Midterms, Maps, and Maxwell

00:00:00

Nathan Brady: Hey everyone and welcome to another episode of the Blue Sedition Podcast. I'm Nate Brady alongside my co-host.
Mike Smith: I'm Mike Smith, everybody. Welcome back.
Nathan Brady: Hey. Uh,
Mike Smith: It's great to be here.
Nathan Brady: how was how was your break, Mike? Did we break? Did we break?
Mike Smith: I broke. Yes.
Nathan Brady: Was there a break?
Mike Smith: Yeah, breaking was involved. I was good, you know.
Nathan Brady: There was
Mike Smith: Had a had an easy one. Laid low.
Nathan Brady: Yeah,
Mike Smith: Ate bad food. Well, I mean unhealthy food. Watched some hand egg. It was great.
Nathan Brady: you watched some Hand Egg. Um,
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: yeah. Hold on a second. I have to And now, now, of course, as soon as soon as we start the podcast, right?

00:00:53

Nathan Brady: Uh, I got um pornographic filth coming into uh my Discord server. I know it's just how it always how it always happens. Uh, you know, you try to start something and then speaking of pornographic filth and Super Bowl, this is a really good segue. Okay, that wasn't a setup. This was actually a real segue. Um, there was apparently a pornographic halftime show. Do you know anything about
Mike Smith: Are they talking about like uh the Janet Jackson
Nathan Brady: this?
Mike Smith: thing like the wardrobe malfunction or what are we talking about?
Nathan Brady: No, I'm talking about the Kid Rock uh halftime show.
Mike Smith: Oh, did he expose himself to underage kids again
Nathan Brady: Yeah. I I I don't know. I didn't I didn't I didn't actually watch it because that's uh horrifying.
Mike Smith: or
Nathan Brady: Um, yeah. I I don't know anybody personally that watched the Toilet Paper USA uh halftime show. Do
Mike Smith: can't say that I do.
Nathan Brady: you?
Mike Smith: I only remember one song from Kid Rock.

00:01:56

Mike Smith: Has he made more songs or is he just playing that over and over again?
Nathan Brady: I from what I from what I heard um I think it was just that one one song on repeat. Um,
Mike Smith: Okay.
Nathan Brady: and he was lip-syncing to it and he forgot the words to his own song.
Mike Smith: That's That's just beautiful.
Nathan Brady: So, yeah. So,
Mike Smith: That's
Nathan Brady: I guess I there there was a little bit of that. Um, but no, I wanted to talk about the the the halftime show and the response to the halftime show uh from from Bad Bunny. Now, like 250 million Americans or so, um I didn't understand a word.
Mike Smith: I didn't
Nathan Brady: Uh I didn't understand a word of the halftime show.
Mike Smith: either.
Nathan Brady: Um and still somehow I thought it was um both visually impressive and uh moving,
Mike Smith: You did.
Nathan Brady: you know.
Mike Smith: I think I fall into the other camp.
Nathan Brady: I did I did
Mike Smith: I think I fall not the other camp.

00:02:53

Mike Smith: I fall into a camp of It was a fine halftime show. It was fine.
Nathan Brady: I was I was moved by
Mike Smith: I was I'm not aware of like any of his music or anything,
Nathan Brady: it.
Mike Smith: so I was just like, he performed it. Good
Nathan Brady: Yeah. I mean, I I think there were there were some scenes that were pretty powerful.
Mike Smith: job.
Nathan Brady: I mean, um climbing up on the electrical poles as like a like a a nod to the uh you know, power issues that Puerto Rico is is struggling with.
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: Thanks. Thanks, United States. Um, I think that was powerful. Um, you know, a lot of people thought that the moment where he was handing the Grammy to that young kid was a was a reference to Liam um in in Minneapolis, but it was not. It was a, you know, like a reference to his younger self. And he had some great some strong messages in there like, you know, hey, uh, you know, ju just a few years ago, if I stopped believing in myself, I wouldn't be at the Super Bowl halftime show, you know.

00:03:53

Nathan Brady: believe, you know, never give up on your dreams.
Mike Smith: Yeah, sure.
Nathan Brady: Believe in yourself.
Mike Smith: Normal off,
Nathan Brady: Together we are America. God bless America. All things you would think that conservative patriots
Mike Smith: right?
Nathan Brady: uh would be a message that would really resonate with them. Um but for some reason, I g I guess it didn't. I Who knows? Um and so now instead of um everybody just agreeing, okay, you whether you liked it or you didn't like it, that we have calls from uh Republican lawmakers uh asking the FCC and Brendan Carr to step in because uh it was disgusting and it was pornographic filth and it was just I
Mike Smith: It's it's really rather telling that that they're not even doing dog whistles anymore. They're just like, "We want to make it illegal to be a brown person and have any success." Like that's I think that that's what it boils down to because anybody watching the halftime show could see that there's probably the least quote pornographic thing that has been on football for a long

00:04:59

Nathan Brady: I mean, of of all the halftime shows,
Mike Smith: time.
Nathan Brady: you know, including the one Bad Bunny, and a lot of people don't know, Bad Bunny was actually in a NFL halftime show before. Um,
Mike Smith: Or was he?
Nathan Brady: yeah, he performed with Shakira. He came out and did a whole a whole song with her.
Mike Smith: Oh,
Nathan Brady: Um yeah,
Mike Smith: I didn't know that.
Nathan Brady: and and that was um if if you want to call any halftime shows pornographic, I mean that was certainly more more uh provocative than than his was.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: I mean, for God's sakes, he had a heterosexual wedding uh live like live on the field.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: I mean, what more do these people want,
Mike Smith: Yeah. I don't know.
Nathan Brady: you know?
Mike Smith: He was playing to a lot of their uh their their uh strengths, you know, the thing, like you said, the things that they parrot and and and champion the most. So, it's hypocritical at the very least.

00:05:55

Nathan Brady: I think AOC had a great response. I don't know if you saw I think it was today.
Mike Smith: I didn't see any response from AOC.
Nathan Brady: She she uh um she was at she was in the halls of Congress and and and a reporter asked her, you know, uh what do you think about, you know, millions of Americans not being able to understand Trump Trump saying millions of Americans couldn't understand you know what he was saying and she said I can't understand what Trump is saying half the time. So, you know,
Mike Smith: It's a good answer.
Nathan Brady: that's a great response,
Mike Smith: It's a good answer.
Nathan Brady: you know.
Mike Smith: Why do you That That was the thing that I I didn't understand.
Nathan Brady: So,
Mike Smith: I don't speak a lick of Spanish, but like like I said, it was fine.
Nathan Brady: yeah.
Mike Smith: It was enjoyable. I It doesn't bother me that it was speaking Spanish.
Nathan Brady: So,
Mike Smith: Would I have enjoyed it better if it was in English?
Nathan Brady: in I mean,

00:06:39

Mike Smith: Probably not.
Nathan Brady: I looked up the lyrics. I was like, "Okay, what's this song? Was it?" And I and I you know the the first song was like and I'm excuse me guys, okay? I'm not a Spanish speaker. I don't have it up in front of me. It was tita. I don't know. I'm going to get roasted if that's wrong.
Mike Smith: Just just give me the sentiment. What's it
Nathan Brady: But it but it was about like uh his aunt I think asking him when are you going to settle down?
Mike Smith: about?
Nathan Brady: You you got so many girlfriends but you're never gonna you know when are you going to give it?
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: I'm like, really? Like, this is what this is what's got conservatives like all fired up?
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: I mean, give me a break. And then, of course, just just post a couple of Kid Rock lyrics if you really, you know,
Mike Smith: I'm
Nathan Brady: okay, come on.

00:07:24

Nathan Brady: I mean, there's the lyric that's floating around the most right now is the one where he talks about uh, you know, wanting to be with underage girls and it's not statutory, it's mandatory. I mean, that's a literal lyric from a kid rock song. So that just shows you that this is just it's just
Mike Smith: I'm Yeah, I'm really starting to see I mean we all are I think uh just how
Nathan Brady: nonsense.
Mike Smith: prevalent that sentiment is with the Republican party or the elected officials in the Republican party. Um, so it's not surprising that they don't find that, you know, alerting or alarming,
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: but they find somebody speaking Spanish,
Nathan Brady: And and
Mike Smith: you know, a slap in the face of the American who what what are you talking about? Also,
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: it's it's a football game.
Nathan Brady: Exactly.
Mike Smith: Like, you don't it's there's nothing sacred about it. You know what I mean? Like, it's it's a football. Get over it. There will be a new person in it next year.

00:08:22

Nathan Brady: Get over it.
Mike Smith: Like I
Nathan Brady: It's a Exactly. It's a literal 15minute.
Mike Smith: don't
Nathan Brady: And they're like, "Well, you know, the it should be an entertainer that speaks to all Americans, blah blah blah." Listen, Bad Bunny was the most downloaded artist on Spotify last year, you know,
Mike Smith: was he really?
Nathan Brady: in the United States.
Mike Smith: Oh, I didn't know that.
Nathan Brady: He was the most most downloaded.
Mike Smith: No, there's so much about him that I just don't I didn't I haven't doing any digging. You're my You're my facts guy.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: You go do the digging for me and you bring these things up to me and I just blows my mind. like, wow.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: I mean, good for him. Great
Nathan Brady: So, you're the most downloaded artist on Spotify. It sounds like that's the artist that you're going to want the NFL halftime show.
Mike Smith: job.
Nathan Brady: I mean, I remember a time when the NFL halftime show was a performer you thought was dead.

00:09:06

Nathan Brady: I mean, one year they had The Who and I was like, are there any living members of The Who, you know?
Mike Smith: Didn't they actually have a dead person perform once?
Nathan Brady: So,
Mike Smith: Like they had a hologram of Tupac one year, didn't they?
Nathan Brady: was it Tupac?
Mike Smith: I was it it I think it was I mean I you know the the foot the football better than I do.
Nathan Brady: I don't Well, no,
Mike Smith: But that's what I'm going to say
Nathan Brady: but I I you know, I don't remember halftime shows. very few halftime shows I remember and well they will because of the
Mike Smith: is that nobody's going to remember this next year except for bad.
Nathan Brady: outrage right like otherwise this would have just come and gone and nobody would have remembered this but now I'm going to
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: remember Bad Bunny's halftime show for the rest of my life because of these idiots you
Mike Smith: Yeah. You're right. You know, because I remember uh uh Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson,

00:09:44

Nathan Brady: know
Mike Smith: like I mentioned before, like that I'm never gonna be able to forget that. It's just going to be one of those factoids stuck in my head when I'm in 90 years old and my kids's like,
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: "We need to get you back to bed,
Nathan Brady: And I I remember the who because I was like why?
Mike Smith: Dad.
Nathan Brady: And then and then the only other one I remember I think is the U2 one because they did a uh because I was used to be a really big U2 fan and they did a pretty moving tribute to uh to 911 because it was the Super Bowl following 911 and they
Mike Smith: Oh,
Nathan Brady: did like a they put all the names on the on the screen and they did a really moving rendition of where the streets
Mike Smith: okay.
Nathan Brady: have no name. So I mean but other than that generally forgettable to me. I mean, even I forgot who last time was and then somebody reminded me it was it was Kendrick Lamar and I was like, "Oh, yeah.

00:10:35

Mike Smith: I I remembered that.
Nathan Brady: Okay." Uh
Mike Smith: I thought that was a good one because, you know,
Nathan Brady: yeah.
Mike Smith: he and Drake were having that spat at the time and I thought that he did a very good job throwing shade at him.
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Uh and and a ton of people uh enjoyed that halftime show. I wasn't familiar with his music just like I wasn't familiar with Bad Bunny's music. Both of these halftime shows, other than I thought this one was really colorful. I thought it was great. the that the bushes and the sugarcane were like people.
Mike Smith: Yeah. Yeah. I liked it like as a stage production.
Nathan Brady: Like that was really cool.
Mike Smith: Like it was well choreographed and it had like movements like you said.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: They had different sections that flowed nicely and I was like it's a fine show. What's the problem?
Nathan Brady: Yeah. I thought it was a great show.
Mike Smith: Was wait.
Nathan Brady: Um

00:11:17

Mike Smith: Was the problem that at some point in one of his songs he yelled death to America?
Nathan Brady: no,
Mike Smith: Oh.
Nathan Brady: he said God bless America.
Mike Smith: Oh. Oh, I heard that wrong.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: Okay. No, I don't know what it
Nathan Brady: But I think the problem was he was talking about the Americas and he was he
Mike Smith: is.
Nathan Brady: he named off every single country including Canada,
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: you know, all of South America. And I think that some people in the United States didn't even don't even know that there
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: were other countries in America. Um, so I think they were like confused,
Mike Smith: Yeah. I mean that, you know,
Nathan Brady: you know.
Mike Smith: I think he just Well, I thought it was a good job and he got a lot of flack beforehand. I remember just a lot of the crazies yelling out about him, you know, they're like, "We we want an American in the halftime show." I'm like,

00:12:02

Mike Smith: "He's Puerto Rican. What are you talking about? He's American. What are we
Nathan Brady: And so so I don't know if you know that I don't have it up and ready and I wish I had some
Mike Smith: doing?"
Nathan Brady: of his some of it up and ready. Um uh and now I'm forgetting his name because who cares about him.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: uh Jake Paul uh Jake Paul had a series of tweets that he was like he basically that
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: sentiment and then once again AOC shows up uh and is like are are you stupid
Mike Smith: Are you
Nathan Brady: or something and then and then Jake Paul used the classic I don't know what happened.
Mike Smith: stupid?
Nathan Brady: I think my my account was was hacked.
Mike Smith: Yeah, I got hacked. I did see that. That was very funny. I'm like,
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: "Oh, well, he has apparently some humility because he obviously felt like he had to, you know, take that back in.
Nathan Brady: Well, no, but the funniest part about it was AOCC's response to him was, "Aren't you the guy that moved to Puerto Rico to avoid paying taxes in the United States?"

00:12:59

Nathan Brady: And then Jake Paul was like, "Delete s***." So,
Mike Smith: That's pretty good.
Nathan Brady: uh, AOC, man. Um
Mike Smith: She's she's sharp as a whip and she's got a good team under her. Her staff like keeps her,
Nathan Brady: um yeah,
Mike Smith: you know, responding to the correct people.
Nathan Brady: she's she's very witty. She's um I think she has what it takes.
Mike Smith: She's She's got the
Nathan Brady: Can we talk can we can we talk about this for a second?
Mike Smith: stuff,
Nathan Brady: I think she's got this stuff right now. The top three contenders for 2028 from the Democratic side.
Mike Smith: guys.
Nathan Brady: You're shaking your head,
Mike Smith: He's on Poly Market again.
Nathan Brady: but listen.
Mike Smith: Everybody look
Nathan Brady: No, no, no, no, no, no. This isn't this isn't from Poly Market.
Mike Smith: out.
Nathan Brady: Although, I did I did see on Poly Market. I don't know. Okay, now you're gonna make me look it up. Um,
Mike Smith: You're my fax guy.

00:13:47

Nathan Brady: what what who they say the top two competitors are.
Mike Smith: I need you to get the
Nathan Brady: Oh, yeah.
Mike Smith: facts.
Nathan Brady: No, I think they're wrong. Um, I they got the first two right. I think it's gonna come down to Gavin Newsome and AOC assuming like some superstar doesn't like emerge like a Bernie Sanders where we were like we didn't even know who this guy was to to national you know uh fame. Um I think it's going to come down to Newsome and AOC and you know I want to talk
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: for a second. I don't know what I we talked about Texas I think last week but I don't think we talked about New Jersey 11. um which the the special election in New Jersey and you even look a little confused.
Mike Smith: We did.
Nathan Brady: So So okay well
Mike Smith: But but go on. Go ahead.
Nathan Brady: maybe we No, you're right. Okay, maybe we did. Okay, maybe we did. So, I I just want to point out that I think it's progressives moment right now because

00:14:45

Mike Smith: It definitely is.
Nathan Brady: I think pe people are looking at the the Chuck Schumer's and the the Jeffre and going, "We're not listening to this b******* that you, oh, your district is purple and you got to speak to what?" No, we we we don't care anymore. Just shut up with this nonsense. We, you know, we we either you're a Democrat, you're on the left, or you're you're not.
Mike Smith: Okay.
Nathan Brady: You're against us.
Mike Smith: I I I looked it up because I had to be certain. It was still uh undecided,
Nathan Brady: Okay.
Mike Smith: too close to call when we when we did the podcast last. So, we'll update everybody. New Jersey 11 Tom Malinowski has conceded to Oh,
Nathan Brady: Okay.
Mike Smith: god. Anna Lilia Bajia, I'm doing my best, folks. I'm really sorry if I messed that
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Okay, that's that's you know. Yeah. Okay.
Mike Smith: up.
Nathan Brady: Um at least you're at least you're trying. But she was the progressive AOC Berniebacked candidate.

00:15:45

Nathan Brady: Um who was you want to talk about Poly Market and and Khi and all of those places?
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: She was like a huge underdog. I think at one point he was a 90% favorite, you know. Um and then just things completely flipped. Um what's what's really interesting about that race is that uh
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: Apac spent a ton of money just just blasting Mal Molinowski even though he is a pro-Israel candidate. He just wasn't pro-Israel enough for them and it ended up backfiring wildly on them. Um, but of course they're going to spend a ton of money in the um,
Mike Smith: Yeah, this was just the primary, so that goes to a general in the special.
Nathan Brady: right?
Mike Smith: But I mean,
Nathan Brady: And
Mike Smith: like you said, that's pretty much the game because New Jersey 11
Nathan Brady: and
Mike Smith: is pretty solidly blue. So, winning that primary means you pretty much locked up the the seat itself.
Nathan Brady: I think that seat was that seat.

00:16:51

Nathan Brady: Um, I think that was a governor's like like that was the governor's seat. Um, so yeah, I think I think it's locked up. I'm not I'm not sure. Don't don't quote don't quote me on anything ever. I don't want to be quoted. Um, okay. I think Well, speaking of governors, let's let's just move in to We got to talk about
Mike Smith: Now we got to talk about governors.
Nathan Brady: governors.
Mike Smith: Who's
Nathan Brady: I'm going to let you I'm gonna let you take the lead on this one.
Mike Smith: governors?
Nathan Brady: Democratic governors blast Trump's call to nationalize elections. There's other things going on with Democratic governors. Talk about this a little
Mike Smith: Oh man. So, I I'm gonna let you get the other one that I know that you really want,
Nathan Brady: bit.
Mike Smith: but basically, you know, every Democrat uh elected governor out there is is basically, you know, sending up the smoke signals and declaring a need for help with Trump saying that we need to nationalize elections.

00:17:41

Mike Smith: I mean, it's pretty obvious what the plan is going to be. You and I have talked about this obviously uh quite a bit, Nate, but the plan is put ice into very uh heavily blue cities and districts in swing states like Minnesota like you're seeing there and just completely disrupt voting in the midterms. So, if you're a brown person or a black person in line, they're going to ask you for your papers and then they're going to arrest you when you don't have the right amount and then you're not going to be able to vote that day. It's why they're fighting so hard against mail in voting. It's because they want you to be too scared to go to the polls. And if you do go to the polls, is Gestapo going to arrest you?
Nathan Brady: Uh I the thought
Mike Smith: I mean, it's completely it's it's written on the walls.
Nathan Brady: of
Mike Smith: It couldn't be more like plain on its face that that's the game
Nathan Brady: okay so I the only thing that gives me you know I I'm certainly worried about that and I and

00:18:38

Mike Smith: plan.
Nathan Brady: I think that it's going to happen in some key areas. The only thing that gives me a little bit of hope is that they in all of these special elections, including the one in Texas where the the Dem just blew it out, you didn't see them testing the waters,
Mike Smith: Well,
Nathan Brady: you
Mike Smith: they're they're doing it in places where ICE hasn't really been deployed.
Nathan Brady: know.
Mike Smith: The the first one we're going to have to see is an actual like election being held in say Minnesota. You know what I mean?
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: You put in Minneapolis where it's deeply blue and it offsets a lot of the rural voting in that very large state otherwise. And it's been a purple state, you know.
Nathan Brady: Well, I'll tell you what, it certainly won't matter in Minnesota. Um, that state is is dark blue and it's going to be even darker blue after what's going on
Mike Smith: Well,
Nathan Brady: here,
Mike Smith: certainly now.
Nathan Brady: you know.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.

00:19:29

Mike Smith: But not if you don't get if you don't let people vote who are the wrong
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Well, I imagine that the legal observers and people protecting the voting lines
Mike Smith: color.
Nathan Brady: will outnumber by a very very large amount any ICE employee, you know, ICE agents that that attempt um to disrupt
Mike Smith: I I don't think that matters.
Nathan Brady: it
Mike Smith: I think that they're just going to claim agitation, start firing off tear gas canisters at any push back you have. I don't care if they're 100,000 polling station and they'll just declare,
Nathan Brady: and close the polling station.
Mike Smith: well, you you know, you could have voted elsewhere or you should have voted earlier or meanwhile all the rural and red districts in the state are going to just vote just fine. they'll be casting their votes just great and it'll be a landslide red victory because of an election uh you know national emergency or in this case you know a statewide emergency.
Nathan Brady: Yeah,
Mike Smith: I be in the street in their tanks and they'll have guns and shooting tear gas and people are just in line trying to

00:20:27

Nathan Brady: I don't. So, like I said,
Mike Smith: vote.
Nathan Brady: I'm certainly worried about it and I think people are going to organize and I think it's going to be the biggest uh midterm turnout in history. I think it's going to shatter records. Um, so I don't think any of their any of their attempts to get people to stay home is going to work, but I do believe like you that there's going to be uh it's going it's going
Mike Smith: It's going to be chaos. Even if it's not I I hope I'm wrong and it's not as like as as as chaotic as I'm describing,
Nathan Brady: to be chaos that day. I don't
Mike Smith: but I'm willing to bet that in the first couple hours of daylight on voter day, they're going to be arrests and people claiming that they're just pulling people out of line. And I'm I'm sure of it.
Nathan Brady: Yeah, it's going to be something. I mean, we're we're still we're still a while away. The the the stress of it all is killing me.

00:21:24

Nathan Brady: I hate election years like this. Um I hate election years.
Mike Smith: Only eight months left.
Nathan Brady: Yeah, only like the same amount of time that we've that we've already gone through.
Mike Smith: Stay tuned, folks. Stay tuned.
Nathan Brady: I mean, who know any anything can happen between now and then.
Mike Smith: Yeah,
Nathan Brady: Um so,
Mike Smith: sure.
Nathan Brady: you know, we'll see. So the the right is certainly trying to do all their other distractions with the Super Bowl and all this other nonsense um to to take away from the Epstein files.
Mike Smith: Oh, we'll get to the Epstein files.
Nathan Brady: Um so the
Mike Smith: I want you to talk about that other governor's thing.
Nathan Brady: NGA uh that which is the uh the National Governor's Association um has a traditional yearly uh meeting with the president. All 55 governors um that's from states to territories um end up meeting the White House uh meeting the president at the White House. They have and then they have a special dinner. Trump
Mike Smith: And they usually it's it's it's usually apolitical.

00:22:20

Nathan Brady: uh is meant to be
Mike Smith: It is meant to be gathering the leaders in bipartisan.
Nathan Brady: bipartisan. It's meant to be, you know, we hey, we are the United States of America.
Mike Smith: And
Nathan Brady: What what can we do to to work together? You know, federal state collaboration kind of thing, you know. Um so,
Mike Smith: yeah,
Nathan Brady: uh Trump in in his just infinite stupidity.
Mike Smith: big brainedness.
Nathan Brady: Uh yeah.
Mike Smith: Yes.
Nathan Brady: what you know told somebody or or uh you know made it known that he wasn't going to invite Democratic governors and now the head of the NGA or maybe that maybe he's the vice chair of the NGA is a Democratic governor that was specifically uh I think it's Wes Moore that was uh Trump called out specifically that he's not going to invite well then the NGA scrapped its uh scrapped its meeting and said well then the meeting's the meeting's not happening. Um, so and even Republican governors agreed with this with this move. Like this this this just doesn't make any sense.

00:23:28

Nathan Brady: Um, so I I think we're starting to see a push back from centerright Republicans who aren't completely all-in MAGA crazies that see the writing on the wall, but they're keeping one foot over the line. You know what I mean? They're keeping their one foot poised just in case Trump pulls it off in the midterms and everything's fine for Republicans and they control the House and the Senate and they can move forward with their uh insidious agenda. But I think right now uh a lot of Republicans are seeing my political career is over if I align with this administration and the reckoning comes in the midterms, you know?
Mike Smith: I I think yeah, I agree. I think that people are on the right, elected officials on the right are lukewarm at best. And in some cases, I mean, we've already seen it, right? Some of them are retiring early. Some of them are announcing they're not going to run again because they're just like,
Nathan Brady: some major incumbents have have announced they're not they're not going to seek re-election.

00:24:41

Mike Smith: "Yeah, right.
Nathan Brady: Um Oh,
Mike Smith: Didn't Didn't Marjorie Taylor Green say she wasn't gonna run again?
Nathan Brady: she's she's already out, right?
Mike Smith: She she already resigned?" Like I mean like these these are the the die hards in the the party and
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: they're saying basically well what they're saying is I can make a lot more money elsewhere but also there's no winning supporting this.
Nathan Brady: Well,
Mike Smith: There's no end game. There's no because what is his endgame? He's in a lame duck session at this point and if he gets trounced at the midterms then he's never going to get anything done.
Nathan Brady: Right. I mean, however, we've seen that Republicans, uh, specifically under Donald Trump are a lot a lot better at getting things done without
Mike Smith: Boy, they whip votes,
Nathan Brady: Congress.
Mike Smith: don't they? I
Nathan Brady: Well, without even I mean,
Mike Smith: mean,
Nathan Brady: forget whipping votes. They don't really need to whip votes, right? Like, because Trump is just doing everything he he everything he wants without congressional approval,

00:25:30

Mike Smith: wants
Nathan Brady: right?
Mike Smith: to
Nathan Brady: So just the other day they blew another boat out of the water um you know off the coast that you know he does whatever he wants and we we're seeing more now than ever that there is no accountability and we're trying to break through and now we have you know I think Massie is a great Massie and Roana um working together on the Epstein Files Transparency Act. I think that's the uh a good sign of hopefully some bipartisan accountability, but it's very difficult to get people who are so entrenched in the system to hold that same system that that elected them and brought them to power accountable. Uh it's very it's very very hard to do. So you need we need a midterm of political outsiders who aren't beholdened to corporate money and super PACs etc like Abigazalei who we always talk about um and and the AOC types to be able to get into Congress and not care what Apac says their vote should be.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: um get on get on committees and start with the subpoenas and getting people in in in front of uh in front of Congress and start holding people accountable.

00:26:56

Mike Smith: I really think that that that I completely agree with everything you just said.
Nathan Brady: Um
Mike Smith: I think that what we need account political accountability or governance accountability at the very least because I there are so many glaring issues that everyone can see and and on both sides you know we're hearing about the the right champion for the la last I don't know 10 years about the weaponization of the DOJ and and then they turn around and and are doing exactly what they were complaining about and they're not able to make any of their cases stick. But I mean like there has to be some accountability for that and just the lawlessness with which the Trump administration wields their power. So I'm thinking specifically of like January 6 riers who have been entirely pardoned of their crimes. It it it gives a sense to the right of you can commit crimes because the president will pardon you.
Nathan Brady: I mean
Mike Smith: there is no accountability. And in fact, you are going to be rewarded for that.
Nathan Brady: we right we

00:28:01

Mike Smith: Some of those January 6 riers are actually working in the Trump administration in at the national level.
Nathan Brady: talked
Mike Smith: And you're like, where is the
Nathan Brady: right so uh to that point we were you
Mike Smith: accountability?
Nathan Brady: and I were talking this morning about Pam Bondi getting getting roasted um and one of one of
Mike Smith: She sure is.
Nathan Brady: the questions posed to her was hey wasn't isn't this dude pictured here that was yelling uh kill them all at police officers. Doesn't he now work for you at the DOJ? And her response was, "Well, I he was pardoned." Uh,
Mike Smith: Yeah. The president pardoned him and you're like,
Nathan Brady: and like,
Mike Smith: "So,
Nathan Brady: "Yeah." So,
Mike Smith: you're okay with that?
Nathan Brady: yeah. And so,
Mike Smith: You're okay with this guy who who suggested we kill all of the police officers?" your
Nathan Brady: do you do you Right.
Mike Smith: your stance on law enforcement is you're just big on that
Nathan Brady: I mean, we we are seeing now more than ever that the uh the

00:28:49

Mike Smith: or
Nathan Brady: elite or or our country is run by an elite class of criminals. It's just I mean, sorry Democrats and Republicans, you know, f first of all, to me, if you're if you're taking corporate and lobby and super PAC money to vote a specific way instead of the way that your constituents want you to vote, that to me is a bribe. That to me is is should be illegal. I mean, we we already know we we want money out of politics. I think that's the the one of the first things you got to do is get this corporate money and this super super PAC money, this dark money out of Congress because that is is what's hindering progress, right?
Mike Smith: Yeah. I mean, at the very least,
Nathan Brady: Because now you got
Mike Smith: it needs to be more transparent than it currently is. You have super PACs that are funded by god knows who, pushing agendas that aren't necessarily aligned with their constituents, you know,
Nathan Brady: They're never aligned with their constituents.
Mike Smith: and nobody has to answer to anybody about it because nobody's doing town halls.

00:30:03

Nathan Brady: No.
Mike Smith: Nobody's taking calls from from their constituency. The staffers don't pick up the phone anymore. You just have to leave a message. No one's going to read it or listen to it or read it, I suppose. And they don't care because they don't represent you.
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: They represent corporations that that pay them the
Nathan Brady: Exactly. It's it's it's the I there is no war but class war.
Mike Smith: most.
Nathan Brady: I mean I think that's I I will I stand by that. Uh I know that's that's for some reason a controversial thing to say, but it's true. I mean the this is this is their game plan. The only reason why Facebook comments are filled with people uh being upset about Bad Bunny is because the corporate media told them that need they need to be upset about Bad Bunny and they got us fighting with each other over you know whether the Bad Bunny have we spent literally a half a
Mike Smith: Right. A c a culture war is better for business than a class war.

00:31:02

Nathan Brady: month. Right. Right.
Mike Smith: That's that's the bottom line.
Nathan Brady: better for their business than a class.
Mike Smith: Yeah. Yeah.
Nathan Brady: Absolutely. Um, so I guess we're g we could keep doing these smooth transitions, but speaking of this this elite Epstein class,
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: right, Jazlain Maxwell had her deposition in front,
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: it was closed door deposition in front of the House Oversight Committee just a couple days ago. Okay. Now, everybody knows she's serving a I don't know 20 20 plus year uh sentence when she was convicted in 2021 for on sex trafficking charges. She I I'm a believer in the Constitution.
Mike Smith: Oh,
Nathan Brady: I think that I I am hear me out on this.
Mike Smith: I didn't know
Nathan Brady: even the second amendment to its even even though I don't believe in the Republicans's
Mike Smith: that.
Nathan Brady: version of its interpretation. I I think that the fifth amendment is extremely important. She however invokes her fifth amendment right for every single

00:32:10

Mike Smith: Just turn her right.
Nathan Brady: which she is which is her right to do for every single uh question asked which to me is fine. you go you back to jail with you, right?
Mike Smith: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's it's you've been convicted.
Nathan Brady: Like you're you're you're serving your you now
Mike Smith: You're serving your sentence. It's not a problem. They're trying to ascertain some more information.
Nathan Brady: now.
Mike Smith: They're trying to connect some dots, and you don't have to self-inccriminate. That's that's a right that you have in this country.
Nathan Brady: No,
Mike Smith: So, she can just she gets to do the Chappelle bit the whole time.
Nathan Brady: now I have Yeah.
Mike Smith: She a fifth
Nathan Brady: Yeah. Yeah. So, I I have now I have mixed feelings on this because I I think Jazlain Maxwell should rot in prison until the day that she dies. Okay, that's that's how I feel. However, the fact that we had an elite pedophile ring run by powerful men,

00:32:58

Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: okay, and the only person in jail right now for it is a woman is mindblowing. Like, it's insane. It's literally insane.
Mike Smith: Well, she did herself no favors,
Nathan Brady: Okay.
Mike Smith: which she Right.
Nathan Brady: No, no, no, no. I'm not saying she doesn't belong there.
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: Okay.
Mike Smith: I'm I'm saying she didn't I'm saying Okay,
Nathan Brady: Like I said,
Mike Smith: I'm Miss Maxwell, I would work with the DA to try and reduce my sentence with some guarantees of
Nathan Brady: now wait. So,
Mike Smith: safety.
Nathan Brady: this is the the So,
Mike Smith: Now,
Nathan Brady: so I'm I was burying the lead.
Mike Smith: I'm not going to work with the federal DA.
Nathan Brady: No, I'm I was burying the lead on purpose. Okay. So, she spent her entire time um saying that
Mike Smith: Oh.
Nathan Brady: that uh she she pleads the fifth. She pleads the fifth, you know, and then in the same appearance, okay, in the very same, her lawyer said that she is prepared to speak fully and honestly if she is granted clemency by President Donald Trump.

00:34:04

Mike Smith: Well, that's just that's just asking that's a bribe in plain
Nathan Brady: That's what it's literally that's what she said.
Mike Smith: sight.
Nathan Brady: She said, "I will speak."
Mike Smith: I will tell them that you were never there if you grant me clemency. Like that's that's the loudest
Nathan Brady: She No, no, wait. Not only is it assumed that he said he said both Trump
Mike Smith: uh
Nathan Brady: and Bill Clinton will be uh um I don't innocent of any wrongdoing in relationship to Epstein if Maxwell is given uh clemency by Donald Trump. She it wasn't implied. He straight said it.
Mike Smith: That's crazy.
Nathan Brady: We will exonerate Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.
Mike Smith: The names of Bill Clinton and Donald Trump,
Nathan Brady: So now he's speaking that she's so desperate.
Mike Smith: man.
Nathan Brady: She's speaking to both sides and saying, "Hey, this elite class, Clinton and Epstein, I I and and Trump, I will exonerate both of you if you give me clemency." I mean, what an insane time we live.
Mike Smith: That's we do live we do live in at insane time.

00:35:04

Nathan Brady: What an insane time we live in.
Mike Smith: I looked it up because I was curious. She's currently aged 64 and she was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.
Nathan Brady: Okay.
Mike Smith: I don't know what her parole like would look like,
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: but let's just assume she does the full 20 because this is the kind of crime would probably do the full She'll be 84 by the time she gets out. That's the majority of her life. Uh,
Nathan Brady: So I think
Mike Smith: but I wanted to talk about one other thing about the Epstein
Nathan Brady: Okay.
Mike Smith: files.
Nathan Brady: Okay. Please do.
Mike Smith: Just Lane Maxwell can't clear Donniey's name because we have so many bits of evidence of him being in it.
Nathan Brady: Well, well, sure. I mean,
Mike Smith: I I liked this one that that that I mean obviously the internet is scouring
Nathan Brady: okay.
Mike Smith: all of the the publicly released and there was another recent release I think we were talking about it in the last episode of just just millions of documents.

00:36:04

Mike Smith: One of the documents that came out was uh just it was a boring email. It it didn't matter. It was asking about a uh I have linked it to you,
Nathan Brady: Are you linking this to me?
Mike Smith: but I can do it. Uh it doesn't it didn't matter like the subject or anything. It was just it was innocuous. It was about um vacation or something.
Nathan Brady: Okay.
Mike Smith: And one of the redactions was very starkly telling. It reads as such. I was going to take polo lessons in Calgary, but I redacted think my body can handle it.
Nathan Brady: Oh. Oh, I know. This is the don't.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: This is the Okay,
Mike Smith: So,
Nathan Brady: we'll put this on the
Mike Smith: the people who are going through redacting things are looking for anything that looks like
Nathan Brady: screen.
Mike Smith: Dawn T and they're redacting that. That's the only explanation I can actually give to this,
Nathan Brady: No, it's it's not it's it there's Sorry.

00:36:57

Mike Smith: right?
Nathan Brady: There's no question that that's exactly what this is. I was going to take polo lessons in Calgary, but I redacted think my body can handle it.
Mike Smith: Blank Finch.
Nathan Brady: I don't think my body can handle
Mike Smith: And the only explanation for redacting that that I could come up with is Don T.
Nathan Brady: it.
Mike Smith: And they just have like I mean again and they're the the the the DOJ staffers have been complaining to um the courts specifically that they just don't have the manpower to actually go through and redact these things in the the timeliest fashion that the courts required. So you have to imagine they're just doing some simple search for term and redact like this and you get these strays coming out where you're like oh so you're just redacting Dant T like blanket D gets redacted and you you didn't think that would look a little incriminating on his face. I mean this again this does not implicate Donald Trump in any you know wrongdoing. He's not even ancillarily related with this email here, but they went out of their way and redacted a Dawn T for no reason other than it's his name, an initial.

00:38:12

Mike Smith: That's the only plausible
Nathan Brady: We are living in such unprecedented times.
Mike Smith: explanation.
Nathan Brady: I every single day is the biggest scandal a president has ever fa and it's such an overload that
Mike Smith: And it's performed by the most obviously incompetent people.
Nathan Brady: we
Mike Smith: Like imagine the most incompetent person you've ever met and and somebody like them is running a piece of this administration.
Nathan Brady: I don't I don't I tr I truly
Mike Smith: It's
Nathan Brady: do not know what to say.
Mike Smith: right.
Nathan Brady: I mean it is it is literally every single day.
Mike Smith: It's amazing stuff.
Nathan Brady: It is the most asinine things you can imagine and there is nothing that we can do about it. Instead, we've got politicians in Congress right now saying that Bad Bunny and the NFL need to be investigated because of that divisive pornographic halftime show. I mean, what what what world are we living in? Uh just I don't know what it's going to take to write this ship other than, you know,
Mike Smith: No, I mean exactly what you're talking about.

00:39:32

Nathan Brady: you have
Mike Smith: You need actual candidates running for seats in Congress with their sole mission being I'm going to get there and I'm going to just start yelling about these these things that need to be fixed before everything else. We we can we don't need to handle the budget. The budget can wait. Let's fix these glaring systemic problems that need to be fixed right now. Enact some laws that make this stuff like more overtly illegal and obvious instead of being like the
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: Supreme Court came up with an idea that even though that says this is the law, they actually didn't mean that that was the law. Like just okay, I have now changed the law. It now says what we meant.
Nathan Brady: Okay.
Mike Smith: That's that's got to be the platform.
Nathan Brady: So, so I I I want to point out that first of all, I think that Roana and uh Massie are doing great
Mike Smith: doing great.
Nathan Brady: work because they're they're pressuring the DOJ to
Mike Smith: Yeah.

00:40:29

Nathan Brady: unredact names that should not have been redacted. I think one of the biggest ones I want to see is the email. Who was the email that said your youngest the the the youngest one or the littlest one was really naughty?
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: Right? Like I want that email unredacted.
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: But I am torn on this and I haven't seen anybody talking about this. Okay. The six men named that. So so so Massie or or both said they were going to read the the six men uh that that were redacted that seemed to be connected. They were going to read those names in Congress. And that's fine. And some of those names were pretty big, right? There was one American billionaire uh uh Leslie Wexner, who's the uh founder, I believe, of Victoria's Secret. Um and there were a couple of other names, but I think what's really telling to me is that it wasn't any any political powerhouse in the United States that was named.

00:41:29

Nathan Brady: And you know those people exist in those files, but they're still they're it's it's like they're they're like, "Okay, we have to satiate you. You guys, so here we're going to give you we're going to give you something, right?" Um and okay, fine. These six people need to be fully investigated and charged if they if they're found to be uh a guilty of any crimes related to sex trafficking, you know, statutory rape, etc. Right. Um but I I still I still found it I I don't know what the right word is. It just it wasn't enough. It was nowhere near enough.
Mike Smith: Yeah, I I agree. I think that they're I mean they're doing their best. The problem is is that this is a sort of needle in a haystack sort of situation and obviously all of the communications that are between the parties of these emails are always going to be encoded in some fashion, right? like we were talking about in the last episode about them talking about a pizza place and some other things like just bringing up weirdly seemingly coded messaging.

00:42:39

Mike Smith: Um, and so it's it's hard to actually pin anything down. But I agree, you have emails presumably names go with them. You should be able to just, you know, force that into the public. I mean, you'll lose your chair spot, so that's why they're not doing it. All right.
Nathan Brady: Well, I I think you know, one of the reasons why, of course, these six men were named was because there was a one file or two files that in 2019 the FBI named them as co-conspirators, right? So, this is this one's really important.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: So, I get that. But I want I want additional names redacted.
Mike Smith: f***.
Nathan Brady: We were we were promised transparency and then we got just like here's a body of an email. That's not transparency, okay? Unless you know who that email is coming from, what the relationship with Epstein was, that's not
Mike Smith: Well, I you know, again,
Nathan Brady: transparency.
Mike Smith: I hate to play the advocate because the that side is so terrible, but there is some good faith argument to be made and I think that that's the angle they're playing that there are ancillary contacts with Jeffrey Epstein who weren't part of his his thing and you don't want to turn them into a victim of this of

00:44:00

Nathan Brady: That's fine. Then I'll No,
Mike Smith: a witch that that they don't have any connection
Nathan Brady: look,
Mike Smith: to.
Nathan Brady: it's it's very it's very simple. There are some people that have been in the Epstein files that have been able to say exactly that. I that was one email and I had nothing to do with V. Fine, you know, then show me if Listen, if you unredact an email and it's and it's uh hey Jeffrey, great to meet you. I'm not interested at this time or I'm not, you know, I I'm not going to your island or whatever, great. That's a great reason to be in the Epstein Files.
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: But if it's your your littlest one was really naughty and and a follow-up question of did you torture her and I want that f****** name.
Mike Smith: Right. Yeah. No, there's there I get it.
Nathan Brady: Okay.
Mike Smith: I get it. And I
Nathan Brady: So So transparency means we get to see it all and then we get to decide.

00:44:50

Mike Smith: agree.
Nathan Brady: Okay. And we're not a jury, right? Okay. So, I don't give a s*** if your if your your public uh um appearance is bismerched because you were in these files, well,
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: you shouldn't have had a relationship with this guy. And if there was nothing going on, then it won't be bismerched as as much as you think. Okay? But if you're worried, if you're one of those people that are worried about your name being unredacted, well, there's a reason for it. Okay? So, um, it's the it's the Epstein Transparency Act. We need transparency. That's, you know,
Mike Smith: I I agree.
Nathan Brady: you know,
Mike Smith: I do know.
Nathan Brady: Mike, what else we
Mike Smith: Uh do you remember, and we talked about this briefly,
Nathan Brady: got?
Mike Smith: there were those uh Democratic lawmakers who basically ran an ad saying you you should not follow orders if those orders are illegal.
Nathan Brady: Yes.
Mike Smith: Just a real quick hit that came in just now.

00:45:53

Mike Smith: a uh grand jury has decided that they do not have enough cause to actually go after them for anything.
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: So tough for the DOJ, but they don't do well in court. It turns out they're not uh they're not great at it. So that's a fun one.
Nathan Brady: And uh yeah,
Mike Smith: Just pepper.
Nathan Brady: there's a there's a whole we can we can we can do a lightning round here. Uh in Wisconsin, uh the state appeals court allows voters to cancel uh mistakenly marked absentee ballots and request a new one. Um so that's a win for for voting rights. Um there was another one in uh uh let's see I I missed Huh.
Mike Smith: You want to talk voting rights? I said,
Nathan Brady: Yo, you okay?
Mike Smith: "Do you want to talk voting rights?" We can talk voting rights.
Nathan Brady: Let's talk voting rights. Let's talk voting, right? What do you
Mike Smith: Uh the Supreme Court has announced that it was going to allow
Nathan Brady: got?

00:46:46

Mike Smith: California's new congressional uh uh map to become
Nathan Brady: Okay. So, yes, this is a big one.
Mike Smith: Sure
Nathan Brady: This is a this is a big one specifically for me as well. Um, it changes my district significantly. I think it alters your your your district as well.
Mike Smith: does.
Nathan Brady: What it does for my district is um uh it leaves out kind of a a very wealthy uh area in Tmacula, which I am not a part of. I'm a little bit farther not north of that. Um and I am in an area that now is like uh Corona, you know, from from Corona through Lake Elsenor down to Marietta. Um and a little bit of the surrounding areas there. And my area has been um red. Okay, I'm right near a military base. I'm It's an affluent area. However, um what I'm excited to see is some some there there's more housing being built around me. We're seeing several areas of housing which is getting approved by by um by the city which I'm loving that I'm seeing awkwardly enough I I know this isn't I I hate to use social media especially Facebook as a uh you know as a judge of which way the wind is blowing but I was shocked to find that there was this Tmacula pro progressives uh Facebook page which I am now a part of which is tens of thousands of of people who are who are setting up ice protests and and all of these other things.

00:48:16

Nathan Brady: And it seems like it truly does seem like the wind is is is changing a little
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: bit in my area. So really big both for California we believe would pick up what what's the number
Mike Smith: Five is what they're claiming.
Nathan Brady: five
Mike Smith: It's it it's really interesting and we'll include that in the show notes. There's an interactive map of the of the proposed um district lines and they do some very clever geromandering gerrymandering to you know distort where votes matter. And so they've done a really good job of basically compacting as many uh Republican votes into as few districts as possible. And so five is what they're expecting. There's a chance it could be four or there's a chance it could be six because they basically had to take a coin flip on on two of
Nathan Brady: So I I am a fan of
Mike Smith: them.
Nathan Brady: um algorithmic drawing of
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: every you know I I don't think there should be any any kind of gerrymandering

00:49:31

Mike Smith: Okay. I I agree and I want to make it clear to the listener that we don't actually support
Nathan Brady: right
Mike Smith: gerrymandering, but we have to fight on the same grounds as our opponents. We cannot give way and we complain about this a lot on the pod,
Nathan Brady: okay so All
Mike Smith: but we can't give way to the lawlessness of one one party by claiming
Nathan Brady: right.
Mike Smith: the high road as the other because you just lose.
Nathan Brady: This is it.
Mike Smith: You can't you can't you can't play a different game and expect to win.
Nathan Brady: It's
Mike Smith: So we need to play dirty and then when we get control we need to force it by saying everybody we need to use algorithms to define you know proper districts that aren't gerrymandered and can be independently proven to be you know not racially motivated not what whatever politically motivated and and improve things. That's another easy win where you say not just California, Texas, California, all the 50 states need to have this
Nathan Brady: I am uh I totally agree.

00:50:25

Mike Smith: done.
Nathan Brady: I I hate that there is a slippery slope there somewhere, right? But I I think that you cannot beat this lawless, like you said, this lawless group of of politicians without playing dirty yourself.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: And but but then okay, you have to go and and you have to actually fix it instead of using the broken system to keep you in power, right? So, so if if I woke woke up magically, right, and I was I was president tomorrow, right? I the the first thing I would do would be to use that insane power because every four years the president gets more power, even even more than that. I would say probably every two years gets more and more powerful, more executive power,
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: right? I would use that power, I would hope, for good to benefit the American people, but then use it to limit the power of the executive and bolster the checks and balances that were originally thought up, right, by the by the founders. So that I I'd like to believe that's what I would do.

00:51:43

Nathan Brady: In the same way, fighting the gerrymandering on the right, the so the obvious gerrymandering on the right with your own gerrymandering until you get control of Congress and then pass a law for algorithmic congressional map. The person who would win my favor is the one who would who would possibly lose their seat if they
Mike Smith: Right.
Nathan Brady: you know fighting fighting
Mike Smith: I'm in a I'm in a gerrymandered district that should go away when this law
Nathan Brady: for Right.
Mike Smith: passes.
Nathan Brady: Exactly. and like, okay, and then I'd have to move to a new district or whatever, you know, and and I could potentially lose my seat. That's the kind of politician I want to see. You're we're never going to see that. We are never going to see that. I I just I mean I I I don't I don't know what else to say.
Mike Smith: You're letting pessimism win today,
Nathan Brady: So,
Mike Smith: Nate. I don't like
Nathan Brady: it is winning today. It is win is winning today a little bit, but I I I want to just go back to this.

00:52:32

Mike Smith: it.
Nathan Brady: I want to say because I mentioned on the pod a couple times before now this is the probably the third time I I am I can't officially say it. I plan on running for Congress in my new district which is California 40. Um assuming that it's not one of the ones that turn blue and assuming that that blue isn't a secret red,
Mike Smith: All
Nathan Brady: right? Like it's a it's a progressive. It's somebody who's gonna who's gonna get in there um and and and fight and get on committees
Mike Smith: right.
Nathan Brady: and not take, you know, 140 days off and just enjoy their new cushy job and their healthcare and not fight for the American people um like my current representative Ken Calbertt is doing, who's a Republican who um doesn't give a crap about his constituents and is enjoying uh his his his paycheck. So, um I'm happy with the with the map. I would fight for algorithmic map drawing um in an unbiased, you know, an unbiased committee to set up uh you know, to find that algorithm.

00:53:51

Nathan Brady: And um that I mean that's what I would do if I if I were an elected official.
Mike Smith: Well, I agree.
Nathan Brady: Um and I think that's what I think that's what people I think that's what people really want.
Mike Smith: I think most people agree.
Nathan Brady: So, I was I follow this guy and I don't I I I'm upset that I don't remember his name because he's such a really powerful speaker. Um I'll have to find him. I'll I'll share him with you when I next I find him because now he's in my algorithm. He's a kind of he's a really powerful deep voice.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: He's like this philosopher. Um, but he has this way of tapping in to both the left and the rights like, you know, he's a there ain't no no war but class war kind of guy. And that really does speak when Republicans and Democrats when you're not presenting them with something that has been so propagandized that their knee-jerk reaction is to fight each other over it. And you can kind of like get them together and listen and they go, "Oh s***, this is right." and they start looking at each other and go,

00:54:53

Nathan Brady: "Hey, hey, this is right." Uh, that's those are the kind of people that I think are going to change the country. And I think like we we always speak to Bernie Sanders about about Bernie Sanders about this when he got into uh that Fox town hall and he could just speak honestly to people and there was no
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: like what are you stupid? What are you, you know, he's like just listen, hear me out, just hear me out for a second. Isn't Isn't health care better than no health care? I mean, just just just hear me out, you know? Um anyway,
Mike Smith: Yeah,
Nathan Brady: I
Mike Smith: I mean like we've said it before too and it's going to be a populist style candidate who's going to
Nathan Brady: think
Mike Smith: succeed with that sort of messaging and and it's because they speak to obvious truths and whether or not they have solutions to that like in the case of Donald Trump he does not. But, you know, Bernie came out now and said,

00:55:46

Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: "I think health care costs are too high and I'm paying too much for insurance." And people were like, "Well, I don't even care what his political position is." That's that's true. That's that that happened to me as well.
Nathan Brady: Rain,
Mike Smith: And and when you can get somebody who actually,
Nathan Brady: right?
Mike Smith: you know, rallies around that, they they're going to get people across both sides of the aisle. And of course, all the independents would love it.
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: That's
Nathan Brady: And we're seeing even even without that, there is such a desperate want for accountability that what we saw in Texas in the special election and in New Jersey. Um I mean that social media is not real
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: life. You know, we're we are in a bit of an echo chamber on blue sky. We know that that we know that X is a hellhole of, you know, just grifters and bots that that's an echo chamber um that is not representative of the makeup of the United States.

00:56:49

Nathan Brady: And then Facebook is the same way.
Mike Smith: Yeah, they
Nathan Brady: So, so what the only thing that you can do is take a look at the actual elections,
Mike Smith: all
Nathan Brady: look at the swings from from, you know, two years ago and go, "Holy s***." you know, uh, p public opinion has is is changing and, um, my my only my only hope like we to go back to the beginning of our conversation in the beginning of this podcast is that we are allowed to have free and fair elections in, you know, the next eight months and uh, we see a massive change. But in the meantime, I hope to see more bi bipartisan efforts like Roana and Massie um and working on these committees and uh hopefully holding some of these powerful people accountable. And once I feel like once you get that guy,
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Brady: people people love a good riches to rag story as much as they love a good rags to riches story,
Mike Smith: Oh god.
Nathan Brady: you know? So,
Mike Smith: Yeah.

00:57:52

Nathan Brady: you know, whether you're on the right or the left, you see a powerful man taken down and held accountable,
Mike Smith: Doesn't even have to be a powerful man.
Nathan Brady: that's
Mike Smith: It's just a person doing obviously morally wrong stuff and you see them get their comeuppants. You know what I mean? Like we watch I we probably shared this.
Nathan Brady: Yeah.
Mike Smith: I don't even remember but there was that video of that guy at high school uh protest.
Nathan Brady: Yes. Yeah.
Mike Smith: These are kids or they're out there like you know 15 years old kids main like mainly girls and he's arguing with them on the walk out because they were protesting ICE involvement somewhere and he gets into a fist fight with one of them and just gets
Nathan Brady: Right.
Mike Smith: completed.
Nathan Brady: Just
Mike Smith: I mean just obliterated and and I was happy at the end because he's like
Nathan Brady: rock,
Mike Smith: he gets into his car and he drives away. He didn't.
Nathan Brady: right?
Mike Smith: It I was afraid in the last moments of that video.

00:58:43

Nathan Brady: could have could have could have gone to his truck to
Mike Smith: I was very afraid, but yeah.
Nathan Brady: get something else and it could have been very very ugly,
Mike Smith: Exactly. Exactly. So, but I mean, you know, you you like seeing,
Nathan Brady: right?
Mike Smith: you know, what what what comes around after seeing what goes around. You like to see what comes around. That's what I'll say about that.
Nathan Brady: Right. Okay. I mean, I think that's a great place to stop for today. Um,
Mike Smith: I think we did it.
Nathan Brady: I think we did it. We got through. Hey, we got through today and that's all.
Mike Smith: We got
Nathan Brady: Hey, anybody you you guys you got through today.
Mike Smith: through.
Nathan Brady: You we wake up tomorrow and we continue to fight. Uh it's all literally all you can do.
Mike Smith: And we covered all the news.
Nathan Brady: Um I got some bad
Mike Smith: There was no other news. It's amazing.
Nathan Brady: news for you, Frank. Uh just at just in the last five minutes there's been there's been so much more news that we could literally
Mike Smith: probably uh and start our next week's
Nathan Brady: end the show and start a new show with a completely Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. All right. Uh thank you everybody for listening.
Mike Smith: show.
Nathan Brady: Be sure to like and subscribe and we will be back next week with an all new show with all new news. You're listening to the first and only Blue Edition podcast. I'm Nate Brady.
Mike Smith: I'm Mike Smith.