Some More News - Even More News: Macklemore Saying "Free Palestine" Made Everyone Lose Their Minds

Episode Date: September 18, 2026

Hi. In Today's Even More News, Olayemi Olurin (@olurinatti) joins Katy, Cody, and Jonathan to talk about the snowballing controversy surrounding Ed Sheeran and Macklemore. They also talk about the new "sale" of bombs to Israel, JD Vance's pitch for the midterms, and Mitch McConnell (RIP) and his dedication to voting in the Senate even while being technically a mummified shrimp.Check out Olayemi's channels: https://www.youtube.com/@olurinattiPATREON: https://patreon.com/somemorenewsMERCH: https://shop.somemorenews.comYOUTUBE MEMBERSHIP: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvlj0IzjSnNoduQF0l3VGng/joinChapters:0:00 - Introduction/Even Macklemore News19:32 - Gifting Bombs to Israel28:34 - The Enormous Difficulty It Requires To Get U.S. Citizenship40:42 - Usha Vance's StorytimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, on today's episode, we talk about McElmore, Ed Sheeran, the U.S. giving more bombs to Israel and J.D. Vance's. Pitch for the midterbs. Hi, hello, and welcome back to Even More News, the first and only news podcast. I'm Katie Stoll. That's right it is. That's right. You are. That's it. Hi, I'm Cody. First time guest is here. Host of Alurinati and Mnati. other shows in the Illurinati verse. It is Oliami Allurin. Hello, Alleymi. That was perfect. You said Aliyami perfect. Aliranaida. I never heard that. That was wonderful. I shouldn't tell you how, well, I will. Too late. I was practicing your name this morning, just making sure. I wish everybody else did. I am honestly honored. It was beautiful. It's a beautiful name. I wanted to give it its full

respect. Thank you. Everybody relax. Jonathan is also here. Hi. Eliami. Our fans just adore Jonathan. How could you not?

And if I'm not quick with introducing him, they're like, this is Jonathan Arasure. Where is he? Which is fine. You cannot like me. That's fine. It doesn't, you know. Don't say that. I don't want to be like the precious guy where I'm like, well, me, is me.

Like, you know. We're going to start with them. Some McElmore news. Music, some music news. By talking about Ed Shearin and McElmore, we can't get enough of them. Our two favorite artists who we loved listening to before this. Has anybody, can anybody name an Ed Shearren song? I know he's one of the most popular.

The shape of you. I can name that one. All right. Shape of you was a bop. Is it, it's the only like, I think he has like another bop. It's the closest to, let me look up my Spotify. Let me do him. Because I remember, it was like 2017 when he had.

had the album that was blue that went nuts. Let me be fair to him. I know that I've heard songs of him. Hasn been like, this is fine. And of course, who could forget that cameo on Game of Thrones? I have exactly three songs from him, according to my Spotify. I have Shape of You. I have south of the border.

And I have crossed me. Those are the three songs that I have by Ed Shearon in my library. Heard of one of those. Which border is it, I wonder, in the show or in the song? Camilla Cabello. Cabello, let me, she's on the song. Okay. I like how she says Christmas

when she sings Christmas. She says quiz noise. It's great. But Jonathan, what happened with... With our two favorite artists? I don't know if I need to go through the whole timeline. There's like a whole thing here. McElmore is one of the supporting artists or was in front of Ed Sheeran on his loop tour.

And that refers to something, I'm sure. And on September 4th and September 5th in some of the first dates of this tour, he said Free Palestine and Performer. a song that's about Heinrich Job, who was killed by the IDF in Gaza, very famously. After that, a bunch of venue owners led by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, decided that McElmore had to be off the tour, or else the whole thing is off. They can't perform at these venues.

And then the promoter ends up dropping McElmore, who puts out a statement, kind of defending Ed Sheer and calling him a brother, saying they've been friends for years, also saying, you know, I wish you could get past this, I don't take sides thing. Then Ed Sheeran puts out a statement saying it was the promoter who dropped McElmore, not me, I am not complicit. I have my personal views on this devastating conflict just because I choose not to speak publicly. It doesn't mean I don't have them, et cetera. And then on Tuesday, all of the other supporting acts on this tour,

Phineas and several others I have definitely heard of named Aaron, Roe, Lucas Graham, Biyoga all dropped. Beoga. Yeah, Boga. I don't want to... I don't know. I don't know your music. But maybe I'll check you out now. And this is definitely like...

They definitely Streisand affected this tour and McElmore, a person we all think about all the time. And so now they're doing these dueling donations. McElmore says he's going to donate the million dollars he's earned to organizations supporting Palestinians. And then Robert Kraft released a statement where he didn't say he was donating the money, but he strongly hinted that he would make a $2 million spite donation. He said he's going to donate it to the region.

To the region. He's going to donate to Israel. No objections involved in the conflict. Robert Kraft is definitely giving up money to Nanyahu directly. Robert Kraft, is this, correct me wrong, is this the gentleman, the man implicated in the Florida massage prostitution ring? That's a yes. The owner of everyone's team that everyone loves, the New England Patriots. America's favorite team.

This is absurd, obviously, and I'm really proud of all the acts that have dropped out in solidarity. Miss Rachel is also matching. Love Miss Rachel. I do want to acknowledge one thing that we did in this overview, which is in conjunction with his statements at the arena and Robert Kraft, not wanting him to be political or whatever. at Gillette Stadium. Pink came out with her own outrage directed towards Maclemore from a photo, from a performance that he did in 2014, where he donned a disguise. It is a big hook nose and it is a wig and it is a beard.

And yeah, it does look like a very anti-Semitic trope. And I'm going to be very real with you guys. I don't like that. I don't like the costume. Haney, I was coming to say, so I was coming to talk about that too. Yeah. Good. Well, go for it. Go for it. You, I've set it up. I think that Michael Moore's support of Palestine and his speaking out against the genocide in Gaza is genuine. I do believe that. I don't believe it's motivated by anti-Semitism. However, I think it is valid for people to give the side eye, like people who are giving the side eye based on the fact that you've done something that could be read as blatantly anti-Semitic before because they are, in fact, a lot of different people, if you think of the can't,

Candice Owens, the Tucker Carlson's, all of these people who are on the right side of this issue, but because of their known and blatant anti-Semitism. So I can understand why, if I've seen you quite literally dress up as an anti-Semitic caricature before, I can understand why someone would be skeptical of his speaking out in support of Palestine. So I understand, and I'm not as dismissive towards the people who are giving that skeptical criticism as I've seen. People have been like, oh, well, he apologized and I'm like, ah.

If you dressed up as a Klansman And you were like, I wouldn't be fucking with that Like I would I would be like Well, okay So I understand people feeling that way At the time he did issue a whole statement You can read it and I can see sincerity I would like to believe the sincerity of the statement

That he didn't know what he was doing You know, the ADL accepted his apology And there is a reason we haven't talked Well, it's Macklemore He's not top of mind for the last 12 years but I really didn't like it but I agree like these are separate issues

that is not why his he was kicked off the tour it was very explicitly saying free Palestine which is obviously fine or beyond fine important necessary but I just don't want to be so quick

to hand wave that yeah yeah I mean it's obviously like it is like if you see we'll probably show the pictures like that's not good um but i so many people who are sharing that photo are using it maliciously to conflate these ideas yeah like i've seen so many people even in response to like others saying like oh you know like he didn't do anything wrong like in this in this case and then they'll show the photo like oh didn't he well that's a different thing what this is about is what he said on stage and i've just seen so many people

use that photo to imply that that's what he did and also make that connection, make that conflation of like, well, if you're pro-Palestine, then you are anti-Semitic. And that's like the function of this narrative. But I think we can, I think we can acknowledge that that is what it's being used for and that is the goal in that conflation, while also being like, yeah, you shouldn't have done that. That's not a good costume to wear. And I do think importantly, I don't think it's relevant here as to why Robert Kraft and these venue owners, because the reality is

if they, if that were enough, if they felt, which I would think if that were the criticism, like let's say the two performances never happened where he said Free Palestine and they had inherently said oh, we don't want him because we believe he's anti-Semitic based on that. Then that would be fair, that would be different. But they didn't object to him being

the opener on the tour. He did two performances before. So it's very clear that the problem they had were the statements that he made and those statements were not anti-Semitic at all. Exactly. Yeah, you've had 12 years to bang the, to be upset about that. It's like, you're right, Katie. Like, yeah, and like, that's got not good, but it's fake. Like, what they're using it for now is fake. Yeah, exactly. And, like, not that he was scheduled to play at Gillette Stadium, but some of the other venues that are part of this group are going to host Kanye

West, who has said he's no longer. Lainly and I'm in the 80s. Oh, no longer. But, but, And also much more recently and famously. Much more recently has a song, Hile Hitler sold swastika shirts. Yeah, Kanye isn't anti-Semite. No one's going to tell me different on that. I don't care what Kanye said. Right. There's a little bit of a double standard here that AT&T Stadium in Dallas doesn't care that Kanye is going to perform

if they think what McElmore said, saying, free Palestine is such an anti-Semitic thing beyond the pale we can't take it but but you know conier and what have yeah they obviously specifically have a problem with the free Palestine messaging and people speaking out against like the Israeli government in this capacity that that to me that much seems very clear to me do you happen to know what jesse waters thinks of this whole controversy i mean i can take a quick look and see if we can find jesse waters i don't know why him specifically but kind of curious take well it's fine because like jesse waters along with some of these other guys are getting very meta in terms of their culture wars where they're debating out loud whether they can

care about it they did it with the w nba a few weeks ago of like why are we still talking about this do we even care and now uh jesse waters is very interesting yeah with this so what did he said it was it was bad he said free palestine is that all you went on on no there was genocide yeah okay Okay, well, all I heard was Free Palestine. I don't think that's hate speech. But, you know, if Rob Kraft doesn't want you there, he owns the venue. You're gone. Who cares?

Who cares? If Greg's on my tour and he starts spouting off and annoying me, I'm giving him the boot. I don't even care if it's political. If he even looks at me the wrong way when I take him on tour. He is gone. You know why he won't? Because he won't go on tour with me. Okay.

because I'm bullying all the time. I love how he pivins to shit on Gutfeld. But yeah, he's not going to stay too long in the fact that, like, I don't care. I'm mad. I kind of like that. The African daddy and me kind of loves that statement. That's such a very, like, that's such a very Nigerian father thing to say. It's like, oh, yeah, yeah.

But, yeah, yeah. No, there's nothing wrong with that. But also, fuck you. If it's my shit. Can I do that? I think it's interesting because, I guess what I would say to the most, like, charitable thing I could say towards Ed Shearron in the way, because he's surely getting his back kicked all the way he's walking.

Like, all aside of, that's his friend, right? Like, he's been his friend for 13 years. I think McElmore's, I think McElmore's music is ass personally. I don't know anybody, and I don't know anybody who disagrees. So obviously, like, this is his friend. Like, by their own admission, this is his friend. It's been his friend for 13 years. Maglamour is very openly in support of how.

He even said that he joined this tour because he wanted to speak out against the genocide in Gaza. So, like, obviously that in and of itself, even whatever Ed Sheeran's neutrality, but I don't want to say it or something, selecting McLemore to be your opening act, like, knowing he's going to do that, is clearly some evidence of, like, I am fine. You know what I mean? At the bare minimum, I know you're going to do this. I know you're going to have this kind of messaging. Now, is he, and he did by their own, everybody involved says that.

Ed Shearin was, in fact, trying to talk to Robert Kraft and trying to talk to them and be like, hey, let's don't do this or whatever. So to some degree, he's pussy. We acknowledge that he's not, he didn't want to cancel his whole tour and do the whole thing or whatever. But there's obviously some steps that he did take to, he wanted, he wanted McClmore to be able to do this mess. He wanted to allow this at least.

Like, he himself wasn't against it. Now, is he strong enough to go the way that, like, that doesn't make him, that doesn't shield him from criticism? And I am not, let me be clear, I am not defending. Ed Shearine. No, I don't think that you are. I'm just giving the most like, if I look at the evidence and the light most charitable to him, it's not like he, he, he, Maclemore was a random act. Like, he just happened to be popping now and somebody else selected him or something. Maclemore, he picked the guy. He knows him well. He knows that was what his position is.

Maclemore said he was going to do this. This happened. It's not Ed Sharon who opposed to this mess. So he didn't oppose him saying free Palestine. He obviously knew that. And, you know, so he just. Yeah, it's like you get. Mark Ruffalo to go on tour with you. What do you expect he's going to say? Yeah, exactly. Right, right. And you've invited him on.

I do, again, I don't want this to be misinterpreted as defense for Ed Shearron. But you're in a really bad situation. I guess if you're not willing to stand up and do the right thing. But one of the things in his message that statement that he put out was it comes to a point where it's like, well, do I cancel the whole tour? And there's all of these people that I've employed that now are without. work that, you know, people that have wanted to come out and see it, it's a weird, it's a bad position to be in. And also this moment in time, I do believe, requires people to stand on principle and, um, full-throatedly speak the truth. And, uh, so I certainly don't envy the position

that he was in, but I don't think he handled it properly. Yeah. Disappointed. Yeah. You know, um, yeah. And just like the thing of like, I have my personal views, which I will not share and will not even hint at. So everyone can believe that they, that I agree with that. The only time Lackamore has ever appeared on my Raiders three times in this life, it's when he won the award over Kendrick Lamar. It's the other day when, and the other day, you know, is Caribbean for any time between from October 7 to now when he had put out the song.

I know he put out like a song like very actively in support, you know, of Palestine and speaking against the genocide and this. So he chose the do. Like there's obviously, that's his friend. The guys, like, he might not tell us his views explicitly, but McLemore says this has been one of his good friends for 13 years. Obviously, they've discussed his views. So if his views were, if he were as a diehard Zionist behind the scenes,

he was not using. Never would have been invited. You know what I mean? So that's all I'm saying. Yeah, Sharon, he didn't know Robert Kraft was going to react like this and do all this. Right. Look, we're really quick. And I understand why. And I'm a part of this to, we have so much information.

But not the whole in picture. We don't know people. We think we know people, but we don't, given our parasocial relationships and the way we absorb news. And we're really quick to pass judgments, which I do think it's important. This is the time of not the really quick part. But I think it's important to, again, stand on principle and call people out. And we don't have the full picture. And we're really quick to just pile on and fill in the blanks.

but I think your context that you're offering is really important. Just to consider. And I think also it's, I mean, that's, it's all true even saying. And it is important to think about that stuff. And I think it's also like, it's the focus on it. Like everyone's like, oh, like, what is Ed Shear and thinking this and this and this? The main problem is that he said free Palestine and got kicked off the tour. Like that's the thing that is going on.

And the obviously, like, resurfacing the, the, and trying to say like, this is why and this is this is the same thing as this. Like, that's the narrative that's really going on. And it's, uh, I think, uh, that like should be like people's focus, I guess in like, in this whole conversation because celebrities are involved. So we're going to get into like the interpersonal stuff. And obviously everyone's got opinions of artists, music and so on, uh, with these people in particular maybe.

Um, but before we, before we moved on, I just wanted to sort of, bring it back to like this is the function the function of this narrative is to conflate these two things i think people are focusing a lot of the discussion is focused on what ed shiren's own personal commitment and views are an ideology and stance is on on Palestine and i think that's worth discussing like it's worth discussing what artists can do and what they should be willing to lose in order to stand up for something is important as speaking out against a genocide but i think the larger and more important conversation is the infrastructure in place to silence people who speak in subordinate.

Look what the billionaires are doing. Look what Robert Kraft is doing. Look what they're able to do. And what is happening not only like behind the scenes, but in the front of our faces. And I think that is the more important discussion because Robert Kraft is somebody, you know, while we're debating on what McLeod and Ed sharing thing, Robert Kraft is an unabashed scientist. Absolutely. You know what I mean?

And supporting that. So I think that's the more important discussion that people should be having. it always kinds of turns into, you know, like being more about the social litmus test of, okay, what do they think, Ed Sharon? I'm like, I never gave a fuck about what Ed Sharon has ever thought about anything. Yeah, and why do you have to now? Like, why do we suddenly have to care? And it also kind of feels desperate knowing that public opinion of Israel is going down.

Like when they are looking at Mark Ruffalo's Instagram story and saying, well, let's single this out and make it a big thing. No one was looking at Mark Ruffalo's Instagram story. And then this thing. No one, you would have never heard that McLemore stood up there and said, Free Palestine, except now you've heard it a lot and it's just a message. Hey, if you go on one of our stages and say this, you're out. I guess we're trying to give more weapons to Israel? Trying and succeeding.

Trying and succeeding, right? Yeah, we don't have to try it. We don't have to try very hard to do that. Yeah, we're giving $2.8 billion worth of weapons to Israel. Yeah, and they call it a sale, even though we're not selling it. Why, how do we get to say this? Well, they are saying, you know, this is the large, and Washington Post points it out in their fifth paragraph, but they initially call it the largest single sale. Washington Post fifth paragraph, they love to get.

But it's like the largest single sale of the, of these munitions in recent years. The U.S. government refers to it as a sale, but it's U.S. taxpayer money buying all of these weapons from defense contractors and gifting them to Israel. What is a sale? There's a sale involved. We're buying them and giving them. These are 40,000, 2,000-pound bombs and 20,000 I-2,000 penetrator warheads. And about half of those bombs are MK4s, which is the ones that they drop on buildings to destroy the whole building. You know, Hamas is on floor four of this 12-story building.

Now the building's gone. Is it a hospital? sometimes, yes, according to the UN Commission on Human Rights and also all of us. You really can't even call it a war anymore. It is just straight up a genocide. It has like a ceasefire or whatever been in place. So Hamas is not firing, but Israel sure is. They're annihilating people.

More like thousands of bodies being discovered under rubble that had been previously undiscovered. I mean, we've been talking about this for years. but the scope of this is so beyond imagination. It is so horrific. And now just today, the UN Commission on Human Rights found reasonable grounds to believe that the U.S. committed war crimes in Iran, especially with the strike on the girls' school in Menab. So I guess, yeah, we've been obviously complicit in this genocide all the whole time.

So it should not be shocking, but it is that we continue to accomplices. Gifting these is like... Gifting these, but also pretending that it's a sale. I know I would make it any better. You know what I mean? Like, that would also still be nuts. Like, you know what I mean? Like, if I know my neighbors getting ready to go murder to other neighbors and I like,

I'm like, oh, well, if you give me some bread, I gave what you need to do it. Like, it's no different. And it's funny because the United States wouldn't see it any differently. The United States criminal system doesn't see things like that any differently, right? Like, how often do we try to do, do, does the United States criminal system, like criminally prosecute people for, oh, you gave them the drugs or you gave them the weapon that caused this, oh, proximate cause, XYZ. So, like, they recognize this in every other capacity.

So very much so accomplices. Yeah, whenever a celebrity dies of an overdose, we investigate their drug dealer and bring them to justice. I mean, we bomb drug dealers, alleged drug dealers and fishermen. And that really is what the material distinguishing factor is in whose life they think is important because oh when it's a celebrity or somebody that they think like they think they have a special interest in they think oh their death is a real loss it's then that they want to investigate and hold the drug dealers and everybody or the doctor and like all you know all kind of different actors like responsible for what happens there but in these case when it's oh we are supplying them

with the weapons to completely take out an entire people no then it's like these are my allies that they say they want to do they just say that one one thing because i you know i'm not a big fan and I don't follow what munitions are which. I have to be told about them. Not a big weapon head, yeah. And these very, these MK-84s are the very kind of bombs that a New York Times investigation found in December 23. So years ago already that Israel had been dropping those bombs on areas in Gaza where they had told

civilians to go for safety, like leave this area, go to this safe zone and then drop bombs there. and this is, you know, not... I was told that it was actually humane that they were saying there are safe zones that people can go to not get bombed. Was I misinformed by our own government? I did think that we learned

that our munitions were running low on account of the Iran War, but not that low. Everything's running low. Still give money. Huge bombs. Gas, bombs. To Israel. Once again, we're getting reporting

well after the fact. well after we all already knew something. And in this case, it is that Netanyahu was given weeks of advance warning that October 7th was going to happen, that an incident was going to happen. And he decided to ignore it and not notify any of the security apparatus, the IDF, do anything at all about it. And again, this is something we've known, but still feel so enraged. and infuriating because what are the two options. One, he didn't believe it or two, he believed it and wanted it to happen, which he's been on record as saying that he wanted Hamas to attack.

Promotes Hamas. See, they lift them up. They support. We've known this for a long time. I was going to ask. I was going to, why do you all think this is? Like, is the agenda in order to allow for something to happen that can justify escalation? Yeah.

And then you can do what they're doing. We have recording of him having said that, like in the 2010. of saying, you know, I want Hamas to thrive. He wants to prop them up. And that's so that they, so that this happens, that there is a justification to go in. Yeah, because the rest of the world, because then what happens is, which is the reason

why a lot of the people who passively pay attention and support what Israel doing in their mind, it starts with, oh, there was a terrorist group, there was a terrorist attack, and thus, this is, this is self-defense, this is justified. This is what you do. This is what we do is what everybody does when that happens. Netanyahu said that it's not true. He called it a wicked fabrication with clear political timing. And I believe the clear political timing part, because there's elections coming up in a few weeks. Wicked fabrication, no. And it is weird to try to balance like, okay, how seriously did he take this? Did he think, oh, there will be an imminent attack, but just didn't know it was going to be as big and effective as it.

it was like any number of things have happened there if you if you think we're being irresponsible by suggesting that he might have wanted it to happen uh Hillary Clinton made that exact same suggestion she's running did a few weeks you think she's running oh please could you imagine Hillary trying to run again and discover it all unfortunately I can't imagine it'd be the funniest thing to happen but it would be funny if if if if Hillary and Bernie both ran I'd be like take me out of groundhogs day Let's watch her bit here because I think she's, yeah, her bit. So I think we've got to be very clear of the message as we send, hopefully the Israeli people, especially after this bombshell that came out in the Israeli press, where Netanyahu had been literally called by, you know, Sheikh Mohammed, Mbz from UAE and warned that Hamas was planning.

something. And either he didn't believe it or he want it's horrible to say. He wanted to see what they could plan so that then he could come down hard and it would enhance his position. I don't know what his thinking was. But the bottom line, talk about a failure of imagination. This was a failure of leadership. So, you know, interesting theory from our one sent future president. Yeah, that was my only thought process when I saw. I can't, it doesn't sound far past at all to me. That's what it sounded like. We've been saying that, many people have been saying that for years as this happened.

And then you're like, well, that's like, I can't believe you say that. You can't say that. And then Hillary Clinton comes out. It's like, yeah, probably, right? Years later, it's frustrating but nice to see, I guess. And be good if he lost. It would be good if he lost. It would be good if there were a few losers this midtime return cycle.

But also it's the kind of thing where it's like, well, does leadership shift actually change the political project? The project is actually going on. Now the House has adjourned through the midterms. They adjourned a day early, so they don't have to vote on the impeachment of Pete Heggseth. So here is, I'm going to play J.D. Vance's pitch to the voters. And again, midterm six weeks. It's coming up. Immigration, we've pursued H-1B reform that prioritizes American workers over foreign nationals. There's a lot of good that's been done, but there's a lot of work left to do.

Don't give power to the people who cause the problems that we're fixing. Give us another chance or give us another couple of years to continue to work on the amazing things that we've been doing for the past two years. First of all, what are going on with this hair? Like, I hate whatever. This Lizzie McGuire's brother thing that's going on, right? that's pissing me off. That's one. Two, as a foreign national who had H-1B visa, fuck him. Okay? Like, oh, they

gutted, they destroyed it. Like, literally overnight, y'all have no idea. Like, when I tell you my villain in origin story, like, I shit you not. Like, I saw the clip, y'all sent it to me. And he said H-1B, and I was triggered immediately, like, oh, you know what? Like, oh, I'm breathing fast.

So it was like, overnight, executive order. Oh, and, like, when I said, say to you, if it weren't for the fact, if I were still on an H-1B, I would be fucked and like my heart, the pain that I felt for every immigrant like myself who has been on those, first of all, you have no idea

how hard it is to even get an H-1B. Like, what a fucking needle in a haystack, let alone they make it seem like it's just out here like candy and we're just taking jobs. It's hard as a bitch to get it. And that's doing it the right way. Like someone who came on, I was on a F1 student visa,

went to school here, graduated became a lawyer here, passed the bar hair, get admitted here. And then you had to fight for my fucking life to get an H1B. And here, they come overnight. It was already like where, your employer, if you didn't even get one, you have to get a job. That even qualifies. It even falls under it that kid that is willing to pay the costs because they make it so you can't as an immigrant pay it. So because they don't want to make it desirable for you to get the job.

And you have to seem like a burden to the employer to take it on. So it was already that before, just in getting them to cover. the fees for it, the lawyer, and then they made it so it was like some stupid, I'm pretty sure it was like $100,000 for you to try to get an H-1B. I could, I could punch him in the mouth personally. Like he said that and I was, you fucking son of a bitch. So that's all I have to say. I have nothing further intelligent to say other than fuck them. The immigration conversation is so huge and we're so hyper-focused on the illegal kidnappings that are happening and the torture happening in detention. Right. Right. Because another

horrendous, horrific thing happening right in front of us on American soil. That feels very at odds with being an American in theory. But there are so many different elements of the immigration conversation that just get brushed over. Like the fact that

we need immigrants, it's so fucking hard. It is so fucking hard to come here the right way. To do things right. And to stay. It's expensive. Or if not then family. Or it's not even possible. Like that's the right.

Not even possible. When you talk about, like my, and people, so, my frustration as an immigrant in America is that everybody is constantly talking about immigration and immigrants and almost nobody knows shit about it, but people who are living with an immigration status. You don't have an avenue. If I had a dollar for every time, somebody said to me, why don't you just apply for your citizenship? I'd be the richest bitch alive. You can't.

You're not eligible. You have no path to citizenship. You cannot be a citizen in the U.S. just because you want to. You cannot get a job in the U.S. I get a work visa just because you want to. They make it so you are not eligible. Like you literally think of it. If you think about it like this, it's like, oh, how did you come here?

You have me a lady on a student on a student visa? No path to citizenship from there. You have maybe needle in a haystack. Maybe you can get an H-1B. Or maybe if you're an extraordinary alien who they decide is doing something of national importance with a degree in an area of substantial merit. Maybe you can get an EB-1 or EB-2 visa.

If you're Rihanna, maybe you can get an O-Visa or something like that. They're literally hail-marries and you can't do. I'm saying this is somebody who is applied for. I'm telling you I've been through this is a bitch and a half. I apply for an EB, I think an EB-2 visa coming out of law school before I ever got my H-1B. And they told me, okay, you are an outstanding alien with a degree, you know,

you have a, you know, a legal degree. That's cool. But you want to be a public defender, which is if not, does not qualify, all you want to do is help the indigent poor of New York and that is not of national importance. And so that is denied. They do not understand how fucking hard it is

to get these visas or to get anything. And people have this idea. Because there's so much constant, constant, constant, propaganda about immigration and misinformation, people have this idea that it doesn't apply to certain people. I've had so many of my own, like, colleagues and peers when I would tell them in school, like, I am scared to death. I'm in such a horrible immigration situation.

I've had friends say to me, no, no, no, they don't mean you. They're like, you're one of the, it's like, oh, you're one of the good ones. Oh, you're in long school. They do. They do mean you. They mean everybody. They mean everybody. They mean everybody.

And it's like, even during the last election cycle when I was trying to tell people, like, listen, if Donald Trump wins again, the Republican, when again, immigrants of myself will be fucked. The amount of people, leftist progressives included on my side, who called me a bourgeoisie immigrant and said that like, oh, it doesn't apply. Like, they believe that the only immigrants that suffer under these rules and these administrations are undocumented immigrants, which is not true. Now, undocumented immigrants who do not make up all of who you see being rounded up,

being criminalized, being sentenced. I said, no, even U.S. citizens, everybody suffers under this kind of police state, because that's what it is. I hope people recognize that ICE is an arm of the police and the police state. But beyond that, all of, like, look what's happening as all of their, what they're able to do when they have your attention focused elsewhere. Because you're focusing on ice, which you should be, because you are seeing what's happening with ice in the streets and you're focused on the detention centers and what looks immediately horrible to you, you're not seeing all of the executive orders being passed, all the ways they're gunned people, the amount

of immigrants doing it the right way, going in for their green. card interviews and being snatched up and detained and sent home. That has happened so many times it's unbelievable. Immigration is, immigration is such a dangerous position because it's one of the few places that you see the federal government just able to run fucking while with no checks and balances and so little pushback because everybody is taught and indoctrinated into this understanding that like people who are not citizens are supposed to be treated last time. That's how people see it.

You see how they frame it. We're protecting. They talk about gutting. the H-1B as protecting U.S. citizens, when that's not what it is. They make it seem as though any precaution, any provision, any right, any guarantee, anything for immigrants is somehow to the detriment of U.S. citizens. And so it allows for so much complicit support. You know what I mean? People are so passively supportive of things that they think only harm immigrants. It's like, well, we need jobs. And oh, we should protect the border. And all these different things that you're

like passively indoctrinated to believe that ends up not only hurting immigrants, but hurting everybody. because look, by the time they're rounding up U.S. citizens and they're taking away. So that's my rant. Yeah, because, I mean, it's part of the plan, too. Like, you're right. So, like, so many Americans don't care and they view it like that. And it's this sort of like zero-sum game that is presented to everybody. And it is part of the strategy, too.

Like, Stephen Miller is obviously, he likes the shock and awe and the front-facing. Like, he likes seeing everything ICE is doing. But he also spent years when he won. wasn't in the White House, finding out, like, looking into all these different ways he can chip away it in, like, administratively and in these ways that aren't going to be as public. And he's just doing it from both sides, using one kind of to cover the other stuff and putting them all together. It's really insidious. I think one of the best ways to kind of change the way someone thinks about immigration, because the thing you hear all the time is like, no, no, no, no, we love

immigrants, we just want people to do it the right way. And then you ask, well, what is the right way? And then they will describe it. And then you can show them, oh, that's not a thing you can do. That's not allowed. That is shut down. Like, if you don't have one of these things that you've described, one of these like exemplary things, oh, I'm doing something of national importance. I invented a process that's going to change the, you know, you can't. They don't let you. Even we used to think it's as simple as like, oh yeah, get married, get citizenship. No, that doesn't do shit. That's not necessary. That's not a slam dunk thing. Also, just go get married, whatever. Please. But even that, though, even that isn't. We're seeing people who have been married and making a life here for 15 years,

getting deported. People also don't think about how dehumanizing that is. Like, when I said, I've been in the, I came to the United States when I was 14 years old. I am 33. Okay. I am 33. I am not a U.S. citizen yet. In order, even being to be a permanent resident to get a green card is because my husband is an American. But what people don't think about it to get that is my entire relationship is documented. We have binders here where I have to go to the U.S. government, go into the office and prove to you. I have somebody evaluate your relationship. Imagine that. Somebody people don't think about what that becomes when your entire life is open to the interpretation of what they decide is valid. And even get in my green card,

I shit you not. The man literally was like, oh, well, because you're a lawyer and starts disparaging the fuck out of the other immigrants sitting in the... Listen to me. If you heard it, and I got a... Did I object?

No, I did not. Because I'm not... You know, you gotta... No, yep, yep. I'm one of the good ones, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, I agree. You have to go printout. I have every document,

everything in my marriage, a whole thing or whatever, in binders, laminated. Every document y'all have to go show, them your life and make your life. And if you don't do that, imagine you decide, oh, you're a person who doesn't want to be, you're not a picture-taking couple. What if you're not a lovey W-O-D? Let me show you all my business. You have no choice. You have no choice.

It becomes that. You don't get the right to say, oh, I don't want to, what if you didn't believe in marriage? What if you wanted to, like, think about, what if you wanted to go love somebody from the country you're from? That becomes, like, that's not an option. It's that or give up your life. You know what I mean? You understand what I'm saying? It's like that, that doesn't even become an option available to you. If I had wanted to say I had a relationship, I'd moved to America with my high school sweetheart from the Bahamas that I love, I can't be with him and keep my life in the country that, you know what I'm saying? But people don't think about that. They just, they throw out these things. It's like marriage, marriage, why does marriage

get to be important for everybody else but an immigrant? Why is that? Why should that be your only option to staying in a country where you were there the right way? You did it the right way. you did the things, you're a car, you contribute to that country, you work there, you pay your taxes, you whatever, you've built a life, and that doesn't matter. All that matters, like, I remember thinking, like, oh, and I finally got my green card. Like, I had been imprisoned there for so long, you would feel so free and stuff. And you know what it felt like to realize, like, damn, you build your life here, you become a lawyer here, you do that, and if my American husband did not love me, if we did not love each other,

he didn't love me and bestow upon me this, like, fuck you. Like, that's a horrible thing, that you could show. Yeah. And if you didn't have fruit, like, boy, if we weren't a picture-taking couple. Like. So it sounds to me that none of us are on board with Vance's plea to give them another chance. It didn't work. Oh, Vance.

I once thought to check out his wife's YouTube. Have you all seen that? I have not. That's my gift to bestow upon y'all today. Yeah, I only see. So much. Yes, I discovered it from a YouTuber named Karameen Spicey. Shouted to her.

his wife created a YouTube for children's books Oh, I do know this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm there. The second lady of the United States is reading children's books, and she is there like, imagine this all black dress reading children's books. It's, I'm all-librous. Megan McCain.

I know. The guests on this are amazing. President Donald J. Trump. J.D. Vance. Oh, the exact person I'd want to read me a bedtime story. Yeah, he reads president play. And there she's sitting there out your interview in these big, growing, miserable people about

what children's book they, like, what children do you know, like want to hear from elected officials talking dryly about what children's story talk. 8.6,000 followers. No, the numbers are abysmal. The only numbers that are worse are Megan McCain's YouTube channel. This is the least

child-friendly set or programming I've ever seen. This looks ridiculous. Just Mitch McConnell up there. Quickberry Clarkbury. Pick me a blackbird. I know. It tickles me greatly. Oh, Mitch McConnell has resurfaced.

Yeah, everybody. Check out our episode about him. A zombie. It came out yesterday. We filmed it last week because we thought it was funny and it worked out perfectly. I thought he might have actually on Monday after we recorded this show, there was all these reports

of police cars at Mitch McConnell's house. And I was like, oh, baby, perfect timing. He is still Perfect. Still, perfect timing. Still funny. Did you guys see the clip of him? You did, Cody.

Voting yesterday? Voting, but then, yeah, he's not. Senator McConnell. No. Senator McConnell. Aye. Senator Hoven. He had to be a super alive.

He had to be prodded to say, I. And then he can, he's, he smiles, he gives the thumbs up, and he gives the peace sign. but he can just do those things. Peace in love. Peace and love. Oh, yeah, he's like Ringo. There is something so sick and good. About the fact that Mitch McConnell,

if he knew 10 years ago what his future looked like and that he would be on TV with everybody staring at him, a gibbering mess, almost voting the wrong way, needing to be prodded. He, I don't know. He probably wouldn't like that.

He probably would. And then the, the president probably on the social network he owns being like, I hate that guy anyway, screw him, you know. Yeah, Zami McConnell. I mean, this is the end of life that you deserve to be ridiculed and paraded around and drilling on yourself. How old is he?

Not that, like 84, I think. Let me, I can Google it. It's crazy that you almost said that's not too old. Right. Evil people live so long. No, I'm not saying it's not too old for him to be like a senator and doing it. stuff but yeah he's not he's not 100 yeah he's 84 I know lots of healthy and vital

80 something year old and he is not one of them and he does look much older and then did Lindsay Graham do something really really good the day before maybe he's 70 yeah he like atoned for everything and then they'll be like all right well now we'll just kill you welcome Lindsay welcome yeah

now I got to watch now I got to watch you Chavans talk to these people and read the kids you don't know you have to watch Megan McCain read a His attempt at her attempt at Miss Rachelling. You know what? That makes sense. I wonder if that's like what they perceive themselves as trying to get into the lane of. That actually makes sense.

Because they love to like whatever they think. That is the thing. Now you're cooking with grease, Katie. That makes sense. Well, they got to propagandized to children in their own way. Also, I myself have learned a lot over the past couple years about the monetary value of a children's channel. far superior to just us. Oh yeah, we made a phone hit choice.

There's still time. We got puppets. There's still time. They go play it again. Roll it back. Roll it back. Let me watch that puppet again. Two more times.

In fairness, though, if you saw all the kids' YouTube channels that do really well and you thought the solution was the story of the three little pigs read by Cheryl Hines, you also learned the wrong lessons. Maybe you're assessing things in Rickley. Miss Rachel and Blipy do. told like a kid, my niece actually. I, you know, I was telling her the Three Little Pigs story from memory. And I realized that I have a different version of that story in my brain because I told her that, you know, like, after he huffs and he puffs and he blows it down and I was like, and then he gobbled the little pig up.

And if you saw my nieces, the horrified look on my niece's face and I was like, that was the story. My grandma was like, why would you tell her he gobbled about? I was like, surely I didn't make up gobbles them up. No, there are versions. I think there's a version. And then there are versions where they run to the other house. They just run from house to house. But no, like the wolf gobbled.

The wolf is always gobbling them up. I was like, why would he blow the house down and not eat the pigs? Isn't that the point? That's why you have a wolf in there. The wolf is there to eat. The wolf is there to eat. Right. Someone gave a, I have a three-year-old and we have a version of three little pigs that goes on way too long.

Like, afterwards the third pig, like, keeps inviting the wolf back to go pick and squash or something like that. And you're like, when are we going to get to the thing where they, he just kills the wolf at some point, right? And you're like 40% of the way through this book. And you're like, surely, surely something's going on. And then he's like, this book is a novel. Yeah. Then he gets up earlier and sets a trap for the wolf. It's a, it's a, it's a whole. That's one problem. In my version, it's really little pigs. The wolf always survives. And it's the pigs who die. And maybe that's the defense attorney within me. Like, I like, I realize I'm like, oh, the wolf is supposed to die. That's right. Okay. That's

what I've been getting wrong. I need to revisit this story because my memory of it is very different. Although it sounds like there are several versions, but... Trump just posted about how the wolf is actually the good one. He's like, it's all about the wolf. You shouldn't want to be the big.

My favorite character, the wolf. He might not look the best. He doesn't wear good suits. But he's, you know, he likes me. He's like, what did the wolf do but try to eat? But do wolfy stuff? Like, you know what I'm saying? sniff around, eat pigs.

He was doing his job. Yeah, what's he supposed to do. I was also on Swiper's side and Dora to Explore, so maybe y'all shouldn't refer to me. Aliami, it has been such a treat having you here today. Can you please tell our audience where they can find you, promote any upcoming projects? Yay, thank you all for having me. You can find me. My main channel is Alurinati, which is, you know, the head of my whole Aleranati verse.

So my main channel What my video essays are is Oleranati If you want to hear me talk about TVs and movies You go over to O'Ler and Adi pop For all of the drama And foolishness on the internet

And my sister's personal favorite Of my channels Go over to Olai and Chill If you want politics Like what we've done today You go over to Oleranati politics And then so on and so forth But you can find out

You are prolific Thank you. I thought a lot I was looking at your channels And I was like How do you do it? How do you do it? It's a lot to

Juggle. Me and a little team. My editors. Perfect. Definitely go and check all of that out. And while I have your attention, like and subscribe. Leave a little comment. It helps us.

We like saving that until the hour in of the episode. I think I'm going to start with it and they never do. Every so often I do. Whatever. You guys know by now. And also something that you should know by now, but I'm going to remind you. Anyway, it's that we love you very much.

Don't drag me into this, much.