The Majority Report with Sam Seder - 3571 - GOP Braces For A Big Beautiful Backlash; Trump’s CDC Purge w/ Brendan James, Amanda Seales

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, folks, our friends over at Sunset Lake, Sebeday, have a new release just in time for Labor Day barbecues and backyard hangouts. And you're going to want to relax this Labor Day. And you can do so by enjoying their, well, both their lifted teas, but also you may want to try their new lifted tea microdose. Each can has one milligram of Tejse and five milligrams of fast-acting Sebede. So you will start feeling it in around 20 minutes. The low dose means you can have a few cans and feel a booze-free bliss. They come in two flavors, original the classic black iced tea, zesty lemon, and just a hint of mango. That's my favorite.

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Starting point is 00:02:32 Tuesday, casual Tuesday. Wednesday, casual hump day. Thursday, casual thurs. That's what we call it. And Friday, casual Shabbat. The majority report with Sam Cedar. It is Friday. August 29th, 2025.

Starting point is 00:03:00 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, Brendan James of the Blowback Podcasts, joins us to recap this week in news. and also later in the show comedian Amanda Seals would be back with us

Starting point is 00:03:29 to talk about her Jubilee appearance, the right wing, Zionism, and more. Also on the program, Trump and RFK Jr.'s firing of the CDC head leads to four senior officials resigning in protest and a massive walkout of CDC workers at the CDC headquarters. The replacement for the CDC head? Well, RFK Jr.'s anti-VAC second-in-command, of course, a close collaborator and longtime high person in the Peter Thiel corporate world. Works directly for him, basically.

Starting point is 00:04:14 We'll get into that with Brendan, I think. RFK Jr. will testify in front of a Senate panel next week. as Congress reconvenes. The de minimis exemption on tariffs and duties for goods worth less than $800 is expiring today. Lots of implications for increased prices, because that exemption has been in place for quite a while in some form or another. Trump cancels Kamala Harris's security detail. I just, pettiness is strength in America, apparently. Prosecutors were forced to reduce the charges against the man who threw a sandwich at an ice officer, allegedly.

Starting point is 00:05:05 Hey, report to jury duty, folks. Yeah. You can come through in the clutch, like that jury did. A jury nullification. Well, it wasn't actually a jury. The prosecutors were so pathetic that they had to refile the charges of a misdemeanor instead of a felony because they knew it wouldn't stand. Oh, I thought the felonies were rejected. but anyway. I could be wrong.

Starting point is 00:05:24 That's one reason why you show up for jury to hear either way. So you can say like, look, I'm not persuaded by this evidence

Starting point is 00:05:30 and you don't need to say anything more than that. The city of Atlanta turned communist. Actually, this is a great, great news. First city-run

Starting point is 00:05:44 grocery store opening today an effort to address food deserts. Jared Kushner is back in the fold. He was at Trump's meeting yesterday with Tony Blair about a Gaza Riviera rebuild plan. That included Israeli official Ron Dermer. The Palestinians have no say in their future, apparently.

Starting point is 00:06:08 Gaza's famine man-made by Israel continues to worsen. The minimum who have starved to death right now in terms of the total is 322. Moderate Democratic Representative Deborah Ross, of North Carolina says she will not take APAC money this cycle. Tides are turning. Nearly 1,000 worker over billionaire protests are scheduled in all 50 states for Labor Day. And lastly, Trump's Education Department accuses Denver

Starting point is 00:06:43 of violating federal law for having gender-neutral bathrooms in their schools. All this and more on today's majority report. We have reached Friday, my friends. We are here. Welcome to the show, everybody. Sam will be back on Tuesday. We have a Labor Day special

Starting point is 00:07:06 like we have every year that we will be releasing, but we will be back in person on Tuesday. Let's, we'll get into this CDC stuff, which is really the biggest news of the day with Brendan. But I wanted to. start here because I found I we didn't get to this earlier this week but I find this fascinating to see how the Republicans are starting to be in a defensive crouch they are concerned

Starting point is 00:07:37 and are getting numbers that are not good on a variety of Trump's different actions the big beautiful bill is the first one here Trump said this earlier this week at the White House about how they need to rebrand the one big beautiful bill, which would indicate that the internals are pretty bad. And we'll show you how even public data shows what the polling is. But the fact that Trump is saying this means people are starting to get really pissed once they understand the implications and the implications start to be felt. Here he is earlier this week on why they have to start calling it something different. So the bill that, I'm not going to use the term great, big, beautiful, that was good for getting it approved, but it's not good for explaining to people what it's all about.

Starting point is 00:08:34 It's a massive tax cut for the middle class. It's a massive tax cut for jobs. And it's, I mean, think of it, no tax on tips, no tax on social security. So seniors, I don't know how you can vote for anybody else. You know, just think of that and no tax on overtime. So you work overtime, you don't have to pay tax on overtime. That's good. The Democrats don't know what they're gonna do. So they have like this sound bite, you know, they have all these sound bites. They send it out, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:09:08 Some guy sends out a word and everybody uses it, including the fake news. Some of you are here right now, I'm looking at you. And it's death. They use the word death. No. It's actually life. It's almost like a newborn life. It's not death. That's their soundbite. The bill is death. The bill is death. I wish that was the sound bite. It literally is. I mean, it's going to kill people. Not to, not to joke about it entirely, because we know what the implications are of this horrific bill, and people understand that as well. Raising the amount of time and space, people need to travel, say, after they have a heart attack in a rural area, that's what's going to happen here.

Starting point is 00:09:54 You're going to have people's lives cut short? There are estimates that this could result in the closure of nearly half of all rural hospitals, meaning that, as Matt says, people are going to have to drive. They maybe already had to drive 45 minutes to the nearest hospital, and now that's going to be an hour and a half. and it won't just result in people's death say if they have a health emergency or something to that effect it will also have an impact on preventative care

Starting point is 00:10:25 because people won't be seeking care because they don't have the ability to take three hours out of their day or plus less easy to do checkups, everything to drive the Medicaid figures show that like around 17 million people are likely to

Starting point is 00:10:43 lose insurance. The CBO estimates that up to, I think, 11 plus million people will be insured by 2034 because of the Medicaid cuts, let alone the fact that when you look at the final analysis of the tax cuts, the people in the lowest income brackets are going to be paying more in the final say of things. And this is also the biggest cut in the history. of SNAP the food assistance program

Starting point is 00:11:17 almost 200 hospitals here it is are at risk of immediate closure because of these cuts so labor guy 420 says the bill is death is an amazing drop maybe we should pull that because it describes it accurately these are the numbers from

Starting point is 00:11:37 a few weeks ago now two or so weeks ago in Pew Research showing the approval rating for this horrific bill. Trump's job approval stands at 38%, 60% disapproved. That's a, to hit that in your first year of your administration, 60% disapproval is, uh, not good. You're like in Bush 2007 areas here.

Starting point is 00:12:04 Yeah. Geez, only 11 strongly approve of the BB. Of the, I mean, that's like, even your psychos. Yes. Even the psychos don't like it. Here it is. 39% strongly disapprove, 22%.

Starting point is 00:12:19 Can you scroll so I can see the... The one you're reading is for terrorists. Okay, I can't see it on the screen. Let me look here. This is the one. The budget and tax law. Okay. 33% strongly disapprove. 13% somewhat.

Starting point is 00:12:33 21% somewhat approve 11%. So that's basically 46 to 32 and 23 are unsure. But that was too. weeks ago and more and more people are going to get sure as they learn more. And this rolls out. The fact that he has to rebranded already shows they're concerned. And he's sending out J.D. Vance all across the country. He was in Georgia. He's going to different places. One, to put pressure on these states to gerrymander even more. Two, though, to sell this horrific legislation to the population that's going to be emiserated by it. And I do appreciate the tradition of these like

Starting point is 00:13:16 elderly sociopaths, like him and Biden, giving their VP the worst jobs possible and offsetting all of their political problems onto them. Like Biden giving Kamala the fix immigration issue. Go down to the border. Like, for the president. I mean, Dick Cheney's are the only one that sort of turned the president into his field. Yes, yes. And you, at the very least, you have to respect him for that level of creativity of turning that on its head.

Starting point is 00:13:48 But now he's doing this with J.D. Vance, go out and sell this deeply unpopular bill to the public. And Mike Johnson is concerned about his house majority. Now, he's being deployed to sell the crime narrative and the crackdown on cities, which there was a Quinnipiac poll. yesterday showing something like 56% of Americans already disapprove of Trump's actions in D.C. And deploying the National Guard for this purpose, if he tries with Chicago, these numbers are going to keep getting worse because it's ridiculous. And everyone sees it. And despite what Trump may think,

Starting point is 00:14:31 people don't like authoritarianism in America. And I still have faith that despite them rigging the rules in this way, that Democrats and independent voters still have like a cultural understanding that we are not about kings and authoritarian and fat, well, maybe fascist, but we don't like that kind of action if it comes home to America. So those numbers, I think, will still keep getting worse for him. But Mike Johnson has to try to change that. Here he is on Fox News this morning, and they played a clip of Gavin Newsom pointing out that, what'd you say? It's in here. Yeah, pointing out that crime is higher in Louisiana than in California,

Starting point is 00:15:17 which is Mike Johnson's home state, and he has to deflect a bit. But he named dropped you personally yesterday, essentially trying to say that crime is worse in Louisiana than it is in California. Take a listen. We'll get your thoughts. If he is to invest in crime suppression, I hope the President of the United States would look at the facts. Just consider Speaker Johnson's state and district. Just look at the murder rate that's nearly four times higher than Californians in Louisiana.

Starting point is 00:15:54 How about it? Again, Gavin Newsom will do anything for attention. He can name drop me all he wants. He needs to go and govern his state and not be engaging in all of this. Look, we have fun in Susan. Can you pause it? Awesome. He needs to go govern. He's not governing his state by pointing out he's doing a better job than your state. Give me a break. Engaging all of this criticism of me that is on the same lines as I'm extending on him.

Starting point is 00:16:22 I mean, that critique would have been more valid when the dude was podcasting with Charlie Kirk, but that's when Mike Johnson likes that. Right. Yeah. Also, the idea that like a name drop, Gavin Newsom has so much more public recognition than Mike, most people. People don't know who Clow Chasing. Mike Johnson. His Pee-Wee Herman makeup. Yeah. Worry about,

Starting point is 00:16:43 go back to worrying about your son's porn intake and maybe like figure out the fact that you don't have a bank account or something like that. I mean, this guy's almost like incognito man by design. He's the most invisible servant of God that we have in Congress. Clout chasing. Yeah. Like, to his credit, he was able to, he, I mean, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he,

Starting point is 00:17:06 Schumer was rolled by him in like the big beautiful bill thing where he thought that the margins would be so slim in the house that they would be infighting. But Mike Johnson kept basically the whole caucus together in a way that the Democrats couldn't. So I'm not trying to say he's ineffective in that way. But as like a speaker on behalf of the Republican Party, I mean, everyone's already falling asleep, but keep going. But also they're more authoritarian party. Yeah. Oh, we want to keep with that clip around? Well, he basically just deflects.

Starting point is 00:17:33 It continues into this next clip. And so then he had to go on CNN. He was on Good Morning America this morning. They're panicked. He was on Fox News, now making the rounds. And CNN is a little bit more diligent here in pressing him on this point. Sometimes local governance does not do the job, and the oversight in D.C. is long overdue. I was going to ask, when you might be calling for the National Guard in Shreveport, which is you have part of your district in Shreveport.

Starting point is 00:18:02 the FBI statistics, actually violent crime for 100,000 residents higher in Shreveport last year than Washington, D.C.? There's a lot of good work that's been done. There's a lot of reasons for that. But we have a Democrat DA there who has not been prosecuting crime, as some other more aggressive DAs have around the country. Soros funded that individual to be elected. But I'll say that, you know, it's an urban area that has a lot of problems that are happening. around the country and we have to address it so with the guard help if the guard can help in dc president has said he wants to send the guard wait wait wait wait wait whoa this is why not she report hold on hold on hold on hold on what is burman doing with that follow-up what the media does and this is how we got to be the number one jailer of human that humanity on earth the united states of america because yeah he buys accepts supremacists we didn't get to this yesterday but

Starting point is 00:18:57 brandon johnson went on morning joe and joe scarborough had like three or four follow-ups about, like, would you hire more cops? Like, and Brandon Johnson is going through a list of how violent crime has precipitously dropped and they want to continue with their community investment efforts and, like, doing what they've been doing, which has been effective. And yet Scarborough would not let up over and over again. What is this follow-up? What do you mean the National Guard would help with the non-existent problem that you're

Starting point is 00:19:25 presenting us? Insanity. Keep going. I'll say that, you know, it's an urban area that has a lot of problems that are happening around the country, and we have to address it. So with the guard help, if the guard can help in D.C., president has said he wants to send the guard to Chicago and other places, why not Shreveport? I don't know. That's not my call. It may be necessary. Well, I don't know. Let's take one city at a time and see. We have to address the crime problem in any city where it is a problem like that. So it's just, whatever, we're good. But it's just like the right question would be is why are you not calling on the National Guard to go to Shreveport and why are you, like not saying would it help and making the case that they should do that?

Starting point is 00:20:11 You should call out the hypocrisy without making a positive case for the National Guard. I know media critique is easy, but it's just like this is how these fascistic ideas get normalized when you treat it as ho-hum. This is the kind of thing we should seriously think about. All these cities have massively higher crime 20 years ago. I mean, maybe not all of them, T, but the ones that are talked about. Yes. D.C. or Chicago or New York. And it wasn't appropriate to bring in the National Guard then either.

Starting point is 00:20:41 Right. The things to do with crime are like we know how to. Exactly. We know what drives this stuff up. We know what drove it up quickly. And because all those things were exacerbated under COVID. Like, but they, it's not cops. It's not, but they, the point is, is that they are, it's not cops.

Starting point is 00:21:01 It's cost of living. It's people's desperation. You think people want to be criminals in their heart of hearts? Of course there are people who, uh, are like organized criminals. And in fact, many of them are in the Trump administration right now. And they're people who are like the true crooks, abusing society, ransacking it for their own enrichment. But the people that are desperate and are committing crimes like this, and this is not, violent crime but it also has to do with like lack of health care services and mental health and

Starting point is 00:21:32 sometimes violent crime leads to like street gang or desperation leads to street gangs and uh modes of like creating an informal economy because our economy isn't working for those people and that can lead to violence that's how this is addressed people were stealing detergent yes for the resale value during COVID like this that's that's a country failing yeah um and and and Obviously, we don't even need to mention this. Violent crime is down nearly 11% compared to 2024 when there was already a precipitous drop in violent crime. So when they talk about crime in cities, it's a way to appeal to a base of white people who are afraid of their own shadow and who feel validated in their like kind of view of liberal degeneracy from suburbia. And it is nothing more than racist dog whistling that should be treated as such in our press

Starting point is 00:22:33 because everything that they're doing around this flies in the face of all of the available data and they choose to focus on specific cities often run by black people or predominantly black in blue areas because they are sending a message not just to the Nazis but to their base of the support that is fundamentally fairly antisocial and believes that the most important thing that our political system provides them is low taxes on their suburban homes that are walled off from the rest of the hordes that they don't want associated with them unless they're working for them. Philly with their progressive DA Larry Krasner has a notable drop at homicide rate in the lowest or reaching the lowest level in decades and the largest declining gun violence among major

Starting point is 00:23:18 U.S. cities. There you go. In a moment, we will be talking to Brendan James, but first, a word from some of our sponsor sponsors, busy schedules and the last days of summer plans are sometimes overwhelming. And you may just have a couple of minutes and it could be tempting to break down and just like pick up fast food. I've been there. But then your stomach hurts. You feel like crap, especially as I'm getting older. It's like, I can't eat the way I wanted to. It's not just booze? Foods affecting me now? God damn it. Well, Factor makes it a lot easier for me with smarter, tasty sheds. prepped meals that are dietitian approved and delivered right to my door and now with more than 65 weekly meals made for how I live and what I like to eat I have even more ways to fit in a real meal wherever the day takes me we want to thank Factor a hello fresh company for supporting the majority report go to factormeals dot com slash majority 50 off and use code

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Starting point is 00:28:31 TMR 10. TMR10. That's Nutrafall.com promo code TMR10. Put more in the or the link in the podcast and YouTube description. Now, back to Emma. We are back and I'm so happy to be joined by Brendan James, host of the Blowback podcast, which I cannot recommend more highly.

Starting point is 00:28:55 It's phenomenal. All of the seasons are wonderful listens. And I can't wait to see what you guys have in store next. Brendan, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. Good to be back. Great to see you. Let's just start right here. You know, the casual Fridays we're recapping this week in news. And it feels like maybe the biggest story of the week, at least domestically, is really hitting a fever pitch today. This CDC purge here, Trump has. been really escalating his firing of these government officials. I mean, this was just this month. He fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in response to unemployment data that was not good for him. He then has tried to, earlier this week, remove the Federal Reserve of governor. And now he is gutting the CDC senior leadership over basically vaccine policy. So this the head of the CDC resigned because basically they were pushing her out. And now the rumored

Starting point is 00:30:09 replacement is this guy, Jim O'Neill. So Jim O'Neill was previously the CEO of Peter Thiel's Thiel Foundation. He was the managing director for Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital. He was a part of the Peter Thiel Fellowship and... Co-founder.

Starting point is 00:30:30 And his Twitter account is still public. So we get these wonderfully just intellectual thoughts like this about science and medicine. He's tweeted this in November 2021. Remember the name

Starting point is 00:30:45 COVID? was chosen to conceal the origin of the virus. This name makes it harder to study and probably slowed the response. What is your theory on that? Is it too many letters for him? Well, the thing he's quoting says SARS in it. Does he want to call, like, you know, because it's... Oh, he's quoting himself, yes.

Starting point is 00:31:09 He said COVID and SARS were both coded to hide the Chinese origin. understood so it should have just been china china virus that's this is this is my thing with with this whole sort of new you know influx of guys like this is uh they've won all right like trump calls it the china virus pretty often that's great i mean he calls at that already but they like they they they won't take a win you know they have to keep complaining or set up this idea that there is still i don't know some kind of shadow government that's preventing them from from getting everything that they want so we need to pretend it's not already called the china virus by the president but he already does that i mean it's the same people that

Starting point is 00:31:55 wouldn't let obama uh say radical Islamic terror yeah right and uh speaking of that person she is now the director of national intelligence Tulsi gabard was the democrat that was really holding Obama accountable on not saying it yeah you have to say you have to say china virus now I mean, I don't know a lot about this guy. Is there, is there a well of stuff coming up about him now, now that, like, people are looking at W? Yeah, well, the Guardian has a good write up here. Monterres, this is the woman who was fired, who was confirmed by the Senate as CDC director less than a month ago, was viewed by agency staff and outside experts as someone who could potentially help moderate Kennedy's anti-vaccine agenda. O'Neill, unlike Monteraz, has no training in medicine.

Starting point is 00:32:44 or infectious disease science. He's a former speechwriter for the health department during the Bush years who went on to work for the tech investor and conservative megadoner Peter Thiel during the COVID pandemic O'Neill voiced public support for unproven treatments

Starting point is 00:33:00 that were not supported by scientific evidence including ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as well as vitamin D as a supposid prophylaxis which like okay yeah take vitamin D take supplements not going to help you not get COVID.

Starting point is 00:33:17 Well, well, that's just what you say. He's the new authority on this. So, I mean, I don't know who to believe. But yeah, I don't know. Is it like, this has been interesting, too, seeing the rise of this sort of woo-woo right wing. And obviously, RFK Jr. is the, you know,

Starting point is 00:33:35 embodiment of all of that. I haven't been, I haven't really been, that's the thing that almost is the most dystopian to me. of the whole thing right now. I mean, as far as domestic politics is concerned, because there is this sort of suicide drive that seems to be at play where they want to get rid of medicine. I mean, like proper medicine.

Starting point is 00:34:01 And even the most, I mean, the W. Bush administration, they had like pandemic plans set in place. I think there was an article about that in the past few years of like, it was a fairly robust plan. There were real attempts, however ideologically, you know, warped things were in the Bush administration or even Trump won. There was this idea that the government is responsible for making sure you don't die of a disease. And that being out the window is to me what has felt the most transformative because there's always been the, you know, Hoover Institution guys and wanting to slash, you know, public services and go to war and stuff. but this is this is the most sort of freakish new outgrowth that I've at least at least to me so I again

Starting point is 00:34:48 I don't know anything about this guy but he's obviously seems to be in line with that if he's telling you to take you know um like a B1 if you want to prevent yourself from getting a the next from bird flu or whatever I mean he's literally a biotech investor I mean I feel like that's the new thing now with the right is like we have the heritage foundation stuff with in project 2025 which you know, seem to be pretty accurate prediction of their agenda. And that still is going to exist even after Trump's gone. And I don't know. It's interesting to see how that is just going to like combine like a cyborg with this Silicon

Starting point is 00:35:26 Valley psycho shit. Yeah, that's a great point. And there's so much money on that side of things, like the tech bio, biology almost world where these cranks are calling the shots. and you have, I mean, RFK's independent campaign bid was subsidized by his supposed vice presidential

Starting point is 00:35:49 pick, who was the ex-wife of a former Google executive. I bet Sergey Brin, yeah. What'd you say? Sergey Brin. Who had a crap ton of money, and she was like, that was the big, you know, impetus behind

Starting point is 00:36:04 his ability to really even, like, bankroll this kind of thing. So there's so much, it's I would argue that it's the anti-intellectualism and anti-peer review element that is most enticing to the capitalists that are behind this because take the Theranos lady for example she's notorious but her story is not unique these are like these tech people that want to get into the field of say biomedicine or health that don't want like the cumbersome government regulations that would tell you. tell you whether or not this product is, say, effective or good, to get in the way of them making a bunch of money. And RFK is a great vehicle for that because he's a crank enough to, like, truly believe, I think, what he says, but it fits very nicely with a libertarian agenda about health care. Yeah, I think, I suppose that's the clear, if you like, ideological

Starting point is 00:37:04 link there is all of these, as you say, crank or, you know, holistic stuff that has come out of the RFK Jr. wing of the Trump Coalition is stuff that they don't want to be regulated and they don't want to be gumbed up by, you know, scientists or government bureaucrats determining whether it's good or bad for you. And that's part and parcel of everything else that they want to, you know, reorganize now. So I guess that is the explanation for it. I'm curious how quickly that will be repaired, you know, on the other side of this,

Starting point is 00:37:51 because that's always what I think is there, you know, whether it's institutions of, you know, like USAID or all the stuff that Doge took apart. I keep thinking, you know, if there is a Democratic administration after this, how easy will it be for them and how much will they expend the effort to repair all that? And I wonder with the damage being done to HHS as well, you know, how much this can be reversed and how quickly. And I would say that the popular support behind it, where like you look at RFK and much to my chagrin, he's maybe the best polling figure in the administration at this. moment and it's because he at least talks about an issue that people are anxious about i mean i've long maintained that his appeal is that he exploits the anxiety people have about their health care and gives them these like bespoke market-based solutions of buy this supplement do do this within

Starting point is 00:38:52 your personal control that makes them feel empowered when they really aren't and let's pull up eight here. This was from earlier this week. This is RFK talking about what he sees at the airport. And like, I mean, I think this clip more than many underscores

Starting point is 00:39:13 how this guy views disease or views abnormalities or views even obesity or Down syndrome or autism. Remember he said that stuff about how people with autism like can't vote or

Starting point is 00:39:30 can't they'll never pay taxes it's not based in anything except in my view like a pretty scary eugenicist disgust for folks this listen to how he talks about kids he sees in the airport and i know what a healthy child is supposed to look like i'm looking at kids as i walked through the airports today what's a healthy man supposed to sound like i was about to say this is this is go sorry go on No, I mean, talk about glass houses. Again, this guy, this is the talking catchers mitt who sounds like his voice is in a blender, speaking about health for everybody. And I know what a healthy child is supposed to look like.

Starting point is 00:40:15 I'm looking at kids as I walk through the airports today as I walk down the street. And I see these kids that are just overburdened with mitochondrial challenges, with inflammation. you can tell from their faces, from their body movements, and from their lack of social connection. And I know that that's not how our children are supposed to look. And I know they should look like me. Those mitochondrial challenges and social, social problem. Like, that's just I, do you know what you're getting?

Starting point is 00:40:54 How can you observe that in the airport? The kids are both inflamed and, don't have friends. And RFK can tell you that based on what? Who has friends at the airport? From looking at them all from every child, you know, passing through the gate, he is just studying them up and down, I guess. I mean, he says stuff like this a lot, doesn't he? Where he's like, it's always like, I see kids now. And just by looking at them, I know that, I don't know, that they've, that they've taken the vaccine or whatever. But it's,

Starting point is 00:41:22 yeah, I mean, I saw this go around. I, this is like the lower loomer thing where she she was saying we're paying too much for for foreigners particularly Palestinians to come over here and get surgeries and my buddy felix beaterman you know raised the question should she really be the one deciding how many surgeries is appropriate um same with same with r f k junior it's just like i can never believe this is the guy and what you know what you say about he does he's the perfect sort of candidate for this because he says there's a problem and then and then the solution is a bunch of you know deregulation and hockham uh but people do feel as though he is just talking about something apolitical health you know he's just he's talking about something that

Starting point is 00:42:18 you know both the democrats and republicans they neither will admit there's a problem and and i don't know if he's really running policy it seems like he is to to a certain extent but the idea of we're going to talk about the medicaid stuff i guess like like that's just an old mission to to bring all that crashing down and he is this kind of i think to a lot of people just yeah apolitical kook that is just you know i don't know if he's charismatic he's certainly not i wouldn't say that he's he's he's not telegenic or uh audiogenic or whatever but He's definitely, I think he strikes people, like you say, as someone who might be a little weird, but he's not talking in any kind of like politicized language. He just says, we need to make our kids better.

Starting point is 00:43:05 And, you know, everyone goes, well, I don't know what's in the vaccine. Because frankly, I'm not a doctor. I just believe like all the sheeple that he's, you know, wagging his finger at, I just believe the government authorities when they say we have a vaccine and you should take it. So as soon as you spark a little bit of doubt in that, drop big pharma in your speech. is, you know, every now and again. I think he won people's trust just by default because, you know, everyone else seems like such a crook compared to the kook in the room at this point, you know. I think the plane comment is, or airport comment is so revealing because that's the only time

Starting point is 00:43:41 he's ever around normal people. Exactly. He has to fly. Like, and it reminded me of this Kenneth Copeland clip from Inside Edition where he was, they asked him why he bought Tyler Perry's plane and he says he needs, he needs to fly. fly private because he can't get in a tube with a bunch of demons? Demons. Yeah. Yeah. Do you ever use your private jets to go visit your vacation homes, for example? Yes. I do. Okay. Again, getting back to the comment, you said that you don't like

Starting point is 00:44:10 to fly commercial because you don't want to get into a tube with a bunch of demons. Do you really believe that human beings are demons? No, I do not. And don't you ever say I did? We wrestle not. with flesh and blood I mean that that little that little eye thing he did was pretty demonic to me I mean I don't know

Starting point is 00:44:35 I yeah yeah that was I mean at least there's some energy there you know RFK every time I see him now he's like one step closer you know to just melting down and his body's going to shut down

Starting point is 00:44:49 like I don't know I I'm I'm ready to let her rip Let's just, you know, let's just see how it goes. The fact that bird flu has not, like, unleashed yet is still shocking to me. I don't know if that's just, you know, I know we're not testing for it as much anymore. Right. So there's probably some level of like a intentional or unintentional cover-up of that.

Starting point is 00:45:13 But, yeah, this guy in charge during an outbreak of any kind is pretty terrifying. Well, I think it's probably in many ways people behind the scenes. that are still there that are working probably way harder for the exact same pay deeply understaffed who are like trying their hardest to keep their

Starting point is 00:45:34 profession and the work of the agency together with duct tape and gum and you know we saw that a little bit in the wake of those horrible floods in Texas where like the nationally they did get out

Starting point is 00:45:52 some of the warnings in time which a lot of people were speculating that that may not be the case given the cuts. It was just good old Republican politics down in Texas that caused the death, the lack of infrastructure and response. Let's not pay $3,000 for a siren. Right, that they were warned about in, you know, previous national disasters down there. But you mentioned the AI thing. I just want to touch on it really quickly and then we'll get to Israel, Palestine. Because I headline this yesterday, but I really think it deserves a little bit more attention.

Starting point is 00:46:21 there was an article in the New York Times, again, that came out yesterday morning, speaking about how there's now this pilot program that the administration is using in six states that would use AI to determine whether or not certain programs will be covered by Medicare. Now, if this sounds familiar to people, you might have heard the story of one Luigi Mangione. I don't know if AI was a part of declining care for him or if it was just, you know, the normal bureaucratic incentives of a health insurer. But this is what, like, they're trying to do this for a basically a government program here, which is deeply concerning.

Starting point is 00:47:08 I'll just read a little bit of this. The article opens kind of talking about this 74-year-old woman who is facing, you know, concerns that she's, going to be getting these denials. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services plan to begin a pilot program that would involve a similar review process for traditional Medicare.

Starting point is 00:47:30 And this is comparing it to, you know, private companies doing this. The federal insurance program for people 65 and older, as well as for many younger people with disabilities. The pilot would start in six states next year, including Oklahoma, where Ms. Ayers lives. The federal government plans to

Starting point is 00:47:46 hire private companies to use artificial intelligence to determine whether patients would be covered for some procedure, like certain spinal surgeries or steroid injections. Similar algorithms used by insurers have been the subject of several high-profile lawsuits, which have asserted that the technology allowed the companies to swiftly deny large batches of claims and cut patients off from care and rehabilitation facilities. The AI company selected to oversee the program would have a strong financial incentive to deny claims. Medicare plans to pay them a share of the savings generated,

Starting point is 00:48:20 from rejections. The government said the AI screening tool would focus narrowly on about a dozen procedures which it has determined to be costly and little

Starting point is 00:48:32 to no benefit to patients. Well, I mean, if the Trump administration says there's little to no benefit to patients, I guess we should just believe them. This is horrifying.

Starting point is 00:48:43 Medicare is immensely important. Remember death panels? This is a death panel. This is AI death panels. This is what they were talking about. Another freaking instance of goddamn conservative projection coming right back around. This is what they're trying to do.

Starting point is 00:48:59 There was a book a couple years back called Automating Inequality, I think it was called. The author was, I believe her name was Virginia Eubanks. And she the book is basically about mostly in social services and policing the

Starting point is 00:49:13 introduction of technology that I don't know if it was AI or it was thought of as AI at the time. But essentially in the name of efficiency and a more sort of constructive and accurate system to either, you know, police or manage, you know, databases and, you know, allocate the resources for social work, that things got way, way worse in the cases that she observed in certain states that were tinkering around with this stuff. And that's what I was thinking of when I was reading the article that you just were reading from. I mean, it's obviously going to be declared in the name of a more efficient and speedier and therefore more effective set of procedures. But you have the profit mode of at play, obviously, now inside of what is supposed to be a government, you know, profit-free set of services and systems. but then you also have just what we now is almost a punchline of AI being this wherever it's been

Starting point is 00:50:26 you know flourishing lately it's it's a disaster um and yeah i mean the idea that that'll be applied to people's assessment of whether they need spinal surgery or not is next level the the financial incentive to deny care of like insurers just basically being uh through the use of technology inserted into the already completely threadbare social safety net that we have. It's dystopian. But Brendan, while we have you here, obviously, as I wax poetically about the blowback podcast, you have an intricate understanding of the depravity of our foreign policy and the establishment that goes along with it. And you did a wonderful season on the Iraq war. And one of the many villains of that war was one Tony Blair. Now, Tony Blair is reportedly

Starting point is 00:51:32 working with Jared Kushner at Trump's direction. Kushner's back. Remember when he was telling a bunch of Harvard people about all the real estate possibilities in Gaza like over a year ago and now Trump is saying the exact same thing. Curious. So apparently Kushner and Blair are working together on this Gaza rebuilding plan and the meeting also included a senior Israeli official because for because the only democracy in the Middle East in, you know, heavy air quotes, wants to impose a government upon a people that they will have no say in because democracy. Yeah, ever since that whole idea was floated,

Starting point is 00:52:18 I mean, I'd love to see them try this. I don't know if it's just something they're saying. I mean, it's obviously a very Trump-style line, you know, that we're going to turn it into a beautiful, whatever, like seaside development. I don't, I can't imagine, I mean, what we're going to introduce American troops to secure a, you know, joint Israeli-American redevelopment of Gaza doesn't seem likely to me.

Starting point is 00:52:46 And if that happened, that would be like, I mean, he got a little bit of flack, even from the right for striking Iran. I mean, I can't imagine anyone, at least from the perspective of public opinion, or even his coalition, being okay with following through on the idea of committing American lives in Gaza. but Blair being attached is never a good sign and um can you give people some background on his role in the Middle East yeah I mean uh you know the Iraq war is probably the most significant um place to start he he was the prime minister it was um sort of already the

Starting point is 00:53:24 sort of the Clinton of the Labor Party um in the 90s and then early 2000s um it was called New Labor, which was the idea that we need to get with the Times and stop doing as much socialism or, you know, sort of Fabian British social democracy and start to privatize and start to deregulate in things that was sort of matching up with what Clinton and the Democratic Party were doing here. But he's most infamous and became incredibly unpopular for becoming Bush's lap dog with Afghanistan and Iraq. And so some of the coochiest and most embarrassing, falsingly fake intelligence meant to justify the Iraq war actually came from British dossiers, including one that was claiming there were little green vials of deadly chemicals that was

Starting point is 00:54:16 clearly lifted from a scene in the movie The Rock with Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery. That was overseen by Tony Blair, not to mention the actual commitment of British troops and the selling of the war in general and the management of the war. So he has the Iraq war on his record. He also sort of was a part of rehabilitating Muammar Gaddafi before we de-rehabilitated him. When he was for a second there, an ally in the war on terror, Blair did some consulting for Gaddafi. And Gaddafi ended up going on like British shows talking about his little green book or whatever. Obviously what came after Gaddafi in Libya was worse.

Starting point is 00:55:01 But Blair would, but Blair's there for whatever. whatever largely evil and nefarious project or client in the Middle East. So it does not surprise me that, I mean, it kind of actually surprised me to hear his name, but it doesn't surprise me that he be involved in something like the American proposals for Gaza at this point. How could it possibly be implemented? I mean, I'm not trying to to under or to down. downplay the horror of what they're proposing. But, I mean, we're seeing real issues internally within Israel right now.

Starting point is 00:55:43 We reported this yesterday, but, like, these poor reservists are exhausted from helping commit genocide, and they're, like, just not showing up. And, you know, there are talks about fatigue among the IDF, and there have been, I think, like suicides. And so internally in Israel, Netanyahu is going to have a problem trying to get these reservists to the ground invasion of Gaza City, which has been, he's been ramping up to for quite a while. Like, how can Israel sustain this level of barbarity on so many different fronts? Not just, of course, in Gaza. They're annexing the West Bank as we speak. And they're bombing Syria. and like they also

Starting point is 00:56:30 underreported it appears the damage that Iran did to them when they struck Israel we still don't know the extent of it but it appears fairly significant so like there's got to be at least some I mean pushback within the region to this kind of thing I would hope I mean we're all sort of probably

Starting point is 00:56:53 you know operating off of the same guesswork when it comes to Trump. Whether it's you and me or the King of Jordan, I don't know if anyone takes it seriously or knows when we should start taking it seriously. It was last year that Trump talked about the, you know, turning Gaza into a resort or whatever. And I remember at the time just thinking, like,

Starting point is 00:57:17 again, I would love to see them try to do that because it just, it obviously sounds insane not only for its moral, you know, implications, but just that the one part of Iraq, to talk about Iraq again, the one part of Iraq where you could have like McDonald's or whatever and walk around and, you know, not worry about getting blown up was in the bubble that was the green zone. You talked about this in blowback, yes. Yeah, and otherwise, and that's a much larger country, but in some sense, an even harder country to fight an insurgency. Hamas is fighting a pretty darn good insurgency against Israel right now,

Starting point is 00:58:00 and the idea that anything in the near term could produce the conditions for, again, putting aside the just evil of the proposition, that could produce the conditions for what Kushner or Trump or I guess Blair would be aiming to do is ridiculous. I mean, people would get blown up every single day trying to build the cracker barrel or whatever. So I don't see that happening. And I don't know what Blair brings to this other than the prestige of a former head of state who, you know, maybe the Hicks in the administration think sounds smart because he's British. I don't know. But like, I just don't know what he has no particular prestige in the actual region among, among,

Starting point is 00:58:51 like, you know, populations or even leadership in the Middle East. So, yeah, it would be very unlikely, I mean, to imagine any of this coming to fruition. What will continue, of course, is the, is the war and the extermination campaign by Israel. And I think they're saying stuff like this just to almost convince their own, probably their own audience and then the audiences in America that this will be over soon, you know, I think that's why you start talking about. Well, Trump has been saying we're going to, you got to, I want to wrap that he's obsessed with these debt. opposing these self-imposed deadlines. He wants this done by the end of 2025. And what being done means is could be as barbaric as basically entire extermination, which is like what we're looking at here. I mean, like, I, I'm a dog with a bone with this death toll thing, but it just

Starting point is 00:59:39 drives me up a wall every, because I read the West, you know, when we read a packet in the news in the morning and the Western press is 63K, you know, like whatever, we've been lagging. and it's manufacturing consent for this genocide in ways that is perhaps the most pernicious piece of Israeli propaganda in the West right now because it's across every outlet because there's no verifiable information on the death toll but like I okay use that figure

Starting point is 01:00:11 because you don't have real figures I get it the press might do that immediate caveat needs to be there have been analyses by Lancet and other out showing that it's likely hundreds of thousands. It's part of why there isn't enough urgency in the public and I'm not trying to say there would be a revolution

Starting point is 01:00:29 here, but is because we know we don't know the truth. It's hundreds of thousands dead and more are dying. I am a stickler about the death toll stuff as well. You know, I do wonder if 63,000 doesn't

Starting point is 01:00:47 upset or you know, explode your conscience whether 163,000 would. And we do know that it's an unpopular policy to support Israel now among Democrats and independents. I think it's obviously a minority within Republicans. But across the board, it's unpopular. Does that matter?

Starting point is 01:01:07 Probably not. I mean, as far as affecting policy, probably not. The Iran strikes were unpopular. They did them anyway. But, yeah, I think you're right about the crackup that's happening because it's been two years now. And that to me is why, especially someone like Trump would start to say, don't worry, we're wrapping it up soon. That phrase he'd wrap it up, you know, like the way to wrap it up,

Starting point is 01:01:32 if he had the political or, you know, whatever type of courage, he would wrap it up by cutting Israel off completely. And then they would, you know, probably wither on the vine for a little bit until they had to really decide they didn't have the resources anymore to continue the extermination. But he doesn't want to do that, or rather feels like he politically can't do that. And I'm sure he would get a wallop if he did, just like any Democratic president would. So he has to just keep asking pretty please to Netanyahu and say things like,

Starting point is 01:02:05 oh, don't worry, it's only going to be another month or two. And then we'll have, you know, a flowering of Western style, you know, like a new Paris. So you think, you know, it'll take like decades. It'll take decades to even clear the rubble from Gaza, let alone this idea of like SimCity style, you know, like re-skinning the map to make it look shiny and full of Western restaurants. So to me, it's a sign of desperation. And I think the Iran strikes were another sign of desperation because they really, I think they realized that this is not really going to end well for, Israel anymore than it's it's obviously not that Israel is the victim but it's it's not going to end well it's a it's a kind of death drive at this point yeah I mean the they're creating in this

Starting point is 01:03:04 frenzy facts on the ground which is an Israeli phrase to try to cement greater Israel I mean one by completely destroying the Gaza's strip and either ethnic cleansing or outright just killing basically all of the Palestinians there. And then the West Bank actions are increasingly deadly, violent, escalating the approval of this E1 settlement plan we've been covering on the show and trying to create facts on the ground to further foreclose the possibility of a Palestinian state. Although, obviously, Brendan, you know that the two-state solution is fictional and the stalling tactic, but even just like the diplomatic significance of a Palestinian state being recognized, they are sprinting to ensure that that's not possible.

Starting point is 01:03:59 And I am optimistic when you say things like they're worried and desperate, but I also am not naive about what just sheer power and violence can achieve in a short period of time. Absolutely. Same goes for America as well. I mean, I think we're living through the age of, if there was declined before, or free fall at this point. And it's, it's, you can be optimistic about certain aspects of that, but, you know, these types of states, whether it's a sort of lunatic ethnocracy like Israel or a dying empire like America, they don't go down without a fight. So then, of course, the concern is maybe they'll just, you know, you know, let her rip. And I think that is basically, like Israel would have had a greater chance at greater Israel if they had played this slowly and piecemeal over the next 50 years. I mean, they've already achieved half of Greater Israel, as you say, with the facts on the ground. But instead, I think it's gotten to its terminus of like any kind of logical or,

Starting point is 01:05:15 strategic ethnic cleansing and after October 7th they just said we can do whatever we want not unlike what happened after 9-11 and America and we saw how that turned out we reversed whatever leverage we had in those countries through a series of ironic and or you know blood-stained reversals so yeah I mean the it does see seem desperate, but that, as you point out, doesn't mean it's going to get any better anytime soon. You know, they'll just grind on, you know. Lastly, Brendan, I do think it's interesting to examine how the Democrats are responding to this. Like, we, the Torres interview is not a good look for him.

Starting point is 01:06:06 And he comes off incredibly callous and sociopathic. Not hard for him to do. But we just headline this story that this moderate Democrat in North Carolina is wearing off now and announcing pretty early on, you know, in her race. Probably to foreclose the idea of a primary challenger, I would imagine, I don't know the district that well, that she won't take APAC money. And you have like this exciting candidate that we've interviewed up in Maine, Graham Platner, who is like putting no APAC basically to the fore. of his, his race, like, and you, even a guy like Charlemagne the God who's just kind of like an independent vibe guy on, on TV or on the radio, calling Jeffrey's APEC Shakur. The fact that APEC is becoming a pejorative, and it's not just Democrats, like, Marjorie

Starting point is 01:07:04 Taylor Green says what she says, because she's one of the top three, three representatives slash senators that take the most percentage of money from small dollar donations. Like, not saying she's not an anti-Semite, but her Bernie and AOC are the top three, and she's the only Republican calling out APEC. It's becoming a pejorative, and that at the very least domestically here in the U.S. is an improvement. Just your thoughts on that. Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm sure you guys talked about the Torres thing. It is a good, like, you know, Adam's a buddy. I thought it was an interesting interview on both sides of that set.

Starting point is 01:07:41 But Torres being this just retreating into that like a gator, you know, sunbathing. Just like he couldn't like he knew he couldn't blow up. And I'm sure he was thinking of like whatever staffer booked him on this and was imagining traps from the movie saw to apply to them later, you know, for in the moment that we realized this wasn't going to make him look hip and cool. But that lizard-like stance, I think, is incredibly alienating. And more people, I remember APEC was already becoming a pejorative because it was so linked with Republicans over the past four or five years at this point. You know, Trump embracing Muriam Aedelson and just like the, I think a lot of Democrats, even if they quietly kept taking APEC money, they didn't mind accepting that it was now. a Republican coded lobby for many people. But the extermination campaign in Gaza definitely, I think,

Starting point is 01:08:48 has given certainly younger politicians. And it is to say, I never want to have to deal with this. You know, why would, okay, I'll take some flack for maybe being too sympathetic to the Palestinians. Maybe they'll call it genocide. Maybe they won't. That whole rhetorical war will probably be with us for a little while longer. But they have no reason to, if they're smart, to think, yeah, In five years, I don't want to have to be tarred with the fact that I took APEC money.

Starting point is 01:09:13 And it's just, it's a non-starter, I think. Again, if you're smart, then you have people like Slotkin who are, you know, trying to in real-time, you know, transmogrify. Right. Exactly. And that's probably going to be unsuccessful. But, yeah, it's good that it's become a pejorative. I hope it spreads to other forms of. uh you know how this policy uh sustains itself and you know the just just the general support for

Starting point is 01:09:46 israel whether it's a lobby or whether it's our public figures whether they take apex money or not you know it should it should probably soon become a stain on your record to have said anything supportive of this i know that leading democrat i can remember her name at the moment you probably covered it she said genocide and then she took it back yeah katherine clark she said it to her constituents and then ran to like a Zionist publication and backtracked it. So you can see it happening in real time. The younger upstarts know, let's just have a clean slate. And the ones who are already, you know, caught in this web at the top are trying to wriggle out of this in real time.

Starting point is 01:10:28 So it's that that in and of itself is a good sign. Yeah. Well, not complete optimism in our. conversation here, but we can leave it on that note. Brendan James, really appreciate you coming on, and everybody, as I keep saying, check out blowback. Anything else you're working on that we should mention? Well, I'm working with my buddy Felix, I mentioned earlier. I am working on a miniseries with him, but it's about Metal Gear Solid, so I don't know how many majority report listeners would care about that, but we are putting it out this week. We've got a bunch of nerds

Starting point is 01:11:01 in the audience. They might be into it. I would never call them nerds. That goes on my word. I have to discipline them in some way. I do the same with our listeners. But no, Blowback Season 6 is coming out, September 20th. And it will be about the Civil War in Angola, the Cold War Showdown in Africa. We've never done a season about Africa before. It's incredibly rich vein and a fascinating story. So if you like Blowback already, please check your podcast feeds come September 20th.

Starting point is 01:11:34 But if you would like a hopefully entertaining and compelling show about largely Cold War history and American shenanigans all over the world, check out Blowback, wherever you get your podcasts. All right. Alex Hiddell says, I will be listening, sir. So we already have one listener on board. Thanks so much, Brendan. Thank you, guys. Appreciate you coming on. Thanks, Brandon.

Starting point is 01:11:57 All right. Folks, quick break. And when we come back, we'll be joined by Amanda Seals. We are back, folks, apologies for some of the audio issues, but this is what happens with leftist audio as it's described. We're working with what we've got here. We are back with Amanda Seals. Thanks so much for coming back on the show, Amanda. Thank you.

Starting point is 01:12:44 Thank you. For having me. Yeah, Amanda Seals, obviously, comedian, actress, producer, host of the Small Doses podcast. And the latest, I don't want to say victim because you're not a victim here. But I do think, like, the Jubilee people are getting at a level of, of like, I don't know, some, of cynicism and of, like, this reactionary thing they're trying to create as inflammatory content as possible between yours and also Medi Hassan, who was talking directly to, like, open fascists, I mean, you know, these open white supremacists. And I know that you were, like, ostensibly debating conservatives, but it also was like, I don't know, about, it was directed towards making you almost like have to defend certain things. It's, they're appealing to white supremacists increasingly is basically my contention.

Starting point is 01:13:49 Oh, no. Okay, sorry. No, never mind. I would say yes. But I would also say this. My episode of Surrounded was a very particular setup, and it was by design in my vision because I wanted to, one, demonstrate someone who was not taking the position of the binary, liberal, conservative, Democrat, Republican. I went on there as a black radical. So that was one.

Starting point is 01:14:20 I wanted to literally just demonstrate, here is somebody who was not fitting in the boxes that have been created. it assigned and upheld by mainstream media and, you know, this U.S. joke of a government. But, two, it was an inter-community conversation. And I think for a lot of folks who are not black, they may have seen my episode and said, oh, I don't need to bother with this or like I don't need to pay attention to this one because, like, this isn't, and not even in a racist way, but just in like a, oh, that's like a them conversation, not an us conversation. And I would actually pin you because black people have been at the forefront of really

Starting point is 01:15:03 trying to get the United States to live up to everything it claims that it is on paper, right? So we have always been in the middle of the fray. We've always been a part of that fight. So when you see that the colonization of, you know, lands that we've seen, all over the world has now very effectively come to black minds and black bodies, you should be on, like, red alert. Like, wow, she sat in there with 20 black people that were willing to not even with, like, Magahats and all the regalia, because you can kind of write that off when you see the rallies

Starting point is 01:15:41 and stuff. You're like, okay, these are just like loonies. No, these were like majority young people that felt very comfortable being on a show that they know was going to get millions of followers. followers, spewing, self-hating white nationalist rhetoric. And even if they don't believe it, they were willing to do it for the possibility of visibility or money. And that should concern everybody. Yeah. I mean, absolutely. It's about like the pernicious nature also, I would say, of capitalism

Starting point is 01:16:14 and how it can co-opt people into it, like quite easily. But it's about this attention to economy too where I we we we had a little like what the beginning we fixed it we're all good now just wanted to say that it might have my my question may have kind of been been muddled there but um the the the way that jubilee and these algorithms and these other shows are really directing a lot of hatred towards people and seem to be designed to put uh to create the most intense reaction. That's what the algorithms are doing, whether it's the top of your feed on Twitter or whatever, or it's on YouTube, where they're increasingly okay with platforming people who, I don't know, 10 years ago, that would be like, that's beyond the pale, this is a Klansman, this is a Nazi

Starting point is 01:17:10 person, or this person is saying insane things on camera, and that should kill their career. But no, it doesn't kill their career. It gets them. ahead because right now it's all about shock value and creating the most attention that you can with these corporations creating algorithms that incentivize that kind of thing. I would agree with that. I'll also add that any of these pages who do not moderate their chats who allow for their comment sections to be flooded and riddled. with constant toxicity and nastiness and hatred. They're all a part of that as well.

Starting point is 01:18:00 I mean, whether I go on Don Lemon or Sabby Sabs or you go in the chat of Jubilee, it's all the same. It's all the same. It's all filled with folks who are aligning with what that algorithm is all about, and that is creating rage rate, in toxicity because people respond to that.

Starting point is 01:18:24 I mean, our brains, for some reason, this human brain responds to the negativity more than the positive. Like, I do my show views for Amanda Land once a week, every Wednesday at an am Eastern, and my moderators, like my moderators, like, they don't play around. Do I get less

Starting point is 01:18:41 views for that? Absolutely. Do I get less pushed to the algorithm? Absolutely. Right. So it's just, you know, I think it's not even just, jubilee, I think that they are just a bigger version of what I'm seeing

Starting point is 01:18:58 this YouTube internet space has become, which is I really don't, it doesn't really matter what I'm saying or what the people in my chat are saying as long as it's going to sit get me money. Exactly. And I think that's trash.

Starting point is 01:19:15 For the record, I did not get paid to go on jubilee because I see people in various chats being like, she did this for check. I was like, no. Right. No, no, you didn't. I mean, we know that.

Starting point is 01:19:28 Sam did it. Sam did it. But of course, like, I mean, that's some of the people that are picked for you and Medi is very different, different than for, you know, when they have, uh, Sam on there. Um, I guess I would, that is. Yeah, I mean, it's pretty self-evident, uh, but Ben Shapiro. Why won't he's saying, though?

Starting point is 01:19:49 Because he's a white guy. Right. Because he's a white guy. Of course. Of course. Of course. I mean, another white guy here, though, Ben Shapiro. I don't know if you saw this. He reacted to your Jubilee. I want you to react to his reaction, right? This is what he... Do I have to take this person in? You do not. You can, you can veto it. You can veto it. I want to veto it. I'm going to tell you why. Okay. Go for it. Because I think that we do the work for them when we platform them. Yeah. I'm quite honest. I don't think any of these right-way mouthpieces are going to live. long in their work.

Starting point is 01:20:23 They are all just a part of the empire systems of fascism. Can you name off the top of your head any radio or radio hosts or like newspaper writers from like the third right? Because I can't. No, but I will say that part of, you know, our show, right, what I think we try to do is get into the algorithm for these guys by making fun of them. It's a really powerful tool to mock these freaks. because, first of all, but if you don't combat it, they have all of the advantages that we're describing.

Starting point is 01:20:57 So you have to at least engage in some way, not saying we need to do right now, but because they have such a capture of like the, of the economy in this way, because they just have more money on their side. It's the same way like, you know, Bill O'Reilly or all these conservative influences books get to the top of the charts because they just buy them all up, like the Heritage Foundation. or something. Oh, best-selling author because it was rigged in their favor. But I feel like when we choose these ministries, right? Because that's a choice. Like we're going to do this on majority report to check this thing, right?

Starting point is 01:21:35 Yeah. I feel like we also end up having to like create a balance a melody, if you will, a harmony, if you will, in our lives because when like if I commit myself to do people like, will you ever go back? Will you go back? This is your lane.

Starting point is 01:21:51 you should do this all the time and I'm like I sat in the middle of 20 willfully ignorant rules all the time as like a lifestyle and I didn't have and I didn't have anything else like I you would be on your like we just had a man to school last week and now

Starting point is 01:22:12 she has gone to the other realm like cross over like I wouldn't be able to handle it so I mitigate that Emma If for your own piece of nothing else. So then let's just, we'll talk then just Palestine really briefly while I have you. I mean, last time we had you on, that was the center of our conversation and like a lot of some of the choices that you were making in your career to be very outspoken about Palestine and how you received some really, you know, harsh reaction to it. And of course, affects people's bottom lines.

Starting point is 01:22:50 now that we're a little further away from our conversation, like what new do you have to share with us about how your activism has been, like, received? I think, you know, for many of us, I would say that Palestine has been the awakening, the re-radicalism, in some cases, the first radicalism, it's been a blessing. And it's really something that we will owe to those who've been murdered in Palestine forever because that is so deeply dystopian that my awakening had to come from, you know, seeing a physical, visible genocide every day and then understanding how am I culpable in making this happen? And then being responsible for how I can take this step to no longer be

Starting point is 01:23:45 culpable as much as possible, right? So, you know, you start taking, those steps by addressing your capitalism. How do you engage in capitalism? Your consumerism. How do you engage in consumerism? You know, what as a creative as an artist? What art am I supporting? What art am I actually doing? So like I have my one woman show. What would the ancestors say? I have a residency. I do it for the first, I do it the first Saturday of every month at the People's Forum in New York City. The next one is on September 6th. And I mean, this is the piece in which I talk about Palestine. I connect it to the United States, black American experience and struggle in the United States.

Starting point is 01:24:25 And the goal of it is to really use art to reconnect our agency. I would say that at this point in my life, since I've spoken to you, I've just gotten even more aware, more informed, and also more empowered to help others who are genuinely curious to become more aware and more informed. Since we've spoken, Emma, I think you and I would agree that the student is hit the fan

Starting point is 01:24:49 for a lot more people in terms of just their seeing how the dots are connecting, you know? Right. And how do you approach that? I mean, there's, I have a devil on my shoulder that wants to say to some of these people like, how long did this take? How could you just be getting here? And even, you know, sometimes the privileging in my view of like Western Jewish perspectives over that of Palestinians gets me frustrated, but you but but there's also this balance of meeting people where they are and I struggle with that as I imagine you do where there's this rage boiling beneath but you also have to kind of

Starting point is 01:25:31 maintain a level head of education educating people well I'll tell you what I did a lot of that on that surrounded episode I feel like I had a lot of level heading that was kept but honestly if folks come in a place of atonement versus arrogance that I'm it clears it all for me like If someone shows up with, I cannot believe I did not know about this. And I need to work three times as harder. I am so much more motivated knowing that I have been caught in the matrix this long. Then, you know, what are we going to do? These these facts are selling out millions and billions to keep people stupid.

Starting point is 01:26:10 So it's not as if there aren't, it's not like by accident that people don't know. It's just when people come with like a, well, what did you? you expect me to do? Then I'm like, I'll go go off yourself. Right. Right. Um, well, anything Amanda that you have coming up that you want folks to know about, I mean, obviously follow Amanda Seals on social media everywhere, uh, as I do. Uh, what, what, what do you have coming up? So I'm actually, I do my show of, uh, views for Amanda Land every Wednesday at 10th and Eastern on YouTube, Amanda Seals TV. And we also are doing a summit at, at, the TPF at the People's Forum, September 19th, 20th, and 21st, the News from Amandaland Summit.

Starting point is 01:26:54 It will actually, it's called the Amandaland summit because they call themselves the mandolanders. Yeah, yeah, they do actually. And I was like, oh, okay. Shout out to the majority reporters. I feel the events that we'll be having there will be open to the public. So one of them will be a live taping of views from Annaland, but the other will be, a panel that together called cracking up the system.

Starting point is 01:27:22 I actually want to do this on a regular basis where I bring together two socially content comedians to talk to two organizers because the work that organizers are doing these we've spoken about but sometimes it's so boring and it's like not, you know what I mean? You're like, okay, I get

Starting point is 01:27:38 it, I get it. So we have Davidson Boswell and Christina Brown, our comedians and our organizers for this panel are Angelica Langdon, and and Claudia de la Cruz. So it's going to be a good one. It's going to be a good one.

Starting point is 01:27:53 You can go to the people's forum.org and get your tickets to either of those events and that will be actually contributing to the people's forum. I hope you all there. I hope you all Saturday, September 6th and what would the ancestors say and I love to see you all here

Starting point is 01:28:08 continuing to do this work. It's very necessary. Appreciate you. I'm sorry for our audio issues. We'll have you on another time and we'll figure it out more. And I'll be able to come on before and do the tech, the pretext, you know, today was not, I was not able.

Starting point is 01:28:22 But thanks so much, Amanda. Really appreciate your time today. And Emma, you need to come on my show. I would love to. Let's set that up after this. I'll text you. Okay, good. Okay.

Starting point is 01:28:32 Hi, guys. Thank you. Bye, Amanda. All right. Sorry, guys. I know there were some tech stuff, but I wanted to make sure we got Amanda on because it had been a minute. How are we doing on sound now?

Starting point is 01:28:44 We're good? Yeah. Matt's sweating through his shirt. It's good. It's good. Do you have that? Maybe if it's suboptimal, but yeah, if I had to issue any sort of, you know, overall assessment of what that was, I would probably say something.

Starting point is 01:29:08 Why isn't it showing up my email? Just search from me. I think it's good. I think it's good okay I feel like Matt and I never email but like at like 1130 on a week that I'll just email him a sound drop

Starting point is 01:29:30 that I want to incorporate into the board I'm still using... I think it's good I think it's good I'm still using this free board that can only put like 12 things on there and I just should ask Sam for the we need to modernize the MR card so I can get a moron here

Starting point is 01:29:45 but um appreciate you all thank you so much we are going to head into the fun half but first Matt what's happening on Left Reckoning yeah Left Reckoning a Sunday show David and are going to disclose a financial relationship that was

Starting point is 01:30:00 previously secret Maybe we'll talk about that in the fun half and talk about how it's actually normal and good to take $8,000 to learn how to do thumbnails being incubated okay interesting I love it Uh, yeah, patreon.com, so I's left reckon.

Starting point is 01:30:17 If you, if you want to help David and I try to get to the $8,000 a month club by being members of a podcast instead of just, you know, donors in the shadowing network. All right. We will see you in the fun half. Three months from now, six months from now, nine months from now. And I don't think it's going to be the same as it looks like in six months from now. And I don't know if it's necessarily going to be better six months from now than it is. three months from now, but I think around 18 months out, we're going to look back and go like, wow.

Starting point is 01:30:52 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. Fun pack.

Starting point is 01:31:06 Matt. Drew. What is up, everyone? Fun pack. No, me. You did it. Fun pack. Let's go Brandon

Starting point is 01:31:16 Let's go Brandon On Bradley, you want to say Hello Sorry to disappoint Everyone, I'm just a random guy It's all the boys today Fundamentally false

Starting point is 01:31:28 No, I'm sorry Women's Stop talking for a second And let me finish Where is this coming from, dude? But dude, you want to smoke This is seven and eight Yes

Starting point is 01:31:37 Hi, please Is this thing? Yes Is it's me It is you It is you? Um Is it's me

Starting point is 01:31:53 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

Starting point is 01:32:06 I'm gonna go sky like Who libertarians They're so stupid though Common sense says of course Gobbled e-gook We fucking nail So what's 79 plus 21? Challenge met.

Starting point is 01:32:17 I'm positively clovering. I believe 96, I want to say. 857. 210. 35. 501. 1 half. 3-8s.

Starting point is 01:32:25 911 for instance. $3,400. $1,900. $6.5,4. $3 trillion sold. It's a zero-sum game. Actually, you're making me think less. But let me say this.

Starting point is 01:32:37 Poop. You can call satire. Sam goes to satire. On top of it all? Yeah. My favorite part of it. About you, it's just like every day, all day, like everything you do. Without a doubt.

Starting point is 01:32:48 Hey, buddy, we've seen you. All right, folks, folks, folks. It's just the week being weeded out, obviously. Yeah, sundown guns out. I don't know. But you should know. People just don't like to entertain ideas anyway. I have a question.

Starting point is 01:33:13 who cares our chat is an able to I love it I do love that I'm gonna jump I gotta be quick I get a jump

Starting point is 01:33:24 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 outrageous like what is wrong with you

Starting point is 01:33:37 love you love you Bye-bye

The Majority Report with Sam Seder - 3571 - GOP Braces For A Big Beautiful Backlash; Trump’s CDC Purge w/ Brendan James, Amanda Seales

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