get away with it.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: They're getting away with it. You know, you would you would think the first time the first three people they murdered, they'd be like, "Okay, now we're up to 27."
Mike Smith: Oh, yeah.

00:11:36

Mike Smith: No one's going to stop him now. I mean, it's it's brown people.
Nathan Brady: And they're they're like, "All right, let's just keep going. No, who's stopping? Who's gonna stop us?
Mike Smith: I mean, yeah, the people in America, white folks in particular, aren't going to care about nameless brown people murdered on a boat under the pretext of saving America from the drugs they're bringing in. Nobody's going to care about that. That's the problem. and and like you said, they're towing the line and they're going to keep moving these sorts of actions closer and closer to American shores, closer to the border, and keep getting away with it as a rallying flag for their voter base of we're doing it. We're we're doing the thing we said we were going to do, and we're being successful.
Nathan Brady: I am I I would make a prediction that if we stay on the course that we're on right now, that before these four years are up with Trump in office, we will be drone striking illegal immigrants that cross the border on our side of the border.

00:12:41

Nathan Brady: We will be drone striking people. Um that I mean yeah my counterpoint to that is the the ocean's pretty massive too
Mike Smith: I mean, the only the only lucky thing about that is that the border is so massive that I doubt that would be very effective in practice, but you I I mean, it's not not great that that's the that's the direction.
Nathan Brady: surrounding South America. But um here we are Yeah, I'm not I'm not sure.
Mike Smith: Yeah, but this looks like a tanker and it's moving at like 20 knots. It's not going fast.
Nathan Brady: I'm not sure if that's Well, no. I mean, if it kill only killed three people, I don't know that this is a tanker, you know. Um I don't know what kind of boats these are that that we're picking off, but um and and in any event, it's it's bad, man.
Mike Smith: All right. But it's bad.
Nathan Brady: Um so, what do we do? What's the next steps here? What's uh how do we how do we stop this?

00:13:35

Nathan Brady: Uh, seems like somebody in Congress needs to step up and say, um, maybe we maybe you can't do this.
Mike Smith: Yeah. I mean, what we do is as American citizens is we keep protesting as much as we can, just stating loudly and boisterously to all of the people who are not paying attention that we don't stand for this. The public opinion on a lot of these things is not going the direction that Trump wants it to. He's losing a lot of favorability even from his base because of these peaceful protests and the way ICE is treating them. Pam Bondi again will get up and say, "These people are violent and blah blah blah." But then videos come out of, you know, ICE details shooting pastors in the head with pepper bullets and they're like, "The optics aren't good for the Trump admin." And he's losing the war on opinion.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. And I'm I'm not sure that matters to I mean if if you're a a president in his final term, probably in the final few years of his life, um I can't imagine I can't imagine that optics are uh important to you at this point.

00:14:48

Nathan Brady: Um, well, I mean, no, I think I think his goals are proxied through project 2025, right?
Mike Smith: Yeah, but then I don't know what his goal is, right? Most people, you know what their goal is. When Trump was younger, you knew his goal was money and power. If he knows he's in the last few years of his life, is his goal still money and power?
Nathan Brady: I think it's what what's Stephen Miller's goal is he's he's listening to people like Steven Miller who want to do everything they can to eliminate brown people, immigrants, uh, etc. from the American way of life.
Mike Smith: So he got his money in power and now he's now he's towing the party line as it were. He's doing his part.
Nathan Brady: That's that just seems like I don't I don't see any other I mean there are certainly things that Trump is still doing that that head toward that money and power thing we talked about the crypto scams all these other business deals that he's doing. He wants Trump hotels in Gaza, you know, all of that nonsense.

00:15:45

Nathan Brady: So, he's certainly still doing all of that. But now he, you know, but he has white supremacists, uh, Stephen Miller and Project 2025 authors constantly in his ear.
Mike Smith: right and Fox News on his Okay.
Nathan Brady: Um, so I I I I think that Yeah, exact exactly that. So, um, I don't see this going I don't see this ending anytime soon. uh a a a resolution um on the the the what the to limit his power under the war powers resolution. I don't think that passed. I think that they they attempted that earlier a couple of weeks ago. Um but I don't I don't know now.
Mike Smith: Yeah. before the government shutdown.
Nathan Brady: Congress is gone. The government shut down. Um,
Mike Smith: Again, this is, you know, we should talk about the government shutdown for sure. Um, they've they've they've been trying to get every portion of the government that does any sort of outreach or or messaging with the public to blame it on the Democrats. And thus far, it has been ineffective.

00:16:55

Nathan Brady: right.
Mike Smith: So again, he's he's losing the optics battle on many many fronts and I don't see his goals as being sustainable without public support. Given that the government is shut down and so many people are not receiving paychecks or will receive back pay, you're only going to get people working for you on the promise of you will get paid again someday for so long. And and so I mean there there's a lot of of you know soft political science going on that they're losing ground on.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. I mean, I'd like to uh
Mike Smith: I want to believe that we're going to hold on to democracy for another couple of years and we're going to have some votes and this this optic stuff is going to matter. But but I have to admit it's a bit dark at the moment. So I'm going to I'm going to ground you. I'm going to take that position. I'm going to say we're going to have some elections and I think the optics will matter.
Nathan Brady: I think we're gonna I think we're definitely going to have midterm elections.

00:18:01

Nathan Brady: Um, I think my my worry is Democrats aren't going to take back the House. Um, I'm seeing some real dumb moves. In fact, why don't we just why don't we just go right why don't we just go why don't we just why don't we just go right right into it um into our next story.
Mike Smith: What kind of dumb moves, Nate? What kind of dumb moves? Why don't you tell me what kind of dumb moves? Janet Mills. I thought she died.
Nathan Brady: Now listen, I think I'm not from Maine, okay? I don't know much about Maine politics. I know I've we I think we even played the video a couple of months ago where Janet Mills retorted to Trump, you know, uh st standing up to him and said, "I'll see you in court."
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: Um hey, great. You know, that's awesome. Janet Mills is 77 years old. Okay.
Mike Smith: Okay.
Nathan Brady: Um, she is she would be 79 years old at the time she would be sworn in to the Senate should she defeat season Susan Collins and win the main Senate race.

00:19:17

Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: Um, is she the right is is is that really the right choice?
Mike Smith: Well, you know, a Senate seat when won gets you six years as a senator. So that would make her 83 when she'd be up for reelection.
Nathan Brady: Uh, well, 79 + 6 is 80. 85. She She's 77 right now.
Mike Smith: I thought you said 77. She's 79. Oh, she she will be 79. Oh god.
Nathan Brady: She'd be she'd be se Yeah, she'd be 79 when she's sworn in. Um, now listen, he's got he's got huge momentum.
Mike Smith: No, it's not the right choice. The right choice is Graham Platner, the oyster farmer. He has to win. He's got the Bernie endorsement.
Nathan Brady: Um, polls Absolutely.
Mike Smith: grassroots momentum as well. I'll point out that there's a difference between having momentum on like television or media presence versus actually having people in your state know who you are and wanting to vote for you. We're seeing it in Mandani's case, too. Mandani in New York has has that same thing.

00:20:23

Mike Smith: No energy unlike CNN or anything. They won't put him on there. They won't put him on Fox, but he everybody in New York City knows him. Everybody seems to like him. Everybody wants to vote for him.
Nathan Brady: Massive, massive energy from Mum Donnie.
Mike Smith: Let's see.
Nathan Brady: Just real quick, did you see the video of the the woman that yelled at him while he was getting on his his uh bike? And so he's getting on his bike.
Mike Smith: No, I didn't see that.
Nathan Brady: He's surrounded by people. People are waving. He's getting on his bike. He's going, you know, through downtown or wherever he is. Um and somebody yells communist. Uh and he and he just turns and quips and he goes, "Oh, it's pronounced cyclist. It's cyclist." I I very much enjoyed that. Um, but yeah, no, Platner has that same energy. Um, and you know, I'm I am seeing him. It's probably only because of uh, you know, the targeted ads for me, but I'm seeing him all over my social media, you know, Instagram and and Blue Sky and and whatever.

00:21:20

Nathan Brady: Um, but the polling I saw a poll a couple of weeks ago that assumed Janet Mills was going to get into the race and head-to-head I it was basically even between Janet Mills and Susan Collins and then it
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: had Platiner beating Sus beating Susan Collins like by six or seven points.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: And that reminded me of I don't know uh polls that came out in late 2015 that had like Bernie Sanders beating Donald Trump by you know um a much bigger margin than uh now granted it still a lot of polls still had Hillary Clinton beating Trump not by as big of a margin. Um, and a lot of those polls ended up being wrong because they underestimated the uh ground swell and kind of grassroots energy that Trump had as well. Trump also had the added benefit of CNN airing all of his rallies and the and all of the big media outlets talking about him all the time too, which Mum Donnie and he still has that.
Mike Smith: Yeah, he still still has that problem.

00:22:24

Mike Smith: He can get on TV and talk at any time. I mean, he's the president now, so that's sort of understood. But man, when when will traditional media learn?
Nathan Brady: I mean, it's something.
Mike Smith: Sorry, legacy media.
Nathan Brady: Yeah, and you're exactly right. I think I shared today with some expletives on Blue Sky that uh GQ magazine did an interview with freaking Nick Fuentes. Like, does does anyone in the world need to know about Nick Fuentes?
Mike Smith: What?
Nathan Brady: Like, why are we why are we platforming this guy? And this is the kind of stuff that uh CNN was doing with Trump. um that you're just getting it in front of more people to have have at least some people go, "Huh, women shouldn't vote. Uh it should only be people that look like me. I like what this guy's saying." You
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: know, we don't need more of that. Um so anyway, uh point being, the Democratic establishment, in my opinion, continues to make the wrong decisions.

00:23:23

Nathan Brady: And if we don't shape the hell up, um the midterms are going to be scary where I I feel like it should just be massive swings for the Democrats at this point. Um,
Mike Smith: It should be and it should be of the variety that that we're talking about here. these people who are also upset with the democratic norms because facing facts, Chuck Schumer and leadership in general in the last decade have been flaccid in the best of times and then downright counterproductive in the worst. Like it's it's not it's not a good look and it's disenfranchising Democrat voters. It's certainly disenfranchising independent left-leaning voters. We've seen fewer and fewer people turning out for votes for on on Democrats in elections that matter from the middle. And it's because of this I'm going to keep trying to go to the middle messaging that they do. It actually turns people away. They just don't vote.
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: They're like, I'm afraid that I'm going to lose the vote of this guy who has always voted right and called himself an independent.

00:24:28

Nathan Brady: Exactly.
Mike Smith: So, I'm gonna alienate the ones who sometimes vote left by by trying to be more like the right guy. Doesn't it's just it's not good messaging.
Nathan Brady: It doesn't make any absolutely Oh my god.
Mike Smith: It's a bad strategy. James Carville has ruined the Democratic party.
Nathan Brady: So it it takes us to now we have I I mean let me you look at Chuck Schumer and um um Adam Schiff and those guys and I just have to wonder. I mean are they are they are they scared of Trump or are they kind of there's only two options to in my mind. you're you're scared of Trump or you're kind of glad this is happening and you like some of it. I mean, what what's the what's the other option?
Mike Smith: Yeah, I I I think that there's a well so I ascribe to uh Han Lun's razor never ascribe to malice that which can be uh satisfactorily explained by incompetence. So, I honestly I I see what you're saying and you know, the the skeptic in me definitely feels that, but I just think that they're playing a different ballgame and and losing at it.

00:25:50

Mike Smith: Like, they think that the right strategy is to try and court these middle voters, you know, a third of whom vote right no matter what, and alienate themselves against their far-left constituents. So, they lose votes on the far left. They don't get that those votes from the middle and then they pat themselves on the back every time they lose. And the few the few times they actually win they they see see I told you I told you that this was the strategy and then never change.
Nathan Brady: I you come you come to me with all of our research and I open the binder and it says here's what's here's what's extremely popular in America.
Mike Smith: Mhm.
Nathan Brady: uh universal health care, gun control, um you know, all of these uh you know, for lack of a better term,
Mike Smith: Let's say, well, hold on, hold on. You're talking about positions, and those positions we understand they're not going to vote for because it's bad for business. Like, that I get and and I think that's plainfully out in the open.

00:26:49

Mike Smith: Pelosi and Schumer and all these other guys are playing the stock markets with their insider knowledge and making a ton of money off of it.
Nathan Brady: but that moves them that moves them to the right. That means that their donors want them to go after those people that are center left or even even closer to the to the right than we are than than the majority of Americans who believe in those policies, those
Mike Smith: Sure.
Nathan Brady: that that healthc care for all, that gun, you know, gun control, ed, you know, free education, those kinds of things. And that's where it seems to me not malice but but um in the best interest of their donors as opposed to what's in the best interest of Americans because if I wanted support from American voters, I would my
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: part my platform would be those things that are the most popular with the majority of Americans.
Mike Smith: Let me let me I agree with what you're saying. Let me couch what you're saying with another thought that popped into my head, which is we're seeing these grassroot movement candidates polling extremely well in in several of these these uh races like this this one here in Maine.

00:28:10

Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: And I think that there's a lot a lot of the reason for that is partially due to I'm not it's the same messaging that Trump had in 16. I'm not a politician. I haven't been working in in the government for all my life. I'm a regular Joe like you. And here are the six things that I believe we should be focused on in the next Senate. Right? Like that's the that's the simplest message you can give. And I think that that resonates with a lot of disenfranchised voters who are really sick of the status quo. The the the incumbents that are there have failed them for the last 20, 30, 40 years and they're like a breath of fresh air. I would gladly vote for this person, right?
Nathan Brady: I I mean you're Yeah.
Mike Smith: And and that's bad for business, right? So, like I see why they're putting in, you know, these geriatric uh Senate runners, but they're just trying to keep the doors open.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: I'm like, you guys got to got to fold it up.

00:29:12

Mike Smith: You're just going to lose all the way until we're in this fascist country that nobody gets to vote anymore.
Nathan Brady: So, a little bit more about Platner just so people know. So, right now, I I think I mentioned so Platner uh and Collins, there's there's initial ballot tests that show Platner and Collins are tied at 38%. Well, Mills actually has a five-point lead over Collins. There's another uh survey that was done where respondents are shown bios for each of the candidates, Platner and Collins, and that they found that once people find out who Platner is and his positions, he has a 14 point lead overall.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: 14 points.
Mike Smith: And that and that's what I'm saying is if you get into the election season and he's got any kind of war chest, he just goes on TV and he's like, "I'm not a politician. I'm trying to get these these idiots to re it in. I'm an oyster farmer from Maine.
Nathan Brady: I'm an oyster farmer from Maine, you know.
Mike Smith: You probably know me and here's what I stand for.

00:30:08

Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: And then like he's run gang buster on them.
Nathan Brady: Uh and he has he has uh I don't know if you've seen any of his town halls. He's doing town halls where he's I think he is um correctly not attacking people or like well immigrants are gonna steal our germs and he's like now let's let's listen and let's break that down you know and he he he's doing it really well. Um so if if I'm the Democratic party and I care that this seat goes to a Democrat or Republican, which they don't.
Mike Smith: which they don't.
Nathan Brady: they care that it goes to an establishment Democrat versus a Republican. Um, and if not, they're happier with the Republican than the progressive.
Mike Smith: That's the other thing that I think well that's true but the other thing that that makes me think that it has more to do with establishment versus not is that they keep making these picks.
Nathan Brady: As we've it's pretty clear, right?
Mike Smith: They're like Janet Mills is sort of famous in Maine.

00:31:06

Mike Smith: I mean she's governor so she'd be uh well known in the state name recognition but again career politician career politician.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Name recognition in in Maine, right? Right.
Mike Smith: there is a nonzero swath of the of the voter base who will see that like those two words and go, "Oh, I'm not voting for her."
Nathan Brady: Career. End of her career. Politician, right?
Mike Smith: There are a ton of other reasons why people won't vote for her and there will be a ton of reasons why people will. But I think one of the things the Democrat party in particular has difficulty with is is just embracing grassroots movements because they perceive it as too risky as compared to it's a governor. The governor is going to win her own state, right?
Nathan Brady: Right. And then you know the argument of some of these people that are entrrenched on the on the establishment side is well you know once once Trump leaves we have a lot of work to do to clean up. Listen, if we don't have people that are going to be in that are in office that are willing to stand up and fight, there's not going to be a when Trump leaves, you know, right?

00:32:06

Mike Smith: And what changes are you actually espousing? like how let's let's go to this fictional world where we're post Trump and post MAGA nonsense and you have control of all three chambers again.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: What do you do? How do you improve things?
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: Do you have any ideas?
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: Like can you propose some sort of like are you going to put enact some laws that would actually re in the powers of the executive which Scott claims is basically you know ultimate and unlimited.
Nathan Brady: Right. Right.
Mike Smith: Do you have you said that you're like he's doing these things he shouldn't be doing?
Nathan Brady: Uh, right.
Mike Smith: I'm like make a law about it when you get back into power I guess.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. And and you you could be screaming about screaming about it right now. And I again, I would rather have a Graham Platner than a Chuck Schumer. I'd rather have a JB Pritsker. Okay, at least.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: I mean, again, there's plenty of reasons for progressives to not be happy uh with a choice like Pritsker.

00:33:12

Nathan Brady: But he stands up. He says, "Come and get me, a******." You know, you I believe in the in in law and the Constitution. He literally said today. He said today, "Come and get me. I'm not afraid of you." Okay? That's not something you're going to hear from Hakee Jeff. That's not something you're going to hear from Chuck Schumer. Okay? They're they're that's not them. They're not the stand up and fight. If we had, you know, 50 of those guys in the Senate, things would look a lot different right now. Um and and we don't. So we need Graham Platiners and not know what you know not trying to be agist but 79year-old Janet Mills I don't think is going to have also the energy to do what needs to be done over the next six years. So I think we can move on from that. Uh, you have anything else you want to say on
Mike Smith: God, it's depressing. At the very least, I'm happy people are, you know, attempting this fight, like willing to take on the because it's challenging.

00:34:30

Mike Smith: You know, you can imagine trying to be um a grassroots person who's just sick enough that you've decided you're going to run for Congress and then actually get some traction with the people around you, make some get some donations going and actually start a platform that you're, you know, speaking toward. It's just it's crazy. I love it, but it's hard.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Um, I think I can we can briefly touch on another story that that something decent came out of the Supreme Court today where they rejected uh they rejected to look at Alex Jones appeal on his $ 1.4 billion verdict um to the to the Sandy Hook families.
Mike Smith: Got us.
Nathan Brady: So, um, not that I really think the the the families are going to see much or any of that money, but the further the continuation of the liquidation of his organizations uh, and his assets to help pay for this I I will enjoy. Um, I think I don't I don't remember.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: I remember I remember the Onion had purchased Infowars and then it it it had stopped going through maybe because of appeals processes.

00:35:46

Nathan Brady: Now, I don't know if I don't know where that stands, but um Okay.
Mike Smith: Yeah. So, The Onion failed uh earlier in an attempt to acquire Infowars through bankruptcy auction. Uh and then uh but I'm just reading this now. According to Jones's lawyers, there is a new attempt underway in Texas state court given the outcome of the Supreme Court not taking up his case. So, I think that they thought that they might have had an out with Scotas. And when Scotas didn't take up the case, they're like, "Okay, we really have to to start selling things. because they're in bankruptcy and eventually if they don't actually make good uh good faith like payments or like actions against that bankruptcy, then it just gets seized. Like the the pe the Sandy Hook families will just take them like they'll get the access, they'll get the keys, they'll kick them out of the building. Like they have to do something to try and cobble back any of the protections afforded to them under bankruptcy law.
Nathan Brady: So, that's great news.

00:36:46

Nathan Brady: I I'll continue on the great news trend uh a little bit more. Waapo is running out of readers willing to pay. I I I have to be honest. Even if it's a a rag that I like paying that that I like their reporting on, I don't understand paying for news, just regular news.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: I mean, it's not like WPO is coming out with these insane investigative journalism pieces and then paywalling them. I'm just talking like if I want to read news about what happened at the Pentagon earlier today with Trump, I can get that 500 different ways.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: Why would I pay for a subscription to WPO for that?
Mike Smith: Well, so there are a lot of reasons, but but mainly it's it's a legacy reason as I understand it.
Nathan Brady: Okay.
Mike Smith: So you would pay to read the news from credible, you know, record of the day so that you knew that it was factual.
Nathan Brady: Sure.
Mike Smith: You knew that they had some stance on it.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.

00:37:52

Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: Uh for the last, we'll say hundred years, but probably not quite that long. There has been uh an upswing in quote unquote credible news sources who have tried to launder themselves amongst those other more credible news sources like in years past the New York Times or or the Washington Post or any of these other these other establishments. And at first they would run news stories without slant and become the paper of record alongside their sister's paper of record. And in I would say the last 40 years, the masks have come off many of those who actually are wolves and sheep's clothing and started slanting all their articles to let's say not report fact as fact and throw opinion mixed in with fact to try and sway their readers one way or the other. Um, it's hard especially, I mean, okay, Wapo aside, I don't care about them. They were bought by Jeff Bezos and they were basically given a mandate of write things that are more right-leaning. That's the only way to make money and they're bleeding money, which is good objectively because that's just wrong.

00:39:12

Nathan Brady: hilarious. Is that go woke go broke? Am I doing that right?
Mike Smith: It is. It is.
Nathan Brady: Okay. Okay.
Mike Smith: But my concern is that as we're seeing from the Trump administration time and again on all of their mouthpieces, it just we're in such a postfact reality at the moment where it doesn't matter what I say as long as I say it with conviction and I get my people to believe me.
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: And in years past, newspapers had the gumption to write Trump lies about blank. Pam Bondi lies about blank. and they would put it in the paper that you are a liar. Come and bite me.
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: With these establishment legacy medias like Wavo being purchased by these by the billionaire class and basically being turned into an something that's not distinct from those other news sources that ended up being the wolves and sheep's clothing. They blur the line between the paper of record espousing fact as it was uh witnessed versus the postfact reality people who just write whatever they want to write about and they parrot the lies of the administration.

00:40:31

Nathan Brady: Right. Yeah. Right.
Mike Smith: So on the one hand I'm clapping for WPO's demise. On the other hand, we're losing credible sources of truth, and society can't tell the difference between fact and fiction.
Nathan Brady: Uh, a hell of a time to Right.
Mike Smith: You and I, you and I know this. You and I know this firsthand. We get a lot of our news online from social media, from word of mouth, from articles posted from trusted news sources.
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: and that the the news sources that we trust and and you can we have lists of them on our blue sky if you want to see.
Nathan Brady: s sources that we trust.
Mike Smith: But that list of credible news sources is becoming smaller and smaller and in many cases less and less credible as time goes on and and it's it's becoming difficult for anyone to tell what the reality is anymore.
Nathan Brady: That is true.
Mike Smith: as we were we were talking about the that art that that the the the reporting on the Venezuelan ship that was that was drone struck.

00:41:37

Mike Smith: You know, there's no hard evidence. There's no journalistic uh digging. And so all we have is the word of people in the administration that this was a drug cartel, a narco boat or whatever they called it, and they had to be eliminated.
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: And that's all the public will get to hear because nobody in in in like in Wapo for sure, but in any of legacy outlets will say, "Prove it."
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: Like like are you going to put in the headline that the Trump administration assassinated, you know, uh, Venezuelan, uh, Boers and then in the subtext be like accused of crimes that was never proven.
Nathan Brady: Yeah, it's right.
Mike Smith: Like that's the way you have to come at that, but nobody's going to do it.
Nathan Brady: It's going to take uh like a like a Marissa from the Handbasket or you know one of these other small indiv investigative journalists that we follow to to get to the bottom of it to get to the truth of it because it's no longer going to be the Wapos of the world that are going to do

00:42:38

Mike Smith: I think and this is this is again me playing the the optimist but I think that there will be a postTrump post MAGA democrat democratic America. America someday, hopefully soon. And I think that from this, we're in we're in a great turmoil in terms of news sources right now. And I think that from this, we will see many of the the names that you just said and others come out as pillars of journalist journalistic integrity willing to report hard facts as they're known as opposed to, you know, the alternate reality that everyone sees. I think hand basket is great.
Nathan Brady: Yeah, I got Right.
Mike Smith: I think ProPublica is great. And I think that these people, these organizations are going to see a ground swell as people look for what is factually true given all the horseshit I'm being shoveled by everyone else.
Nathan Brady: Exactly. Exactly. Um, I got to tell you though, you've caught me. We used to joke in the beginning of our podcast um uh during the uh pre runup to the election last year that we we were very uh uh swinging emotionally.

00:43:49

Mike Smith: Awesome.
Nathan Brady: We had our good days and our bad days. And you caught me on one of those days where it's very hard for me. Um I'll give some context here. Last night I was scrolling uh or my my wife was scrolling on Facebook and she showed me a video. Um, and at first glance I was like, "Holy s***." Like, "That's crazy." Um, and she's like, "Yeah, I can't believe it." And she scrolled past and I was like, "Give me give me that." And I took the phone and I scrolled back now because we're in tech and we're very, you know, attuned to all of the all of the new AI tools and everything that's coming out.
Mike Smith: Yeah. Yeah.
Nathan Brady: I look I I look to the right and the bottom to see, can I see the Sora uh logo? because it pops up on the right and then it pops up on the bottom and then it pops up on the top. And it purposely does this watermark to kind of prevent what we're afraid is going to happen that it's already happening is that they're going to produce very realistic videos that look real and that you no normal human being

00:44:43

Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: is going to be able to discern them from a real security cam footage or whatever. And then I saw it little pixelated. Right when the logo would come up, they blurred they blurred it to blend in with the background uh color.
Mike Smith: I don't know.
Nathan Brady: And then I saw it on the bottom and I was like, "This is yeah, this is AI." But she never would have known that.
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: The majority of Americans won't know that.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: And we're we're going to get to the point where that watermark gets removed. There's going to be other models that are going to do that. So my worry is we're we're we're dude that's that's in their road map guarantee.
Mike Smith: Well, I I was just going to say like what what's to stop, you know, Sam Alman from being like, if you pay me enough, I will get your sor video to not have the watermarks. Like that's c that's the capitalism end goal of these these Oh, yeah.

00:45:40

Nathan Brady: If that's not in their road map, I'm you know, strike me down because that is literally I'm I guarantee you a premium feature coming soon. remove the watermark for, you know, if you're a pro, you know, they have like a $200 a month pro account. It's probably already allowed in that one. But nonetheless, there are plenty of video editing tools that make removing that very easy. Um, there's other ways, right?
Mike Smith: Right. At least at least like you said, it makes it so hard to discern that you have to have a really critical eye for it. And most consumers aren't going to have a critical eye when they see, you know, this ragebait AI or whatever it is that just just gets the dopamine kick for a second and they move on and they think that
Nathan Brady: And And we we talked about, right, we talked about this uh I think our our last show or the show before.
Mike Smith: that's real.
Nathan Brady: We're only like a year or so, man, a couple years into like the jokey Will Smith eating spaghetti looked ridiculous to to literally I mean it's hard for me to know whether it's AI or not.

00:46:36

Mike Smith: Yeah. Yeah.
Nathan Brady: and I work in the space. Now, where are we going to be in three years during the next presidential election? I mean, every single uh opposition, dark money, whatever it is, is going to be looking at ways to put out damning video evidence of your opponents that is going to be impossible to discern from reality.
Mike Smith: And unfortunately, without a paper of record, the only shield to that is the candidate saying that it's fake news, which again plays into their playbook because they've been shouting fake news for years, but only about real news.
Nathan Brady: Right. Yeah. I think there is a I I I forget who it is. There's somebody that we follow. Um it might be Matt Novak. Um, it's one of one of those people is is currently calling out like they're that if a if an AI video goes very popular, goes viral either on Blue Sky or on Twitter or whatever and and he'll he'll
Mike Smith: All right.
Nathan Brady: repost it and say this is AI, this is how you can tell.

00:47:50

Nathan Brady: I think there is a uh an opening for somebody to create the kind of record of hey this this is an AI video the what's the what's the a snopes basically the snopes of of videos
Mike Smith: So here and and we have a and we have a latency problem.
Nathan Brady: I think that there's a a space for that right now but I think we're only like we're less than a year away from reg from even expert experts, not even being able to tell that a that a video is AI.
Mike Smith: What we have is people consuming things as they're being released because that's how verality works, right?
Nathan Brady: Of course. Right.
Mike Smith: And by the time an expert reviews it, it's old news and nobody cares.
Nathan Brady: It's too late. It's too late.
Mike Smith: And you're never going to get through to somebody who believes that that was a real thing.
Nathan Brady: Right. Right. I mean, that's already in your head. That's already affecting your decisions. It's not nothing's going to change that.

00:48:50

Nathan Brady: Uh I mean literally and and we just talked about at the beginning of this episode how the news cycle is moving so fast that the only way to keep up with it is consume and move on.
Mike Smith: Yeah. It's it's like Mandela except it's happening on the the minute scale as opposed to decades.
Nathan Brady: You know, consume, quick reaction, move on, you know.
Mike Smith: Well, and they're c they're banking on that. That's one of their key plays. I think that there was a leaked memo from I believe it was Stephen Miller, but maybe I have that wrong, but it was his flood the field uh game plan where he doesn't really care what the news is as long as you're just making news every second of every single day. You know, he went on TV last week and said that that the president was basically a god and then sat in dead silence on the air for 10 solid seconds while the guy looking at him just like, "The
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: f*** did this guy say?" And

00:49:41

Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: then he just didn't back down.
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: He's like, "Did you mean that?" And he's like, "Yeah, I meant that." We're like, "What? You
Nathan Brady: Um, okay. There's one more story I just wanted to touch on um that I don't I don't know if you put it in the show notes, but I'm going to I'm gonna Jesus.
Mike Smith: love Hitler. What?
Nathan Brady: Uh, you know, I I think if you're a regular listener uh to our show and one of our uh followers on Blue Sky, you won't be surprised by any of this, but um there was uh young Republicans uh leaked Telegram messages. Um a couple of the groups throughout the country were worried that their Telegram chats got leaked and they did. Um, and some of these messages are exactly what you would expect from the I love Hitlers to, you know, uh, anti- anti-Semitic stuff to, you know, Trump third term to gassing the opponents, you know, all of that stuff. Um, and we didn't get to go on the air.

00:50:54

Nathan Brady: We didn't get to we could have we didn't get to do a podcast um after Charlie Kirk died uh and talk about kind of his effect on upand cominging Republicans that kind of college level even even preol level um adolescent teen boy and what it means to be a Republican. But people always, you know, the people that are on Charlie Kirk's quote unquote side would say, "You never listen to the full context." Um, and these people have they understand the context. These these young Republicans are they chose the Republican side for a reason. And I don't think that if you saw leaked messages of Democratic Socialists for America, you know, youngsters, I think you would see them talking about how do we how do we get healthc care for all Americans, you know, how do we how do we stop this uh this race baiting? How do we stop this attack on immigrants in our country? I think there's a huge ju just justosition here. Um I don't I don't I don't know where else to go with that other than this is super disturbing 4chan.

00:52:29

Mike Smith: Yeah. I mean, it's it's your classic right-wing bloggy type stuff. Like, I think of all of the the u the uh what do you call it? Editorials. I've read over about Fortune or you know that that sort of group think. Um and it's not really surprising to me.
Nathan Brady: Sure. Yeah. I mean, yeah, of course I wasn't I wasn't surprised by any of this. Um but I just wanted to point out that when we talk about um how these youth groups are popping up, um we need to be mindful that uh it's a lot of this because these are still kids. Um, and they're being who are easily manipulated.
Mike Smith: Yeah, for sure.
Nathan Brady: Um, I was going to say the same.
Mike Smith: I see it a lot actually when I drop my kid off at school. Um especially during election season, but a lot of these kids and I'm I'm guilty of it the same way, but you know I Yeah.
Nathan Brady: I know where you're going.

00:53:33

Mike Smith: But um I I will say that the one thing that I think I've seen from my experiences and you know that'll your your results may vary is that the kids okay my kid I'll speak about my kid. I teach him about empathy and like relating to other people and like how do you think that they feel about that? How would you feel about that if you were in that situation? And that sort of that sort of mentality when I see the kids who are like proTrumpers in the run-up to the the 24 election, they were football fans. They were my team's going to beat your team. I don't care how you feel about anything. I don't know how I feel about anything, but my team, the red team, is the best and they're going to win and neerener to you. Like that's the takeaway essentially.
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: And and it's just It's just kind of funny to see that juxtaposed on children where you're just like, "Yep, that's that's American politics. I see it." That

00:54:38

Mike Smith: the left wants to try and help people and the right wants to win. And I think that the right right now is being manipulated by a grifter who can ride that wave to money and power. Your team won. You're the best. Congratulations. Ignore the fact that I have, you know, made myself several billion dollars richer. you guys, you're the real winners. And then you get four years of waving flags and calling the other guys, you know, names in your telegram.
Nathan Brady: Right. Right. No, great point. Um I guess one more note to end on is um did Trump win the Nobel Peace Prize?
Mike Smith: No. No, we did not.
Nathan Brady: Okay. So blowing up people in Venezuela, sending troops into your own, you know, countries, cities. Um, this wasn't that wasn't it.
Mike Smith: That wasn't it. And you know the funny thing I saw this reported this morning and I I just wanted to talk about it a little bit is that the right has like lost their mind about it.

00:55:36

Nathan Brady: Okay.
Mike Smith: They're like he deserves it. He's basically ended the war in Ukraine and he's ended the war or the genocide in Gaza. They don't call it that, but I will. And I'm like very quick to point out and be like, uh, candidate Trump in 2024 running up to the election got on the phone with Netanyahu and begged him not to make a ceasefire deal with Biden because he was afraid that it or not with Biden. Yeah, with Biden because he was afraid it was going to help Harris's numbers.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. With Biden. Yeah. Right.
Mike Smith: He's like, I don't want peace. No peace in Israel or Gaza because it helps my opponent.
Nathan Brady: Just kill more people until Yeah.
Mike Smith: Yeah, just keep going.
Nathan Brady: Exactly.
Mike Smith: Just keep going.
Nathan Brady: that a sign of a of Yeah.
Mike Smith: And then you and I will work a deal and it'll be great for everybody. And the same was true in Ukraine. Like he he wanted stuff from from Putin and when he wasn't getting it, he's finally decided like, damn, I actually have to help Ukraine.

00:56:37

Mike Smith: f***. He's just so self-centered.
Nathan Brady: And by the way, I I love it.
Mike Smith: And it's so funny that they won't give him an award for something that he didn't do. I I love that he's going to go to the grave and his like I beg that his last thought is god damn it that black president won a Nobel Peace Prize and I couldn't
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Um Okay, that's a great place to end. Um Trump does not win the Nobel Peace Prize. Um so I guess that still has at least some credibility for now, unlike the like uh Medal of Freedom that we're just doing out to like Rob Schneider and whoever the f*** now.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: So, uh, yeah.
Mike Smith: Well, you know, the Nobel Peace Prize is is uh awarded by not America, so it can be a little, you know, concerning.
Nathan Brady: Um, all right.
Mike Smith: It can pick its pick its uh candidates more discerningly.
Nathan Brady: Hey, we finally got an episode in. Um, we're going to try and get back on a regular schedule. Um, Mike, do you have anything you want to add before we we end today?
Mike Smith: Like and subscribe. Leave a comment down below. It really helps with engagement.
Nathan Brady: Do do that.
Mike Smith: Thanks.
Nathan Brady: All right. Thanks everybody. Until next time. All right. Good show.
Mike Smith: There you go.
Nathan Brady: We did it.
Mike Smith: We did it.
Nathan Brady: Pulled out an hour