The Majority Report with Sam Seder - 3562 - What is Ukraine Fighting For; Trump's Assault on Puerto Rico w/ Denys Pilash & Alberto Medina

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

It's Fun Day Monday on the Majority Report On today's show: As Secretary of State Marco Rubio announces the suspension of visas for Palestinian children receiving medical care at the behest of Laura Loomer, we take a brief look at an excerpt from Ken Burns' documentary "The Holocaust and the US" to remind that Congress did this same thing to Jewish children during WW2. Editor of the Commons Journal and assistant professor at the Kyiv Institute of International relations, Denys Pilash joins us for an update on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Publisher of the Free Puerto Rico Substack, Alberto C. Medina joins us to discuss the federal government's colonial ruling of Puerto Rico. In the Fun half: Patrick Bet-David brings out his Map of Consciousness to assist his plea to be a guest on Real Time with Bill Maher. Riley Gaines is selling Ivermectin out of the trunk of her car. Rep Hakeem Jeffries get humiliated yet again, this time by Tim Miller on The Bulwark. Meanwhile House Minority Whip, Katherine Clarke (D-MA) uses the term genocide, signaling pressure to switch their tone on Palestine and Israel. Gavin Newsom is confusing Fox News by tweeting in Donald Trump's voice. All that and more. 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 RITUAL: Get 25% off during your first month. Visit ritual.com/MAJORITY to start Ritual or add Essential For Men to your subscription today. DELETEME: Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to joindeleteme.com/MAJORITY and use promo code MAJORITY at checkout. SMALLS: For a limited time only, get 60% off your first order PLUS shipping when you head to Smalls.com and use code MAJORITY SUNSET LAKE: Head on over to Sunset LakeCBD.com and use code Majority for 15% off your first order. 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

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dot com now time for the show the majority report with sam cedar it is monday august 18th 2025 my name is sam cedar this is the five time award winning majority report

we are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged gawanas canal in the heartland of america downtown Brooklyn, USA. On the program today, Alberto Medina, writer, editor-advocate for Puerto Rico's decolonization and independence, publisher of the free Puerto Rico substack.

Then Dennis Pelage, activist, editor of the Commons Journal, assistant professor at Kiev Institute of International Relations. Meanwhile, also on the program, Trump to meet Zelensky and European heads at the White House. This, in the wake of a failed meeting with Putin, Trump regime halts visas for injured Gazans upon the demand from Laura Lumer. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis approach. has to end the Gaza assault. Meanwhile, yesterday, 17 aid seekers killed by Israel.

New report Texas Democrats to return to Texas, perhaps as early as today. D.C. residents take to the streets to resist the federal troop invasion. Judge rules the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can lay off 80% of its employees. Oklahoma to require a political MAGA loyalty test and vow from teachers transplanted from New York and California. 10,000 striking Air Canadian air Canada attendance, presumably Canadians, to remain on strike despite a government order to return to work. And Newsmax, just across the wires, pays $67 million to settle a defamation case linked to the 2020 election coverage and their claims against Dominion voting. All this and more on today's majority report. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen.

It is Sunday, Monday. Fundy Monday, Monday. Hello, hello. I hope everyone had a nice weekend. Back to the insanity that is the Trump administration today in D.C. Zelensky is coming to the White House with Prime Minister of UK, the President of France, the Prime Minister of France, the Prime Minister of Italy, Who else? It's going to be a lot of people there, all to make sure that essentially, presumably Trump will not, I don't know, mock Zelensky's clothing. Is that the idea? Finnish President Alexander Stubb is going to be there. NATO Secretary General Mark Wuta is going to be there.

German Chancellor Merz is going to be there. That's quite a sight. I mean, I think it's going to be, it's interesting because it's in the, those European leaders' domestic interests to hug Ukraine in this way and look in opposition to the United States, which, you know, basically the European consensus is that the United States is abandoning Ukraine. And we will talk a little bit more about that with Dennis Peelush in just a few moments. But first, this. First, let's play this clip. It's a clip from a Ken Burns documentary.

credit to drop site for finding this yeah i mean this is well uh i mean i don't know how well known uh history it is uh certainly i mean um uh it was i certainly had it in my jewish education um uh when i was a kid uh but this is um how uh the u s and congress in particular um stopped a during the Holocaust that would admit Jewish refugee children. After Kristalnacht, Britain had allowed 10,000 children, but not their parents, to escape Nazism in what was called the Kinder Transport. In February 1939, Democratic Senator Robert Wagner of New York and Republican Congresswoman And Edith Norse Rogers of Massachusetts introduced a new bill.

The bill says let's let in 10,000 kids between the age of 5 and 14 per year, 1939 and 1940, and let's not count them against the immigration quota system. The first lady backed the bill. Her husband privately offered advice on how it might be passed, but said nothing in public. But the American Legion, the daughters of the American Revolution, and the American Coalition of Patriotic Societies were all opposed. They had favored some of the 60 bills that had recently been introduced to reduce immigration quotas. It's a xenophobic refusal. I can't explain it because it seems so cruel to me, especially given a country as big.

is the United States with plenty of space. I do understand. Okay, I mean, I think we get the gist. Xenophobia, anti-Semitism, you know, from their perspective, racism, it doesn't really matter. I mean, all of those things apply. At one point in that clip, they recite a quote from someone speaking about how they didn't, their ugly children, and they're going to turn into ugly adults, and we don't want them in the United States, basically.

It would diminish the purity of the American people. It would slowly they would take over from the white. I mean, it's all rhetoric that we hear again today. It's just a different set of people that those bigots are now focused on. Except this time we're providing the bombs with our tax dollars that are killing these very children and maiming them. So it's even more of a responsibility for us to allow in these Palestinian children who have exhausted health options in other parts of the world and need the United States to step up here at the very least. We've seen some examples of a specific children, Palestinian children getting visas to come visit. Ms. Rachel, you know,

featured one on her program, a little girl who had lost her limbs. And so, you know, there's, we've seen popular images, and apparently Laura Lumer on Friday was outraged. It was triggered her. Here it is,

here is her tweet, exclusive. Despite the U.S. saying we are not accepting Palestinian refugees into the United States under the Trump administration. I have obtained footage of Palestinians who claim to be refugees from Gaza coming into the United States via San Francisco and Houston and Texas this month. The Palestinians have traveled from Gaza to the U.S. with the help of a group called Heel Palestine. Literally heal because, of course, they're bringing in people who need medical treatment. How did Palestinians

get visas under the Trump administration again in the United States? Did the State Department approve this? How do they get out of Gaza? Is Secretary Rubio aware of this? Now, she tags Secretary Rubio, and I know that's, like, okay, he's going to pay attention to this, right? That's what you're thinking. Who from the State Department is assisting Heal Palestine? Why are any Islamic invaders coming into the U.S. under the Trump administration? These Islamic invaders, of course, are very often children who have been maimed or desperately need medical attention. who approved the visas, et cetera, et cetera.

This is a national security threat. And here she plays the video. Look it down below. It is children from Gaza arrive in San Francisco. Now she's obtained the video by screen recording. Look at these Islamic invaders, these children coming in for cancer treatments or for surgery or something to that effect. the Lumer unleashed watermark over top Maybe she should chain herself to the doors of the hospital

with a Jewish star on herself like she did when she Yeah I think it was a yellow armband Oh sorry yellow arm band this time And talk about how she's the real victim for having to see these images of Palestinian children having a smile on their face Now you may ask like why are we like okay There's no new story in that Laura Lumer is a an abject Islamophob, and is tweeting that she cannot stand the vision of Palestinian children

getting any type of, like, health care or any type of help in this country. Of course, who cares what Laura Loomish says? Oh, it turns out the highest reaches of our government do. I give you Marco Rubio. Why did the State Department just announce that they're halting visitors? visas for all gossans coming here for medical aid why would some of these kids for example who are coming to hospitals for treatment be a threat well first of all it's not just kids it's a bunch of adults that are accompanying them second we had outreach from multiple congressional

office asking questions the reason that adults are accompanying them in many ways are uh in part because many of these children have no family left so sometimes they have one parent that's accompanying them because the rest of their family has been uh assassinated by israel real in this genocide. And sometimes they have people that are accompanying them that are just trying to get them care. And I also like, it's just a quick rhetorical note on the use of Ghazin. I know it's similar if you're saying like New Yorker versus American, but there's this concerted effort not to say the word Palestinian that I wish would be rooted out from our media. And it's just something to note. But adults that are accompanying them. Second, we had outreach from

Pause, again, I just also, I'm sorry. Do we really need to justify why injured children are coming with adults accompanying them? First off, we know what happens to kids who come to this country without adults accompanying them. They end up in a cage. Grotesque. All right, let's just go back a little bit. It's astonishing. Visas for all gossens coming here for medical aid.

Why would some of these kids, for example, who are coming to hospitals for treatment be a threat? Well, first of all, it's not just kids. It's a bunch of adults that are accompanying them. Second, we had outreach from multiple congressional offices asking questions about it. And so we're going to reevaluate how those visas are being granted, not just to the children, but how those visas are being granted to the people who are accompanying them. And by the way, to some of the organizations that are facilitating it. There is evidence been presented to us by numerous congressional offices that some of the organizations bragging about,

and involved in acquiring these visas have strong links to terrorist groups like Hamas. And so we are not going to be in partnership with groups that are friendly with Hamas. So we need to, we're going to pause those visas. There was just a small number of them issued to children, but they come with adults accompanying them, obviously. And we are going to pause this program and reevaluate how those visas are being vetted and what relationship of any has there been by these organizations to the process of acquiring those visas. We're not going to be in partnership with groups that have links or sympathies towards Hamas. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.

Oh, no follow-up? Oh, how about, wait, didn't you do this because Laura Lumer told you to? It's odd that Rubio doesn't just say, like, well, I had to. Laura Lumer told me to do it. So, of course. Of course we have to stop children for coming and getting health care because Laura Lumer told me. I mean, this is It's a good thing that we had

Had him on Face the Nation, though. He really had to face the nation with that grilled. What is the value of this If you're not going to follow up a statement like that? Let's let one shred of evidence that this is like somehow a link to Hamas But even if it was, who cares? I hope Marco Rubio is proud of himself.

What a just a worm. Well, I'm sure he is because, as we've said before the election, it probably should have been seen coming that this administration is stacked with Zionists from head to from the top of the administration to Trump's own donors, who include Merriam Adelson, who basically gave him $100 million to allow for West Bank annexation in exchange. Every member of Congress who supported the withdrawal. all of unrefunding. It's the same thing, the same sort of smear that, oh, it's Hamas. So we've got to start a whole bunch of people. All right. In a moment, we're going to be talking to Dennis

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of international relations we're right back We are back. Sam Cedar, Emma Vigland, on the majority report. It is a pleasure to welcome the program, Dennis Peelish, editor of the Commons Journal, assistant professor at Kiev Institute of International Relations. And Dennis, you were just telling us that at this moment, there's air raid sounds in Kiev.

Give us a sense of what life has been like over the past couple of years. Yeah, so it's alive since Russia has unleashed. its attack on Ukraine has been obviously terrible so the lives of millions of tens of millions of people have been uprooted many people had to flee many people have actually lost their lives and just the previous two months June and July they have been one of the deadliest by the civilian death toll since the start of the full-scale invasion back in February 2022. So in any case, your life is affected here. You live in constant air raid syrians because at almost every night,

the majority of Ukrainian cities, starting from Kiev, but not even to mention those that are closer to the front lines like Kharkiv, Kravirik or Nipro or Zaporizia, they are constantly shelled. they are attacked by missiles they are attacked by drones and well this requests a complete restructuring of your life and accommodating to the wartime conditions and of course the constant loss of your friends your relatives is also something to to be reckoned with so i i just i'm just coming from another funeral David Chichkan who was an anarchist activist and artist with a very straightforward class-based art. So he volunteered to the army and he was killed at the front line. And again, this was a person who was completely dedicated to the social liberation of the entire humanity.

And he just felt that just like many, many millions of Ukrainians, that there is no other option because we are now put against the force that actually says that Ukraine has no right to exist as an entity as a separate republic. And it brings total carnage, death, occupation, oppression, lack of any prospects for any liberation struggles, actually. So this is something that we are, we are living constantly in. It is, in our condolences, we mentioned this beforehand for his loss. We are, it is difficult for folks in the United States to get a full sort of like accounting

of the perspective of the Ukrainian people. in this i mean at various times we've been told that the that this is uh nothing more than a proxy war by between the united states and russia uh that um i mean there's various you know we can get into your perspective on the the the uh the agenda of putin's agenda in in waging this but from from your perspective like where are the ukrainian people in this is this uh and and and And how much of the desire to fight will exist, even absent U.S. support, if that ends up coming to pass? I mean, certainly it has been shaky as of late. Give us a sense of the determination of the Ukrainian people.

so starting with this proxy war narrative it's quite telling that just recently russian media outlets have been disseminating this image of a russian armored personal carrier waving both russian and american flags coming to ukrainian territory so maybe it's a proxy war waged by russians on behalf of Donald Trump. So obviously this is a bit of execration, but ultimately we see that now with a far-right president in the U.S. that serves as a sort of beacon for all the reactionary authoritarian xenophobic forces throughout the world. So there is this clear alignment into a sort of a new axis between Washington and Moscow. And in this, regard all this very, you know, like courting the Prussian war criminal, just like Trump was

courting the Netanyahu and other war criminals. So it's probably that the only type of persons that are really welcome to the U.S. now are war criminals, and everyone else is just humiliated. But anyway, so here on the ground with the a feeling of ordinary common working class ukrainian people so obvious situation is quite harsh and grim because no normal person wants to live in a war no normal person wants to wage a war no normal person wants to kill or be killed but uh we are put into this situation when essentially a stronger far-right dictatorship, a very conservative one, very authoritarian one that actually brings even on the pretty, you know, like low standards of post-Soviet space in terms of

democratic freedoms, a very, very harsh regime of occupation, for instance. Again, just an example so I used to work in a briefly in a Ukrainian media with a journalist Victoria Rochina so she was arrested illegally on the occupied territories by the Russian occupiers so she was held in prison without you know like any charges she was tortured she was ultimately killed and she was set up for a prisoner swap but she never returned home they returned home her body with several organs missing missing just to hide to conceal the tortures and only afterwards it was identified and this is one of the many stories that you actually can come come across so but at the other hand of course

people are really tired with the war and with all the hardships of the war. And again, as you can predict, the ruling classes everywhere, they want to put all the burden of the war on the shoulders of laboring people, of the working people. So, of course, it's disproportionately really affecting working people here. And yes, as no one else in the world, Ukrainians would love to see peace in Ukraine. But unfortunately, on the other side, on the side of the Russian aggressors, there was no real desire for, you know, like Bonafide, real peace talks,

some talks that would actually take into account. the interests of Ukrainians. So it was just the language of the ultimatums. It's sort of, you know, like maximalist demands, no compromises. So even what we hear now, what is rumored to be inside the so-called, you know, like peace proposals. So it's, again, that Ukraine should give up more land, even that land that isn't occupied by the Russians at this moment and instead it gets nothing it gets no security guarantees and again we can remind that Russia had lots of agreements with Ukraine that were actually preserving sort of borders sovereignty and of course the most prominent of these ones were the Budapest accords so

when Ukraine gave up the nuclear weapons left after the Soviet Union. Russia, as well as the US, guaranteed its territorial integrity, sovereignty. And ultimately, Russia was the one that broke it up. And now you can see that they have like full, almost full, full free hands given by the far right administration in the united states so uh in this situation of course it seems that there is not so much room for alternatives because uh still ukrainians they are both tired of the war they want peace but they don't want to um you know like seed more and more not just land. It's not about the territory so much as it's about the people, those people who will

be left out under the occupation or the people who will probably never return to their homes in such a scenario. So this is indicated by the opinion polls, that Ukrainians both want a peaceful solution, a solution grounded on some diplomatic terms, but they aren't going to give up you know, more million and millions of people to a rather brutal oppressor. And again, now Ukraine is constantly blackmailed by Trump and his cronies. Yes, it will be completely cut off of aid. aid and in again in this broader sense you could see another example of imperialist and neocolonialist economic colonialist thinking with a so-called rare minerals deal and it seems that yes

both Trump and Putin and the ruling classes behind them, they are very eager to collaborate in looting Ukrainian natural resources and in actually trying to decide the fate of Ukrainians without the Ukrainians even, not even near the table. So that's why many people have really invoked these parallels with what happened to Czechoslovakia in Munich in 1938, when the Western Allies just gave it up to Nazi Germany. And then Chamberlain was like waving, I brought you peace. But ultimately this piece was just a prologue to the really worst nightmare in the world history, Second World War and all the atrocities that were committed by Nazis and their allies in that war.

So, yeah, we are, we have no, no, not much room to do. And still, Ukrainians recall 2022, when again, many were predicting that Ukraine is said to be, you know, like, destroyed very quickly. quickly by this over-helming military power by Putin's Russia or Putin's Russia. And at that point, Ukraine had almost no Western aid, actually, military aid. It was mostly, and it's still mostly operating old Soviet equipment. And still, Ukraine managed to halt the Russian invasion. I just want to make a point there is I think that people forget this, that the U.S., it wasn't until like a week or two or three after the invasion that there was even any talk of providing additional aid to Ukraine in terms of weaponry, because I think there was a sense, I mean, Biden in the months leading up to the invasion, kept issuing warnings. It did not seem that Europe was even taking it seriously.

You know, I think the attack was in February and maybe as early, even as late as December, he was warning and Europe was not responding. And I think, frankly, there was, as far as, you know, to the extent that I have no particular insight other than watching the behavior of the administration, that they were surprised and that Europe was surprised at Ukraine's ability to fight back. And then the obligation of fulfilling the obligation, both from the Budapest Accords and also just in general understanding the potential threat was when they started to provide weaponry. But let me ask you, you mentioned that the working class in Ukraine, like in most of these scenarios, are bearing the brunt of fighting this war,

how much were, how would you characterize the protest that we saw about three weeks ago in the wake of Zelensky essentially propagating a new law that inhibits the independence of Ukraine's anti-corruption entities? Yeah, so this was widely regarded as the first, you know, like huge protest in Ukraine in times of the full-scale invasion and the martial law that obviously was introduced. But actually, there were local pockets of protests throughout the country by, for different reasons, you could find healthcare workers protesting the closure of their institutions it is also happening albeit it's quite you know like obvious that in in in times of war when so many people need help for their physical and mental health you need to expand the network of the medical facilities but instead the government is run by this neoliberal logic

of optimization cuts and austerity and everything is yeah so uh such examples or examples when people were protesting for their local administrations were spending money for some nonsense items instead of actually strengthening the defense of the country or making everything that is also quite necessary in in times of war there were protests about again preserving some cultural institutions but this law that was introduced and it was like passed in you know a handful of of minutes in in the parliament without any proper discussion without any communication to the people it was it wasn't the first law that was put forward in such a way so we've seen a couple of laws that were curbing, for instance, some of the labor and social rights in Ukraine,

they will also pass in a quite similar manner. So without proper discussion, without even explaining for the people why it's needed to help the bosses to fire you, you know, in a more easier manner, how it will help the resistance and the war effort. yeah so people ultimately got really fed up by this way of really obliterating the dependence in this case not just of this anti-corruption bodies but of the parliament itself so the parliament is just you know like nodding whatever the presidential vertical says and it's not even about the executive power not about the cabinet of ministers it's about the office of the president it is you know not so checked you can say unchecked body and people really are frustrated by

this way of dealing with with challenges in contemporary Ukraine with this concentration of power and with lack of real public discussion and you should take into account that Ukraine hasn't fully, you know, descended into sort of this oligarchic autocracies that is quite widespread in the post-Soviet space. Partially because of the traditions of mass mobilizations for every couple of years, we had mass protests triggered by different things, and this was something that helped to check, to keep the power in check. Yeah, so now you could see, again, a very spontaneous protest by mostly young people, many of them. Maybe this was their first experience of being politicized, of being part of a mass street mobilization,

because they lived through the COVID restrictions and then through the full-scale invasion. So obviously, there were no mass gatherings of people. And you could see that actually they had this pretext that we are protesting against this particular law, but they were actually expressing their broader discontent and their broader desire for keeping democratic institutions and democratic discussions in touch. Because this is something that we really also are fighting for to preserve not just some, abstract republic abstract Ukraine but Ukraine that is actually run by the people and where people have their say and where people have the right to protest and where people can really get their elected officials to accountability yeah so again corruption and in general this system of oligarchic capitalism that is predominant in in our region so this is something that obviously everyone is discontent with and everyone wants to get rid. So again, in times of war, this is aggravating the already dire situation.

And as we mentioned it, yeah, you see that the working class people, they are both at the core of the resistance, you could say, because most of the people in the military, They come either from industrial cities, yes, or from the country side. These are working class people, but also those working class people who are essential workers who keep the country afloat. So just to recall the railway workers who actually never stopped the railway, and this helped millions of people to flee to safer places, and also that kept the humanitarian aid coming and saving human lives.

And you could say the same about healthcare workers, about rescuers, about lots and lots of people who are really the bulk of this, you know, like They're the key to the infrastructure, right. So, Dennis, let me just ask you, if we could turn just for a moment because we have running out of time here. But today, Zelensky is meeting in the White House with the heads of state of half a dozen European countries with Trump. Trump has come from the Putin meeting in Alaska on Friday, and all that seems to have come out of that was that the Trump administration has moved from wanting a ceasefire to accepting Putin's desire for a peace agreement. Within like five hours of the meeting, he'd change from ceasefire to peace agreement, which is no. right? Yeah, I mean, well,

articulate for us what the difference would be and why there is a suspicion over the idea of a peace agreement versus a ceasefire. So you could see how the Kremlin has been really

sabotaging or rejecting any sort of ceasefire. So even the, you know, stopping shellings of Ukrainian cities and like any civilian objects civilian infrastructure and every time they tried to like to say what we are going for you know like broader peace agreement immediately no no

ceasefire this meant that more and more lives have been taken more and more people have been killed and they actually want to have this very swift, you know, like without any proper consideration, so-called agreement to actually enforce their very expansionistic terms on Ukraine and to actually come to some, you know, like middle ground, some normalization. with the US at the expense of Ukrainians yes so no one cares about the Ukrainians so we can just like split them up and then exploit them and their natural resources and we will be at the same time admitted back to the this club of the you know like uh uh white white colonizers

of the west the prussia actually always uh tried to be and always was albeit it tried to also present itself as somehow antithetical to the to the west to make its propaganda for the global south albeit their you know treatment of countries that are smaller and weaker than them is not no better than the worst cases of western imperialism so this is everything is about the same type of yeah so this is actually quite you know dangerous because without any other alternative any other option when you are like cornered and you had this ultimatum that you should actually agree to the worst terms and you will have some agreements that

will rip the country off. So this may be a point of no return. But actually, very few people they actually believe that every, that any, you know, real agreement will be reached. So it seems that this will be just maybe another step for embracing like Russia as part of this. like far-right conservative networks throughout the world, but it wouldn't really bring any end to the, even to this, like, hot phase of hostilities. Dennis, Pellash, editor of the Commons Journal, assistant professor at Kiev Institute International Relations.

Thanks so much for your time today. Really appreciate it, again, condolences, and hope to speak to you again soon. Thank you so much. much. Really appreciating your show. Thank you. Thank you. All right, folks. We're going to take quick break when we come back. Alberto Medina, writer, editor, and of the free Puerto Rico substack, we'll be right back after this. We're going to be able to be.

We are back, Sam Cedar, Emma Vigland, on The Majority Report. Pleasure to welcome to the program, Alberta Medina, writer, editor, advocate for Puerto Rico's decolonization and independence and the publisher of free Puerto Rico on Substack. Alberta, welcome to the program. Thank you so much for having me, Sam, and Emma. Great to be here. Want to get to the question of Puerto Rican independence, which is sort of like always in the background as people start to talk about, what the Democrats, if they get back into power, and if they decide to exercise that power, how can they build on that power? Puerto Rican statehood is often mentioned within a series of different things they can do.

But before we get there, I guess it was about two weeks ago, Donald Trump essentially fired five of the seven members. of Puerto Rico's Financial Oversight and Management Board. Let's talk about first what this board was. I mean, there's sort of like a frying pan to the fire type of quality of this. And also, it seems to me, it's another example of a structure that is put in place by Obama and where you would say, well, this is bad, but also contemplate like, What if it's not Obama as president? Like, just hypothetically, what if it was someone crazy, like Donald Trump?

I mean, this is where we're at now. But walk us through. What is the FOMB? Yeah, yeah. So just to give people a little bit of background on why this even came to be and why it's happening, you know, Puerto Rico has been financially and economically vulnerable for a very long time. It got battered by the Great Recession. And about 10 years ago, it reached a point where it had accumulated about 70,

billion dollars in public debt. The government of Puerto Rico declared that debt was unpayable. Problem was, Puerto Rico is not a sovereign nation, of course, so it couldn't sort of avail itself of those structures to restructure its debt. And Congress had actually declared decades ago, for reasons we can only guess that Puerto Rico could also not enter bankruptcy, could not enter Chapter 9 bankruptcy as U.S. municipalities can. So it had to do something, right, because Puerto Rico had no legal way to restructure its debt. Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rican legislature actually tried, it actually passed a law to create sort of a debt restructuring process for itself, and the federal court struck it down because

it said the federal bankruptcy code was what applied, and the federal bankruptcy code did not allow Puerto Rico to do this. So Congress gets involved. Congress legislates it passes this law promesa signed by President Obama. I'm sorry, can I just add just for people who don't know what bankruptcy would do at that point for the country? What it's done for city, I mean, New York City declared bankruptcy back in the 70s. It allows the debtor, in this instance, Puerto Rico, to restructure its debt and essentially pay back creditors, like, you know, a fraction of what they owe and allow themselves to get that type of relief so they have room to make investments and they can actually pay, you know, to attempt to build themselves out. So by stripping

the Puerto Rico of the ability, or I should say, fundamentally denying the ability of Puerto Rico to declare bankruptcy, you are denying them any type of autonomy, which is available to other entities, whether it's corporate or individuals or cities or municipalities, to restructure their debt, which is like a fundamental building block of finance. That's right. And, you know, that would have been a painful. process for Puerto Rico, certainly, but it would have been much better than what ended up happening, which is Congress passes this law promesa, signed by President Obama in 2016, which creates a debt restructuring process for Puerto Rico, but it creates the financial

oversight and management board, which Puerto Ricans not very lovingly call La Humta. You know, it's a board of seven unelected members appointed by the president of the United States that are given the power to oversee this debt restructuring process, but are actually given sort of awesome, almost unlimited power over Puerto Rico. Whenever Puerto Rico's legislature passes a law now, they have to basically submit a memo to the board on what the fiscal impact of that law will be. And if the board decides that it doesn't like it, that it doesn't fit into its vision for Puerto Rico's finances, it can strike down a law passed by Puerto Rico's elected legislators. So, you know, it's a very colonial, you know, imperialist entity that on top of that has basically

you know, tried to restructure the debt by implementing massive austerity on Puerto Rico, by slashing pensions, by cutting funding for public education, for all kinds of public services. And that's what it's done for basically the past 10 years. So with good reasons, you know, most Puerto Ricans do not like the board. But as you say, it is a frying pan into the fire situation now because Donald Trump has not eliminated the board. He has merely fired most of its members. He actually fired a sixth member since I wrote that. peace. So there's now only one of seven members on the board. He fired initially all the

Democrats. He did fire one Republican who had been appointed by President Obama and had been there since the beginning. So this happens two weeks ago. It happens after a kind of pressure campaign from Laura Lumer and other, you know, ultra-conservative. She's the main character in every story now and is dictating large swaths of U.S. policy. We just opened the show with the fact that her tweet about Palestinian children in Hill Palestine is basically now being translated into the State Department

pulling visas for kids with no limbs. Yeah, it seems as though she's running the government and these board members were sort of her latest victims. And one asked themselves why, right? Why does Laura Lumer suddenly care about Puerto Rico's finances? And, you know, I think the answer is

that the vulture funds, the head hedge funds who bought a lot of Puerto Rico's debt, who have had it, and who have been fighting, you know, Puerto Rico and the board in court for years now and often losing because even though they've been profiting massively off of, you know, this debt restructuring process, they want to profit even more because, of course, they do, you know, they sort of figured out a way to get some pressure going, get some of these board members out of the way. And the expectation is that the new members who will be appointed by President Trump and, you know, the president appoints these members. members based on lists of recommendations from mostly the majority in Congress will be ultra-friendly to the bondholders, ultra-friendly to these hedge funds, and will implement more, more austerity and continue to hurt the Puerto Rican people. I want to get into that. And I want to also get into, like, the sort of the, the, the sort of the crypto element to this as well.

I mean, but we just want to just stay at Laura Lumer for one second. I understand, like, the idea of Laura Lumer acting as a conduit for these people and the, the chances of like, oh, Laura Lumer is being sponsored by, you know, these bondholders or whatever. I mean, that to me, like she's functioning like a lobbyist, I guess, on some level, you know, or maybe she isn't, maybe she, it's like, I can understand that type of dynamic would make sense to me. People who are always in the orbit of the president end up getting approached, whether I, you know, whoever it is, uh, and, you know, represent my interests. What I find fascinating is that why they, why is she on effective conduit? Uh, it just seems, and I know, I know you're not in a position to know that anymore than, then I don't know, maybe even Trump's chief of staff. Uh, it has any clue as to this. But what is it, is it just the bondholders?

like who are the the financial interests for that have been in any way squelched by the fomb like i just like i like what what is left like what like i'm trying to think of like what scenario where it's just sort of like you would put an edict out there like you know uh every dollar needs to be repaid but a buck 25 per dollar or like i'm trying to figure out what more can these people get and and and and who the if the who these people are has changed slightly with i know there has been a lot more crypto sort of investment in porto rico over the past half a half a dozen years or so yeah and the crypto piece is is largely kind of a separate thing of, you know, some tax incentives that Puerto Rico passed that attracted a lot of these

investors to and ultra-rich people to move to the island, which is a whole kind of other conversation about the gentrification and displacement. You know, these people buy up sometimes entire city blocks to turn them into Airbnb's. So that's certainly a problem. In terms of the debt, you know, it is a lot of, you know, hedge funds like like Golden Tree asset management that has been especially active in fighting, as I said, Puerto Rico and the boarding court. The biggest piece that they're focused on right now is outstanding debt from Prepa, which was Puerto Rico's public power utility before it was privatized, essentially because the board forced its privatization as part of its new fiscal reality for Puerto Rico that it wanted to impose.

And the fight really there is that the bondholders want, the power bills in Puerto Rico to increase even more. Puerto Rico already pays one of the highest rates, certainly in the United States, perhaps in the world, for electricity. They just want to increase the power bill on Puerto Ricans who 40% live under the poverty line, including 60% of Puerto Rican children. Let's raise their power bill even more so that we can get more money in the coffers so that bondholders can get paid even more.

This is sort of the biggest fight right now. It's a fight that they were, you know, again, kind of losing, court. So I think they figured, well, if we can't convince the federal judge who's in charge of Puerto Rico's debt restructuring process to approve this deal, let's get rid of these board members, these commissioners, right? I mean, the board right now doesn't even have quorum for any kinds of negotiations. The federal judge already said already had to delay a series of deadlines that were coming up in these, you know, debt court cases because the board can't operate right now. So I think this is what, you know, Trump and Lumer or really the people behind them, because I don't think either

Trump or Lumer really much, you know, or care exactly what happens in Puerto Rico. But they're useful instruments for these folks who, you know, they don't want just 60 cents, 70 cents on the dollar on bonds that they bought, a lot of times knowing that it was junk, right? But I think they foresaw that they were going to be able to profit from it, and that's what they're trying to do right now. Well, I'm just like fascinated by just the money piece of this, if we could stay for a second. Like your article cites that McKinsey has made over a hundred million dollars or something like that, consulting on the debt restructuring. And then you have these members of the board who were appointed by Obama. And it seems like the austerity agenda was going quite well

based on like its stated terms. What are the even the obstacles that the Trump administration is concerned about? Because look, it looks like the people in Puerto Rico are being a They don't have their sovereignty. People are getting rich. Like, what more do they want is the question that I'm asking? Yeah, and I think they want more of their money back on, you know, these on these bonds that they bought. And it's certainly true that, you know, the board has been a real moneymaker for lawyers, for consultants. The board members themselves don't have a salary.

But the staff of the board, including its executive director, as I mentioned in the article, right now is Robert Mulhika, who was Andrew Cuomo's budget chief in New York when Cuomo was governor, he makes $625,000 a year as the executive director of the financial oversight board. That's a higher salary than the president of the United States. And, you know, there's a staff that is obviously getting paid. And then there's this army of lawyers and consultants that they've used, you know, over the past decade. The estimates I've seen put the costs of the board at $2 billion over the last 10 years.

And this is all getting paid for by Puerto Ricans. So even though the law and the board was established by Congress, Puerto Rico foots the bill for all of the costs associated with the Oversight Board. So, you know, it's a particularly cruel insult to injury that even as it is emissorating Puerto Rican society, we also have to pay for them doing it. I just want to explain to people about this issue about the bonds because when people here like, oh, they're getting 70 cents, you know, return on their dollar. The whole, if I am not mistaken, Puerto Rican bonds, I'm thinking now 10, 15 years ago,

were returning north of 10% in terms of dividends, you know, maybe up to 15%. They were very, very lucrative. and they also completely tax-free because they're outside of any bounds of like a state or municipality. So you're getting these massive returns and the risk associated with them is that, I mean, that's why you're theoretically getting those returns. And a savvy investor knows that. And what they're trying to do is change essentially the rules of the game, which is you get big returns for a high.

risk thing. And now what they're trying to do is completely eliminate the risk by taking over the entities and extracting the money, their returns from the average Puerto Rican. Yeah, that's right. And yeah, Puerto Rico's bonds have always been a huge, huge moneymaker. They are triple tax exempt. This is another decision that Congress made back in the day, supposedly right, to foster investment in Puerto Rico and to allow Puerto Rico to use this as a tool for economic development. Of course, that is part of what led to this $70 billion debt trap that Puerto Rico found itself in. But it's really, you know, it all comes down to Congress and the U.S. government getting to make the rules, right, when it comes to Puerto Rico and the folks

who know how to move pieces within the U.S. government, whether that's through Laura Lumer or that's through, you know, legislation, they get to use those rules to their advantage. So, you know, when we talk about Puerto Rico being a colony, this is what colonies are for, right? It's for economic exploitation. It's not going to look like, you know, gold and silver mines like it used to in the 18th and 19th century, right? This is what colonialism looks like in Puerto Rico in the 21st century. You know, it's bonds. It's the Jones Act. Finance. Yeah, yeah, it's all of these sometimes kind of bureaucratic, technocrat. things that are hard to wrap your head around and you've got to keep a lot of numbers in

your head. But this is how, you know, Puerto Rico is abused and exploited in 2025. So the, um, the, the, the, the, the, the natural next question is, is like, how does Puerto Rico get out from under this lack of autonomy, um, and get the rights for, um, um, and get the rights for, um, some type of autonomy or self-determination, some people suggest statehood. Then there's some representation for Puerto Rico. You had a piece sort of delineating the difference between the question of statehood for Washington, D.C., which is now being occupied by essentially federal militia. I don't know what else to call them.

and in Puerto Rico address that. And maybe we should start just like with sort of the polling because to the extent that we have a sense of what Puerto Ricans feel about this, it's difficult to really assess. I mean, I think that's sort of broadly speaking, there is an inclination towards statehood, but it's not as strong and obvious, I think, as some of the polling are you? would suggest that some of the polling shows? Yeah, yeah. And, you know, this has been a very difficult and very complicated question for a long time. Puerto Rico has voted seven times on its political status, you know, going back to 1967, all of these non-binding votes with, you know, different

kinds of ballot designs and questions and boycotts, you know, especially in recent years. And we have seen a huge change, especially in the last few years, as Puerto Rico's crises have have intensified. So in in 2024, in last year's election, there was another one of these votes. And statehood did get 59% of the vote. But independence and sovereign free association, which is a form of independence in which Puerto Rico would then negotiate a bilateral compact with the United States. So those two sovereign options combined for 41, 42% of the vote, which is a dramatic increase from the kind of single digit support that independence would get in these elections previously.

And I should know that those numbers are only, you know, the numbers if you do not count the hundreds of thousands of blank ballots and spoiled ballots from people who just objected to this process, you know, who sort of, as a protest, wrote, left the ballot blank or, you know, sometimes wrote free Palestine on the ballot or free Puerto Rico. So that's kind of where we are right now. You know, the independence movement has been growing by leaps and bounds. I think in part. Let me just ask you one question on that.

So the, because that's a weird way of, of tabulating this. Like if you have 100% of the vote and, let's say, 25% of the vote is the ballots left blank. It's, you can't then just take the remaining 75% and assess and pretend that's the 100%, right? I mean, that's what it was done there. That's not how most sort of like things are done. It would be maybe it got a plurality, but it didn't necessarily get a majority. That's right. And actually, if you account for the blank ballot, statehood got under 50%.

I believe it was 48, 49%. And this is what's happened with these votes because, you know, a lot of Puerto Ricans think of them as a joke now. Again, there's been seven of them. None of them have been considered, you know, treated as binding by Congress. Congress has ignored the results. I mean, statehood got 59 percent, you know, by some accounts, right? last year, who's talking about statehood right now in the U.S. or about actually doing this or listening to the will of the Puerto Rican people, as it's often put.

It's not happening at all because I think most people understand the political reality that it just can't happen in Congress, that it can't get 60 votes in the Senate. Just as, you know, statehood for Washington, D.C. can't. I think, you know, if anything, T.C. statehood is slightly more likely than Puerto Rican statehood, but not likely at all. And that's been the case for a long time. You know, we've seen it in recent years when there has been some legislation that either never even makes it out of committee or, you know, certainly doesn't make it to the Senate. So, you know, I think this is what people need to understand about the question of Puerto Rico status. And I think, you know, progressive especially have had a little bit of a blind spot here and have often said one or two things.

Either it's not our place to take a position. This is up to Puerto Ricans. you know, they should decide and whatever they want will, we'll do. But of course, that's not true because it's all up to Congress and what can pass in Congress. So I think what that does is sort of perpetuate the colonial status because it doesn't address the fundamental reality that Congress is in charge of Puerto Rico, including of Puerto Rico's political fate. Or they'll sort of, you know, do this push for statehood, which, again, does not address the reality that, to my mind, and I think to most people who think about it for a couple of minutes, like there's no way

to get to 60 votes in the center for Puerto Rico statehood, but also on a political, ideological level, especially for progressives and folks on the left. And it's really fitting, I think, to be having this conversation after a conversation about Ukraine. When it comes to something like Ukraine, I think we understand very well the need to preserve national sovereignty, right? And I think we understand that it would be an injustice of Russia just finished invading Ukraine and then, you know, added it to the Russian Federation and gave it all of its voting rights and all of its representation, I don't believe that that would be a just and decolonial outcome for Ukraine. Well, I don't think statehood is a just and decolonial outcome for Puerto Rico,

because it would mean that the United States got to invade a nation, as it did in 1898, keep it as a possession for 125 plus years at this point, and then permanently annex it and keep it forever. And I think that's at the heart of the difference between the D.C. and Puerto Rico statehood questions. You know, D.C. is an American city of, you know, Americans who, by a constitutional quirk, really, you know, don't have full political rights and representation. Puerto Rico is a nation, a Latin American and Caribbean nation that was invaded and occupied by the United States has been kept as a possession, as a colony. And I think if you invade a place, the right thing to do is free it, not keep it. What would be the mechanism for independence?

I mean, if statehood needs 60 votes in the Senate, is there a mechanism? What would be the mechanism for Puerto Rican sovereignty? Yeah, and, you know, I think there's a couple of different ways that it could happen. Probably the easiest and most realistic way is through an act of Congress, because again, legally, Congress has full authority over Puerto Rico under the territorial clause of Constitution. You know, the UN could get, certainly get involved. And for the last 40 years, the United Nations has passed, at least the special decolonization committee of the United Nations, has passed resolutions affirming Puerto Rico's right to decolonization and independence.

That has not sort of made it to the General Assembly or really had much impact. And I think most of us know the challenge of getting the UN to have any real impact on some of these issues. But that is certainly, you know, another possibility. Puerto Rico could establish its own sort of status convention or kind of a constitutional convention like body and, you know, come to the determination of, you know, we've decided we want sovereignty, that's our demand, take that demand to Congress.

I still think that would have to end up in some legislation, but, you know, the push could come that way from the Puerto Rican people. But, you know, many of us and the work that I and my organization do in Congress especially is recognizing that Congress has a huge role to to play here and that it actually is easier to get to 60 votes for for independence, we believe, I believe, than than to statehood because even if it is for, you know, frankly racist and unjust reasons, there are many Republicans who, you know, would support Puerto Rico's independence because it means, hey, we don't have this threat of statehood and new Democratic

senators, you know, and we don't have to keep sending tens of billions of dollars a year to these poor brown people in the Caribbean, you know, we're not going to have three million new Latino voters, which is what statehood would mean, right? I mean, think about where the country is right now, think about especially the anti-Latino politics that are at the heart of, you know, politics in the United States, arguably for a very long time, but especially right now, to statehood really seem like political possibility in the near or medium term. I certainly don't think so. And as long as we keep pretending that it might be, just because it might sound good to say like, oh, let's give Puerto Rican sequel rights, the kind of colonial status that allows Trump to now take over Puerto Rico

essentially through this board firing will continue. Well, I mean, I think we all have to wait for Laura Lumer to weigh in on this question. If we really want any type of resolution. So, well, Alberto Medina, we will link to your substack free Puerto Rico, as well as your piece in the Jacobin on the Trump's hostile takeover of the island, and specifically in terms of like the finances on the financial oversight and management board. I really appreciate your time today. And again, we'll just keep looking at Laura Lumer's Twitter feed to see what, you know, what we're all going to be doing over the course of the next months and years. So I appreciate, appreciate your time. Thanks so much. Thank you. All right, folks. That completes the first half

of our program today, which, of course, went late. This show 15 years ago was set up to be 45 minutes in the first half and then 45 minutes in the second half and it's just mission creep after mission creep. We will rest. Folks, it's your support that makes this show possible. You can become a member. Even though we end up like doing the whole show

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Wow. We don't even do that anymore. I mean DVDs? Yeah, exactly. I'm stuck with like boxes and boxes and DVDs. Bless you. Thank you. Also, don't forget, just coffee, fair trade, coffee, hot chocolate.

Use the coupon code majority. You get 10% off. You can buy the Majority Port Blent. Matt, Left Reckoning, left an equity. Yeah, Left Reckoning, we had a Sunday show, Patreon.com, says left reckoning. We talked about Hakeem Jeffries being unable to not only endorse Hakee, endorse Azaramadani, but also unable to call out sort of market failures and try to. to get the mantle of who really champions the free market these days in a kind of pointless

way. Also, North Texas DSA and Rio Grande Valley DSA members checked in. So we have an interview with them from Chicago last weekend. Patreon.com. I left to get access to the show. 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 for, hold on for a second. The majority report. Emma, welcome to the program. Hey. Matt.

What is up, everyone? Fun pack. No, me. You did it. Fun, ha. Let's go Brandon. Let's go Brandon. Let's go Brandon.

Fun practice. 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's...

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

Is it me? It is you It is you? I think it is you Who is you? No sound Every single Fricking day

What's on your mind? We can discuss free markets And we can discuss capitalism I'm going to go to life Libertarians They're so stupid though Common sense says of course Gobble Deguck

We fucking nailed him. So what's $179 plus 21? Challenge met. I'm positively quivering. I believe 96, I want to say. 857. 210. 35.

5.01. 1⁄2. 911 for instance. $3,400. $1,900. $6.5,4, 3 trillion dollars sold. It's a zero-sum game. Actually, you're making me think less.

But let me say this. Poop. You can call satire. Sam goes satire. On top of it all? Yeah. My favorite part about you is just like every day, all day, like everything you do. Without a doubt.

Hey, buddy. We've seen you. All right, folks. Folks. Folks. It's just the week being weeded out, obviously. Yeah. Sundow 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? Our chat is enabled, folks. I love it. I do love that.

Look, got to jump. I got to be quick. I get a jump. I'm losing it, bro. Two o'clock. We're 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. Love you. Bye-bye.