The Majority Report with Sam Seder - 2710 - Deployed Sailors Are Getting Desperate; The Media's Obsession With Hasan Piker w/ Jeet Heer

Episode Date: August 14, 2026

It's Casual Friday on The Majority Report On today's program: Conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln have deteriorated to the point that servicemembers are attempting to jump overboard. Food is rotting, hygiene supplies are depleted and morale is very low. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, on CNN, makes a plea to Secretary of War Pete Hegeseth to do his job and fix this horrible situation on the USS Lincoln. Hegseth denies the reporting on the conditions and thinks he can placate servicemembers by spewing effusive nonsense. Jeet Heer, national affairs correspondent at The Nation and host of The Time of Monsters Podcast, joins the program to recap the week's news. Topics include Tuesday's primaries, the media's Hasan Piker obsession, inflation, midterm elections and more. In the Fun Half: Shane Gillis teaches Joe Rogan about Donald Trump's Truth Social early access scam where people can pay $100k to see his posts early and then use the info to bet on the markets. Shane Gillis then teaches Joe Rogan about Teddy Roosevelt's Square Deal and Gillis advocates for a second version, but Rogan says that if someone tried then "they" would kill that person. Rogan brags about the UFC White House event and Gillis expresses regret over attending the fights. Wisconsin Democratic candidate for Governor in Wisconsin, David Crowley, gives a wishy-washy answer on the massive unpopularity of data centers in the state.  Ken Paxton tries to blame his lazy campaign for Senate in Texas on the fact his runoff with John Cornyn drained his coffers. A "centrist" in Colorado is running as an independent against Melat Kiros but is easily exposed by crackerjack local journalist Kyle Clark as being a conservative Zionist. Trump denies the reports of the conditions on the USS Lincoln and says that the carrier has not been deployed long enough. all that and more. To connect and organize with your local ICE rapid response team visit ICERRT.com The Congress switchboard number is [phone]. You can use this number to connect with either the U.S. Senate or the House of Representatives. Follow us on TikTok here: https://www.tiktok.com/@majorityreportfm Check us out on Twitch here: https://www.twitch.tv/themajorityreport Find our Rumble stream here: https://rumble.com/user/majorityreport Check out our alt YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/majorityreportlive Gift a Majority Report subscription here: https://fans.fm/majority/gift Subscribe to the AM Quickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! https://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: https://majority.fm/app Go to https://JustCoffee.coop and use coupon code majority to get 10% off your purchase Check out today's sponsors: COZY EARTH: Go to cozyearth.com/MAJORITYREPORT for an exclusive 20% off. RIDGE WALLET: Get 10% Off your entire order & take advantage of Ridge's Annual Sweepstakes by going to https://www.Ridge.com/MAJORITYREPORT SUNSET LAKE CBD: Head to SunsetLakeCBD.com and use code BIRTHDAY26 at checkout to save 25% on everything sitewide. Spend over $100 and get a bonus gift on top of it all. Sale ends August 17th at Midnight.  Please fill out this form to request Bryan to come to your town to do stand-up comedy @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech On Instagram: @MrBryanVokey Check out Matt's show, Left Reckoning, on YouTube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Check out Matt Binder's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Subscribe to Brandon's YouTube channel: https://ww.youtube.com/Th3Discourse Check out Ava Raiza's music here: https:/www.youtube.com/@avaraiza

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Save 25% on everything sitewide. Hit the $100 mark. You get a bonus gift on top of it. Sale ends August 17th at midnight Eastern time. See there, folks. for full terms and restrictions. And now time for the show. That means Monday is casual Monday.

Tuesday, casual Tuesday. Wednesday, casual hump day. Thursday, casual thursday. That's what we call it. And Friday, casual Shabbat. The majority report with Sam Cedar. It is Friday. August 14th.

2006. My name is Sam Cedar. This is the five-time award-winning majority report. We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, USA. On the program today, Gene here, National Affairs correspondent for the nation, host the weekly nation podcast, The Time of Monsters. Also on the program today in the way of leaks of dire conditions on the USS Lincoln. A new carrier is being sent to the Republican War on Iran. U.S. retail sales fell dramatically in July. Trump claims he's going to ramp up economic pressure on Iran.

Meanwhile, Trump orders the Navy to scrap a new aircraft carrier technology for a return to steam catapults. Busting billions. First Circuit of Appeals in Boston rejects ICE's bid to impose detention without bond. We now have like a full circuit split. You'll probably see that at the Supreme Court. New documents show DHS spied on Minnesota unions and activist groups during its crackdown in Minnesota this year. Kennedy Senator to inscribe Trump's name.

on its building, renovated by Trump. Feeling pressure to finally represent Americans, U.S. to Israel Ambassador Huckabee condemns Israeli settler terrorism against Palestinian Americans in the West Bank. DNC to vote tomorrow on new primary schedule with South Carolina and Nevada starting the elections. and Luigi Mangione pleads guilty to killing a top health insurance executive. All this and more on today's majority report.

People are saying my audio is not sounding well. We've caught up with it now. Okay. Hello. It's a little hot. Oh, hi. It's Emma Vigland. Hello.

Good to see you. Nice to see you. It's Friday, folks, and, of course, the Trump stuff with the catapult is its own thing. I don't know about what is the best technology to launch aircraft carriers off of, or planes off of aircraft carriers. But it is a little bit unnerving that he is overruling, I guess, the military. I doubt he's doing it for money. Maybe his sons have bought like a stake in a steam company or something to that effect. I have no idea. But the real story, of course, is the reports that sailors are trying to literally jump off the boat. The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier.

they have been deployed for over 260 days. And I am told by our resident military expert, Intel, that that is, well, first of all, it's a record, but it's also just incredibly inhumane. In my expert opinion, I would say that is a very long deployment. it. Very long. And the conditions on it are rotting food, basically. They haven't had milk in months. And there's no Wi-Fi, too, or it's very spotty, which is interesting because SpaceX and Elon Musk get a lot of contracts from the federal government to set up these satellite services that are supposed to correct that, but maybe that's just for Israel. They can report how bad their conditions are back to their wife easier. Yeah, there was this one text that MS now got from a 19-year-old who is on this ship,

and he sent to his wife on July 21st, the last text exchanges that she received from him, saying, I think the boat is finally getting to me, and I really don't think I can keep up my peace act anymore. You are right about it all not being okay. we were supposed to leave Fifth Fleet on July 15th, but then something had come up, and my last hope of being home soon was gone. I'm really trying not to feel negative or hopeless,

but between the Wi-Fi and not knowing when I will come home and not knowing what is happening back at home. It is really getting to me. I don't think I can do another deployment after this, and I don't even know if I can finish this deployment. And she was informed days later about him attempting to jump off the ship by a friend of his, essentially. Like they were trying to cover it up versus actually speaking to his wife, the military, about what happened to him.

And I mean, this along with the reports that we have depleted all of our missiles. I mean, and of course Pete Hegsteth being trying to create a new warrior force. Here is Senator Blumenthal speaking on CNN about the USS Lincoln. Those hardships, not increase them. And what we see right now is, in fact, a lack of sufficient supplies, basic necessities like toothpaste, soap, clean water, and even food, that is a betrayal of trust by the top officials. in our Department of Defense. And I call on the Secretary of Defense. He calls himself the Secretary of War to pay attention and do your job.

That's what I would say as a military dad, and I have been a military dad. Two of my sons have served, one as a Marine Corps infantry officer in Afghanistan, the other as a Navy SEAL, and I would be angry beyond words if my son or daughter were on that ship without what they need to do their jobs. And let me just say, Pamela, because you know you've been on that ship, the pilots, the mechanics, everybody involved in conducting the mission of that aircraft carrier is under incredible stress doing jobs that require physical and mental stamina. 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and they've been out there for almost 250 days without

putting feet on the ground, setting a record for the number of days continuously at sea. The Ford, USS Ford set a record for the longest number of days at sea deployed, 326 days. So we are stretching these deployments beyond what we should be expecting of our sailors, and we're putting them at greater risk and danger because of it. And it's because of Trump. Like initially they were supposed to come back in May, end in May, and Trump extended it indefinitely due to his criminal war on Iran. The MS now interview with this wife also said that the husband went to the chain of command

and told them about his mental health and that the wife said her husband said they kept brushing him off. She also said her husband expressed concern that his prescription contact lenses had expired, and he was having trouble seeing and doing his job properly. He works on helicopters on the carrier's flight deck and told her he believes it had led to accidents there. They're treating them like cattle. All part of Trump's lost war now and refusal, I think, to concede. And I don't know. This seems like it's just going to keep going on.

Apparently now Trump's latest plan is to create economic pressure on Iran. Sanctions. Huh. Have we tried that before? Wait, that was what we were doing before the war. Interesting. I mean, hopefully, you know, I think it was earlier in the week we played that clip of Chris Murphy. Maybe it was from Sunday saying the war is lost.

we should take any deal that is available to us and get out. And who knows if Trump is capable of doing that. Here is Pete Hegsseth, who completely rejects reports of worsening conditions aboard the USS Lincoln. Actually, not completely, sort of vaguely rejects. Completely misrepresented. Listen, we make sure at every ship, every country, crew, every captain has everything we can provide them in every single moment. I mean, some deployment are longer than others and I have more.

Yeah, yeah. Why is he dressed? Why is he dressed like he's like a, like he's a ship's captain at a, he works on the yacht. He looks like he's the, yes, he's, I mean, come on. That's like the fascist uniform to look like you're at a yacht club. And he has his stupid ass. Every time he goes out, pocket square with the American flag on it.

Enough. He looks like Thurston Howl heading out to Euligan's Island. But, all right, go back. But understand the idea of completely misrepresent. What does that mean? Like it misrepresent seems like a very sort of hedgy word there. I have your attention to another thing he said, which is that they have everything we can provide them, which is not to say everything they need.

Right, exactly. Look, it's expensive. Go ahead. Every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment. Some deployments are longer than others, and I have more respect and gratitude for those sailors than anybody. What they do in those high seas and those austere conditions with less port calls, it's incredible. Americans don't understand what it's like to do. that. So as someone who's been not been on a ship like that, but been on long deployments,

I feel it. I want them home as soon as everybody else. Do I want folks rotate it as quickly as possible? I want the best for them. My commanders know that. Our service secretaries know that. The president expects that. And so to that crew and to all those crews, we're going to do everything we can for you. And we are so grateful for their dedication of that crew and others. They've held the line for the country. And they've done a fantastic job. Good thing they can eat his respect and his admiration. Exactly. I'm showering with some of Pete Hanksett's admiration right now.

That's the way I'm cleaning my heart. Why is this shower water brown and smell like rubbing alcohol? Meanwhile, they're sending another aircraft carrier, but I got to imagine that's going to take some period of time. I don't know how long it takes. In my expert opinion, it will take a long time. Yeah, exactly. I would also just draw people's attention back to March

where the USS Gerald Ford had some laundry room fires that took out of commission. And I always have thought, like, maybe we haven't got to the bottom and the full story of what happened with the laundry fire. Oh. Maybe it was sabotaged by troops that didn't want to be at war. And I would say that this sort of development and the conditions that we're learning about more and more

suggest that that might have been the case. At one point, we're going to have a full reckoning of the destruction of all these bases. Maybe find out that there were more U.S. service men and women killed. And this is all just going to be part of Trump's legacy. But it remains to be seen if they'll ever bring any of these people home or they'll they'll concede to the fact that we've lost this war. We'll be giving them nukes in six weeks. We're going to give them two nukes just to end this thing.

I've decided Hawaii not that important to us. And it is now part of the Republic of Barack Hussein Obama. Yeah, we don't care about Hawaii. No, no, no, no. It's Kenya. It's Kenya. Oh, yeah, my bad. You slipped.

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Quick break. And we'll be back with Jeet here. We are back. Sam Cedar, Emma Vigland, on The Major Report, it's pleasure to welcome back to the program. National Affairs correspondent for the Nation magazine, host of the weekly and nation podcast, The Time of Monsters. Jeet here, Jeet, always a pleasure. Oh, I did. Same here. This show is always a highlight of any week that I'm on. I've got to thank you. It's very sweet.

First, I have to ask you. Well, yes. But also, I need to have the answer to this question first before we take such compliments. Do you condemn Hassan Piker? Well, yes. Absolutely, I condemn him by his choice of clothing. He dresses far too well for anyone in the podcast game. He's making the rest of us look bad.

He works out, which is, again, a real. attack on the opposed to exercise community of which I'm a proud member. It's disgraceful. He has a way of reaching out and talking to ordinary people and getting his

message across, which again, you're making us look bad. You're basically a scab against podcasters. And this is the grounds for my condemnation of Hassan Piker. And let's be clear. He has left nothing but

much older people to watch cable news is taken the youth audience there's a lot of things that we could go through on all of those but I appreciate the condemnation Jeep and now we can move forward yes now we can have you on the show

but that's right I mean I am curious to get your reaction to like what's going on with that it's sort of fascinating to me but let's also talk about it in the context to Minnesota and Wisconsin this week? You know, it is absolutely fascinating because Hassan Piker was made in both races

was made like the major issue of contentation. And this is like at a time where the United States is like fighting several wars, losing badly in the Middle East, is led by, you know, someone who's like an openly authoritarian and had killed American citizens on American soil. And you would think at a time like that,

a political party would be focused on all these genuine real issues. But for some reason, the centrist faction has decided to make this podcaster who, you know, as I said, he's making the rest of us look bad because he's quite popular. But he is like a Twitch streamer, which like not one person in 100 on the street would recognize. but they have made him the litemus task. So to me, this indicates, I don't know, either a lack of seriousness or the fact that I think the center's faction, for them, the factual fights within the party are more important than anything else.

And the only thing I would add is, like, they were repeatedly lost on this. Zaharan Vandami is the mayor of New York, right? El-Said is the nominee. And although the Hong did not win, she, like, you know, came within a few thousand votes. They repeatedly lost making Hassan Piker the issue, but they continue to do so. But I think they're working the long game because it's crossed over now officially. Like people in my life who would definitely not know who Hassan was now know him by name. And I think they're trying to build a level of like engagement from their already existing core voter base that can combat Hassan turning out young people.

So when Hassan comes to their city, then somebody like, like these moderate older Democrats are going to be like, hey, this is an indication that I should oppose whoever he ends up backing. That's to me what I think they're trying to build is some sort of like understanding with older Democrats who are more conservative that it's the opposite indicator. Like we see Hassan campaigning with a DSA candidate and on the left we're like, okay, a lot of people will go be drawn to that candidate. They're trying to create the opposite incentive, I think. Yeah, no, no, and I think that's a very good reading. And it's sort of in keeping with the sort of, you know, Bernie Bro strategy that we've seen since 2016.

The thing is, I don't even know if it's, like, working. I mean, like, as indicated, there are those things that they're lost, but even, like, older Democrats, I mean, you know, you poll them, and they might be willing to buy the electability arguments. But, like, politically, like, in terms of, like, the actual issues, like, in terms of, like, Israel, in terms of, like, of crypto in terms of like AI and data centers. Like I actually don't think that they're like that different.

So I think the danger that they have is like in building of Hassan as the sort of foil, you know, they're actually, you know, might introduce it to a larger audience. And I would say the same geniuses who like are trying to build up Hassan, many of there are former Clintonites. And I'll mention near attendant. Their strategy in 2015 and 2016 was to build up Donald Trump. because their idea was that if Trump is the foil, this will mobilize our base, and he's the best candidate that we could go against.

And we have, like, memos from the Clinton campaign where they said this, as well as, like, emails from Neurattenden, where she said, yeah, the Piper strategy. And so they are trying to do, yeah, to build up the enemy that they want. They want the San is the enemy, as the same way they want Donald Trump as the enemy. So to my mind, the way this ends is with, you know, President Piker. If they're unsuccessful, in using Hassan Piker as a foil, as they were with Donald Trump, it's a two-term presidency we're looking at. It's, I mean, it's fascinating because people should understand, I mean, you know, this started out with Piker. And now, you know, Sean Hannity will say his name as a boogeyman.

He is deployed by the right now as a way of attacking Democratic candidates. So in some respects, it certainly may end up hurting Democrats in the general. I don't think it will, but that's the way that this is being weaponized. But we got to remember where this started. This started with exactly the cohort you're talking about, centrist Democrats who feel like their influence in the party, whether it's Carvel or some of the folks at the bulwark or, you know, etc. Maybe even on cable news feel like

they're losing their influence on the party. And the fact of the matter is, is that just from an age perspective, time is not on their side. I mean, honestly, this is a white-knuckle fight because they are their

power is waning. That doesn't mean that they're, you know, that you're going to have DSA candidates all across the country or whatnot. But the point is their power within the Democratic Party is, I don't know if it's going to go away, and I don't know if they won't have a resurgence, but it's certainly trending against them right now, and they're panicking.

And let's also be clear, the cohort of people who are doing this, and I don't know if they line up one to one, one with, you know, support for Israel. But if Hassan's name was Harry, it would be a much harder thing for them to be doing this stuff going forward. So let's, you know, and certainly, you know, we have seen even as far back as, you know, Sydney Blumenthal during the Clinton primary in 2008, there is a, there is a

a willingness amongst folks like this to deploy a certain amount of Islamophobia if it it marshals you know what they need but right now and let's also be clear

this is something that just sort of plays out in their benefit theoretically only during the primaries and we're near towards the end of the primary season and Ken Klippenstein just posted this the other day on Twitter there have been 10 incumbents who have been defeated in these primaries across both parties,

but I think mostly in the Democratic Party versus the Tea Party era when there were six. And so this is significant stuff. Yeah, no, no, there's absolutely a turning of the party, especially on the Democrats. I mean, I think people are saying that it's a Tea Party moment. That's true, but that's actually like that undersells it because unlike the Tea Party, this is actually an organic movement that's not being driven by plutocrats

and it has actually the people who have lost you know like the earlier races in New York you had very senior people in the party who lost so

Espaio was the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus yeah and even like you know in Wisconsin where you know the center first one. I'm sorry, but like, you know, like the closest of the race and the fact that the left insurgent candidate had like so many issues and was also doing some fairly eccentric

things in terms of like, you know, not doing as much TV advertising as would have been wise. I mean, like, none of this reflects well. But the more fundamental, substantive issue is that if the centers are losing power, they're losing power, you know, based on the fact of their repeated failures, going back decades. You know, going back to, you know, I think, like, Barack Obama not responding substantially enough to the Great Recession, going back to, like, you know, first of all, elevating Trump, the Piper strategy, and then losing to him, and then, like, you know, consolidating around Joe Biden, who I, you know, we could, even though they won narrowly, like, you know,

that was not a good decision. And then losing in 2024. Like I think that a lot of the voters, the sort of vote blue no matter who party loyalist voters, there's a lot fewer of them. And even among them, there's a lot of anger towards the party. And Israel and I would add data centers has given a wedge issue whereby insurgent candidates can win.

So yeah, I think that you do see the sort of James Carvel Neurotan, Joe Scarborough types that were, you know, like they're basically worried about their phony baloney jobs. And the thing is that they've always been worried about that. I mean, this is the same reason why this same cohort were so heavily against Bernie Sanders. And at that point, they had used a type of identity politics

of, you know, the Bernie bros. And I think the Hassan Piker stuff goes against, is a continuation of that. And I think AOC made a really good point, which is about the Hassan Piker discourse, which is like, you know, we just had this period after the 2024 loss where everyone in the Democratic was saying, you know, where's our Joe Rogan? Where is our, how can we reach young men?

And suddenly they're deciding, like, you know, like actually we have to alienate the media figure who is like, you know, like most able to reach that audience. Well, not like that. But that's where I just, I want to emphasize this. if the if they're able to effectively make Hassan a boogeyman and make the left appear toxic and these candidates say the democrats do well in the in in in November but the some of the leftists fail that's a perfect scenario for them like they would truly rather and I was skeptical of this claim for years because it felt too conspiratorial and perhaps I underestimated the moral depravity of the liberal consultant class, but, you know, they would rather Republicans win than true left-wing candidates have, be victorious because it makes them irrelevant and it's ideological. Yeah, no, I mean, I think I genuinely committed to the centristism, but it's also the case.

We see this, this is a historical problem. This is always my biggest worry about Bernie Sanders, like if he ever became the Democratic nominee, which is not that I didn't think he could win, but I thought that there'd be enough powerful Democrats that would sabotage him, just as they were like powerful, powerful figures in the Democratic Party that worked to sabotage George McGovern in 72, just that Jeremy Corbyn, his biggest enemies were within

the Labor Party. Like, it is the case that if you get a left candidate presiding over a center left party, factions within the party would rather lose and maintain control of the party. That is a real danger. Now, having said that, I think

that, like, there's a the broader mood of the party is like very anti-Trump. People understand, you know, like, that letting Trump control Congress, you know, would be a disaster. So I do actually think that, like, you know, like, I'm thinking that in Michigan, there's still, there's a real opportunity for, like, a consolidation.

And but, but, yeah, right now, this faction, you know, like, yeah, they would rather, their big worry is not that else Saeed can, will lose their big worries that he can win. Yep. Yes. And also, we should also just be clear, though, like some of this is ideological. Some of it is just, you know, classic corporate CYA.

I want to maintain my position in this sort of like this institution, this business, this industry. And this is a direct challenge to my ability to get these big. contracts. Some of it is also performing on behalf of those contracts. You know, if I've got donors for the Center American Progress, of course I'm speaking hypothetically, but just as a hypothetical, if I've got donors who are very, very concerned with a U.S. relationship with Israel, and I can go to those donors and go like, look how I'm attacking Hassan Piker on Twitter, You know, that could be worth literally hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars of support.

I'm just saying hypothetically, I'm sure there must be some type of pressures like that. We should also say that there is a non-ideological, also like anger towards the Democratic Party, even amongst those who share. I mean, like, and I'm thinking, you know, Larson's loss in Connecticut to Josh Brunen, this is a long time, I wouldn't call him, you know, full on progressive, but very, very supportive of Social Security. And he lost in what I think you could argue as a generational, you know, final. you know, fight and an idea that like, you know, the Democratic Party is aging and we need to get people in there who are up to the task. And it's an easy sell. And, you know, this could be going on with Markey and in Massachusetts. I hope it doesn't. I think Moulton's a huge downgrade from Markey, ideologically speaking. But this is the danger in running candidates who have been, you know,

the electorate may see past their prime. What was your sense? I mean, this, a Hong lost in Wisconsin, and again, I've said this multiple times, we didn't really cover that because governors' races are just a unique dynamic onto their own and aren't necessarily, particularly, you know, out of state,

aren't necessarily impacting the national discourse in the same way. Sometimes they can. I mean, certainly Scott Walker. Yeah, yeah, no, I think, I think it's good to have a certain sense of modesty, and I will not claim to know what is the best agricultural policy in terms of dairy products in Wisconsin. That is not part of my purview.

But having said that, I think that one thing about that race is it was an executive race. And I think that with Senate and congressional races, I think a certain amount of ideological heterodoxy, I think the voters are very pleased with that. We see that both on Republican and Democratic side. But if you're a governor, you're like actually like, you know, be doing an administrative job. And I think the left has had less success with that, except in terms of mayororial races, where, you know, like obviously Mandami in New York.

But that interrupts the next sort of frontier for progressives and for the DSA left. If they can convince people to have candidates take executive positions, And I think this might actually play out in the presidential race as well. But I mean, I think that that is a real challenge. I think we have to understand it's a different type of job. And for like an executive position, I can see some voters like, you know, wanting a more mainstream, more figure, one with a bigger resume. And well, you know, you mentioned that, like that concern that you had about Sanders in the primary in 2016

and whether he would be undermined in some way. Do you think, I mean, I asked Sanders this week about the, his non-endorsement, essentially, I mean, you know, or not having endorsed Hong in that race. AOC also did not endorse Hong. And he, you know, he nibbled around the edges. I mean, I think, but I suspect that there was a concern that, like, and at one point he said in terms of his own,

apparatus that provides endorsements and all of the sort of like additional things that come with an endorsement lists maybe, you know, consultations and work. There's other stuff than other than just like an imprimatur. You don't want to bite off more than you can chew. And as a movement, I mean, this is the real question is like, are there times, and certainly Mamdani shut down some potential primary challenges against Hakeem Jeffries. the the maturing of this movement at one point and I don't know if this is the case necessarily with Wisconsin but when you are talking about a state that 30,000 votes made the difference

between you know, the presidential elections in like five of the last presidential elections there. Is it too much, are you biting off more than you can chew? Because you don't want somebody losing in a general if, you know, you can't really go all in on it. And, you know, with Mamdani, there was an ability to go all in on Mamdani, not just with endorsements, outside endorsements, but they're, you know, you have 50,000 volunteers in the private.

I mean, it's just absurd. And so do you think that that plays into this? Like we're in the stage now with this movement. The maturation is an understanding of its limitations as well as its possibilities. Yeah, no, I mean, I think like any sort of politics, even the most radical politics, has to take into account, like, you know, what you can actually do. And like in New York, I mean, the DSA is just, you know, much more organized. They have a real political machine.

one wants to see that build up and one is seeing, you know, like strengthening of DSA all across the country. But yeah, I'm not sure, like, in Wisconsin, it was there. And, you know, like, you know, this is not a pragmatic position. It's not necessarily like a conservative one.

Vladimir Lenin, you know, always said, like, you have to look at the correlation of forces. And, like, I think, you know, like, there's a realist. Wisconsin, you know, you know, again, I think it's good to have a little bit of humility and like I don't want to claim expertise in Wisconsin politics. But I can see like where people might have realistic concerns, whether, you know, she could have pulled it off.

And if she didn't pull it off, there's, you know, are real dangers there as well. So yeah, I mean, I think that sort of pragmatism has to be sort of part of politics. And you want the left most electable candidate is the way John Kenneth Galbraith said. And both parts of that are like important. and the leftward part, but also the electable part. And sometimes it's a toss-up. Like, is this like, you know, this is certainly the most left-word candidate, but is it the most electable candidate.

And future races of, whether it's DSA candidates or more progressive candidates, are going to be materially helped by Hong's run this year, because they're, you know, undoubtedly what we've seen now is like infrastructure is built. relationships are built, networks are built, and local chapters are built out of things like this. And the hunger itself is going to be helped. I mean, I think she ran a really impressive campaign. The fact that it's as close as it was,

considering the fact that the party elite consolidated against her, is really impressive. And I think that for her, like a sweet spot might be a sort of congressional or Senate race, especially since, like as I said, I think that a left candidate for an executive position is going to be a harder sell, and you have to have more of your ducks lined up if you're going to make that run. Let's talk a little bit about as we turn, I mean, we are now, you know, probably a little bit less than a month away from the midterms really becoming the daily news story. right i mean and i mean not just on this program but i'm talking like we're going to hear reports about it every day in the news because everything is going to be geared toward after a labor day uh and meanwhile

like the republican party does not look well positioned for this um in any fashion whatsoever you wrote a piece on uh in inflation uh in the nation this week talking about the way that the conservative movement had decided to address this. Now, to be fair, right? We had our version of this, like where the Biden administration, and I think, you know, from my perspective, a lot of that inflation was manufactured in my estimation by corporate America, taking advantage of real logistical issues that would cause price hikes and then getting the idea of like, hmm, I'm not getting myself.

stuff in a shipping container, but everybody's raising prices. And so I can justify it. And so there was a certain amount of denial about the implications of it. But this is, this is a thing. Yeah, yeah. That's the great argument. And I think it's right. Although I think the Biden administration's handling of that argument, like if that is the case, then what you need is like, you know, like real rigorous price control and taking on these corporate interests. And the Biden solution was to say, like, what inflation? The things are going well. Like you've never added so good. And the irony is like

Trump has become more and more Bidenized as his presidency. I mean, he basically won. I don't think we could emphasize enough because there's so much myth-making about the 2024 election where people said he was about trans issues or

wokeness. That's not it. Like the recent Trump won was that there was like sort of inflation and also Biden became a foreign policy. president focused on Ukraine and in supporting Israel at all cost. And people weren't happy with that. And Trump dishonestly ran as, you know, like, I'm going to bring the price of eggs down and no more stupid wars.

And what did he give us? You know, like an even stupider war. And then which brought with it a new turn of inflation. And I think he's actually more vulnerable than Biden is because you have the same denial, but then you also have the, it's directly his fault. Like, I don't think one can deny it. And now just J.D. Vance was recently saying that America's war aims in the war to get like the price of oil back to what it was before the war started

and then deal with nuclear weapons. Well, what do you say there then? Your war aim is like to undo the war that you yourself totally volitionally chose. Now, so this argument on the right is actually very interesting because it gets at some of these fissures. Because there was somebody, I think, you know, this lunatic batwash, who, you know, did write one honest thing, which is like, you know, groceries are really out of control.

We have to do something about this. And someone from the Turning Point USA said, you know, like, we had talking to students here saying, like, you know, it's crazy to pay $20 for a burrito. And what's interesting is, you know, that sort of like concern about war and inflation. And then you had this pushback from people who are saying, like, you know like you're whining

your child and uh i don't you have that dan uh krenshaw tweet but i mean that's an all time classic in terms of uh do you have sam do you have have it now yeah uh matt's looking it up Crenshaw tweet i haven't seen this so I'm curious to see what you're saying

Oh okay yeah yeah in any case but Crenshaw's basic thing was like you know like yeah this is America you know we're real man it's communist to complain about the you know the price of food and Ben Shapiro and Mark Levine, you know, both like Grenchal, strong supporters of the war, basically said words to similar fact. And, you know, like their argument, I mean, it's a classic argument in wartime.

Going back to the American Revolution, the Civil War, World War II, you know, like during wartime we have to like put aside luxuries, you know, tighten our belts and support it. But the difference is, like, you know, those earlier wars had, popular support. And, you know, people thought, like, during World War II, like, okay, yes, I'll grow a victory garden to help defeat Hitler, right? But, like, there's nobody in America, like, you know, that wanted this, you know, like, aside from a small minority of warmongers, that wants a sacrifice for Israel? I hear you, here's that Dan Krenton. I will, I will. Just hearing about this dumb $20

dollar burrito debate. So just thought I'd make the losers on social media angry before going to bed. Stop whining. Get a job. Eat ramen like the rest of us did in college on a budget with four roommates. The market doesn't care what you think of something should cost. Only communists care. They said tricers, remember?

Then everyone starves. Remember, are you a communist? Are you an American? or are you an American adult male capable of handling his own shit? Now, I'm going to read the, there's a reader's added context on this too. Dan Crenshaw criticized the Biden administration for telling Americans to change dietary habits to lower their grocery bills. And Dan Crenshaw also has a history of insider trading stocks while Congress allegedly.

Well, he's not going to have to worry about that anymore with those incredible political instincts. He lost his primary earlier this year. So bye-bye, Mr. I patch. I'm taking the Michelle Tofoya approach. I want to remind him, though, and maybe he can now with his time, with his family, he'll have the opportunity to read a little bit of recent history. But the most recent example of price controls that weren't a function tied to Medicare paying for things was under Richard Nixon, well-known communist,

who imposed price controls in this country to deal with inflation. And so, you know, people only communists care about what something should cost. I think actually a wide range of people beyond communists care about this. Yeah, yeah, no, this is that the problem of the Republicans are going to face it, like in the midterms, which is that, you know, the sort of Crenshaw, Ben Shapiro approach is, like, not very popular. And I think the smarter Republicans know this. I think Mark Theesson, Washington Post columnist, had tweeted something to the effect of, you know, like, people should just forego the burrito.

And then J.D. Vance, interesting, he responded to that said, you know, like, I've never known Mark to say no to a burrito. So he's not. So I think that the And it also looks bad because like all these guys are millionaires, right? Like all these guys, you know, Ben Shapiro's like that to the child of a very wealthy family. And for him to start saying like Americans need to tighten their belt on behalf of this war, I don't think it's happening.

Both because, you know, the war has never been popular. And certainly like, you know, Bismarck one said, you know, one German soldiers not the Balkans are not worth the price of one German soldier. And I would say the Iran war is not worth the price of one burrito. It is not a sacrifice that anyone really should make. And it's especially appalling to hear an argument on behalf of sacrifice coming for multimillionaires. I would also add to that.

Like the wage gains that we have had over the past year have been completely swallowed by inflation. Obviously, if you're a young person or a student for that matter, any wage gains you're not experiencing. So you're only experiencing the inflation. And on top of like sort of the problem with maybe the cost of eggs is the health costs associated with eggs. because these days, like, we have sort of rampant foodborne illnesses that are everywhere. Yeah, yeah, no. You're really seeing the implications of what happens when you shut down wide swaths of our government. I just don't know how that's going to be addressed.

I guess we'll find out about it. I also wanted to touch before we go. You just did some work on Jared Kushner. and there have been major protests in Albania over the past several months now, I guess. Just tell us this story, because this is just one of the million stories of just abject corruption that, you know, gets sort of just like overwhelmed by all the abject malfeasance. Yeah. So in 2021, Jared Kushner and his wife,

Ivanka Trump went to on a Mediterranean cruise on a yacht, as one does. And they were taken to these islands off of Albania and a very nice peninsula. And they fell in love with it, posted pictures on Instagram, and decided to team up as one does with Qatari billionaire friends to build hotel resorts. And this has become a really controversial issue. And the reason I want to highlight it is actually shows that people can actually protest Trumpian corruption in Albania, if not the United States. Because the people, the locals in that area were very upset because land had been purchased.

But the person who claimed that they own the land is a figure that the Wall Street Journal describes as a suspected gangster. He had actually fled Albania in a gunfight in 2021, but he still has a lot of interest there. And basically, he had claimed that he owned this land based on Turkish land deeds. And an Albanian court had found that these were all forged documents where his name had been written in. And that the actual villagers in the village have that land. And that's still being disputed. Now he claims that he has land deeds from the period of Italian fascist control of Albania,

which I'm sure are very legitimate. But basically, this guy is like forging documents. and is also apparently, according to Albanian prosecutors who have arrested him in June, one of the key figures in the European cocaine trade. Now, this alleged gangster, now, what is the Wall Street Journal description is that his modus operandi is to use crypto to funnel money around and then to take the do money laundering by investing in real estate. And my thinking is that's not that different than Jared Kushner. I wouldn't say he's involved with the cocaine trade,

but certainly the Trump family is doing a lot of involvement with crypto and is doing a lot of real estate development and is doing business deals with this suspected gangster. Now, in Albania, this erupted. It could actually bring the government of Albania down. There's a kind of what's not called the Flamingo Revolution, daily protest. And to my way of thinking, like, it's actually an inspirational story because of the popular

opposition. In some ways, I think it was easier for the people in Albania to use Kushner as a kind of figurehead for channeling popular discontent. But, you know, like, there's no reason why this shouldn't be the United States. There's no reason why Democrats should not be running on the fact that, hey, the Trump and family has made billions with Todd. to Middle Eastern autocrats, often in very shady business like crypto,

often with things like real estate development that are used as money laundering operations. Like, why is this not like... I mean, I think we're going to see, I mean, to be fair, I mean, Elizabeth Warren is on defense. We're going to hear hearings. I mean, Capital One just closed. It was like two weeks ago.

Capital One closed. the Trump organization's bank accounts there after they didn't put out a statement as to why they did this but after an anti-fraud or money laundering investigation they did internally and you know like think about what's involved in a bank at this point yeah enough evidence that they know they're going to get some type of retaliation down the road from the from Trump because of this. They know that that's out there. That's very possible.

But they're seeing something so glaring that they're afraid of future possible, I guess, prosecutions or trouble. And to weigh that out, what they found must have been pretty heavy. I mean, like, if you're going to defer, if you're going to air, you're going to want to err on the benefit of Trump when you're one of these banks. And to air the other side, there must be a lot of stuff that they found.

And Congress is going to call them up to the hill, I hope. One would think so. And I think that there's some reluctance on some Democrats to raise this stuff because they felt that the corruption stuff didn't work. But I want to like emphasize, the corruption argument and the sort of inflation argument that we talked about earlier, they actually go hand in hand.

And I think the Watergate story is actually very important. Like, you know, when Watergate, people were upset at the corruption, but they were also at the time, some of the stuff that came out was that the Nixon administration took a lot of graft money from the milk industry to lift the price control on milk. And so everyone's milk got more expensive, and milk is nothing if people buy every day,

whether they should or not. And so it was a very concrete thing that everybody in America, understood. Like Nixon got money from the milk people and the price of milk went up. And I think that now if people are feeling the price of inflation

and it happens that the Trump administration is in bed with like all you know like the all these like billionaires at the UAE and Saudi Arabia and Qatar and giving foreign policy to Kushner

you know like this is something that like actually I think is a very potent message. You know, like you're, the Trump family is getting rich while you have to pay more for gas and for food. All right. Lastly, sort of, you brought up J.D. Vance and it just got me thinking, like, you know, where he's trying to sort of, yeah, he's not coming out

and saying that there is rampant inflation, but he's also saying we shouldn't maybe attack people feeling the inflation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I mean, of this crowd, he's a little bit more grounded in reality. Well, I mean, what it occurs to me is that he at one point is going to have to start to separate himself from the Trump administration as he gears up to run in 2028. And presumably, like, that starts, you know, in early 2027. And just to bolster G's point about the corruption, someone else who's probably running in 2028,

Asoff is all over this corruption thing. So, you know, I'm just sick. These are two players who are trying to position themselves on either side to run for president. I mean, what happens at one point? Does J.D. Vance wake up like some time in like in February of 2028 and go, you're not going to believe what I've just found out has been going on in this administration? Yeah. First of all, one thing I'll say about J.D. Vance is you can never underestimate his opportunism. He went from saying, like, you know, Trump is Hitler to, like, you know, Trump is the guy

I'll be his running mate. And maybe, like, you know, the wheel will turn and he'll do it. But, I mean, he's going to actually have a real problem because I don't think Trump will not take very well to being separated. I mean, like, Joe Biden didn't, right? Like, one reason why Kamala Harris couldn't separate himself was, like, he got, she got a phone call before the debate where Joe Biden tell her, you know, like, listen, kiddo, no, no daylight between you and me. No daylight. And I can't see, like, Trump being very favorable to that. And I can't see a lot of Trump faithful being, I think J.D. Vance is a real problem because I do think he does have a sense that inflation is a problem, that these endless wars are a problem. He wants to try to run a campaign that is

closer to what Trump won on in 2024, but he's going to have Trump's record. And I think that it's going to bog him down. And I really can't see even someone as slippery, as sleazy, as snake-like as JD-vance. I don't even think he can, like, figure out how to solve that problem. Well, from your mouth, Jeet. Yeah. Really appreciate it. Jeet here, always a pleasure.

We will link both to your pieces in the nation. to your podcast, The Time of Monsters. Thanks so much, Jeet. Really appreciate it. Oh, no, always a pleasure to be. Thanks, Jake. Bye. All right, folks.

We're going to take a break and head into the fun half, wherein we will have lots of fun. Friday, fun half just gets crazy. We've got a dealer's choice between PBD and Joe Rogan for you. There was something else, too, I saw. What was it? The Rogan? Oh, yeah, the PBD with the Stephen Keen.

That really, that's an embarrassment of riches in the fun half. Folks, it's your support that makes this show possible. You can become a member at Join the Majority Report.com. When you do, you not only get the free show, free of commercials, but you also get the fun half. Join The Majority Report.com. Also, just coffee. just coffee dot co-op fair trade coffee hot chocolate use the coupon code majority you get 10% off you can buy the majority of port blend Matt what's happening in the Matt Lechian media

universe yeah I'm actually going to be leaving the fun half a little bit early today because we have a live Jacobin show where I'll be joining David to talk about some of the recent I mean, a lot of tumult in politics on the left side of the plain field these days. So we're going to be going through some primary wins and that sort of stuff. So check that out live. And you can ask us questions in the comment section of Jacob and Meg YouTube channel. I just want to point out that or bring out that Francesca Fiorentini and I, this was not very smooth, are going to be in L.A.

and I'm trying to find the link right now, but people can look it up. October 4th, 1 p.m. Los Angeles, the lodge room. Do your own research. Yes, I'm desperately. The lodgerum? The last place I blacked out.

Oh, wow. Oh, it's very sweet. That's so sweet. I'll make sure to black out on your behalf. The ghost of Brian's old lifestyle. It's in Highland Park, Los Angeles. It's a great venue. Yeah, wait.

I have the link here. We'll put it down below in the video and episode descriptions. But yeah, check it out, folks. And go see me if you're in L.A. October. And also I wanted to say I'm putting together some stand-up date. So if you want to go to Mr. Brian Voki on Instagram, I have a Google form there.

It just asks for your email and what city you live in. I'll never use your email for anything other than let you know I'm going to be in your town. That's the only way I'll use it. So it just lets me know where to book shows. Right now it looks like I can tell one. one ticket in about 85 different cities. You promise you won't get the emails to your favorite, a lawmaker in Tennessee.

What's his name? Oh, yeah, Tim Burchett? Yeah, Tim Burchett. You're not, you're not, you don't have a deal with Birchette. If you want to see Bryant comedy, you got to go sign up for it. So you get a sense of where he should go. Also, I think the,

we're not kidding that I did the Zeta. METI-Hasson show, I think in which I appeared on, I think it's now released on YouTube. So folks can check that out as well. We're going to take a quick break. Is everything okay, guys? Brian's headphones got unplug and he's trying to figure it out. And he's freaking out. We said a lot of stuff about you getting comedy dates while you.

your headphone was off. Folks, we will see you in the fun half. Three months from now, six months from now, nine months from now. And I don't think it's going to be the same as it looks like in six months from now. And I don't know if it's necessarily going to be better six months from now than it is three months from now. But I think around 18 months out, we're going to look back and go like, wow. What? What is that going on?

It's nuts. Wait a second. Hold on. Hold on for a second. Emma, welcome to the program. Hey. Fun hat. Matt.

Who? Fun. What is up, everyone? Fun hat. No, me, Key. You did it. Fun hat. Let's go Brandon.

Let's go Brandon. Bradley, you want to say hello? Sorry to disappoint. Everyone, I'm just a random guy. It's all the boys today. Fundamentally false. No, I'm sorry. Women?

Stop talking for a second. Let me finish. Where is this coming from, dude? But dude, you want to smoke this? 7.8? Yes. Yes? It is you.

I don't know. It's me. I think it is you. Who is you? No sound. Every single freaking day. What's on your mind? We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism.

I'm going to go through life. Who libertarians? They're so stupid, though. Common sense says, of course. Gobbled e-gook. We fucking nailed him. So what's 79 plus 21? Challenge men.

I'm positively quivering. I believe 96, I want to say. 857. 210. 35. 501. 1 half. 3 8.

911 for instance. $3,400. $1,900. $6.5,4, $3 trillion sold. It's a zero-sum game. Actually, you're making anything less. But let me say this. Poop.

You can call it satire. Sam goes satire. On top of it all? Yeah. My favorite part about you is just like every day, all day. everything you do it without a doubt hey buddy we see you folks folks folks

it's just the week being weeded out obviously yeah sundown guns out I don't know but you should know people just don't like to entertain ideas anymore I have a question who cares is enabled I love it I do love that I got to jump you gotta be quick

I get a jump I'm losing two o'clock we're out already late and the guy's being a dick. So screw him. Sent to a gulaw? Outrage. Like, what is wrong with you? Love you.

Bye. Love you. Bye-bye.