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Daily Boost Motivation and Coaching

Scott Smith

Health & Fitness, Education, Self-improvement

3.9 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Introducing MAGA, Mahmoud Khalil, and the War for Free Speech on Campus from Things That Go Boom.

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Mahmoud Khalil became the face of Palestinian rights at Columbia University when the Syrian-born refugee refused to wear a mask and negotiated on behalf of the encampment with the University administration. Now the US wants to deport him using a deep-cut statute in the immigration act that gives the Secretary of State sweeping powers to decide who could have “adverse” foreign policy impacts on the United States. How did we get here? We trace the line back from Charlottesville in 2017 — from domestic extremists fighting on the streets to taking shots in the halls of power.

GUESTS: Joseph Howley, Associate Professor of Classics, Columbia University; Diala Shamas, Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights; Chris Mathias, Author, “To Catch A Fascist” (forthcoming); Ben Lorber, Senior Research Analyst, Political Research Associates

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

Anti-Palestinian at the Core: The Origins and Growing Dangers of US Antiterrorism Law, Center for Constitutional Rights

A Letter From Palestinian Activist Mahmoud Khalil, ACLU

DISCLAIMER: Please note, this is an independent podcast episode not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced in conjunction with the host podcast feed or any of its media entities. The views and opinions expressed in this episode are solely those of the creators and guests. For any concerns, please reach out to [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	My grandfather and his family fled Germany when he was a child, fled the Nazis.
0:05.9	That's my maternal grandfather.
0:07.6	That's Joseph Howley. He's an associate professor of classics at Columbia University.
0:13.1	My paternal grandfather, I have a copy here on my desk of his FBI file.
0:17.7	He's just this guy from Newcastle, Pennsylvania.
0:19.7	I think he's a meteorologist or something for the army.
0:23.1	He was deployed to Great Britain about the end of the war. And he spends his weekends going into
0:29.3	London, consuming culture. He starts hanging out at this like leftist or anarchist bookstore
0:34.5	where the British domestic intelligence services are, of course,
0:39.2	monitoring everyone who hangs out.
0:41.9	They clock that an American servicemen is in this den of subversion.
0:46.8	They send a report to the U.S. military.
0:50.1	It gets filed.
0:51.4	The war ends.
0:52.2	He comes home.
0:53.3	He's working for the Postal Service.
0:55.0	All of a sudden, federal law requires that all federal employees be investigated for possible communist ties.
1:03.0	They start sending FBI agents to Newcastle, Pennsylvania, where he lives,
1:08.0	and basically interviewing everyone looking for some trace of communist sympathy.
1:14.2	There's actually a letter in the file where he writes personally to Hoover and says, basically, if you think I'm a communist, would you please just come and ask me?
1:23.8	Because this is getting really annoying. I think I have the letter here. Do you want me to read it to you?
1:28.9	Yes, please. This letter is dated April 12th, 1948. Dear Mr. Hoover, of course, it's not just annoying.
	...

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