The Majority Report with Sam Seder - 3560 - Zohran’s Food Desert Solution; Private Prison Profits Soar w/ Omar Ocampo, Whitney Wimbish

Episode Date: August 14, 2025

It's Emmajority Report Thursday On today's show: Israel's finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich holds a press conference in the occupied West Bank to announce their E1 settlement project that in his own words will bury the idea of a Palestinian state. After receiving obvious backlash for his comments on Gaza, Pete Buttigieg puts minimal effort into walking back his words through an interview with Politico's Adam Wren. Researcher from the Program on Inequality, Omar Ocampo joins us to discuss Zohran Mamdani's plan to create a city run grocery store in each borough and the myth of millionaires fleeing cities when American Prospect writer and co-publisher of our own AM Quickie, Whitney Curry Wimbish joins us to discuss private prison industry raking in cash over Trump's immigration terror campaign. Brandon Sutton and Matt Binder join for the Fun Half: A Newsmax host uses white supremacy and anti-wokeness as a way to ogle at young girls. A Minnesota teenager is forced to show her breasts to a Buffalo Wild Wings server to "prove she is a woman" Tucker Carlson interviews a Nun who lives in Palestine about the amicable relationship between Muslims and Christians in the Levant. Stephen Crowder defends Israeli settlers over the Palestinian Christians for whom he proclaims to share the same faith. All that and more plus calls and IMs The Congress switchboard number is [phone]. You can use this number to connect with either the U.S. Senate or the House of Representatives. Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com: https://fans.fm/majority/join 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 ESVN YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/esvnshow Subscribe to the AMQuickie 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 EXPRESS VPN: Get up to 4 extra months free. Expressvpn.com/Majority SUNSET LAKE: Head on over to Sunset LakeCBD.com and remember to use code BIRTHDAY for 25% off sitewide. This sale ends at midnight on August 17th. Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech 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 show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Check out Ava Raiza’s music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com/ The Majority Report with Sam Seder – https://majorityreportradio.com

You are listening to a free version of The Majority Report with Sam Cedar. To support this show and get another 15 minutes of daily program, go to Majority.fm. Please. The Majority Report with Sam Cedar. It is Thursday, August 14th, 2025. My name is Emma Vigeland and for Sam Cedar, and 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, Omar Ocampo joins us to talk about Zoran Mamdani's city-owned grocery store plan and why it can and has worked.

And later in the show, Whitney Curry Wimbish joins us of the American Prospect and our own AMN. quickie. We will be talking about private prisons raking in profits under Trump's deportation regime. Also on the program, Israeli finance minister Smotrich announces approval of a key West Bank settlement, explicitly saying that this will, quote, bury a Palestinian state. West Bank settler attacks have reached an all-time high as well. Pete Buttigieg, feeling the heat, tries to clarify his non-answer about the Gaza genocide with another non-answer.

Yes, we have this. Maybe we'll get to that in the fun half. He said it to Politico. Putin is reportedly going to try to appeal to Trump's business interests in their Alaska meeting tomorrow. I mean. Yes, two plus two equals four. Turns out that Trump's pick for the Bureau of Labor Statistics ahead was at January 6th. That doesn't seem great.

Meanwhile, July data on wholesale prices shows significant inflation the highest monthly gain since June 2022. Remember the pro bono work Trump got those big law firms to agree to in their settlement? Well, now Trump wants them to negotiate his tariff deals for him for free. Those law firms, like, you know, the pro bono work was getting incarcerated people out of prison and stuff like that. No, no. Just give the president free legal services for his tariff stuff. Insanity. Anyway, a man who threw a sandwich at an ICE officer in D.C. is being hit with felony.

charges. Trump wants to circumvent Congress to extend his 30-day police state performance art in Washington, D.C. The administration drops enforcement actions against 165 corporations. And lastly, at least 26 people have died after a boat carrying migrants off the coast of Italy sank. All this and more on today's moon. Majority Report, welcome to the show, everybody. It's an emmajority report Thursday. Hello to Matt. Hello to Brian. Hello to everyone in the audience. We've got a great show for you. We'll start here with what is the biggest news of the day, which is this West Bank settlement news. Israeli finance minister Smotrich explicitly said

yesterday or earlier today that Netanyahu and the Israeli government alongside President Donald Trump and Israeli ambassador Mike Huckabee he explicitly says this in this video agreed to revive this E1 settlement plan but let's hear from Smotrich first announcing this at this site

and he says it right in this clip that this buries the idea of a Palestinian state I will talk over this and read the captions for the podcast audience today we are finally fulfilling the promise and connecting ma'ale adum to Jerusalem

are one and only capital in strategic security and demographic connection that ensures our capital remains united for generations to come. I want to first and foremost thank President Trump and his team and Ambassador Huckabee, true friends of Israel, like we have never had in the world. Anyone who tries today in the world to recognize a Palestinian state

will receive an answer from us on the ground. facts on the ground not in documents not in decisions or declarations but in facts in the facts of houses in the facts of neighborhoods roads and more Jewish families

will build lives they will talk about the false Palestinian dream we will continue to build a fulfilling Jewish reality this reality ultimately buries the idea of a Palestinian state, simply because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize. I wish our Western press would accurately reflect the attitudes of

the Israeli government, including the fact that this is widely supported within Israeli society. He said it right there. When I said facts on the ground, I didn't realize he was going to explicitly say the words facts. Matt, can you explain the origin of that phrase? Well, I mean, just as he said it, regardless of anything like international law saying things like people that have been removed from a land due to conquest, have a right to return to that land, the facts say otherwise, the facts being just continued settlements of Israelis. And this is significant in the facts on the ground that this would create. This isn't a plan called E1 plan, which is really important to understand and why this had been considered a bit of a

red line for past Israeli prime ministers and U.S. presidents had told them no up until this moment, in part because Donald Trump received $100 million from Miriam Madelson and the quid pro quo, as was reported, was annexation of the West Bank. This is key to creating West Bank annexation facts on the ground. So let's pull up this thread here by Daniel Siedeman, who explains why this E1 plan is so important. Because, so like I'll preface it by saying, the green line, when people talk about the green line, that's the internationally recognized borders between Israel and Palestine that Israel has been in violation of since 1967, when they settled the West Bank, stole land, and you'll hear about

occupied East Jerusalem. That is also when Israel occupied East Jerusalem, which is supposed to be Palestinian territory. They've been illegally doing so since 1967. And this E1 settlement, if we can pull this up here, the second part of this thread, would here, here, here, here is. E1 has long been considered by virtually all of the international community as the doomsday settlement. E1 will dismember the West Bank into two cantons, making a viable Palestinian state impossible. It will seal off Jerusalem from the West Bank, preventing a Palestinian capital. Let's pull up this map. So you can see here occupied East Jerusalem and E1 in yellow. And there's also the other settlement that is circled there that is on the western side of it. So

E1 is in between a major Israeli settlement, or sorry, to the east of it, and East Jerusalem is to the west, and E1 would be in the center. So that basically creates more and more land division between occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank. So they've done this already with the Gaza Strip. You know that if you look at a map, the Gaza Strip is separated from the bulk of Palestinian territory in the West Bank. They also divided leadership there to make it more difficult to have a Palestinian state. And they have been trying with this E1 plan to build since 1996, and Western leaders had repeatedly told them no. But now they've got their best friend in office, Donald Trump.

And they're panicked about seeing, like, France recognize a Palestinian state, Canada doing the same, which we know, again, that Palestinian statehood with the current facts on the ground is impossible unless they were to remove these settlers. But we also believe in a right to return. And one democratic state, which is there's currently a one state reality where Israel controls the West Bank, East Jerusalem. in Gaza and they're committing genocide in one of those territories and then actively acceleratingly ethnically cleansing in the West Bank and illegally occupying that third piece in in East Jerusalem for decades so that is the the the significance of the story here and the I mean it's what we talked with Jasper Nathaniel about the annexation is happening and it isn't just Huckabee and Trump why was Bill Clinton talk about Judean

Samaria in fucking Michigan during the election. It's because largely the Zionists politicians that run our country, pro-Israel politicians that run our country, have accepted this. The only problem is how do you sell it to a world that finds it repulsive? But it

also needs to be said that it doesn't just stop at the West Bank. There is a BB is now being open about the vision of greater Israel which extends into Jordan and Syria, just across Middle East Saudi Arabia. There's this new article of the Times of Israel.

Arab nations fume after Netanyahu says he feels connection to vision of greater Israel. Oh, why would they fume when he's saying openly saying, I'm going to take your land. You're next. And that is that is the that is what will happen if Western powers continue

appeasing or indeed being complicit with these land grabbers. I mean, Israel's been occupying Syria currently. They have also been incurring into land in Lebanon in the north, let alone bombing civilians in that entire period in Lebanon. This is a rogue genocidal state that is trying in this period of time where they feel like they can accelerate their militarism

to grab as much land and kill as many Palestinians as they possibly can't. This is just a, and they've been clear about this. This is like the supposedly marginal fringe of Israeli society that we're not supposed to panting. to despite them being in the driver's seat for our entire lives. And everything else is just PR to try to deny and give a bedtime story for what's actually happening, which is there is a literal, like, what do you call it in the German? Labens realm. That's what Israel's after.

And it's just clear. There's a Hitlerian Nazi-type march to take over and be belligerent with other countries. And we're just saying, well, maybe it's a very complicated. Right? Buttigieg, it's not. It's very clear. There's just an invested interest in lying to people about it because the more people see what's actually happening, the more people reject it. Well, while we were on the Buttigieg, I wasn't planning on doing this, but it ties into our conversation here. I find it fascinating that Buttigieg had to walk his comments back here because his answer on Pod Save America was so disastrous and embarrassing and didn't meet the moment that he went to Politico to try to clarify this. This is their podcast playbook explaining, because I guess this was a conversation that was just in text. explaining the how, why Buttigieg, I guess, felt the need to say this to Politico.

Do you want to take a second stab at that? Yeah. And I do think it's also interesting when you hear their framing of it, because obviously, Politico is as D.C. Beltway as it gets. And if we're talking about facts on the ground about, you know, Israel standing in the United States, the way that they even talk about this is a liability for Buttigieg is a huge shift. That you're going to want to read for both its 2028 implications and for a better sense of how opinions within the Democratic Party are shifting on Israel and Gaza. Recently, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg made an appearance on the influential Pod Save America podcast, after which he caught incoming fire over his response to a question. Can we just chill with some of the language?

Yeah, yeah, I mean, fair enough. Okay, sorry. He was asked the simple question. We've seen people be ripped apart by listeners. Yeah, right, right, right. Words are violence, according to Zionists, though. About Gaza, an answer which critics thought was especially mealy-mouthed. Yeah, it's so interesting, Adam, because Buttigieg is known for being such an excellent communicator

and really being able to distill and help digest some of these really complex... Among you people, sorry. ...complicated topic, so I was surprised by the story, but it looks like he's trying to do a little bit of clean-up and clarifying, and he is doing that with you, my friend. You talk to him, so I'm so curious to hear what his message was on take two on this question. Yeah, he sort of acknowledged that he wasn't as clear as he could have been. He said, quote, I get it, end quote. He said, quote, it's important to be clear about something this enormous and this painful. It's just that it's so enormous and it's so painful that sometimes words can fail. Essentially, I asked him the same questions

that the Pod Save hosts asked him whether or not, if he was a member of the Senate, that he would have voted against sending additional arms to Israel. And he said, yes, he would have voted against that. I asked him where he was at on naming Palestine as a state. And he essentially said that he thought just words on a paper didn't have a lot of meaning, but he thought it should be a negotiated process. And then also asked him just about how he was processing these images out of Gaza. Oh, as a father. Okay, all right, all right, all right. But I just wanted to get through that because no, the answer didn't change at all. He threw in, oh, yeah, if I would have voted to block arms sales to Israel. I mean, it's already happened. I could have spoken out about it at the time as

I'm trying to position myself to run for president. What about Iron Dome? Yeah, not, well, we know, we know what that answer would be. So what his, his backtrack was, was, I was just so basically emotion, it's so big and hard of a topic that I was unable to articulate myself, that he was so overcome with emotion. I also, I won't, I'm not going to commit to recognizing a Palestinian state, which is basically supposedly supposed to be the Democratic Party position for, I don't know, my entire lifetime. I was just too emotional about the topic to give a clear answer. It's such a big topic in the sense that they gave me $190,000 to run my last presidential campaign, and I'm hoping they might do the same in the future.

So I'm trying to not do anything to jeopardize that. It's very nuanced, this wanting money for my political ambitions thing. Yes. Oh, I mean, sorry, allyship. We need to have allies that, you know, get out the checkbook every four years. No one's saying that. No polls is then. I never really have an opportunity for that one, but that's a little underrated.

He's corrupt. Like, he's corrupt. Pete Buttigieg is bought by Israel. Yeah. like you know i mean well and and if you can't show courage on this now he's he was probably shocked by the reaction why are people why are these freaks shocked by the reaction israel's military action has an eight percent approval rating with democratic voters like i don't understand this because i mean they're corrupt but because they think that they can get out of it with

some sort of like you know he can just speak his way out of it he and and and that's not how this is going to work, dog. It's what got him to the dance. Can't change his tricks, I guess. In a moment, we're going to be talking to Omar Ocampo, but first, a word from one of our sponsors. You know, tinted windows on cars are nice. You can have a little bit of privacy, although I guess you can't do it in the front seat. They're not supposed to be able to do that. But regardless, if you, in your fantasy world could have a tinted window for you, you're your internet connection,

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That's E-X-P-R-E-S-V-P-N dot com slash majority to find out how you can get up to four extra months free. ExpressVPN.com slash majority. Link below in the video description on YouTube and in the podcast, expressvPN.com slash majority. All right, quick break. And when we come back, we will be talking to Omar about Zoron City Run grocery plan and why it's a good thing. Thank you.

We are back, and we are joined now by Omar Ocampo researcher at the program on inequality and the common good at the Institute for Policy Studies. Omar, thanks so much for coming on the show. Thank you for having me. And a big shout out to all of your listeners and viewers. Oh, thanks so much. It's a good way to start off the interview by sucking up to our audience. I would encourage that for all of our guests. So let's talk a little bit about food deserts before we get into the specifics of Mamdani's plan for New York City.

Can you define what food deserts are and how many people are affected in this country by them? Yeah, so interestingly, there's actually no universal definition for a food desert, but most scholars, researchers agreed that food deserts are areas where the access to healthy and affordable food is limited. So a resident who lives in a rural community, their closest grocery stores more than 10 miles away, or for an urban resident is more than a mile away. And a mile away may not sound like a far distance, but when a household does not own a car or just no reliable public transportation, then purchasing groceries could, you know, present a challenge. And it's this lack of access and this lack of infrastructure that contributes to food

and security and hunger in the country. But interestingly, depending on the town or the neighborhood that you live in, food deserts can also be in a dialectical relationship with what are called food swamps. So even though there's a lack of nutritious food or access to, fresh and nutritious food. There's an abundance of convenience stores and fast food restaurants. And this could have, you know, adverse health outcomes for residents like, you know, increased rates of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. So, and one last thing I would

want to say about food deserts is that this is a relatively new phenomenon. This didn't really exist 50 years ago. So it's, you know, it's interesting to, you know, try to look at, you know, what some of the causes of food this are. Well, the primary cause appears to be, at least to me, the fact that it's not profitable to put a grocery store in one specific location. And you write about how a lot of grocery stores are family owned and passed down to generations, even like these kind of more private conglomerates. And it's quite difficult to compel them. to put a store in a place where, you know, they're not sure they're going to make a profit or

whatever, if you could just talk a little bit more about that dynamic. Yeah, so I would identify two reasons, and the first reason is exactly that, that there's the lack of profitability. You know, the, you know, food deserts tend to appear in, you know, lower income neighborhoods, and maybe the residents do not have the, you know, buying power to financially support their local grocery stores. And as a result, new grocers don't want to invest in specific neighborhoods because they expect to lose money. Or even some of the grocery stores that are already there, they would prefer to, like, transfer to, you know, a more affluent part of the city or to a wealthy suburban neighborhood because they can expect, you know, higher revenue, higher rate of

return. And, but this just means that, you know, thousands of low income neighborhoods are underserved and have to travel long distances for fresh produce. But the second reason is more of a structural reason for why food deserts exist. And that's because of market concentration and price discrimination. So six grocery chains control about two-thirds of the market. And this oligopoly power gives them advantage over smaller retailers because they have the resources to purchase food at a high volume from distributors. And they can pressure, wholesalers to sell them food at a cheaper price. So this forces distributors to charge smaller grocers, higher prices, to offset the discounts

that they give, let's say, Whole Foods or Walmart. So the smaller store is forced to, you know, buy, you know, food at a higher price. And when they do, they pass on that extra cost to the customer. And that customer may say, well, it might be worth me driving 10 miles to, you know, my Walmart to get cheaper food. and then the smaller grocers go out of business. So it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a bad cycle. And, you know, there's actually laws on the books to tackle this problem, but it's just not enforced.

Right. Well, I mean, I'm reminded of the, that Lena Kahn in the last administration helping kill that Kroger's merger, which was a significant win, right? but that level of market concentration that would have made things even worse. And this problem being national, I think, is really important, too, because food deserts, as you say, can look different in an urban space where, I mean, asking somebody to walk a mile with groceries in their hands,

especially if you're older or you're disabled, I mean, that's basically impossible. But it still basically has the same. same impact on the community, regardless of where it is in the country? Absolutely. And one other thing about Lena Conn, she actually tried to resurrect this law that was called the Robinson Patman Act. And she also filed a price discrimination lawsuit against Pepsi because they were offering

lower prices to Walmart compared and higher prices to Walmart's competitors, but the Trump administration completely dropped it. Of course. So, but yeah, I mean, you're absolutely right, you know, this is why, you know, it's interesting the backlash against city-owned grocery stores in general because even neoclassical economists accept that the government intervention, that government intervention is appropriate when there's market failure or when the private sector is unable to provide a good or service. So the conditions right now are appropriate for public investment. investment into a state-owned or city-owned enterprise. So in New York City, there are more than a dozen neighborhoods that are considered food deserts. And the alternative to not having city ownership is to deny these communities access to fresh and healthy food, which is completely

unacceptable. Yeah. So let's talk then about New York City more specifically. Or before we get to that, you write about, for example, the United States military having publicly owned. grocery stores and that potentially being a model for this, not just in New York, but if we're looking at municipally owned grocery stores around the country, perhaps we could see this as an example. Why are these military-owned grocery stores so popular and so successful? Yeah. So the U.S. military run has a commissary system. That's what they call the grocery stores. and basically the Department of Defense or an agency within the Department of the Defense operates over 240 grocery stores, commissaries, and then five are actually located in New York State, including one in Brooklyn. And all the goods sold in these commissaries are not sold out of profit, but they do cover the cost of the goods.

And one of the reasons why they're very successful is that basically the military, the Department of Defense, covers most of its operating costs. So basically they're essentially subsidized. They do charge like a 5% surcharge on some of the products to help cover, but mainly it's mainly it's just the U.S. government covering the operational costs and ensuring that, you know, the military, then their families, they're able to get groceries are normally 20 to 30 percent cheaper than what you would find in a regular grocery store. So, yeah, so there's one in Brooklyn, Fort Hamilton. You know, that could be a model and where, you know, the, you know, the future mayor, if he wins, Mondani, if, you know, he can go there and, you know, see how it works,

get some, learn the intricacies of the business, get some training and be able to operate city-owned grocery store in each borough? So his, then his proposal, New York City, you mentioned, has over two dozen neighborhoods that are considered food deserts, which is astounding given, you know, just the size population-wise of New York, but also, like, it's relatively, it's incredibly densely populated, so it feels like this could be an solvable problem, and Zoran's plan looks to do that. Yeah, so he is proposing to allocate $60 million to basically, you know, create a city-owned grocery stores. You know, from my research, you know, he hasn't actually given that many details, but actually consider that a strength because there are different ways to run a city-owned grocery store.

So, for example, you could have, you know, one of the more successful grocery stores that I have. have looked at was one in Kansas in St. Paul, Kansas, there's a St. Paul supermarket, and it's the city that owns the property, the building, the business, and the inventory. It's all owned by the city government, and they've been in operation for more than a decade. So before that grocery store, you know, the residents had to travel 17 miles. But then there's also other models where, you know, the city can own the building. They can own the, you know, the infrastructure. They can be in charge of maintenance and repairs and buying equipment,

but then they could lease the property to maybe a worker co-op or they could have a nonprofit, you know, with industry expertise in order to, you know, manage the daily operations of the grocery store. So it would still fall under the rubric of, you know, something that city owned. and, you know, and that also helps lower costs for, you know, the nonprofit because, you know, they don't have to spend all these, you know, resources on, you know, maintenance, upkeep and

rent and, et cetera. And the expense of it just feels, like, quite low when the, this is not a full subsidy for free food. This is basically just making it so that there is an option for folks that can be run. in a way where the prices aren't jacked up on them, but also that, like, the city doesn't have to pay for that much, right? Because they're still paying for the goods. Correct. The goal would be to ensure that the city, the New York City is able to buy this food

at wholesale prices, and this is the way, you know, basically the all five grocery stores, they can, you know, purchase food and bulk. Or maybe even other smaller grocers can join, you know, the city-owned grocery stores in order to buy, in order to farm basically a purchasing cooperative, where other grocers are able to buy food with the city at high volume in order to get the same discounts that, like, a Walmart gets. So either, you know, either Mamdani can create or join one of these, you know, purchasing

cooperatives, or maybe you can even join the commissary in Brooklyn and placing their orders with their distributor to get the cheaper prices because the military already has access to these cheaper prices because they buy so much in bulk. And basically, you're going to sell it at cost. So it's not a price control because the price control says you can't charge over a certain amount. So if the wholesale price is $7 today, but then next week it's $8. It will sell for $8.

So, yeah, so it's not a price control. So the question is, is why do then these grocery, grocers care, these grocery conglomerates? Why are they throwing a fit? You know, I guess it's the guy, the Dagestino air or whatever, or the Gristides guy. I forget who's the one that's going on Fox News all the time and the Grisitius guy going on and freaking out about this. Like, if they're already not doing business in these areas, I mean, they're, I guess, concerned about the fact that they're going to have to compete. Correct. You know, and I think we need to remember that is one of the reasons why Mom Dany's project is being carried out in the first place.

Market forces in the private sector have failed to keep prices down. It is the market that has given the private sector the incentive to abandon working class. neighborhoods and deprive them of healthy food options. And, you know, large private grocers have already failed in these communities. I also think that, you know, city-owned grocery stores can also generate a new conversation about market concentration and add some more competition in the market. So therefore, the local mom-and-pop and independently owned grocery stores are able to compete because this is what it's about. It's basically to protect their their market concentrations and their profits, which admittedly, it runs at a small profit

margin, but when you're a big store like Walmart, like the volume that you sell means that you have big profits. Right. Well, that was mostly what I was hoping to discuss with you, but you also wrote another piece kind of debunking some of the capital flight concerns about Zoran Mundani's. proposal, basically, to slightly raise taxes on folks that are earning over a million dollars to help fund certain proposals, including free buses. Can you speak a little bit about that myth and why it persists and why it is a myth?

Yeah, so this past spring, I did write a report. Basically, the main focus was actually Massachusetts, so Massachusetts actually passed a four percent surtax on individuals with a million dollars or more. So before the surtax, you know, messengers had a flat income tax. Everyone paid five percent, no matter how much money you made. And immediately, as soon as it was proposed, everyone said, everyone's going to move to Florida. Everyone is going to avoid this tax. You know, you know, 4% tax is such a big burden on people who have,

million-dollar incomes. So I looked at some of the wealth data and there's actually, you know, Massachusetts has actually seen an increase of, you know, people with a net worth of $4 million. And the reason why that is is because, you know, Massachusetts has a dynamic economy. There's economic opportunity is there. One of the reasons, you know, this is just a way for this myth that people are just going to leave if there's a small increase in your tax obligation is the reason where that exists is because they're trying to keep as much money of theirs as possible. I think it's an ideological project that they say, you know, they want to deprive the state of, you know, of resources.

You know, interestingly, like, you know, I can give a good example of, let's say, like, Governor Ron DeSantis, he says, you know, we don't want to raise a lot of taxes because then we'll start doing Democrat things in the state. So, yeah, so I think it's an ideological project. You know, in Massachusetts, you know, you can't deny that for some people, if you raise their taxes, they're going to leave. There's going to be inevitable, especially if you're young, especially if like you're like, say, like you're 27, you got rich off crypto or something. You know, you might want to, you're going to, you know, move. But the thing is, is that moving is actually something that younger people do and not older people.

So because usually if you earn over a million dollars a year, you tend to, you know, be a senior management, which means that you're more closely tied to your location of your place of business, you know, that you have a family. So therefore, it's like going to be, it's going to cost a lot to uproot, you know, the, you know, basically everything, you know, that you, like, you already, you don't have to move to opportunity because you're already there. That's basically the crux of the argument. And that basically what actually the data shows. So Massachusetts actually is raising more money than actually expected from the millionaire's tax, which actually suggests that the taxes work and then people are not fleeing in droves. And now in Massachusetts, all kids in public schools,

a free lunch provided. Community College is now free across the state. You know, in New York, there's already a progressive taxation system. You know, I think if you were to just raise it 2% on people with a million dollars, it won't have that much of an impact on their decision to move or not. If it was like 10%, then I think I might actually buy that argument, but 2%. It's that those who will leave will be statistically insignificant. Well, I do think that when you talk about it being ideological, there's a fear that these folks have of these big cities throwing their weight around because New York City is not going to change in cultural or financial relevance because of a small increase on millionaires.

And this is that class of millionaires and billionaires saying, well, billionaires, I mean, God, they can eat this, although they will still complain. But, like, they want to be able, it's because they are going to say that they're complaining so much is basically my assessment of it, because people want to be in New York. People want to be in L.A. And then there's a lot of people that want to be in Massachusetts. It's a university hub and all of that. Yeah, I mean, these are also cities with a lot of amenities, and that's what makes these cities attractive and why people want to move there, because A, there's the economic opportunity, and B, you know, there's, you know, the good infrastructure, good public transportation. There's a lot, a lot of things to do. And I think the fear also on why they don't want increased taxation is because then other states will follow. So, for example, after, you know, Massachusetts, there's been some success. You know, I've raised in revenue for two years in a row, again, raising more than than what they expected.

Rhode Island is now proposing their own version of attacks on the top 1%. And this is causing panic amongst, you know, the anti-tax movement by saying that you're just going to, you know, destroy the tax base of the state. But then, you know, you just look up. You know, your neighbor, they've done it, and, you know, Massachusetts is wealthier. And now they're providing, you know, some public services, you know, to, you know, to the city. And this is also another important point is that you've got to make sure that people see the investment of the, of the, from the tax revenue that you collect from this tax, you know, and in Massachusetts, you're seeing it. They're expanding public transportation infrastructure.

As I mentioned before, their community colleges are free. You know, school lunches are free. They're wiping off the debt of, like, you know, the MBTA, which is the public transit system in Boston. So, yeah, it's all a myth, and it's basically to ensure that the anti-tax movement, you know, yeah, they're just against anything that requires taxation. Well, Omar, really appreciate your time today, researcher at the program on inequality and the common good at the Institute for Policy Studies. Thanks so much for your time today.

Really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Of course. All right, folks, quick break. And when we come back, we will be talking to Whitney Wimbish, staff writer at the American Prospect, co-writer of our own AM Quickie. We'll be talking about private prisons and how they are raking it in under Donald. Trump. Be right back. Thank you.

And so much. Yeah. And so, you, to, and, uh, and

the, uh, Thank you. Thank you. We are back, and we are joined now by Whitney Curry Wimbish, staff writer at the American Prospect, and co-author of The AM Quickie, which I really, really recommend people check out. I recommended it to people like, you know, some folks don't want to say, have a subscription

to the New York Times anymore because of the way they've covered the genocide in Gaza. And I'm like, this is how you get your news. I am quickie. So great work on that, Whitney. Thanks for coming on the show. Thanks, Emma. Thanks for having me. Of course.

So you have been writing about Trump's immigration policies. And specifically, we can start with. one of your more recent stories on this, which is about how private prisons are just raking in money right now. You open your piece talking about the earnings call that they recently had for their second quarter. Perhaps we can start there just to give people a sense of how much money these companies are making right now. Sure. So these are companies, geo group and core civic that the U.S. government uses to run. It's detention centers. And a lot of times they own the building. And then other times the U.S.

government owns the building and they will provide the services. These are referred to as private prison companies, but they are public companies. So that means that you can listen into their earnings calls and you can read their financial documents and see who's making all this money. They had their second quarter earnings calls and they're doing really well because they see the Trump immigration terror campaign as a really long-term beneficial thing for them. Like, they're planning years and years out to stuff their prisons full of people to do it at, you know, at the lowest cost possible so that they can turn a buck for their shareholders. And they've just gotten, you know, $45 billion more from the U.S. government to do even more.

of this. I just got off the phone with a couple doctors who specialize in infectious diseases in immigration detention. And they were telling me that they expect that, you know, that money is just going to be used to make more money. It's not going to be used to improve the conditions or anything like that. So these guys are making a ton of money. They have revised their outlook upward. That means that they are telling their investors that there's more good news ahead. The quote you had from the geo group founder was quote, unprecedented growth opportunities in front of our company is what they're saying. And they're right. Yeah, they're right. And I think, you know, they are talking about it in terms of beds. So they're adding more beds. And they expect

that these beds will be filled by a certain point. And then after that, have a plan to make more money through tracking devices to put on people who aren't eligible for detention, but who are easy targets. They want to be able to just monitor their every move and make sure that they know where they are at all times. So one company has purchased hundreds and hundreds more like ankle bracelets. And another company is expecting that their long-term way to make even more money is to buy vehicles so that they can kind of shuttle people around. We've already seen that, you know, these detention sites are getting overcrowded, and people

are being moved from one spot to another, often without their attorneys or their families knowing. And so one of the companies thinks that that's the way to go. they're going to increase their revenue by making themselves available to just kind of shuffle people around. Yeah, so that was Geo Group you were writing. I have that down. And they're basically, this is on the heels of some reporting I read in the Washington Post, that basically they're trying to exponentially expand their ankle monitoring operation for migrants.

There's some tens of thousands, I think, who currently have this ankle monitoring of an ankle monitor with immigration. But they want to make it, their target is nearly 200,000. Yeah. Like they see this massive population that they can just surveil. Yeah. It's hard to accept that this is reality. Right. And the money that the federal government is providing for these companies, can you expand a little bit on that and how much of these earnings that they're so excited about are subsidized with our tax dollars? I don't have insight into how much at this point their earnings are subsidized by our taxes. But, you know, their budget is.

is their main customers are the federal government, so we can bank on a lot. The thing that I found kind of just kind of broke my brain a little bit was in some of these corporate filings that both companies have to produce. You can see who the top earners are. They will list out which executives are the highest paid and who they are, their background, where they come from.

And there is this revolving door between these two companies and the ICE employees and the Bureau of Prisons. And so, you know, you can spend a career in ICE and then go make money working for one of these companies. And it's, I don't know, it's, it's, It's gross. One of those folks, people will be familiar with Tom Holman, who seems to himself be getting quite rich off of a geo-group, one of the companies that you write about. Can you speak about his relationship with them?

So Tom Holman is an interesting character. He is an old friend and former colleague of. David Ventrella, he is obviously helping run Stephen Miller's deportation campaign, but he's also drawing compensation of about $6 million. Oh, no, that's Venturella. He drew compensation of $6 million to consult for GEO group. And Homan has kind of earned this unannounced pot of money running running as a consultant for that same company.

So, you know, these guys have, like, a lot of incentive to expand detention and stuff as many people as they can into these centers and really amiserate, you know, immigrants in this country who make this country run. Right. I mean, gosh, I'm old enough to remember when, Dick Cheney's relationship with Halliburton was considered a major conflict in his incentives for the Iraq War. But even then, he at least made efforts to pretend like, oh, I have my distance from Halliburton and those profits at this point. Like, Tom Holman is serving in the administration and is taking fees from one of these private prison companies.

Is that what you're telling me? yeah as a consultant yeah and you know these companies also at least in i think it's geo group let me go back to my story i don't want to say the wrong thing sure i i believe it is geo group talking about venturella yeah um there's also kind of this like family tie there like that company employees members of the same family. In one case, the son-in-law of the top guy, and he's making half a million bucks a year, or he did according to the last filing. So it's this, it's just, it's just really gross, you guys. Yeah, yeah, no, I couldn't agree more. So you also have been, doing some reporting on what's been happening here in New York City down on Federal Plaza,

where Brad Lander has been doing some great work as a monitor and going to support some folks at these immigration hearings. Speak a little bit about what you've been observing there as a reporter because it's been a bit of a central focus of when people have been getting deported, they've been. going to these hearings there. And it's been in the news a lot. Yeah, it's, it's so jarring to listen to an earnings call where these guys are very self-congratulatory and they're so excited. And, you know, the analysts who are on the call are congratulating them about the great returns and the, you know, sunny future. What's happening in immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza

that is enabling those folks to have such a great time and make all this money is, it's horrific. It's like it's hard to accept that it is happening before my face. Like people will go into a hearing thinking, okay, I'm showing up, I'm doing what I'm supposed to. I'm coming to this hearing. I've been coming to hearings. And, you know, I'll do my next thing and then go back home.

And they'll get an extension or a new date or some progress made on their assignment. claim or, you know, they're another claim to stay in the country. And they'll come out of one of these immigration judges' courtrooms, their little rooms, and just be surrounded by a pack of guys with masks on, weapons, the whole thing. And the guys, they kind of have changed their strategy over the course of the couple months that I've been going. They used to follow their targets into an elevator and not say anything, and then detain them there where nobody would be watching, there wouldn't be any reporters. There's always a ton of photojournalists. Shout out to all the photojournalists at 26 Federal Plaza. They're there every single day.

That was one approach. That has kind of shifted a little bit where now they will just flock around someone as they come out of the detention center, and then they'll hustle them as fast as possible, into a stairwell or into an elevator and take them wherever they take them. Sometimes they get taken to the 10th floor, which is the kind of like makeshift detention site that was recently reported as being just like horrific conditions. And I think a judge, not yesterday, but the day before, said that ICE has to immediately improve the conditions because they are so disgusting. And that's not in alligator alcatraz or anything like that.

These are conditions just in basic immigration holdings. Yeah. And on the 10th floor, that area is not meant to be used as a holding place for days and days and days, but people are being held there for weeks. and it's just a cement box. There's no place to sleep. The toilets are out in the open. You know, there's no medical facility.

People are being denied their medication. Girls aren't being, girls and women aren't being given enough, like, sanitation pads. One of the findings that came out of in the lawsuit recently, the one that, requires now that they clean up their act immediately, you know, girls were just like bleeding through their clothes because ice agents gave them two pads for the entire room. So like really disgusting, just like inhumane, cruel treatment. And there's really no rhyme or reason that you can tell on the outside why someone gets

snatched. The pro bono lawyers and the court watchers. who are there to help are kind of like we don't know what's on this list or what makes somebody a target. But once you get put in this system now, unless you have an attorney or unless you have somebody looking for you, you are basically disappeared. It's just you're in the system. No one knows what happens to. It's hard to get any information about people who are hidden in there. I tried to go to the 10th floor to see the conditions for myself, you kind of come up through the elevator and you get dumped out into this little hallway. And there are big doors on either side. And within

seconds, there were two agents who were like, are you lost? What are you doing here? And, you know, I couldn't get in and see it for myself. Um, and the, the catch 22 of it that you describe, as well is that people are trying to do the right thing to avoid the deportation and they're going to their hearings and they show up and the same thing is happening to them. Yeah, these are folks who are following the rules. They're not the worst of the worst or whatever the Trump administration keeps saying.

These are people who are following the rules who don't have money for an attorney. There's no guarantee for an attorney in immigration court. The way there is in criminal court, you can have one, but you have to pay for it yourself, or you can find a pro bono one if there's a service in your area. Those folks are really overworked. So it's, you know, a lot of people show up alone. I went to and sat in a judge's room a few days ago, and one of the things that's happening is that people just aren't showing up anymore.

You know, they can make the calculation themselves that even if they want to do the right thing, you know, it's too dangerous. So they're just not coming. The problem with that is that a judge can then issue an immediate order for removal. And then it's anybody's guess what happens. You might be at work and ICE could show up there. They might knock on your door in the middle of the night. So there's really no great solution.

But in this judge's courtroom that I was in, zero people had an attorney. And, you know, the judge was, the judge and the clerk who was working for him were both trying to do everything they possibly could to give these guys a chance to walk out of the building safely. they were, you know, repeatedly asking people, do you want more time to get a lawyer? Do you know how to get a lawyer? Like, you know, trying to walk people through what the process was. And even in instances where the judge said, you know, you have a pretty credible asylum claim. I'm going to grant you a hearing date for 2026. You know, these people walked out of the courtroom thinking that they had good news,

a whole year to find to find legal representation and they were just snatched. It's just absolutely, I mean, they're trying to create this level of anxiety on purpose and the damned if you do, damned if you don't, dynamic here is especially cruel.

But that's what we have in this administration. Whitney, I really appreciate your time today. People should all follow your work over at the American prospect. read your pieces. I mean, people should be following the prospect by now if they're listeners of this show. Thanks so much. Have a great day. Thanks, I'm going to take care. Thanks, you too. Bye. All right. Well, with that, I'm going to wrap up the first hour of this show. Head into the fun half, the not-free portion of the show that you can get access to

if you become a member at Join the Majority Report.com. also it's free well yeah I mean secretly but you can I am the show it's like a Lindsay Graham style open secret yeah I mean

I'm trying to get membership so thanks for that but you can I am the show no I know I mean it's oh whoa it's Brandon hey no it's all right Brandon from the void yes this week I'm

broadcasting live from the islamo communist republic of londinistan uh where what shah is shah the right word for sadik khan what doesn't really matter sultan sultan should be sedik khan uh rules with a mighty fist and everyone is forced to reduce their congestion uh hello hello i i'm i i'm sure what you said made sense but i i don't know if i could follow any of it so it looks It looks like you've transcended. Yes. Yes. Yes. That's what it's like to be in the Islamo-communist Republic of London.

It's just one big void that we all live in. I'm just pure energy now. You're connecting us from a literal cloud, not the cloud. Exactly. Once, once Sultan Mamdani becomes the mayor of New York, you will be fortunate enough to experience this exact same level of transcendence. I mean, you're really selling me on it. It looks heavenly there, but it might just be because you're in Europe and not here in the

United States which sucks now oh no it's it's great there oh yeah i don't know i'm not so sure about that uh what's happening over on the discourse well i am taking this week off from streaming since i am not in my normal location you know hints everything uh but we will be back next week both live and in color uh on monday so now's a great time to run over and join the discourse with Brandon Sutton on YouTube or Twitch and get caught up on our last few streams. We've learned a lot about the shape of the Earth recently. We've learned a lot about like AI, extreme weather. So, you know, perfect time to catch up.

We're still learning stuff about the shape of the Earth, huh? I thought we pretty much had that. I know. Honestly, whether you believe it's flat or spherical, we're learning new stuff about the shape of the Earth every day. There's good ideas on both sides of that. All right, check out the discourse and say hello to Matt. Binder, who is a newsletter author, has his shows to Busy Guy. What's happening over there on

your end, Binder? Hey, how are you? Good, good. Just go to YouTube.com slash Matt Binder. Make sure you're subscribed there. Leftist Mafia tonight at 8.30 p.m. Eastern Time. Disruptionist.com subscribe to the newsletter. And yeah, make sure you do all that. All right. Do it. Um, where is, where is, where is, where is, where is, where is, where is, where is, we're not going to, we're not going to rehash that. We. It was already, okay. You missed the bit.

Yeah. I can't remember. I said there. Uh, but we do have Dave from Jamaica writing and saying, Brandon is now consumed by the light of Allah, Allah. So, um, that's, that's a bit of a summary of where we were at. Um, all right, guys. We'll see you on the other side. See you in the fun half.

Okay. Emma, please. Well, I just, I feel that my voice is sorely lacking in the majority report. Wait, look, look, Sam is unpopular. I do deserve a vacation at Disney World. So, ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to welcome Emma to the show. It is Thursday. I think you need to take over for Sam.

Yes, police. No, no, I'm gonna, I'm gonna pause you right there. Wait, what? You can't encourage Emma to live like this. And I'll tell you why. So it's offered a twerk, sushi, and poker with the boys. Twerp, sushi and poker with the boys Who was offered a tour

Yeah, sushi and poker with the boys What? Twerp, sushi and poker Tim's upset? Twerp, sushi and poker with the boys It was offered a twer, sushi and That's what we call this. Twerp, sushi and poker with the boys.

Right. Twerp, sushi and polo. We're going to get demonetized. I just think that what you did to Tim Poole was mean. Free speech. That's not what. we're about here. Look at how sad he's become now. You shouldn't even talk about it

because I think you're responsible. I probably am in a certain way, but let's get to the meltdown here. Twirp? Ugh. Sushi and poker with the boys. Oh my God. Wow. Sushi. I'm sorry. I'm losing my fucking mind. Someone's offered a twerk? Yeah. Sushi and poker with the boys. Logic. Twerk? Sushi and poker with the boys.

Boy, boy, boy. I think I'm like a little kid. I think I'm like a little kid. Dwerp. I think I'm like a little kid. Dwerp. I think I'm like a little kid. Add this debate 7,000 times. A little kid. I think I'm like a little kid. I'm like a dude.

I'm losing my fucking mind. Some people just don't understand. So I'm not trying to be a dick right now, but like, I absolutely think the U.S. should be providing me with a wife and kids. That's not what we're talking about here. It's not a fun job. That's a real thing. That's a real thing. Willie Walker.

That's a real thing. That's a real thing. That's a real thing. That's a real thing. That's a real thing. That's a real thing. That's a real thing, real thing, boy, that's the twerk, the real thing. That's a real thing.

Ladies and gentlemen, Joe Rogan has done it again. Offered it, twerk, that's a real thing. That's a, that poker with the boy. I think he might be blowing out proportion. Real thing, that's that, poker with the boys. Offered it, twerk, that's a real thing. That's, that poker. Let's go, Joe.

Dwerp, sushi and poker with the boy. Take it easy, d'n, twerk, sushi and poker. Things have really gotten out of pants. Sushi and poker with the boys. You don't have a clue as to what's going on. Live YouTube. Sam has like the way to the world on the shoulders. Sam doesn't want to do this show anymore.

It was so much easier. One of the majority of report was just you. You were happy. Let's change the subject. Rangers and Nick are going great. Now, shut up. Don't want people saying reckless things on your program. That's one of the most difficult parts about this show.

This is a pro-killing podcast. I'm thinking maybe it's time we bury the hatchet. Left is best. Trump. Violet twir? Don't be foolish. And don't fucking tweet at me and don't get changed. The way that is cucked, all of these people.

That's where my heart is, so I wrote my honor's thesis about it. Oh, she wrote an honest thesis. I guess I should hand the main mic to you now. You are to the right of the non-form policy. We already fund Israel, dude. Are you against us? That's a tougher question. I don't have an answer to you.

incredible theme song i bumbler emma viglin absolutely one of my favorite people actually not just in the game like period