43 | Free Palestine! - Sports As A Weapon Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Miguel (02:12):
Hey, everyone.
Welcome to another episode ofthe sports as a weapon podcast.
Hey, Chicano Chicana sportspodcast on the entanglement of
sports, radical politics, andworking class sports fan
culture.
And don't worry.
We talk just sports too.
it's been a while since we'vedone an episode, but we had to
do this episode.
excited for the guests I'mhaving on today.
We will be talking about what'shappening, um, in occupied

(02:35):
Palestine.
Between the Zionist Israel, uh,you know, Zionist Israel, the
state of Israel and the prettymuch the live genocide we are
seeing right now taking placeagainst the Palestinian people,
but we're going to kind of talkabout how sports is being used.
As for Zionist propaganda topush their narrative.

(02:57):
We'll also talk about sportsathletes that are being pro
Palestine.
So we'll talk about that too.
if you don't know, we're thesports as a weapon podcast.
We are part of the AnticonquistaMedia Collective Network.
Anticonquista is an antiimperialist media collective.
Our content is produced by andfor the Latin American and
Caribbean diaspora.

(03:17):
We are dedicated to exposing andfighting the capitalist
imperialist system, the rootcause of our displacement.
Subscribe to the AnticonquistaPatreon at Patreon backslash
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Also, be sure to listen.
Subscribe to The Sports as aWeapon podcast on Spotify, apple

(03:39):
Podcast, Google Podcasts, andwherever you get, you get your
podcasts.
And so today, my guess isAbraham Marquez Marquez.
He is a freelance writer fromInglewood, California, and a
National Association of HispanicJournalists member.
He is a 2021 USC AnnenbergCenter for Health Journalism

(04:02):
fellow.
He's reported from Tijuana,Nicaragua, Guatemala, and
Honduras.
And writes about socialmovements, immigration,
politics, and sports.
So welcome to the podcast,Abraham.
Glad to finally have you on thepodcast.

Abraham (04:19):
Thank you, man.
Thank you.
I've been following you for awhile.
So it's a, it's a pleasure andan honor to be on your show.

Miguel (04:26):
Yeah, man.
Glad to have you.
So go ahead.
I know we talked about thisbeforehand.
You want to do a littlestatement?

Abraham (04:32):
Yeah.
So you and I connected over the.
the recent events, October 7ththat happened with the uprising
and, the palaces and Palestinianresistance into, uh, Tel Aviv
and, uh, the aftermath in thesports world.
We saw, you know, LeBron James,MLS teams, baseball teams come

(04:53):
out with statements and honoringand support of Israel.
and I'm sure, you know, probablywent through the same.
Thought process like you did ofunderstanding the history of
Palestine.
So for the past week, you know,I've asked myself, have we ever
seen anything, something asdesperate and inhumane as we've

(05:16):
been seeing right now play outin Gaza?
And I draw the question, is thisgenocidal violence?
Because it has all the necessaryingredients in place for the
genocidal concoction.
One, we have a misinformation,right?
They're telling us about the 40beheaded babies.
Uh, they're telling us that thisis Jewish versus Muslims, that

(05:39):
this is Israel versus Hamas.
In reality, this is the right ofan indigenous people to exist.
This is Palestine versus anillegal occupation, and that is
Israel.
Two, there's a big starvingcampaign, right?
They're denying them the basicneeds to survive, with water,
medicine, food, energy, and soon.

(06:01):
And the third thing that Ithought about was the relentless
bombing of trapped civilians.
Before the recent bombing by theIDF in the last week, if folks
were not aware already, Gaza wasalready under genocidal
blockade.
It was already difficult forthem to access basic needs, yet
alone travel through their owncountry.
The bombing campaign hasdestroyed the infrastructure

(06:24):
which makes it harder for medicsand people to get to those that
are in need.
Israel has amassed over 300, 000soldiers as the initial ground
force to invade Gaza after thefour days of systemic bombing
and incineration of an entireneighborhood.
It was reported that 30 familieswere wiped out.
Now, think about it.
30 families.

(06:45):
And we're not talking about 30individual families or 30 homes.
We're talking about 30bloodlines that have been wiped
out.
This is the goal of theoccupation.
It is genocide.
This is not our, and callingIsrael a colonizer and calling
it this is a genocide, this isnot our opinion.
This is actually what Israel hasstated themselves as colonizers.

(07:08):
that was the founding of theideology.
And then we have one side thatis fully blockaded with no
humanitarian assistance, thepeople of Palestine.
Israel enjoys a carte blanche ofmilitary support from the U.
S.
The UK which are the strongestmilitary powers on earth.
They're sending warships insteadof humanitarian aid to ensure

(07:30):
that no one outside, no otherpower outside, specifically Iran
and Hezbollah can come to theiraid.
And by doing so, they'rethreatening for a regional war.
And just think about the region,right?
we have bombed and invadedAfghanistan, Iraq multiple
times.

(07:51):
We're illegally occupying Syria,and we had bombed Pakistan
through drone warfare.
And not to mention the sanctionsthat we're placing on Iran that
has killed thousands of people.
What problems are the people ofthat region are going to be
facing in the future?
The psychological problems, thephysical health, what type of
life will they live?

(08:11):
What type of future will theyhave?
And just let that sit in.
All because of what?
And because of who?
The United States.
And I only bring this up becauseprior to October 7, none of
these athletes, none of theseteams ever showed out or said
anything in solidarity with thepeople in the region at all.

(08:34):
And now they, they, they seethat what, what, what occupation
does, they want to come out andsupport Israel.
So yeah, thank you for lettingme say that.

Miguel (08:47):
Hey man, thank you for, uh, Saying that on the podcast,
and that was a great statement.
And you touched on all, all thepoints I would like to make.
And that way you made, you madea good statement.
yeah, it's, we're all watch,like we said, we're here, we're
watching.
You can't deny that there's agenocide going on right now.
we have social media, you know,this isn't like decades ago,

(09:11):
this technology didn't exist wehave social media, everyone has
videos.
There's telegram.
There's all these.
There's all these sourcesbesides, you know, the legacy,
corporate mainstream media, um,that people watch on television,
you know, you don't got to watchthat there's other sources and

(09:32):
the facts are there and we'rewatching it in real time.
Israel's committing genocide.
You know, they've been occupyingPalestine for 75 years and the
process to even occupy startedeven before that.
Um, Zionism was like an ideologyfrom the 19th century, political

(09:54):
ideology.
And then right now, yeah, justlike you, this is why we decided
to do this episode.
We're big sports fans ourselves.
Um, so we're always payingattention to sports and we see
all these statements, all theseteams and athletes.
I want to point out mostly, all,US teams, but also like European

(10:18):
teams, like English PremierLeague; but, I don't have the
statement in front of me, butmy, the Miami heat did a
statement.
And that one was very, like a,that was one of the more
obvious, like, where withIsrael, like a lot of the
statements were almost all thesame, like it kind of made it

(10:38):
seem like they're like acoordinated campaign, right?
Yeah.
Um, but that one was extradisgusting.
If people want to check that oneout.
And I wasn't surprised by itbecause if people don't know the
owner of the Miami Heat, he's aIsraeli, he's Israeli American.
Mickey, uh, Arison, I think.

Abraham (10:55):
Oh, I didn't know that.

Miguel (10:56):
That's his name.
Yeah.
And so like, he's alwayssupporting, supporting like
Israeli pro Zionists, likestuff, right?
So that's why I was, I wasn'tshocked.
Like I wasn't shocked by allthese teams, but like that one,
when that one came out, I waslike, Oh, of course.
Cause I knew about the owner.
And then I saw the Dodgersstatement.

Abraham (11:14):
Oh man.

Miguel (11:16):
Uh, man, that, that one was, that one obviously made me
mad because I'm a Dodger fan.

Abraham (11:21):
and it's like, like you said, it was, it just seemed too
coordinated.
It was just like all at the sametime.
And, but one of the things that,that really like bogs the mind
is, is the outrage over aheadline that said that 40
babies were decapitated, right?
And that was later on proventhat it's not true.

(11:43):
As of this morning, I haven'tchecked.
since the morning, I woke upearly to get ready for this,
but, the death toll as of thismorning, it was 2, 950.

Miguel (11:54):
Yeah, I think it's over 3000 now.

Abraham (11:56):
And that included 1030 children.
Right?.
But there's no outrage for thosechildren.
Right?
There was a big outrage for thefake headlines, but the reality
of Palestinians dying every dayand have been for the last 75
years.
It's okay to them.
They're not going to questionit.
They're not going to come outand support.

(12:16):
Me personally, I think that ifthe movement keeps getting
bigger and bigger, it's going tochange the dynamics of it.

Miguel (12:23):
Yeah, I agree.
cause I've noticed a lot morepeople being pro Palestine than
before.
And I'm talking about not justpeople that would pay attention
that might be political, likeus, you know, other comrades
that I expect it from, but likepeople, I didn't expect you
know, people that might not bevery political, don't have an

(12:44):
understanding about globalgeopolitical politics, or even
just in the US because, youknow, obviously we live in the
US it's the most propagandizedlike society.
Right.
And so.
That was surprising.
I think I saw some, you know,polls aren't all like science, I
saw some polls were like, itseemed like there was more
support for Palestine too.

Abraham (13:05):
Yeah.

Miguel (13:05):
Then I seen other ones where people are like, Oh, we
support Israel defending itself.
I don't know.
It feels different with how badthings are happening in terms of
like the solidarity.

Abraham (13:17):
Yeah.
I feel like because we're in2023 and just thinking about the
last few years, how, you know,2020 was a big upsurge, right?
About a quarter of the, of thecountry protested a lot of them
for the first time, right?
Of 37 million people shows thatthere is potential for
revolutionary change in thiscountry.
Right?
And then now in 2023, seeing howmany people are taking the

(13:39):
streets in every major city forPalestine lets you know that it
is changing, right?
We can potentially stop this.
now, what I was going to get tois, I feel like a lot of people,
especially the liberal crowd,their politics collapses at the
door of Palestine.
Because they, you know, theliberals are like, well, you

(14:00):
know, violence is not theanswer.
Okay?
How did we get to thissituation?
Like the Palestinians are like,hey, come in.
Take our land.
No, it was violently taken awayfrom them, right?
And so their, their beliefs and,and what they want to push it
collapses.
One of the challenges that Iwas, I would say is also just

(14:21):
fighting the, the mediacampaign, right?
That this is Hamas versus,especially I've been reading, I
think I've read more of the NewYork Times and LA times and CNN
in the last week, more than I'vehad in the last year or so; And
so many articles of like, youknow, this is who Hamas is, you
know, all about Hamas, Hamasthis, Hamas that, and this is

(14:44):
not a Hamas, and you and I knowthis is not Hamas, this is
Israel.
This is Palestine versus Israel.
This is the fight of anindigenous people to have their
rights and get their land backand people don't see that.
Even though you show them theevidence and the proof.
Of the declaration and how theyactually had, like, that's their
ideology.

(15:05):
it's really mind boggling howsome people still have like,
well, you know, try to pushthat, that two sides, right?
There's two sides.

Miguel (15:11):
Yeah.
It's pretty much all livesmatter.
The liberal version.

Abraham (15:15):
Yup.
Yup.
Completely.

Miguel (15:18):
All lives matter, I guess also was liberal version,
but.
I feel like more liberals wereable to like, see the difference
between all lives matter andblack lives matter.
whereas compared to this withtheir both sides,

Abraham (15:34):
it's just mind boggling how I've, I've had, uh, you
know, in the last few days, beenreaching out to folks and trying
to, you know, Hey, if you havequestions, let me know, you
know, different group chats anddifferent family members and
friends and just to.
cause I would want, I would loveto talk to people about this,
you know, it's the media tellsit, Oh, it's complicated.
They've been, they've alwaysbeen fighting.

(15:54):
It's an answer.
You know, it's not, it's notcomplicated.
I know when I got into politics,I thought the same way I was
like, ah, man, I don't know.
The Middle East is kind ofcomplicated and it wasn't until,
you know, thankfully I had oldercomrades.
They're like, no man, it's not.
And they sat down with me, readthrough books, read through
articles, watch documentaries.
and that helped me to just belike, Oh man.

(16:15):
Damn, the media really does havea chokehold on people to like,
not want to explore our history.

Miguel (16:23):
Yeah.
And I'm speaking about that typeof stuff.
I remember, um, I'll be 38 soon,like in a month.
but I remember in the 90s,seeing the news, you know,
they've been occupying, Israel'sbeen occupying Palestine for 75
years.
So I remember in the 90s,watching the news, and the
way...
They would paint thePalestinians versus Israel, you

(16:45):
know, obviously I'm a littlekid, So I thought Israel was the
good guys, you know, like, Iremember, I remember that and
thinking that just because ofthe way I would watch the news
and what they show you.
Right?
And then obviously I get older,I get more political, get
radical, and then you, you learnabout it and you learn the
truth.
And you're like.
They made me think about that,like, Oh, I remember back then

(17:06):
when I would just watch the TVand I had no idea I'm just some
kid and watching the news and,you know, cause this conflict's
been going on for so longbecause they've been occupying
it for pretty much almost,almost a century.
We're almost there.
It's like three quarters of acentury.
Like, yeah, but I remember the,just remember that now it's just
a trip.

(17:26):
How I, obviously I know now, butstill seeing people not know
about the truth.
And in some ways you can'treally blame them because of how
propagandized everyone is, herein the United States and it's
crazy.
Like I used to, just like you'resaying, well, it's complicated

(17:46):
or we don't like once you learn,no, it isn't.
And it's not complicated.
Once you learn the history, it'sthe same thing.
All of us growing up, like whenhe grew up in the U S.
And he'd go through likeelementary and like, they teach
you about the settlers and howthey came to the, you know, took
the land, but they made it seemlike, Oh, the native Americans

(18:10):
just gave it to them.
Like, there was no resistance.
They had Thanksgiving, like,

Abraham (18:18):
yeah, there was no resistance.
It was just like, they just,they coexisted and they gave it
to them.
Yeah, it's just, it's just, it'sthe same, the same colonial
propaganda centuries later andpeople are just eating it up.
and that's kind of theunfortunate part, but, I don't
know if you've seen the, thedocumentary Gaza fights for
freedom.

Miguel (18:38):
Oh yeah.
The one by Abby Martin.

Abraham (18:40):
Yeah.

Miguel (18:40):
Yep.

Abraham (18:41):
Yeah.
I, I've been sending it and Irecommend it to people to watch
it because it's, it's a really,you know, it debunks all the
myths of the human shield thatwe hear about, you know, the
right to protest and, and yeah,I just wanted to throw that in
there because that's definitelya documentary that, you know,
and it's made by, You know,they're getting the film from
folks on the ground.

Miguel (19:02):
Mm hmm.

Abraham (19:03):
On the ground.

Miguel (19:03):
People on their team, on the team to make the film are
all like Palestinian.
Yeah.
From the Middle East.

Abraham (19:08):
Yeah.

Miguel (19:10):
I know some of our listeners probably watched it,
but I know some people haven't.
So yeah, highly recommendwatching that documentary.
I think it's still on YouTube.
it's on the Empire Files YouTubepage, I believe.

Abraham (19:22):
Yeah.

Miguel (19:23):
Gaza Fights For Freedom.
I'll post the link to thatdocumentary on the show notes
for people, but that, that one'sa good source for people that
wanna learn more about what'sgoing on.
It's a really good one.
so yeah, I'm going to read Iwasn't shocked by this
statement, but it still pissedme off.
this is a, the statement LeBronJames made, are you a Laker fan?

Abraham (19:45):
Yeah.
I tell my friends, uh, I'm not afanatic.
Um, I love the sport, so yeah,even if they lose, man, if it's
a good game, I'm gonna, I'mgonna be happy, you know,

Miguel (19:57):
I'm a Laker fan.
So this one, this one pissed meoff more.

Abraham (20:02):
But it's, it's LeBron, man.
I don't know if you've seen thememes that he got trolled on.

Miguel (20:07):
They're true of him.
Well, yeah.
Cause I remember when he wasposting that, that he was
reading the book, theautobiography of Malcolm X, and
he's all has that photo of himreading the book.

Abraham (20:18):
Did you remember the interview?

Miguel (20:20):
No, I don't remember the interview though.

Abraham (20:22):
I'll send it to you.
I think I have it somewhere,but, uh, one of the.
He was in, uh,

Miguel (20:26):
when they were asking him about it, press conference.

Abraham (20:29):
Yeah.
What do you think about thebook?
And then he's like, Oh yeah, Ijust started reading it.
And he's just like, anyone who'sread that book knows that you
can, you can articulate a lot.

Miguel (20:39):
Yeah, man.
I learned a lot reading them andyou can just watch them.
You could just watch the movieand learn a lot.
You could just watch the movieDenzel Washington.

Abraham (20:47):
Exactly.
Couldn't even mustard anything.
That was just more like morethan just like, he had great
things to say.
And it was like, all right, man,cool.

Miguel (20:55):
well, now we know he really didn't read.

Abraham (20:57):
Yeah, for sure.
For sure.
But, uh, I mean, I still likethat.
He, you know, part of me, it waslike, well, at least now Lakers
fans whenever you throw MalcolmX in the conversation, I'm gonna
be for it.
You know, it gives you anopportunity to talk about, um,
but with that statement, it'slike, ah, yeah, he definitely
didn't get past the first page.

Miguel (21:15):
Nah he didn't, cause if you read that LeBron, you would
know you will not support Israeland what's happening right now.
Malcolm X is looking, is prettypissed off at you, right now

Abraham (21:30):
he's turning in his grave.
Like, Oh man,

Miguel (21:34):
Shaking his fists, but I'm going to read that statement
for people that didn't read itor hear it just because I wanted
to point it out just because I'ma Laker fan.
This really pissed me off, eventhough I wasn't surprised.
Very liberal, very liberalstatement; but this is the
statement quote,"The devastationin Israel is tragic and
unacceptable.

(21:54):
The murder and violence againstinnocent people by Hamas is
terrorism.
The Spring Hill Company.
Family sends our deepestcondolences to Israel and the
Jewish community.
We pray for peace in the regionand reiterate our continued
commitment to fight hate in allits forms.

(22:14):
We all must work to ensure thetragedy, this tragedy does not
spread even more hate, racism,and antisemitism." End of quote.
That one.
I'm like, LeBron, now we knowthe truth.
He didn't read it, man.

Abraham (22:29):
Yeah.
You hate violence.

Miguel (22:31):
That's a bad statement.

Abraham (22:32):
Yeah.
But just,

Miguel (22:34):
we condemn all violence, but, uh, I'm only showing
support here for Israel, eventhough they're occupied a
country for 75 years and puttheir people in like an open air
prison.
Oh, man.

Abraham (22:48):
And I think a part of me, I was thinking about, uh,
over the weekend is it shows youthe power of the media, right?
The violence that, that, or the,you know, the, the terror that
Israelis felt, right?
They really painted thatpicture, like, Oh my God, they
were, they were kidnapped.
They were getting shot at thisand that.

(23:10):
And it's like, people were upsetabout that.
Like, just imagine the mediashow the everyday life of a
Palestinian, how outraged youthink people would be seeing
their homes, homes being bombed,the hospitals running out of
medical supplies.
If that was running 24 seven onCNN, look what Israel is doing

Miguel (23:30):
bombing ambulances,

Abraham (23:31):
bombing the roads on their way to the, uh, safe zone.
Israel will collapse, completelycollapse.
and I think what happened inOctober seven, it kind of showed
how fragile the military is,right?
They were able to take over someof the military bases, Hamas a
statement and saying that they.
And then you're even seeing now,right, like the interviews of

(23:53):
some of the girls that werecaptured.

Miguel (23:55):
Yeah, some of the settlers, the Israelis, saying
they were treated well by Hamasor whoever captured them.
There's not just Hamas, there'sdifferent liberation groups
within Palestine.

Abraham (24:07):
Yeah.
And yeah, that's it.
And they try to blank it intoone boogeyman, right?
Hamas, right?
that's another thing that I getfrustrated when reading articles
is that it's just all Hamas,Hamas.
They don't realize that it's a,it's a pretty complex network of
resistant fighters.
And they're not, they're not allwithin the borders of Palestine.
There's some within outsideborders.
but they don't want to say thatbecause then they'll be like,
Oh, well, that people areactually fighting for their

(24:28):
existence.
It's not just a terroristorganization.
But, um, yeah, man, it's, it's,uh, I'm, I'm trying to think
what's going to happen nextbecause once Israel collapses,
I'm very optimistic that itwill, but we'll see, we'll see
what happens.

Miguel (24:46):
Yeah.
And, uh, did you see, uh,Biden's going to be going there
on Wednesday, like this.
Within the last couple hours ofus recording right now, I saw
that news because AnthonyBlinken's ass was over there,
too.

Abraham (25:01):
Yeah, I saw the Washington Post read the article
of Blinken visiting with He wentto Saudi Arabia,

Miguel (25:08):
oh Yeah, that too.

Abraham (25:09):
Yeah, and he wasn't too happy the way he was treated
they made him like supposed towait really long time in the
lobby and was just not kind oflike given like the the red
carpet treatment Which if, forthose who have been paying
attention to regional politics,that's been happening for a
while.
a few years ago when the, uh,uh, Joe Biden went to Saudi
Arabia, I mean it was, theydidn't, they didn't roll out the

(25:32):
red carpet for him.
Remember it was just like alittle fist pump with him and,
Bin Salman, right?
it was just like a red carpet,and then like a month or two
later...
Uh, Xi Jinping went to SaudiArabia and it was like the whole
red carpet

Miguel (25:44):
threw a party,

Abraham (25:44):
threw a party for him, welcome him.
And he just kind of, that kindof hinted at like, yeah, man, I
don't, I think your friendshipis collapsing.
And then they dropped thedollar.
They're working more with China.

Miguel (25:55):
Yeah.
They're going to join.
They joined bricks.

Abraham (25:57):
Yeah.
and so you can see that.
And so when I read that today, Iwas like, well, that's kind of
predicted, you know, likethey're not really in good
terms.
And also, I think a week before,October 7th, Benjamin Netanyahu
went to the UN and he put out amap of what Israel was supposed
to be.
And he already took out Gaza.

Miguel (26:18):
That was before the, what happened on October 7th.

Abraham (26:20):
Yeah, yeah.
And so, you know, everyone knowsthat Israel eventually wants to
expand as well, right?
Like, they also, they're takingterritories in Lebanon, trying
to take territories in Syria.
and so when I read that, I waslike, yeah, I'm not kind of, I'm
not surprised if people aregoing to start turning their
back on you.

Miguel (26:34):
Yeah, like the U.
S.
influence isn't as stronganymore there.
I'm like, it's probably holdingon to that last bit of influence
they got, and this, this mightjust flip it like where they
don't got nothing anymore.

Abraham (26:49):
Yeah, and the timing of it too, because they were, Saudi
Arabia and Israel were gettingclose to normalizing relations.

Miguel (26:56):
Yeah, they were about to do that.
Which, I'm sure this might'vebeen part of what happened with
the resistance on October 7th.
Cause they, none of the Arabicworld wanted that.
Like all the, no.
So like Saudi Arabia was alreadydoing some treacherous stuff
there.

Abraham (27:17):
To say the least.

Miguel (27:18):
and then, uh, some other stuff I saw, like people like,
oh yeah, we're for Palestine,but like.
Kind of like, kind of like aboth side ism kind of thing.
They were like, you know, causethey don't want violence or all
this.
Oh, I think I saw someone likecomplaining about Hamas cause
they're not communists and shit.

(27:39):
And I'm like.
I'm like, do you not knowthere's primary and secondary
contradictions?
Like, yeah, Hamas isn'tcommunist, who cares about that
right now?
Like, who cares?
But there was a very, uh, USWestern kind of like commie
take, not from everyone, butcertain people with that take.

Abraham (28:01):
Yeah.
we can't criticize that becausewe have, we have, it's our
government that's doing allthis, you know, Israel.
Yeah.

Miguel (28:07):
And there's different material condition and
conditions in different places.
Like, yeah, let Palestine getliberation first.
And then you could go on to thenext stuff.

Abraham (28:16):
Exactly.

Miguel (28:17):
I pointed it out on a post.
I don't even remember where Iposted it, but it was like when
China, before their revolution,They were like aligned with KMT
because they needed to defeatJapanese imperialism.
You know, like their opposites,like one's communists and one's
nationalists, like right wing,but like they joined forces to
liberate their country.
And then they, then later thecivil war happened, obviously

(28:40):
the revolution happened, butlike.
you can't have a perfect, like,communist, I don't know, it was
an annoying thing I saw him,like, who cares about that?
Plus, there's other Palestinian,you know, resistance fighters
that are part of a communist,like, you know, guerrilla force.
Like, there's different ones,and they're all, they're all
together right now, even thoughthey might have different

(29:01):
politics with each other,because what comes first is the
free Palestine.

Abraham (29:06):
Yeah, and they can't be free, we have enough on our
hands to...
To stop the U.
S.
from funding Israel.
Because once you cut that off,Israel won't be able to stand on
its two legs.

Miguel (29:16):
if people actually knew how much money goes to Israel.

Abraham (29:19):
Right, right.
Four, four billion dollarsannually.
It's a blank check.

Miguel (29:23):
It's like every year for how many, how many years?
They've been, they've beenpretty much since the U.
S.
became the global power.
Yeah.
And Israel, yeah, after WorldWar II.

Abraham (29:33):
And that's another thing that really gets me
frustrated is that you have the,One of the most advanced
technologies, and bombs, andweapons that Israel has against
a people with no army, a peoplewith no navy, a people with no
police, like, they're out therethrowing rocks at tanks.

(29:54):
And how do people be like, Oh,well, there's two sides to it.
No, there isn't.
There isn't at all.
This is, this is guerrillawarfare.
This is, they're on the ground.
They're whatever means ofproduction, whatever means of
stuff they can get.
You know, they're going to getit to defend themselves.
Yeah.

Miguel (30:10):
so, uh, there is another, oh, you, you saw that
piece from Yahoo, that lady, Iposted it to, it was like Yahoo
sports and like, it was likeabout the NFL's, uh, support for
it.

Abraham (30:22):
Oh yeah.

Miguel (30:22):
Israel.
Oh man.
That was so bad.

Abraham (30:24):
They all were kneeling before the game in honor of, in
memory or like in solidaritywith Israel.

Miguel (30:31):
Yeah.
Yep.

Abraham (30:32):
I thought you were against people kneeling and
bringing politics to the game?
Did you see what happened atthe, Angel City game?

Miguel (30:41):
Yeah, they kicked out the fan.
Yeah.
The Palestinian flag, right?

Abraham (30:45):
Yeah.
so on Saturday at the march, abuddy of mine had told me that
they were...
Um, he's involved in, in, in,um, the SG, the support groups
and told me what his partnerwere going to do.
And, um, they're going to bringin flags and they made this big
10 by 10 Palestinian flag andthey were going to wave it
there.
And then they had that sign.
So I told him to send mepictures and that's why I posted

(31:06):
it.
so I think it's pretty dope andyou can see that it got a really
good response.

Miguel (31:13):
Hey, so were they the ones that got kicked out?

Abraham (31:15):
Uh, I think one, one guy got kicked out.
It was someone else, right?
Yeah, yeah.
And he's the guy that, um, hewould go to every LAFC and Angel
City game.
Oh, so he's a big, yeah.
Yeah.
So he's, so the flag's beenthere.
He's, he, they know him.
He's been there.
But now because of

Miguel (31:32):
So he's had the Palestinian flag there before.

Abraham (31:34):
Yep.
Yep.

Miguel (31:35):
Oh, but now they care.

Abraham (31:36):
Now they care.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that's it.
That was, that was the big thingthat he was like, man, I've,
I've I bring this every singletime I come.
So, and now because of, youknow, they got the order from
the top to not allow it.
even the politicians who can't,they can't even say like cease
fire or, bloodshed or anythinglike that.

(31:57):
So everyone's being censored.

Miguel (31:59):
No.
Oh yeah.
And they can't use the word.
Some places aren't, some media'snot letting them use the word
Gaza.
it's pretty intense.
Um, I remember when just acouple years ago when the war in
Ukraine started and all the, allthe banning of Russian stuff,
same, you know, same thing'shappening now.

(32:20):
Yeah.
Um, when it comes to Palestine.

Abraham (32:23):
Yeah.
And then the same people whowere like, yeah, you got to
defend, you got to defend theUkrainians from, from resistance
of an occupying power.
But somehow the Palestinians isa little bit different.
It's too, it's too complex.
It's, yeah.

Miguel (32:35):
I wonder what the difference is.

Abraham (32:37):
Right?
yeah.
And it's, it's, as I'm sayinglike the people's politics
collapsed at the door ofPalestine because they don't,
yeah, it's just frustrating.
Cause I guess it's, it's, you'repushing, if your politics align
with, The Pentagon?
Then you're wrong.

Miguel (32:53):
Yep.

Abraham (32:53):
I would say if your politics align with the
Pentagon, then you're obviouslynot.
You know, you're on the wrongside.
That's always what you couldmeasure your politics to and
know what side.
Mm-hmm.

Miguel (33:05):
the right side to be in on is on.

Abraham (33:07):
yep.

Miguel (33:07):
Yeah.
If you're on the same side.
Yeah.
If you're on the same politicalline as Pentagon on a topic

Abraham (33:13):
Yep.

Miguel (33:13):
Then you're on the wrong side.
Yeah.

Abraham (33:14):
We saw that in the Arab Spring.
We had to, we had to, we had tosupport the revolutionaries in
Libya'cause they're, they wannaoverthrow the government.
'cause it was a, you know, theArab Spring.
His movements, it's like, ah,no, hold on, back up.
You got it.

Miguel (33:28):
Or, um, when they supported the, people in Hong
Kong against China.

Abraham (33:32):
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
The freedom fighters,

Miguel (33:34):
they're all wearing Trump hats protests over there.

Abraham (33:37):
Oh my God.
And people buy it and people buyit.
They were, they were, they wereeating it up and you got to
defend democracy.
Yeah.
Even though the main guy thatwas like organizing, he was like
traveling freely throughout thecountry.
Yeah,

Miguel (33:51):
he's all like, he's like that lady from North Korea.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Forgot her name right now.

Abraham (33:57):
Such a, such a dictatorship that you get to
travel freely and go anywhereyou want.
Yeah, go and get paid.
Yeah.

Miguel (34:09):
let me read that Dodgers statement because I, man, when
this statement happened, I waslike, all right, we're Dodgers,
we're, this is going to, they'redone.
They're going to get swept.
And that's exactly,

Abraham (34:19):
as of earlier today, I don't think LAFC has, has
published a statement.

Miguel (34:23):
So they haven't made a statement, just Angel FC, huh?

Abraham (34:27):
Yeah, yeah.
And then they're owned by, um,my buddy was telling me, this
actress is a big owner, a bigpart of the, ownership group or
whatever.
she's a Zionist.
So some folks are saying

Miguel (34:38):
Wait, That's owner of Angel FC.

Abraham (34:39):
Yeah.
Cause there's like, it's notjust like a one.
I don't think it's just,

Miguel (34:42):
yeah.
Yeah.
They have a bunch of differentowners.

Abraham (34:44):
Yeah.
But there's just actors.
I forgot her name.
So, And they were saying like, Idon't know why she didn't just
post it on her personal pagebecause she has a bigger
following because she's aZionist.
and I think that she had themajor influence in that
statement.

Miguel (34:55):
That's probably what happened.

Abraham (34:56):
Mm-hmm.

Miguel (34:57):
I'm all Googling it right now.
Oh, Natalie Portman?

Abraham (35:00):
Yeah.
Natalie Portman.

Miguel (35:01):
Oh, what?
Star Wars

Abraham (35:03):
That's two Star Wars characters that that are on the
wrong side of.

Miguel (35:06):
Yeah.
People look at Mark Hamill'scrappy.
I think it was a tweet that'sout on Instagram.

Abraham (35:13):
Yeah.

Miguel (35:14):
Supporting.
I'm like Luke Skywalker

Abraham (35:18):
I know.

Miguel (35:18):
Supporting, supporting the Empire.
Pretty much the dark side.

Abraham (35:23):
Yeah.

Miguel (35:23):
yeah, I guess it's, well, it's Natalie Portman.
Yeah, that's what it is.
Yeah.
Oh my.
Yeah.
So I'm saying just like thatheat owner, cause I know, I know
about him.
Cause he was, he supports like,uh, what's it called?
The APIC..
I think he supports them.
He supports like a lot ofZionists like stuff.
Even like the way it's not anowner of a team, he already

(35:45):
died.
But like the, the guy that likehelped fund the Raiders new
stadium, that was like the ownerof a casinos in Vegas, it's like
Sandy and something, AndrewOlson.
I can't remember his name.
He died a few before the thing,he died like four or five years
ago, but he was like the key guythat helped to get Nevada to
like decide to fund the stadiumfor the Raiders, and he was like

(36:08):
a big Zionist, so there's a lotof.
There's some people that are inpowerful positions in pro sports
in the U.
S.
that have, like, that areZionists.

Abraham (36:18):
And across the media landscape too, and with the
recent events that really kindof, they flexed their power.
even the photojournalist fromReuters was killed.
I don't know if you saw how theycovered it.
He died from, and this was juston their side.
Um, everyone else said that hedied from an Israeli strike, but

(36:42):
they couldn't even say thatIsraeli killed him.
The Israel killed him.

Miguel (36:45):
Didn't they say like it came at the, come from the
direction of Israel orsomething.

Abraham (36:49):
Direction of Israel is like, even, even some of the UN
like human rights groups orcan't even say that, IDF that's
killing, that's bombing people.
It's just from airstrikes.
That's it.
And it's just, it's not veryspecific.
and that's another thing too isthat for a country that, that,
uh, or here, you know, NorthAmericans that preach about

(37:13):
obeying the law, law and order,Israel is violating so many
international laws that no one'sreally talking about.
Or even writing about, exceptfor Mint Press, and Mint Press
did a really good breakdown ofall the, yeah,

Miguel (37:26):
I shared it too.

Abraham (37:27):
Yeah.
And I was like, man, this isgreat.
And I kind of wanted to tag allthe outlets are like, yo, you
might want to mention this.
You might want to inform yourreaders, that Israel is breaking
the law.
and then, you know, even in someof the articles, they, they
start off with like, AfterHamas's terrorist attack, and
it's very like worded verycarefully so that Israel's the

(37:51):
victim, it's good versus bad.
And it gives you just, it givesthe reader just the, the, the
picture that, that Israel has todefend itself.
Cause that's, that's their, youknow, that's their, their, what
do you call it?
Like their, their reason for,for bombing Gaza.

Miguel (38:06):
Yeah.
And even that one narrative,well, obviously the one we
talked to the 40 babies one, andthen the one about the rave that
too.
And like there, they said somelady was like killed and they
had her naked body or something,but then it turns out she was
alive in a hospital and her ownmom confirmed it.

Abraham (38:22):
Yeah.

Miguel (38:24):
And they did it right away when it was happening.
Like they went straight to thatpropaganda right away.
Like that first day.

Abraham (38:30):
Yeah.

Miguel (38:30):
First or second day.
So you were talking about thatMint Press did that, those
really good slides on lists ofwar crimes that Israel has
committed since October 7th.
So I'm going to mention some ofthem here.
obviously genocide.
So they like, they cite likesome of the laws from the
international criminal court forthat there's one called willful

(38:51):
killings, article eight to a oneIsrael's targeting of the Shabam
family home, killing all sixmembers, two parents and their
children, torture and inhumantreatment, which we already know
people have been payingattention to Israel and
Palestine, the IDF is alwaystorturing Palestinians.
Um, they've been doing that, um,you know, they torture them the

(39:15):
same thing that U.
S.
did to Iraqis in Afghanistan andin Afghanistan, too, in that
war.
Disgusting stuff, like, youknow, like waterboarding and
stuff like that.
so I would recommend checkingout that slide.
I, you posted it and I posted iton my podcast, Instagram page.
So, but it's, it's a very goodslides.

(39:36):
Uh, I would, if people want toteach people about what's
happening, that's something thatyou could show, like, this made
me think when you're talkingabout, you want to talk to
people and like.
You know, get a moreknowledgeable what's happening,
like even today, and I'm talkingto my mom, like mom doesn't,
she's not political, she's like70, um, we were talking about

(39:58):
it, right?
She's like, I just don't likewar, blah, blah, blah, right?
I don't want people to die.
And I'm like, so I'm explainingit to her.
I'm like, Hey, mom, you knowthat the prime minister of
Israel.
Guess where he's from and she'slike what where and I'm like,
he's from Philadelphia and shewas like what I'm like Yeah, I'm
like all the people in Israelare usually from the US or
Europe like they're not fromthey got homes in the US And in

(40:19):
Europe and then they got theirhome.
They stole in Israel andoccupied Palestine from
Palestinians like

Abraham (40:25):
Yeah, they have dual.

Miguel (40:27):
That's like when, on October 7th, they're showing
footage of people at the airportflying out, and I'm like, real
refugees ain't getting on aplane, buying a ticket, and
like...

Abraham (40:36):
Most Palestinians don't even have a passport, and the,
the, the settlers have a dualpassport.
They have their Israeli one andthe U.
S.
one, or a European one.

Miguel (40:44):
With that bullshit birthright stuff.

Abraham (40:46):
Yep.
It was kind of...
You know, you and I are, youknow, communists, so the
contradictions kind of playedout for themselves when they
were all like running away fromtheir, their, their home so that
they wanted so bad, that once,once she hits the fan, they
were, they were gone.

Miguel (41:03):
They're gone, going back to their other home.

Abraham (41:05):
Yeah.
Yeah.

Miguel (41:06):
And then, oh, you see those, see that and you, I saw
it.
It was been all over.
It's probably like a coordinatednews thing too.
At first, I think I saw it onthe KTLA five or ABC, like la
like Facebook or something.
but it was like they hadinterviewed like people who's
sending their kids, their kidsare flying to like Israel, to

(41:26):
fight for Israel, like from theus like from California.
They're like at LAX.
And their parents were allcrying.
Oh, they're, I'm like, uh, thepropaganda

Abraham (41:35):
The propaganda man.
You know, they all have to servein the army eventually.
Right?
That's like part of mm-hmm.
part of the, the occupyingpolicy is, is that every person
has to serve at some point.
So who knows?
Maybe they even just got calledback and they wanna make it all
dramatic.
Like, oh, he's gonna go anddefend Israel.

(41:55):
Uh, man, I can't, I, yeah, Ihave to, I have to stop watching
the news cause this is really,So, so much proper,

Miguel (42:02):
yeah, like I, I like muted my DMS and stuff cause I'm
like in different groups to likewith other like people sending
news information.
But I'm like, man, I'm justgetting overwhelmed right now.
Like, yeah, it's depressing,especially like, obviously, you
know, we're not dealing withwhat they're dealing with over
there, obviously.

(42:23):
but like, yeah.
For people like us who followall this stuff, it gets
depressing, man, like

Abraham (42:29):
it is, it is, and it's, a couple of friends were, you
know, debating whether, because,you know, if you, I'm sure you
follow times of Gaza, on Twitterand Ig.
And, you know, they post, theyhave people out there and
they're posting what'shappening.
And it's, it's just, it's, Ifeel like if anyone really wants
to pay attention, really looksat it, It would tell them the
truth.

(42:50):
Without having to look at CNN.
If you just look at what's thejournalists and the people on
the ground who are fighting forthis.
I think it would tell them thetruth, cause like, it's hard to
go off on a tangent, but it, itfucking sucks.
Sorry to curse.

Miguel (43:05):
Oh, you could curse on you.

Abraham (43:06):
No one from the so quote unquote progressive arm of
the democratic party is standingup to this.

Miguel (43:16):
Oh yeah.
Are you talking about likepeople like in the squad?

Abraham (43:18):
Any of them, any of them, they're writing letters.
That's it.
Like if you think of thepolitical power and the
political Power that politicianshave, that they can mobilize
their base to take the streets,to shut down business as it is,
to stop a genocide.
And they're just, Oh no, we'rewriting a letter to Biden to

(43:39):
demand he's, he put a ceasefireto this.
Like that's all you're going todo?
Like you have grassrootsorganizations taking out
thousands of people on, on, on aSaturday.

Miguel (43:49):
You get people donating money to you all the time for
crappy Democrat campaigns.
Like you can't even do somethinglike that.

Abraham (43:57):
Nope.
You can't, you can't even, yeah.
Mobilize your base, put pressureon the, on the president, put
pressure on the government.
and no, cause they, they knowthat if, you know, that's the,
the, the thing that they'll callyou is anti Semitic and then
that's going to ruin your, yourpolitical career.
Which is more important to themthan the lives of Palestinians.

Miguel (44:18):
Oh, man.
well, the other thing aboutthis, it's pretty much revealing
everybody.

Abraham (44:23):
Yeah.

Miguel (44:24):
Like for their true politics, whether they're good
or they're bad, like you talkedabout earlier, like this whole
thing is like really showinglike a lot of how these liberals
think.
Really think mm-hmm.
or believe when it comes totheir political ideology or even
just shows how racist so many ofthem are.

Abraham (44:43):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's, it's, they, they wantto support Palestine.
As long as the Palestiniansdon't do anything about their
situation, the moment they riseup, the moment they, the moment
they, they, they do something tobreak out what the UN has called
an open air prison.
It's like, oh, no, no, no, no,no, not that way.
We can't do that.
We can't, we don't supportviolence, but they don't call

(45:04):
their situation violent theyleave it as is.

Miguel (45:07):
And so, we saw that, I sent you that video.
You saw it too about ESPN didlike a little fluff piece before
like all the football games.
It was like a video of RobertKraft.

Abraham (45:19):
Yeah,

Miguel (45:19):
like support for Israel and then it even shows like
Gillette Stadium has like a theyhave like a command center like
Kind of like a fusion center andthey're tracking all this like
supposed hate.

Abraham (45:31):
Oh, man That is terrible.

Miguel (45:33):
Yeah, so the whole onslaught of like propaganda is
on US sports right now.
Like, um, then if even I waswatching, I forgot what game it
was.
Maybe it was the game.
I think it was just on all thegames, but like, obviously they
did like a moment of silence toNFL.
Um, but I guess that the lens,cause they had games in London.
Right.

(45:54):
So this weekend, I think it wasRavens versus Bills in London,
um, at the Spurs stadium.
I guess I saw it cause DaveZirin did an article about it.
But I guess some fans werechanting free Palestine and you
could hear it in the game onlive TV.
I, I watched that game, but Ididn't wake up.
Early enough to see like thefirst quarter.
I think I started watching thesecond quarter.

(46:15):
So I missed that.
But I guess they said peoplewere chanting like that was like
the only game where people werechanting free Palestine.
And then like I guess the camerakind of like cut, tried to cut
out of it.

Abraham (46:26):
Nice, nice.
I know I saw the Browns game.
Someone was rocking a Palestineflag.
That was uh, pretty at thebottom.
Someone posted online.
I was like, oh hell yeah.
I mean it was at the World,remember the World Cup?

Miguel (46:37):
Oh, I did an episode on that.
Like, that was probably the bestsupport of Palestine I've seen
in sports this whole time I'vebeen paying attention to
politics and sports, likeeveryone was for Palestine and
then they had the Israeli mediathere and everyone would like
shun them.

Abraham (46:55):
They got trolled and like, it was funny when the guy
was like, you could tell theydidn't want to interview someone
if they knew they were going tobe like.
You know, supportive ofPalestine.
The guy was like, Oh, we funny.
And he think he lies likeNetherlands or something.
He was like, Oh,

Miguel (47:10):
Oh yeah, they said that they weren't from Israel.
I could, I loved it.
I loved it, man.
I couldn't stop watching thosevideos.
It was just even the English,the other thing, the English guy
to look one last thing.
Pre Palestine.
Oh, yeah.
And then that's the other thingI've noticed is very obvious.
So US sports pro teams and likeathletes you could tell they're

(47:30):
way more propagandized by allthis because all the statements
like the one I just read rightout of LeBron, but then you'll
see more pro Palestine stufffrom athletes from other
countries and other leagues andother.
You know, usually soccer,football players, you know, like
the Moroccan team, they showedtheir, they had a match, I
guess, recently, and they alsoshowed their support, but they

(47:51):
were doing that at the worldcup.

Abraham (47:52):
Yeah.

Miguel (47:53):
even saw the Arsenal a fans did a statement.
they did a state, like it's justpeople in the U S are so
propagandized on, on justeverything, but like,

Abraham (48:03):
Even that track runner, remember he, he was, he won the,
that was his name.
Nolan Lyles, something.
The track runner who said that,uh, you know what, he doesn't
like how NBA calls themselvesthe world champions.

Miguel (48:17):
Oh, they call themselves the world champions?
Yeah.
All the NBA players got all mad?

Abraham (48:20):
Got all mad.
It's like, well, he's right.
Not a world champion.

Miguel (48:24):
It's true.

Abraham (48:24):
You win a championship here, but.
not the world.

Miguel (48:29):
Yeah.
Like, are you playing as thechampion from the Spanish
league, from the Euro leaguethen it'll be a world that's all
the U S sports has been doing.
Like they always call everythingthe world champions, right?

Abraham (48:39):
Yeah.
Cause I mean, look at all thetop players, if they went back
to their home country, right?
Like Giannis wouldn't play here.
Joel Embid and Luca wouldn'tplay here.

Miguel (48:48):
Nope.

Abraham (48:49):
You know, you would have all these players who, you
know, technically you probablywouldn't even win.

Miguel (48:53):
Yeah.
And in something, in a sportlike basketball, there's way
more international players thaneven in the nineties.
Like there was already a lot inthe nineties, but not to this
much level.
Like,

Abraham (49:05):
yeah, I think the world caught up to the NBA as far as
the style of play.

Miguel (49:09):
cause in baseball that already had happened, most of
the baseball players are fromother countries, but like you
had an NBA, it was kind ofslowly and now it's kind of
becoming like, just like that.

Abraham (49:20):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's exciting too.
Cause I like watchingbasketball.

Miguel (49:24):
Yep, basketball is my favorite sport, if I had to
pick.
Um, I love everything, but it'sprobably basketball is my number
one.

Abraham (49:31):
That's my second.
I'm a baseball head.
I grew up a baseball head.

Miguel (49:35):
Oh, baseball's right there.

Abraham (49:36):
Yeah, I can't.

Miguel (49:37):
They're like, it's like basketball 1A, baseball 1B, and
then like...
Everything else I follow just asmuch too, but like, if I had to
pick it, those would be my toptwo.

Abraham (49:48):
Hell yeah.
Yeah, and I love thatbasketball.

Miguel (49:50):
Because that's how I grew up too.
I grew up with playing baseballand basketball.

Abraham (49:54):
Hell, yeah.

Miguel (49:54):
I played football in high school, but I wasn't very
good.
And then I have a disability, sothat's probably why too.
But like, It's probably best youdon't play basketball.
But I played, but like, baseballand basketball are my favorite
though, always.

Abraham (50:08):
Yeah, yeah, same.
I'm getting more into soccer.
I played soccer, but I didn't,uh...

Miguel (50:13):
Yeah, see, so I always liked soccer, and then my
brothers, they all played, myyounger brothers, they all
played, like, club soccer andeverything.
But I, I liked it, but I nevergot into it as much.
And maybe it was because mydisability has to do with my
leg.
Legs, so, like, maybe that'swhy, but, like, I always liked
it, but I just didn't play it asmuch.

Abraham (50:32):
Yeah.

Miguel (50:32):
but now, same thing, I'm getting more into it.
Like, I already liked it, but Iwas, I'd be, like, a more fair
weather fan, I guess.
now I have a team, like I pickedLiverpool as my team, but like,
I like, now I'm starting towatch, watch it more as far as
like outside of world cup andall that, football always
watched since I was little.

(50:53):
So, but yeah, I used to watchhockey too.
I still do.
I'm technically a Kings fan, butlike LA Kings fan.
but I maybe, or like after I waslike out of high school, I
wasn't watching it as muchbecause there is so much stuff,
it's kind of hard to focus oneverything too.

Abraham (51:07):
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure.

Miguel (51:08):
I try to, um, just cause I'm a sports fan and then I have
a podcast now.

Abraham (51:12):
Yeah, no, I mean, I love the, I love the concept.
Connecting, you know, politicsand culture to, to sports.
A lot of people don't, a lot oftimes they, they, they try to
separate it, which everythingis, they don't realize that
everything is connected.

Miguel (51:26):
Oh man.
I get annoyed with comrades thatare like, so anti sports like
some that are, like,

Abraham (51:31):
yeah, yeah.

Miguel (51:31):
Cause they just think of the capitalist part.
But like, it's like a way.
That's why I wanted to do thisbecause I, I had this idea
before it was a podcast, like Ihad a website, but I never, I
wrote on it a little bit andthen I stopped when I was in
grad school.
Um, but then I made the podcast.
This makes it easier.
But like people like Dave Zirin,I guess, influenced me.

Abraham (51:52):
That's dope.
Yeah, he's a great writer.
I like reading his stuff.

Miguel (51:56):
I'm like, and people like the masses all like sports
working class people, like aresports fans, like there's, this
is a good way to like connectthem to what's happening with
politics.
Right.
And then politics are alwayshappening in sports leagues and
people, some people could saylike, Oh, leave it out of
politics, out of sports, butpolitics are always in sports,

(52:19):
just like it's always prettymuch part of your life every
day.
People don't think about it likethat.
All these decisions made thatyou didn't make, like, you know,
how much you get paid, all thisall comes from politics.

Abraham (52:32):
Yeah.

Miguel (52:32):
Like our whole life is revolved around politics, but
people, it's all that wholething where they like try to
like make you think, Oh, don'ttalk about politics.
Don't talk about this, that.

Abraham (52:42):
Yeah.

Miguel (52:43):
But that's probably why that came about.
They didn't want you to talkabout it.
So you don't learn.

Abraham (52:48):
Exactly.
Exactly.
I have friends who tell me, Idon't want to talk politics.
And then like two minutes later,they complain about how
everything's expensive.

Miguel (53:00):
It's crazy how people don't think about that.
Like, they don't think of theconnection, how it's all rooted
to something.

Abraham (53:06):
Yeah.
Yeah.
But no, I mean, I love the, Ilove your show.
Uh, the concept, um, we needmore, more communists to get
involved in, you know, othernon, non political quote unquote
circles to connect the dots.

Miguel (53:23):
Yeah.
I've seen other people aredoing, like someone, they just
started following me onInstagram and they have a
podcast and it was like, it waslike cars and like communism and
they're like talking about carsand stuff and I'm like, dude,
that's,

Abraham (53:35):
that's awesome.

Miguel (53:36):
Dope too.
Like,

Abraham (53:37):
oh yeah,

Miguel (53:37):
because I'm not a big car person, but I have, I know a
bunch of people that are, yeah,and I'm like, Dude, like, that's
kind of the same thing I'mtrying to do with here, but
doing that with them, somethingelse that people like,

Abraham (53:50):
I grew up in a car.

Miguel (53:51):
I know they had, I think theyhad someone, cause I just barely
found out about them becausethey just, they started
following me.
but they had someone from like,Okay.
Rev left radio or something ontheir podcast, too.

Abraham (54:04):
Okay.

Miguel (54:05):
Yeah, like recently as a guest.
So like, so they're connectingwith other people and stuff, but
yeah, there's, I rememberseeing, I don't want to see in a
while, but it was on YouTube.
There was like a video, likepodcasts, but, uh, they were
doing like comics or somethinglike that.
I think I've seen something likethat too.

Abraham (54:24):
That's dope.
Hell yeah.

Miguel (54:26):
That's, that's how people need to do that.
Like whenever you're interestedin, you could connect it to
this.

Abraham (54:30):
Exactly.
People have like this.
Stigma that communists have tobe a certain way.
It's like, oh man, it's workers.
We're all workers.

Miguel (54:37):
Yeah, you're workers.
At the most basic level, it'sabout workers.

Abraham (54:42):
Yeah, workers that make the cars.
Workers that play the sports,man.

Miguel (54:45):
that's another thing.
Like, obviously there's a lotof, now a lot of athletes make
millions, but people don'trealize how a majority of...
Like most don't.

Abraham (54:54):
Yeah, and they're all under a union.

Miguel (54:57):
Yeah, and they're a union.
And they're still workers.

Abraham (55:00):
Yeah, exactly.

Miguel (55:01):
They're workers, they're not the bosses.

Abraham (55:03):
No, no, much as they want to say they are, but
they're not.

Miguel (55:07):
Like, I think the one that, with the whole minor
league baseball issue that washappening, how they were not
getting paid, like, that openedpeople's eyes.
I know it did because like, Ithink a lot of people thought,
Oh, they get paid good too.
Cause they're about to be in themajors.
I'm like, dude, they get paid.
No, I, it was sad.
I'm I, my job, I don't even getpaid a crazy amount, but like I

(55:28):
was making more than like minorleague baseball players.
And like, people don't realizeit.

Abraham (55:32):
No, man.
And they live in a crowdedhousing too.
So you can only imagine like themental health and, the
relationships they have, thedamages that it does to them.
And

Miguel (55:43):
I'm like, now they're part of the union, but this just
happened not that long ago.
But like all these minor leagueplayers, yeah, still not, it
still could be better, but it'sbetter than it was before.

Abraham (55:56):
But it just shows how, the benefits of having a union,
right?
When I got a union, like sixmonths later, they got a raise,
but they wouldn't get a raisebefore.

Miguel (56:04):
And then I, I think the.
The whole actors and writersstrike open some people's eyes
to, yeah, cause it's kind of thesame thing.
They think that all the, all theactors are like big movie stars
that make all this money.
I'm like,

Abraham (56:16):
no,

Miguel (56:17):
all those people in the movies, like that aren't the
stars.

Abraham (56:20):
No

Miguel (56:21):
extras.
All those are working actors.
Like they don't get paid likethat.

Abraham (56:25):
And they're trying to eliminate them by like, like
using AI and stuff.

Miguel (56:31):
Well, that's another thing.
Like in sports house, somepeople want robot umps.
Like sometimes I'm like, maybecause these umps be doing some
crappy calls, but like, butthen, but then I'm like, nah, I
don't want no robot umps.
Cause then they're going to losejobs too.

Abraham (56:46):
It's just a home plate ump.

Miguel (56:48):
Yeah.
So that's, maybe that's the bestsolution.

Abraham (56:51):
And I've, I've heard, I've heard some good arguments
of like, there'll still be anump back there, but they won't
be calling balls or strikes.

Miguel (56:58):
Cause that's, that's where all the bad calls usually
happen.

Abraham (57:01):
Exactly.
And you just have balls andstrikes.
You just have them there.
If there's a play at home wherethe computer can't, you know,
tell you like

Miguel (57:08):
to get them out, thrown out or something.

Abraham (57:11):
So you tell him if you're not getting rid of them
and then the people that arestopping it from happening is
the umps is the umps that arenot allowing it to happen, but

Miguel (57:19):
they got their own union too.

Abraham (57:20):
Yeah.
So, yeah, man, it's justinteresting times in sports
right now.

Miguel (57:26):
Yeah, it is.
And I'll probably end, end uphaving to do another episode on
this topic in sports.
Cause it looks like this is notgonna, this might be a long term
thing.

Abraham (57:36):
Yep.

Miguel (57:37):
Hopefully Palestine wins.

Abraham (57:39):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And we'll see how it turns outif it gets, you know, bigger
with a regional conflict andyeah, it's gonna.

Miguel (57:46):
Yeah, that's the thing right now.

Abraham (57:48):
Yeah.

Miguel (57:49):
What domino falls when it comes to that stuff.
Like if Biden's going there onWednesday.
it's because something might,there might be things that could
be happening.

Abraham (57:57):
Yeah.

Miguel (57:59):
Right.
So.

Abraham (58:00):
Yeah.

Miguel (58:00):
Like they're obviously already interested in Israel
because we're the ones that U.
S.
is the one that funds them.
Gives them all the money.

Abraham (58:07):
Yeah.
And the U.
S.
is forever trying, been tryingto go to war with Iran.
And then trying to overthrowSyria.
they already damaged most of theregion.
So yeah, it's going to beinteresting to see how, how this
plays out.
But the, I think I have a strongfeeling that the, I have a
strong feeling that the regionwould not let Palestine fall.

Miguel (58:23):
It won't because the Arabic world is pretty, pretty,
uh, aligned together, likeeverybody, like, so, yeah, I
agree.

Abraham (58:33):
Yeah, so we'll see, but I have a feeling that if it
gets, if it gets, I mean itsucks to say this, but it's
already really bad, but I feellike if it gets worse and worse,
that eventually the region willstand up for Palestine.

Miguel (58:46):
Someone has to stand up to him if it's going to keep
going.
Like, of course I don't wantworld war three, but like, you
can't, if someone's killing yourfamily, what would you do?
Like,

Abraham (58:56):
yeah, man,

Miguel (58:57):
even when people are like, like pacifists or
something, you know, like, ofcourse I don't want violence,
but like.
That's like the ideal, but evenlike, let's, you know, when the
doctors hit your knee and youget the reflection, I kind of,
I've used that analogy before.
Like it's kind of like a selfdefense mechanism, like self
defense.

Abraham (59:16):
If you got to self defend yourself, then you, and
you had to use violence becausethe person trying to kill you or
oppress you.
That's what they only know.
Yep.

Miguel (59:25):
Like you're going to fight back.
Like that's actually a naturalreaction.
but yeah, that's some, sometimesthat's the analogy I've used
with people that are like alwaysjust, Oh, no, I'm like kind of
do the both sides thing.

Abraham (59:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I've, I've, I've been fortunate
to, to travel the region.
I went to Iran and Egypt andit's everyone that you talk to
knows more about geopoliticsthan most Americans.
They'll tell you about,

Miguel (59:52):
I think most of the world, the people know, yeah,
it's, it's, it's

Abraham (59:57):
I just, it felt very welcoming.
Like I was talking to people,no, there's stuff, they can
break down the sanctions whenthey kick in, when they don't,
what presidents they hated themost, like, you know, most
Americans wouldn't even be ableto point you on a map where Iran
is that

Miguel (01:00:14):
they wouldn't even know where Israel is that occupied
Palestine,

Abraham (01:00:17):
exactly.
So, I have a strong feeling thatthe region won't let Palestine
fall.
So,

Miguel (01:00:24):
yeah, so we'll see how it goes.
We'll follow up.
Yeah.
So, um, anything else you wantto say before we end this
podcast?

Abraham (01:00:35):
Two words, man.
Free Palestine.

Miguel (01:00:38):
Free Palestine.

Abraham (01:00:39):
Yep.

Miguel (01:00:39):
That's right.
so yeah, we'll end it righthere.
It's good talking to you.
Hey, whenever you want to comeon my podcast, I've said it
before, but come on, I'm down.
I haven't been recording asmuch, but I want to do that.
Like be more consistent, likehow I first started and I slow
down a lot, but.
Need to do more episodes.
So

Abraham (01:00:58):
Hell yeah.
yeah man.

Miguel (01:01:00):
Hopefully I do Start doing more again, but I'm glad
you hit me up to do this becauseI wanted to do it I'm always
like wanting to get guests.
I always try to think Oh whowants to be a guest?
I'm glad whenever people hit meup.

Abraham (01:01:12):
Yeah man.

Miguel (01:01:13):
So yeah, anyone listening if you ever want to be
on, you know, we know each otheryou want to be on the podcast
You have some topics with sportsand politics.
Just let me know and I could tryto

Abraham (01:01:22):
if you want I'll talk to him, but my friends that were
part of the organizing the, uh,the Palestinian flag for the AFC
game, for the Angel City game.
They were the ones that weremaking them and organizing them.

Miguel (01:01:35):
Oh, I'm down.
Yeah.
Maybe we could do a littleepisode on it.

Abraham (01:01:38):
Yeah, yeah.
That'd be cool.

Miguel (01:01:39):
Like next week or in...

Abraham (01:01:41):
I'll let you know.

Miguel (01:01:42):
I think I'll be, I'll be busy the first few days next
week, but let me know.

Abraham (01:01:47):
For sure.

Miguel (01:01:47):
Cause I'll be, that'll be dope.
I've had done episodes kind oflike that before too.
Like I had, uh, I had like,people, the one about, you know,
Dodger stadium, how it got, youknow, the, yeah, I've had.
So I'm always down to do stufflike that.
Uh, I think one time I had somespokesmen from a union that was

(01:02:08):
organizing like the SanFrancisco Giants concession
workers, so yeah, stuff likethat, people do actions that
involve sports.
I want to have them on thepodcast, like, I kind of thought
about that too.
If this keeps going, hopefullypeople could start organizing
actions at sports stadiums likethey were doing for black lives
matter in the past.

Abraham (01:02:26):
Yeah.

Miguel (01:02:27):
I think that that's a good place to do it at.

Abraham (01:02:30):
Yeah.

Miguel (01:02:31):
You know, you'll get a lot of haters, but,

Abraham (01:02:33):
and there's a lot of cameras out there to at least
try to get it off.

Miguel (01:02:36):
So maybe that's something people could do in the
future.

Abraham (01:02:39):
Yeah.

Miguel (01:02:40):
That'd be pretty cool.
But yeah, I'm always down to do,talk about those things on this
podcast.
Yeah.
Thanks Abraham for coming on thepodcast.
I'll put all the links in theshow notes for people.
Um, and then it's more specifictopics, different ones I could
find of how to do with sportsand what's happening in
Palestine.
I'll put that in the show notes.
Uh, so yeah, thanks Abraham.

(01:03:01):
And then.
I'll have you on the podcast.

Abraham (01:03:04):
I'll be back.
All right.
Thank you.

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