The Majority Report with Sam Seder - 3564 - China Wins Big at Davos; The Next Socialist in Congress? w/ Jostein Hauge, Claire Valdez

Episode Date: January 22, 2026

It's an Emmajority Report Thursday on the Majority Report On Today's program: AP publishes a leaked memo instructing ICE and CBP border agents to forcibly enter people's homes without a judge-issued warrant, asserting that so-called "administrative" warrants are sufficient. ICE uses a 5-year-old boy as bait to arrest his father who is in an asylum process. Union leaders throughout Minnesota are calling for a general strike in the twin cities on Friday, January 23. Publisher of the Global Currents newsletter, Jostein Hauge joins the Emma to breakdown the aftermath of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. New York State Assemblyperson, Claire Valdez, representing the 37th District in Queens joins the program to discuss her candidacy for New York's 7th Congressional District. In the Fun Half: Matt Binder and Brandon Sutton join Emma. Jared Kushner speaks at the WEF in Davos, CH and presents his self-proclaimed "master plan" for the Gaza strip. Trump's AI and Crypto czar, David Sacks panels on MSNBC's Squawk Box to express how frightened he is of Ro Khanna's proposed 5% billionaire tax. Trump's polling is in the toilet, currently sitting at net -19% approval rating. Francesca Fiorentini posts a video responding to Ana Kasparian's apology to her audience for failing to recognize Trump as a fascist ahead of his SECOND term. If only there were clues. All that and more To connect and organize with your local ICE rapid response team visit ICERRT.com The Congress switchboard number is [phone]. You can use this number to connect with either the U.S. Senate or the House of Representatives. Follow us on TikTok here: https://www.tiktok.com/@majorityreportfm Check us out on Twitch here: https://www.twitch.tv/themajorityreport Find our Rumble stream here: https://rumble.com/user/majorityreport Check out our alt YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/majorityreportlive Gift a Majority Report subscription here: https://fans.fm/majority/gift Subscribe to the 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: ZOCDOC:  Go to Zocdoc.com/MAJORITY and download the Zocdoc app to sign-up for FREE and book a top-rated doctor. SPOTIFY: Sign up for a $1/month trial period at shopify.com/majority NAKED WINES: To get 6 bottles of wine for $39.99, head to NakedWines.com/MAJORITY and use code MAJORITY for both the code AND PASSWORD.   SUNSET LAKE: Use the code NEWFLOWER—all one word—to get 30% off their new crop of hemp flower and vape carts at SunsetLakeCBD.com  Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech On Instagram: @MrBryanVokey Check out Matt's show, Left Reckoning, on YouTube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Check out Matt Binder's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Subscribe to Brandon's show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Check out Ava Raiza's music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.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. January 22nd, 2026. My name is Emma Vigeland, in 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, Yossin Haga, back with us to talk about Davos, Trump's declining support on the global stage, as well as America's and China's rise. And later in the show, Claire Valdez, New York State Assembly person and candidate for New York's 7th.5th. congressional district will be with us to talk about her race. Also on the program, after a stock market panic, Trump reverses on wanting to invade an annex Greenland. That's good news. Ice terror picks up in Maine, a state with many refugees. Stay safe up there.

Ice also kidnapped a five-year-old boy in Minnesota. using him as bait to lure out his father from their home. A whistleblower reveals that ICE told agents to enter homes without a judicial warrant, then hid the paper trail and issued the orders verbally. The case of an immigrant strangled to death in a Texas concentration camp has been officially ruled a homicide. An appeals court panel stack with Republican appointees reverses a judicial. order that, and now they say ice can pepper spray and arrest peaceful protesters.

House Democratic leaders will oppose ICE funding in a vote today, but Jeffreys is reportedly only recommending his caucus vote against it and isn't whipping votes. Remember that Chicago Ice Raid where children were zip-tied while naked and ICE broke a bunch of windows and wreck the property? Well, Illinois is now investigating the slum lord for calling immigration on their own tenants. This show told you that was very likely the case many, many months ago, so Trenda Raqwa. A Texas jury has acquitted a former Yuvalde school police officer who failed to stop the gunman at the elementary school. Israel killed at least 11 people in Gaza yesterday, including three journalists.

At Davos, Jared Kushner advertises his master plan, his words, to carve up Gaza for real estate developers. And lastly, the Supreme Court appears poised to prevent Trump from firing Fed Governor Lisa Cook. The Supreme Court will stand up when capital is in trouble. All this and more on day's majority report welcome to the show everybody it's an em majority report Thursday hello matt hello brian hello audience hello hey what's up guys there's two million of you now and uh we're pretty popular woo hoo hoo hoo i guess the brian bump keeps bumping yeah the brian bump meant something different like 10 years ago, right? The

we have reached 2 million subscribers, so I again, I keep forgetting to fix my soundboard. I thought my iPad was stolen and locked it, but forgot, oh, well. That's my soundboard you messed up there? Forgot that I had brought it into the office for my

soundboard. Anyway, I... A perfect way to celebrate 2 million at majority part with a bunch of errors. Yes. And I am in it to win it. In keeping with the show. tradition. So I mean, gosh, when you started here, Matt, do you remember what the subscriber account was? Yeah, I do. What was it? About 40,000. Oh, my God, really? Wow.

All right, well, um, I think you thought that was a job. I was impressed at that time. Thank you all so much. We love you all. Couldn't do this without you. If you'd like to support this program join the majority report dot com your membership keeps us afloat if youtube went away tomorrow or they change the revenue system we would be really screwed with our members join the majority report

dot com yes but let's get to the news here so as I mentioned ICE has arrived in Maine Maine stay safe Maine is a disproportionate number of refugees relative to other states or at least

has had an influx of refugees recently and they're calling this operation catch of the day why do they have to have different operational names for every state just seems like

part of the whole cosplay I get it but like why not just make your fascist operation one thing it doesn't need to be state specific but they like to play with words they're occupying different parts of the world it's different strategies like that's

what's happening is instead of, you know, Iraq and, you know, other Afghanistan, it's, it's Charlotte and Minneapolis. And in Minnesota, it's still just absolutely horrific there. There was a really important whistleblower complaint that came out yesterday. It appears that Senator Blumenthal of Connecticut is kind of responsible for digging some of this stuff up. I think they're leaking this stuff right now. And Sam kind of floated this theory to me as well last night when we were chatting in anticipation of the vote today in the House on ICE funding. Jeffries and the rest of leadership is recommending that the rest of the caucus vote against it, but not whipping votes against it, which is a distinct. distinct difference.

Capitulation to fascism. Whipping votes involves, you know, sticks and carrots as well. There's no point to a party. You're just going to whip for what supporting Israel? That's what competent leadership does. I mean, for all of our issues with Nancy Pelosi, she was quite effective at keeping her caucus together. We'll see what this vote ends up being in the House.

But it's really the Senate that has the power to stop this. And Chuck Schumer has shown no indications, no indication that he's willing to do so. And so leaks need to start happening to reveal the horror and of ISIS operations, the illegality, the lawlessness that is inherent to ISIS operations. That is a very bedrock foundation of how they conduct their business, their terror across the country. So this leak, very significant. The AP rights, federal immigration officers are asserting sweeping power, to forcibly enter people's homes without a judicial warrant,

according to an internal immigration and customs enforcement memo obtained by the Associated Press, marking a sharp reversal of longstanding guidance meant to respect constitutional limits on government searches. The memo authorizes ICE officers to use force to enter a residence based solely on a more narrow administrative warrant to arrest someone with a final order of removal, a move that advocates say collides with Fourth Amendment protections and upends years of advice given to immigrant communities. That's by design, of course. They're trying to circumvent the recommendations that advocates have given

and local leaders have told to people, you don't need to, they need a judicial warrant to enter your home. Well, it turns out, ICE's directives internally have said basically, to disregard that, to disregard that. Now, you're going to hear this term administrative warrant. warrant throughout this piece. And I'm going to explain why that's not actually a warrant. It's basically the equivalent of your teacher gives you a permission slip for your parents to sign. And instead of just like forging the signature or something like that, you just make your own

permission slip and call it a permission slip. That's not what this is. Warrants are filled out by judges, not the administration, not ICE officers, which is what administrative warrants are. And this end runner on the Constitution has been telegraphed by the president, the vice president, when they talk about, well, we can't do due process because it's such an emergency that Joe Biden has left us with. And a lot of the todies and media have also said that. Like, it's too big of a problem. So now, F the Fourth Amendment, just screw it. And every single person who supported this deportationist area also supports that. Exactly.

The memo itself has not been widely shared within the age. according to a whistleblower complaint, but its contents have been used to train new ice officers who are being deployed into cities and towns to implement the president's immigration crackdown. New ice hires and those still in training are being told to follow the memo's guidance instead of written training materials

that actually contradict the memo, according to the whistleblower disclosure. I just want to sit with this for a second. It's a verbal only order. The article will continue. and lays this out, but they issued this memo earlier this year, then stopped circulating it because they didn't want a paper trail, and now have just been training ICE officers with a verbal confirmation of this illegal policy

because they're afraid of having a paper trail. And we have Democrats that are considering funding this agency right now. The Associated Press obtained the memo and whistleblower complaint from an official in Congress who shared it on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive documents. Again, I think this is, this theory is correct that it's some Democratic staffer or someone working with a high-level Democrat trying to box in some of these Democrats who aren't standing up to this lawlessness. The AP verified the authenticity of the accounts in the complaint.

The memo signed by the acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons, and dated May 12th, 2025 says, although the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has not historically relied upon administrative warrants, relied on administrative warrants alone to arrest alien subject to final orders of removal in their place of residence. The DHS Office of the General Counsel has recently determined that the U.S. Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the immigration regulations do not prohibit relying on administrative warrants for this purpose. DHS Office of the General Counsel created after we

were all alive for in our teenage years. Yep, it was an outgrowth of the war on terror. These warrants are forms filled out by ICE officers. This is the, it's a form I-205. They're signed by immigration officials, not regular judges. And when we're talking about the war on terror,

this is a good opportunity to bring up political nerds, remember the term FISA judges. So, you know, when we're talking about DHS and ICE being an outgrowth of the war on terror infrastructure, you might recall that the Bush administration was overseeing warrantless wiretapping mass surveillance throughout both terms of Americans without the approval of judges. Now, towards the end of his second term, it was basically discovered that this was happening. And the Democrats go, okay, but can you please go through a judge first? that was what happened.

And in the end, they turned to FISA judges. These are these secretive, specialized judges, specifically for surveillance warrants, specifically for things like intelligence and national security. And they would just rubber stamp all of this. So it gave them the pretense of going through a judge, but these were special judges. And even still, this is much more legal than what ISIS do. here because those are still federal judges. Those are still

warrants from a judge, not administrative warrants that are just signed by ICE officers. So we're seeing here the complete erosion of our Fourth Amendment protections and other protections because the war on terror and specifically the Patriot

blended these operations, foreign intelligence, and domestic law enforcement. And because of like the the way that power is accumulated and rights can be eroded much more easily than they can be built up, it's gotten worse and worse, even when you're looking at, say, like, you know, the FISA judges as a point of comparison. And one more part from this piece, and then we'll get to this awful story about how they're rounding up children in Minnesota.

But the memo says ICE officers can forcibly enter homes and arrest immigrants using. just a signed administrative warrant known as an I-205 if they have a final order of removal issued by an immigration judge, the Board of Immigration Appeals, or a district judge, or magistrate judge. The memo

says officers must knock on the door and share who they are and why they're at the residence, but they're limited in the hours they can go into the home after 6 a.m. and before 10 p.m. The people inside must be given a reasonable chance to act lawfully, but if that doesn't,

work the memo says they can just use force to go in the memo is addressed to all ice personnel but has been shown only to select dhs officials who then shared it with some employees who were told to read it and return it whistleblower aid wrote in the discourse and disclosure one of the two whistleblowers was allowed to view the memo only in the presence of a supervisor and then had to give it back that person was not allowed to take notes. A whistleblower was able to access the document and lawfully disclose it to Congress. Feels legal.

Feels legal. That's what you do. This memo, you can't take it with you, but we're going to read it to you and you've got to be secretive about it. I mean, it's absolutely unbelievable. So with that, you know, you're just seeing here. This is the Trump administration,

the executive branch, to completely circumvent the judiciary as they've tried to circumvent the legislature. This is about authoritarianism. And ICE is now taking just children. They've kidnapped multiple children. You have Minnesota community members saying that ICE is basically stationed outside schools.

This is the Protect the Kids Party, just reminding people here, that are okay with masked men whose identities we have no identity, We have no idea who they are. There's no way to verify. They're trying to hide their identities. We have masked, unidentified men paid for by your tax dollars,

stationed outside your kids' school, ready to kidnap them. The Protecting Kids Party. And it's not just happening in Minnesota. I saw there was an article in Seattle that in surrounding areas they had to shelter in place half a dozen schools do the ice activity a day or two ago. And now there's this story of Liam. This photo that you're going to see here has gone viral. He just turned five.

He's one of four children in this school district near Minneapolis, Columbia Heights, which is a heavily Hispanic and Latino district in the metro area. and apparently ICE when this kid was coming home got him asked him to knock on the door to see if anyone was inside because they wanted to take his father and they were successful in that

using this child as bait and Liam's older brother who's in middle school came home about a half hour later and found that his father and brother were missing here is a local K-A-R-E-11 NBC Twin Cities report on this incident. Inside Valley View Elementary in Columbia Heights, there's a preschool classroom filled with four and five-year-olds

who may soon wonder what happened to one of their classmates, Liam Ramos. He's a bright young student, and he's so kind. Ella Sullivan is Liam's preschool teacher. She says her students haven't asked about Liam yet, but they will. And she and other teachers wonder how they can possibly answer their question. questions. All I want is for him to be safe and back here. The family's lawyer says Liam is likely being held with his father at a detention facility in Texas. We have clients that once they're picked up,

they're whisked away to the airport, literally within hours. School officials say Liam is one of four students who have been detained by ICE agents over the last two weeks, including another student who is also detained on Tuesday. On the way to school, a 17-year-old high school student, a minor was taken by armed masked agents alone. No parents were present. Superintendent Zena Stenvick says the other two students include another 17-year-old and her mother who were detained by ICE last week and a 10-year-old girl who was also detained with her mother on their way to school two weeks ago. And by the end of the school day, they were already in a detention center in Texas and they are still there. He's terrified. Pastor Sergio Amesqua is also

working with Liam's family. He says, many in the Latino community are deeply concerned about children being taken by federal agents. Let child protection services take care of them while the parents with battle the legal bottle. Amezkwa says many in the community are now afraid to leave their homes. His church has now received food delivery requests for more than 27,000 families who are scared to go to the grocery store. Yep, scared. I mean, of course they are. Of course they are. How much. much longer is Minnesota going to be terrorized like this?

How much longer? We're getting IMs here. Apparently there was a woman in ice, or a woman in Portland tased by ice or tasked, perhaps I'm misreading that, but either way, yesterday

after dropping her kids off at school, we saw that they're targeting daycare centers. That story in New Jersey where there's a six-year-old girl who's just left alone. Yeah. wandering the streets. It is an absolute horror show in this country right now. And so if you're in Minnesota, tomorrow, unions across the state, bus drivers, janitorial workers, teachers,

they've joined this call for a statewide shutdown here on January 23rd. Let's hear a little bit here from local union reps in Minnesota on what they're asking for tomorrow, January 23rd. On January 23, the ATU Local 1005 stands in solidarity and endorses the call for a collective refusal to work in solidarity with immigrant communities, with protesters demanding an end to militarize raids, and with all of those who refuse to accept a normalized state of violence. Where's the morality in tear gas directed at a family? Where's the justice when a mother's life is taken? Where's the accountability when federal power overrides community safety and constitutional rights? Working people cannot stand aside while our neighbors are terrorized and our families are fractured because those are our families. Those are our neighbors. Those are us. They are us.

The community made the call for this day of no work, no school and no shopping. Members started telling us in large numbers that they were going to honor that call of the 23rd. 95% of them said they were planning not to go to work. In his letter from a Birmingham jail, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny, whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. As Dr. King describes an injury to one as an injury to all, this belief is the bedrock of the labor movement, active solidarity. Right now, labor unions must stand together in a network of solidarity to demand that

ICE leave Minnesota and stop inflicting this public safety hazard on our community. So Minnesota, stand up there. Tomorrow is the day. And I mean, I know Minnesota is already standing up. But point being is, we hope that tomorrow is a big success. And organized labor being behind this is a really good sign. Did you want to add something? No.

Okay. All right. Well, I was just going to say Trump pulling back from Greenland over a dip the stock market shows that this administration only understands money. There you go. There you go. In a moment, we're going to be talking to Yossin Haga, but first, a word from some of our sponsors. You know, in the new year, I'm starting to think about, like, changing some of my habits and some of my daily routines and reducing my reliance on things like single-use plastic, especially as, you know, we start to think about the looming climate catastrophe.

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back to the show. Thanks for having me back, Yom. Of course. So Davos, pretty significant this year. You actually wrote in Global Currents your newsletter last month about Trump's national security strategy, basically what this memo or publication that the administration had published about U.S. priorities around the world. That piece you put out in December. But I guess I'm wondering if you could connect that to what we saw at Davos over the past few days because it appears to be a cementing. of the Trump national security strategy, which is just like, we're going to isolate ourselves from the rest of the world and try to dominate our backyard.

Yeah, I'm glad you bring up the national security strategy because I think more people should have a look at it. It's a very important document. Every presidential administration publishes one of those during their terms. So it's pretty important. And this one in particular, if you read it by Trump, you see clearly a language of domination, a language somewhat similar to traditional imperialism. You know, I'd like to say after I've seen this document and also heard now Trump talk for a year into a second term,

we're seeing kind of a shift from the type of imperialism we saw under more liberal administrations where, you know, it was kind of hidden. There was talk about global cooperation and so on. and Trump is basically saying, I don't want that language anymore. I'm going to just say straight up that I'm going to take what I want in this world. And in the security strategy, it focuses a lot on Latin America. But sort of throughout the strategy, you see very clearly that it's not just about dominating Latin America. It's about interfering in Europe. It's about making sure that China doesn't arise as a competitor, although it's a bit late for that.

So it's sort of an unapologetic language of imperialism and of global domination. And that's also something we saw in Davos in his speech. And the idea that this is about curbing China's influence is a little shocking to me because does the administration really think they can do this with just the force of U.S. military? and that's how they're going to try to impose their will on like trying to maintain hegemony because the exact opposite is happening here. You have Canada and we saw a Carney speech we played it yesterday saying to hell with this. We're going to go with the emerging power here and make plans for our economy that acknowledge that reality.

Yes, very much. It's funny because for a while we were all talking about the trade war between U.S. and China, and eventually we saw how Trump's tariffs and his trade policies backfired a lot and, in fact, benefited China directly to some degree in that China got more technologically independent and more speedily and hastily implemented measures to technologically advanced. various sectors. Well, now we're seeing another element of China sort of becoming a more important player in the world, and that is that other traditional allies of the U.S. because of Trump's erratic and volatile, and to be honest, narcissistic and childlike foreign policy, is turning traditional allies of the United States toward China. Carney is probably of a prime example, and we saw that his recent visits to China, and they struck a trade deal

with, you know, with very few sort of antagonistic caveats that, to some degree, Europe still has with China. But I think we'll see more European countries follow as well. And this was something that Carney alluded to in his speech that countries like Canada now need to be more realistic and cannot look to the United States. any longer. Can you expand upon that and where Europe is relative to Canada here and what Carney's plea entailed? Because there's this tension, of course, with the post-World War II

international order. And we're seeing this is the end of that. And Gaza was really, I would say, the death blow, but we've been bleeding out since that point. And Carney finally acknowledged, hey, we're bleeding out. And it's like Europe's entanglement with the United States economically is very much tied into NATO and the security guarantees that the U.S. has provided. And the the emotion around that is obviously and the fears are heightened because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. And NATO has added member states.

And that makes rational sense for those states to join NATO for that reason. But it has been a unsustainable long-term project for Europe to continuously rely on the United States for security, but also being roped into U.S. imperialism and siding with the United States on things like Iraq and even Gaza, like having to kind of co-sign that. And also, you know, going along with the United States. States is foreign policy objectives as it relates to like tariffs and sanctions, you know, so Europe is kind of folded in and they can't make economic relationships with other countries based on U.S. policy.

That appears to be something that seems to be cracking here. Yeah. Let me, there's a lot of things to unpack here, but let me do it by looking at Carney's speech because it was quite remarkable. And I think the way I interpreted it, he made two important points. The first is the admission of the death of the rules-based international order. And this rule-based international order has existed, you know, supposedly for a long time since the end of World War II,

the start of the Bretton Woods conference, these international organizations were supposed to have to ensure global cooperation. And Carney said, this was in large part a facade and that wealthy nations played along with this facade, especially the middle powers, because it benefited them. And the U.S. was spearheading this international order. I think first it's important to point out there's quite remarkable coming from a figure like Carney who's been part of the liberal establishment, Goldman Sachs, Harvard, Oxford, you know, this was maybe the last, in any ways, a so-called globalist, right? But he admits

that the liberal international order was a facade. And Trump has also been critical of it. He's destroyed it in many ways and replaced it with traditional imperialism. The other important point here, and then I'll take this more towards Europe and how Europe is a bit different from Carney and also similar. The other important point is about Trump and how Carney approaches the U.S. and Trump. And he did not mention Trump specifically and strategically in his speech, but Carney has been very consistently, very consistently against Trump in some ways. And there,

I think he has more integrity than the European countries. Because here we've seen, as you mentioned, Europe has been very careful about condemning Israel's actions in Gaza. They've been very careful about saying that Trump broke international law when he bombed Venezuela and kidnapped its head of state. But somehow, you know, they are very forcefully telling Trump that he should not invade Greenland. So we're seeing that many of these big European leaders really only dare to stand up to Trump when he subjects them to the same kind of colonial mindset that they subjected to the rest of the world for centuries. And the other part of it, too, just to return to maybe the economic piece is that the United States is a paper tiger right now economically.

You've been writing and done so much academic work on how technologically advanced China is, how far ahead they are, how a lot of this is obscured by the Western press. But this was a great thread that you retweeted here from this is, you. here, Gabriel Zuckman, about the United States economy. I just want to show some of these charts for people. This one's on the annual real growth of national income per adult in the United States. And so if you could just scroll up here a little bit up, actually. Yeah. The idea that the United States has pulled ahead economically isn't necessarily true. You can see that in annual real growth of national income per adult.

US, but then scroll down to the next part of the thread here. This other chart, income growth. That was the similar one that we just showed there. But GDP is also not where it's advertised at. And keep scrolling down here. Here, this one is what I wanted this to. Sorry, the GDP one. annual real growth of productivity GDP per hours worked.

I need to see the caption. Sorry. There it is. So you can see that the period from 1980 to 2010 is not what it was. It was much more productive from 1950 to 1980, much more productive in 1980 to 2010, and not the same there. And you can tack it to, there's a final chart here about incoming wealth inequality. I just want to get to that. This is the big one.

look at this chart. When we're looking at GDP growth, this is the wealthiest point 0.001%. And I need to see this caption. If you could scroll up here, yeah. The one thing that is growing extremely fast is the wealth of the top billionaires. The top point 00001% used to own the equivalent of 3% of national income in wealth in 2010. They now own the equivalent of 12% of national income in the United States.

So even from 2010 to 2026, that has absolutely exploded from that time period. So when we're looking at like, oh, the United States economy and tech is booing it and AI and it's so it's growing. It's growing with these traditional economic metrics. It is not accounting for the fact that regular that this is a big kind of speculative bubble and a lot of capital that's going towards like invest or speculative. or, you know, investment in the stock market, but people's actual experiences are not reflecting that. Yes. First, I think I like to say that Gabriel Zuckman,

whose thread you just shared, he's done a lot of good work on this, and he also recently wrote an essay in the French newspaper, Le Monde, where he compares the European to the American economies, which touches upon a lot of the subjects you talk about here. So I really urge the audience to go and have a look at that. So, you know, even if you work to accept that the U.S. economy has grown GDP-wise slightly more than Europe growth, as the inventor of GDP, Simon Kuznets, said growth, GDP growth is just a means to an end. So what is that achieved?

And in the American economy, compared to a lot of other wealthy nations, as this chart showed, a lot more of the growth has gone to the top 1%, or 0.1%, or 0.00. 0.01%. Let me be clear, this has been a trend in many wealthy nations, more income inequality, that billionaires and the rich are capturing a larger share of growth. But in the United States, it's much more so. So this is why I think it's important to know in these discussions that, or when people say that, oh, you know, innovation is stronger in America or tech is booming and we have the greatest tech companies. Yes, it's a lot of tech, but let's see how prosperous the American economy is as a whole. Here's I think a very important statistic. In the United States, the bottom 50% of the population own one to two percent of the total wealth. That is astonishingly bad,

and among the worst among the OECD economies. It has the lowest social mobility among all the OECD economies, and it has lower life expectancy than most OECD economies, even China now. Now, I'm not trying to say that all the other OECD economies are doing great and so on, but we need to understand that growth and big tech and so on, these are having huge corporations, having GDP growth, these are means to an end. And the end is not being achieved in the United States right now. So yes, as you say, the U.S. economy is somewhat. of a paper tiger and now being overshadowed increasingly by the Chinese economy.

So China now here, where is your assessment of their feeling or their standing here after Davos, but even maybe more notably after this deal with Canada? Do you foresee other European countries following suit here? And how is that going to impact with this kind of? capricious psychotic president here in the United States are relationships with Europe economically. Yes, I do think other European countries will follow suit, obviously, and this is also worth noting that the rest of the world have already preceded carnage. China works together with tons of countries across the global South already and has built relationships across the South for over two decades now.

But it is, you know, Macron has already alluded to wanting to attract Chinese investments. But now that we saw this clear deal between Canada and China, where Canada is working hard to attract more investments from China and establishing joint ventures with Chinese companies and, you know, made tons of social media posts about the new partnership that Canada has with China, I do think we'll see more partnerships. China is here not doing something radically new. China has been, for a long time, I had a consistent strategy of trying to cooperate with as many countries as many countries as possible. And it does not have the intention of replacing the U.S. as a global hegemon. I think it's important for people to know this. The one elephant in the room and the one issue that might prove tricky for European countries, to cooperate more with China is Russia,

because China does not have the same stance towards Russia that many Western European countries has. And China is, you know, Russia shares a big border with China, and China prioritize having a decent relationship with Russia. But China, honestly, the only thing China has to do is to act like the adults in the room when we have the president of the most powerful country in the world, debatable, of course.

But when the president of the United States acts in this narcissistic childlike manner, which we saw in Davos, they honestly have to do no more than just be the adult in the room, and that has been working well for China so far. Lastly, are people overreacting to this Carney speech?

We didn't get to it, and I think we will later in the show, but earlier today, Jared Kushner was at Davos and was speaking about his plan to carve up Gaza for a bunch of real estate developers. And so, of course, it's important to point out that the so-called rules-based international order very much died with the genocide in Gaza. But that doesn't, I think, take away from the significance of Western leaders acknowledging that death. And do you find that, did you think that what happened with Carney's speech and what occurred at Davos here is as historically significant as perhaps is being reported? I think the speech will be remembered as one of the most important speeches, at least in this decade.

Now, if the speech will actually translate to a new practice of a new world order like the one Carney, ambitions we have yet to see. Will we see the middle powers building alliances like Harney alludes to and wants in his speech we have yet to see? You know, I want to say that because I've seen some people saying,

yes, middle powers now need to, you know, maneuver more strategically in a more realistic way with respect to the great powers, the U.S., China and Russia, building a cooperation ship and a partnership with the U.S. is very different from building a cooperation and partnership with China. And I think it's important to know that. And that's something we've definitely seen in the last year. But still, yes, we're seeing the death of the rules-based order. It's the law of the jungle. A lot of countries are now delinking somewhat from the United States,

but the United States still has tremendous power, and Trump is trying to show that. He's not getting popularity on the world stage by showing that, and certainly not with his Gaza peace plan. And to be honest, I saw that clip by Jared Kushner, and I thought, how is this any different from traditional colonialism? Yeah. I really struggle to see the difference there. They're coming in there. Kushner is trying basically say, this is what we have planned. This is what we want to do.

you know, why are you supposed to shape the future of the people of Gaza? And this is someone who's for a long time as a very close relationships. A very close relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu is wanted by the International Criminal Court for War Crimes and committing and leading a genocide in Gaza. This is absurd to me. So we'll have to see. Law, the jungle is right. Yosin Haga, thank you so much for your time today. Always appreciate your insights.

everybody should check out your newsletter, Global Currents. Thanks so much. Thanks, Emma. Quick break, folks. And when we come back, we're going to be joined by Claire Valdez, candidate for New York's 7th Congressional District. We are back and we're so happy to be joined now by Claire Valdez, New York State Assembly Person representing the 37th District in Queens and now candidate for New York's 7th Congressional

District. Claire, welcome to the show. So happy to have you. Very happy to be here. Thanks for having me. Of course. So Representative Velasquez is retiring. This is one of the bluest districts in the country.

So why the hell not run a socialist? I mean, tell us a little bit about your background. Yeah, absolutely. You are correct. This is one of the most progressive, if not the most progressive district in the country. It's a congressional district that voted over 40% for Zoran Mamdani in last year's primary election, very primed for the kind of mass politics that our movement represents. First and foremost, I'm a labor organizer.

I come out of the UAW. I was a member of Local 2110 and a shop steward. I organized alongside my coworkers for better contracts and to know our rights as union members. And this is something that is so needed right now in our federal government and in Congress, where very few congressional members have any direct relationship to the labor movement, and certainly very few have been union members. And the reason we've seen this incredible concentration of wealth with the 1% and this crushing oligarchy is because there's been a decades long for unorganized labor. I'm running for Congress to change that.

A day after you announced your campaign for New York 7th Congressional District, you were endorsed by Zoran Mamdani and also, though, Sean Fane, the president of the UAW. Can you speak a little bit more about your work with the UAW and what the lessons you learned from the labor movement have been? Absolutely. So a lot of my life I've spent working customer service jobs, low-wage jobs, like many, many Americans. And at no point in my life, how do I felt as powerless as I did then on my feet working hours and hours for terrible wages? When I joined UAW, that completely changed. I found power in my union. I was a member of our bargaining committee at Columbia University, you know, bargaining against this multi-billion dollar institution for better wages that I and the 500 clerical workers and call center workers who make Columbia run that are often forgotten about deserve.

I was a member of our, I helped campaign for Sean Fane when he ran in 2022. And, you know, under his leadership, we've seen the UAW transform. It's an incredibly democratic union. He led the stand-up strikes in 2023. And it's a really inspiring moment for organized labor. UAW was out in front, calling for a ceasefire early in the genocide in Gaza, which is very much in line with their long history of social justice work and international solidarity. And UAW taught me what power can look like and how we can win it.

You mentioned the genocide in Gaza. You have been unequivocal in your condemnation of that. I want to ask you more specific policy questions in just a second. But I read in your interview in Jacobin that you were radicalized by the war in Iraq. That is how I would also describe my kind of political trajectory. Can you talk a little bit about that because there was this insistence in the last election that people don't really vote on foreign policy? And we show that That's unfortunately, now that we have a fascist in office, it's quite clear that that was not the case. So what was important to you about the war in Iraq and your political trajectory? Yeah. So I grew up in Lubbock, Texas, very conservative part of Texas. And seeing the invasion of Iraq as a young person really radicalized me. Just knowing that billions of U.S. dollars were going to attack a civil population and an unjustified war and a war that was not proven to be, you know, needed.

And it changed the way that I thought about U.S. foreign policy and our role in it. I saw that we were going to war for massive profits for oil profits and to keep this, you know, military industrial complex machinery going. And it was really horrible to see, but like many millennials, I was radicalized in that moment and continued being an anti-war activist for the rest of my life. And so, you know, when the genocide began over two years ago in Gaza, I was unequivocal in saying it is a genocide that we need an immediate ceasefire and that the U.S. cannot be complicit in bombing civilians and destroying refugee camps. We had to have to put it into it.

And in terms of if you were to get into Congress, you would support an arms embargo both defensively and offensively? Absolutely. I think there's no appetite for our tax dollars going to uphold a government that has shown very little respect for Palestinian human rights. I love to hear it. Can you speak a little bit more about DSA and New York specifically, how important that's been to your role in the assembly, but also just organizing in this city. I know that there's somebody else currently running in your district, Antonio Reynoso, who the Brooklyn Borough president, not a DSA member. And there's been some sort of like kind of intra-progressing. in fighting about this very topic. I mean, for my, I'll editorialize and say, like, I mean, DSA success is so unequivocal that the idea that we should be fighting about this kind of stuff seems insane to me, but that it seems to be that, you know, there's New York DSA and there's still like kind of

an older political establishment within the Democratic Party that has some issues with that. So just if you could expand on the differences between you and, uh, and, uh, Rayneau, so your opponent in this primary. Yeah, and since you asked about DSA, I'll just say I've been a member of New York City DSA for almost seven years now. The process that we're going through now with the endorsement is this kind of long and very democratic process, but it's exactly the thing that brought me into the organization. Feeling trusted as an everyday working class person to make, you know, strategic decisions

and considerations, that's how we build our movement, and it's how we deepen our democracy in our society. So it's a really, this is always my favorite time of year, endorsement season. But it's that movement that I think distinguishes myself and my opponent. I come out of the same movement that brought us Zoran Mamdani. He and I have a lot of similar experience organizing within DSA, starting out just knocking doors and then being field leads, field coordinators, growing in leadership. And that's exactly what good campaigns can do is develop organic leaders who gain confidence and strategic insights into the way that everyday working people can be powerful.

It's about recognizing the power in each other to change the world and change our conditions. And so that's the movement that I hope to bring to that I've been organizing with in Albany as a state assembly member and that I want to bring to Washington, D.C., building our democracy and really making working people feel that they are part of up. holding it is going to be so essential as we take on, as you said, this fascist administration that wants to gut due process, voting rights, workers' rights, and we have to be on the front lines of defending it. How would you act in Congress to, say, protect your community from ICE?

And, you know, hopefully if you end up being the nominee, you would be a part of Democrats, It's knock on wood, taking back the house. That's the hope that I would imagine that there could be some tools at your disposal to help protect your community. What do you see as your role as a member of Congress in that sphere? Yeah, we have to, I mean, the first step is we have to abolish ICE. This is an agency that has become funded by billions and billions and billions of dollars and militarized and is now running roughshod over our basic democratic rights all over the country. ISIS just told its agents that they do not need to present warrants in order to open people's doors, it's blatantly unconstitutional and an attack on all of our fundamental freedoms,

not even to mention that they are now openly murdering protesters and bystanders on the street in broad daylight on film. It's an agency that cannot exist anymore, and it should absolutely be abolished. In my office in the Assembly, we've been organizing know-your-rights trainings, you know, attending rallies and marches and really demonstrating that everyday working people can come out and stand for their neighbors when moments when they might not feel safe to do so. And so I think really public demonstrations of support saying that this agency cannot exist anymore and that we need critical funding to make sure that all of our neighbors who might have to go through these immigration proceedings have representation, which is proven to help them get through,

navigate these systems and bring them back home safely. So first of all, abolish, but then there are a lot of other tools that are disposal to make sure that our immigrant neighbors are protected and have the same dignity that every single person in this country deserves. Lastly, of course, rent, tenant protections. I know you've done work in that area, but we're hopefully, Zohrammandani's beginning to make some progress. The rent is still too damn high here. But on a federal level, you know, we have of there were a few years ago, Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were trying to revive efforts to repeal the Faircloth Amendment, for example, which has for people that don't know, it's a over 25-year moratorium on federal funding for public housing, which is a relic and

should be done away with at the bare minimum. But just, you know, that's one thing that comes to mind for me. What would you support on the federal level? to address the housing crisis. Yeah, I mean, bringing up the Faircloth Amendment is a great place to start. It has to be repealed. It is ridiculous that we're not able to build more public housing. And it's a shame on our society that our public housing has been left to fall into disrepair over generations. And it's a public entitlement that, like so many others, Medicaid, Social Security, SNAP benefits that are being undercut by this federal administration.

But far beyond that, too, our public housing should be the jewel. rule of our society and it should be abundant. People should be able to live in it long term. So repealing Faircloth Amendment is a great place to start fully funding our existing public housing. Here in New York City, we have many nitre developments that have been left to, without repairs, without good funding for a long time, fully funding those developments is also priority number one. And then building social housing. Representative Ocasio-Cortez carries the Homes Act to develop more social housing in the United States. I was, part of a delegation to Barcelona in 2024 where we got to see models of beautiful social

housing that is permanently affordable and democratically controlled by its tenants. And we can have that here. These models already exist, but we're up against, in New York City especially, just a rich and rapacious real estate industry that has been fighting tooth and nail to make sure that they are making as much profit as possible off of our need for safe and stable housing. And we have to take on those corporate interests. Absolutely. I just got to say we have an I.M. Noah, the intern's mom says, please give the candidate greetings from a fellow socialist who grew up in Lubbock. Hard place to be a lefty. I'm now in Portland, Oregon. I'm not familiar with that town, but it sounds like you are. I am deeply familiar, and it is a very hard place to be a lefty, but we get through it. And no matter where you are in this country, you can be a lefty in fight for justice.

Absolutely. Claire, where can people support your campaign and how would you best suggest that they do? Yeah, you can donate and get involved at Claire Valdezfor Congress.com. We'll be knocking doors very soon and love getting out the word to our neighbors. So come along, join the campaign. Appreciate you, Claire. Claire Valdez, a candidate for Congress who is running in New York's seventh congressional district. more socialist representation from my good state of New York would be phenomenal. So thanks so much for coming on the show today. Really appreciate it. We appreciate you. It's all day forever.

Thanks, y'all. Agreed. Thanks so much, folks. Well, not going to run right into the fun half. Going to wrap up the free part of this show and head into the fun half in just a second. But as we mentioned earlier, this show relies on your support. We just hit 2 million subscribers. Amazing stuff.

But that could go away if, you know, say the authoritarian Trump administration decides that we're too terroristy. So if you could go to join the Majority Report.com become a member, you can IAM the show. That would be excellent. Matt had to step out a little earlier, but we have, do we have a promotion for? the Jacobin show, Brian? No, I think he's recording that now, but the most recent Left Reckoning, I pulled it up. They were joined by

Judith Norman and Alex Bernel to break down James Helrico's recent controversial statements on funding Israel's defensive weapons. Yes, yes. Check out that episode. Also check out the Jacobin show. And then we'll also say,

you know, just a reminder, I am going to be moderating David Griscom's book talk, the launch of his book in New York City, and that is going to be, as I pull up my calendar on my screen here, got to type in calendar. Okay, here we go. That will be on the 25th of February, and so if you'd like to attend, we have the link somewhere. We'll put it in the description down below, but you can also pre-order David Griscombe's book, The Myth of Red Texas.

Really honored that he asked me to blurb that book and also that he asked me to moderate this. Very, very sweet. And also the book is really great. So check that out. Check out the Jacobin Show. Check out Left Reckoning. Soon we will be joined by Brandon Binder,

but they're taking their sweet-ass time. So, yeah, we'll just go into the fun half. And we will see you there. We will take your calls and read your IMs. See you on the other side. Okay, Emma, please. Well, I just, I feel that my voice is sorely lacking in the majority report. Wait, what?

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 a program for Sam. That's good. Sir, I'm going to pause you right there. Wait, what?

You can't encourage Emma to live like this. And I'll tell you why. I was offered a twirp, sushi, and poker. Boys. Boys. What's offered boys? What? Twirp.

Sushi and pooh. That's what we call biz. Twerk. Sushi and ties. 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. Oh my God. Oh, sushi. I'm sorry, I'm losing my fucking mind. Someone's offered a twir? Yeah. Sushi and poker. Sushi and poker. A little kid, little kid.

It just doesn't understand. So I'm not trying to be a dip 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. It's not a fun job. Twerk. That's a real thing. That's a real thing. That's a real thing.

That's a real thing. That's like the way to the world on the shoulders. It was so much easier. When the majority report was just you. You were happy. Let's change the subject. 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 twerk. He fun. Israel.

A notable theme song. I Bumbler. Emma Viglin. Absolutely one of my favorite people. Actually, not just in the game. Like, period.