The Majority Report with Sam Seder - 3575 - Trump Slump Hits Jobs; Epstein Files Loom; Trump as Murderer-In-Chief w/ Heather 'Digby' Parton

Episode Date: September 5, 2025

It's Casual Friday on the Majority Report On today's show: Revisions to the June and July job numbers show they were actually 21,000 less jobs added than initially reported. However, the ever optimist... Howard Lutnick tells us to wait until a year from now when the job numbers will be amazing. Contributing writer to salon.com and proprietor of the Hullaballoo blog, Heather 'Digby' Parton joins us to wrap up the week's news. Could the US be working towards a regime change in Venezuela? Donald Trump is exacerbating the alienation of the US internationally. Trump posts an endless rant on the "Democrat Epstein Hoax" to Truth Social. Meanwhile, James O'Keefe posts hidden video footage of DOJ Deputy Chief Joseph Schnitt claiming that the DOJ will redact all GOP names in the Epstein files and only include Democrats. Will Democrats grow a spine and vote to shut down the government or cave in again like they did in March. In the Fun Half Joe Rogan falls for an AI video of Tim Walz dancing and then covers it tracks by saying "it seems like something he would do". We look into to Joe Rogan's love of an easily debunked moon landing theory, and it shows how much of an unreliable narrator he is. Pete Hegseth claims that the Trump administration had complete authority to "smoke a drug boat" All that and more. Have a good weekend, folks. The Congress switchboard number is (202) 224-3121. You can use this number to connect with either the U.S. Senate or the House of Representatives. Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com: https://fans.fm/majority/join Follow us on TikTok here: https://www.tiktok.com/@majorityreportfm Check us out on Twitch here: https://www.twitch.tv/themajorityreport Find our Rumble stream here: https://rumble.com/user/majorityreport Check out our alt YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/majorityreportlive Gift a Majority Report subscription here: https://fans.fm/majority/gift Subscribe to the ESVN YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/esvnshow Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! https://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: https://majority.fm/app Go to https://JustCoffee.coop and use coupon code majority to get 10% off your purchase Check out today's sponsors: 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. PROLON: ProlonLife.com/majority Get 15% off sitewide plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their 5-Day Nutrition Program BABBEL: Learn a new Language and get up to 55% off your subscription at Babbel.com/MAJORITY SUNSET LAKE:  Head to SunsetLakeCBD.com and buy any three 4-packs, and you’ll get a fourth one for free. Just add four 4-packs to your cart and use the code LABORDAY25 at checkout Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech Check out Matt’s show, Left Reckoning, on YouTube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Check out Matt Binder’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Check out Ava Raiza’s music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com/

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Starting point is 00:04:36 And now, time for the show. The majority rapport with Sam Cedar, where every day is casual Friday. That means Monday is casual Monday. Tuesday, casual Tuesday, Wednesday, casual hump day, Thursday, casual thursday, casual thurs, that's what we call it, and Friday, casual Shabbat, the majority report with Sam Cedar. It is Friday, September 5th, 2025. My name is Sam Cedar. This is the five-time, award-winning majority report. We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged
Starting point is 00:05:27 Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, USA. On the program today, it's casual Friday. Joining us, Heather Digby Parton, the contributing
Starting point is 00:05:41 writer to salon.com, and the proprietor of the Uber blog, Hullabaloo. Also on the program today, the Trump slump hits the job market and hard. The economy adds just 22,000 jobs. We need something like 170,000 plus to keep up with people entering the workforce.
Starting point is 00:06:10 It gets worse when you dig into it. Last month's numbers were also revised down. Meanwhile, Trump to change. change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War as he claims unilateral power to summarily execute people he thinks are drug dealers. Ice invades a Hyundai V plant and arrests Koreans working there. Unclear if they think these people are undocumented. New Times report, Trump sent special ops in 2019 into North Korea, where a failed mission led to the killing of North Korean civilians.
Starting point is 00:07:05 DOJ acting deputy chief caught on camera, a secret mic, I should say, saying they will redact every Republican name from the Epstein client list once they decided. to release it. Maybe just leave one or two on there just to make it look convincing. Yeah. Hockel to authorize New York pharmacists to provide COVID boosters to all who want it contrary to RFK's
Starting point is 00:07:42 edict from the CDC. U.S. imposes sanctions on Palestinians who sought Israel war crime investigation, new report, New York City Mayor Adams being offered ambassadorship to Saudi Arabia in an effort to clear the field by Donald Trump for Andrew Cuomo. And this, as Zoran Mamdani reaches the max fundraising cap and tells his donors stop. Trump's military invasion of California ends up costing taxpayers $120 million as Chicago announces record low violent crime rate. Lowest murder rate since 1965 over the summer.
Starting point is 00:08:33 All this and more on today's majority report. Emma is out today. I just laughed because I just saw an I am to say back to hear how everything is worse today. love you sam uh yeah uh the news is bleak folks and it's going to be that way for a while but we're you know it's friday uh trying to have a little bit of fun i took some inspiration i have to say i can't i think it was um momtani's interview with um uh i've had it yes where he was talking about the scavenger hunt and saying like you know we got to have some fun too uh which is It's, I'm not going to lie, it's hard to do in the face of a lot of the horrors that are going on around the world.
Starting point is 00:09:26 But you need to have a little bit of fun so that you maintain the energy for pushing for some justice and positive change. Now, otherwise, you're just going to go batty. Did I mention, you might still go baddie. I still, I was just about to say, like, did I mention Emma's out today? and I can't remember anything. We've been told for a while from economists that it's going to take a while to start to see the job losses and the hit the economy is going to take and the inflation as the tariffs sort of work their way through the system. this past month we got data i think it was two days ago saying that our imports and exports were up a little bit and that suggests that the stuff that u.s retailers host sailors had bought
Starting point is 00:10:29 importers essentially had bought in the early months of the trump administration in anticipation of a possible tariff regime and had been stored in warehouses has started to run out and now they're having to import more stuff and so we're going to see the impact on inflation i'm convinced over the next uh a couple of weeks next couple of months and now we're also seeing the impact of um the tariffs on job losses and even all the deportations it's counterintuitive the the the deportation regime has also inhibited uh hiring of of of a native born americans because businesses can't operate a in many instances because they've lost a significant amount of their trained workforce whether it's construction or uh other services they've also
Starting point is 00:11:33 lost a considerable amount of their customer base in many instances. And so we're looking at all sorts of job losses. The youth unemployment is up and black unemployment is up, 7.5%. It's the highest since October of 2021. and um it both a shows that you know supposedly uh the immigration round up uh is not going to help young people and black people in the workforce but black people uh uh job numbers they tend to be um sort of the canary in the coal mine if you will it's always um uh uh uh Black people, and I'm sure it's not because there's any systemic racism in this country
Starting point is 00:12:34 or that black people are in any way structurally disadvantaged in our workforce. But black people always tend to be on the front edge of job losses. Repeated a financial crisis. Yeah, exactly. and here is Fox business news actually having to admit that now remember the head of the Bureau Labor Statistics was fired because of the last month's job numbers so these are the good ones good a thorough warrant I sure do 22,000 jobs added in the month of August that was much less than the expectation of 75,000 guys. The July number was revised. I will get to revisions
Starting point is 00:13:26 in a moment. Unemployment rate. Revised down. As expected 4.3%, so that would be higher than July's 4.2%. Again, 22,000 jobs added in August. Let me get you the revisions because this is what everybody is focused on. For June and July together, combined 21,000 jobs lower than previously reported, I'll categorize that now. So you see for June, it was revised down by 27,000, getting you to negative 13,000, and the change for July up by 6,000, getting you to 79,000. Negative jobs. Over the last three months, job growth has averaged 29,000. Again, what? way below what you need to keep up just with population and outside of health care all of
Starting point is 00:14:24 these jobs have taken place in health care outside of health care the economy has lost 26,000 jobs since may of course health care is very much helped by um uh tariffs because um you get people who lose their businesses and then they again ill and then there's people who uh get hired to take care of them i'm being facetious but uh we have an aging population and so um the health care numbers are going to go up the hourly the average hourly wage has increased 3.7 percent year over year that's down from 4.0 percent rate in 2023 and 24, and it has grown just 3.5% if you annual, annualized the last three months. The rate of wage growth for low-paid non-supervisory restaurant workers has been just 3.2%.
Starting point is 00:15:28 Inflation rising more rapidly than that. Unemployment rate for black teens, I said black people in general, 7.5%. uh, rose 0.3% uh, to 7.5. Um, the unemployment rate for black teens rose to 24.8%. That's the highest since May of 2020. May of 2020, well, we were locked down. Remember that. Um, job levers were only 10.7% of the unemployed in August. And that's compared to 13.2% in 2018 and 2019 when the unemployment rate was comparable. These numbers are put together by Dean Baker. And so what that means is people are afraid.
Starting point is 00:16:27 People have a sense that the job market is really soft and they're not going to willingly leave. The share of unemployed who have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more rose to 25.7%. That's the highest since February of 2022. Again, that's in the wake of COVID. The manufacturing sector, remember, this is a big thing of the tariffs. We're going to build things in America again. Look at this poster. We just need time. We just need time. 12,000 jobs lost in August. Oh. Auto manufacturing. 7,300 jobs lost in August.
Starting point is 00:17:15 Jobs in auto manufacturing are down almost 23,000 over the last year. But things that we're building, we're building. How many concentration camp guard jobs did we create, though? That's coming in. We haven't seen those numbers yet. But we're building, lost 7,000 construction jobs in August. And jobs in scientific research and development fell by 3,600 in August. Not that many, except for it tends to be research and development in science that we get innovations, et cetera, et cetera.
Starting point is 00:17:53 We're not going to be in that business anymore. That number, I suspect, is going to go higher and higher, and it's going to be driven by voluntary job leaving, if not job losses, because people are going to go to different countries. the scientists are going to go where their skills are actually wanted and rewarded. So manufacturing loss, that's a function. Again, the tariffs are supposed to be geared towards that. Jobs for men that were going to come back once our manly men are making all the manufacturing again. Men have lost 56,000 jobs over the last four months. women have gained 76% of the jobs in 2025 compared to a regular 50%.
Starting point is 00:18:42 That's probably my guess, my guess, is that's a function of most of the job gains coming in health care. The native-born unemployment rate is at the highest levels since the pandemic. How? Somehow don't think Stephen Miller will stop using reason to hunt down every non-white person. I suspect you're right. But what happens when you fire the head of the BLS so you can no longer pretend like these jobs numbers are rigged? And again, I'm going to trust that the numbers coming out here are not rigged just because there's a Trump crony in there now. because, you know, the idea of a limited hangout, well, we got to, don't make the lie too, too big. But let's just assume these numbers are, in fact, accurate. The Trump people can't complain about it anymore because they're people at the BLS. And they obviously know things are getting worse.
Starting point is 00:19:57 So what, how do you respond? Well, it's sort of like they're getting religion in the sense that, like, your reward will come to you in the next life. And here's Howard Lottnick doing his version of that. I mean, think of the employment. You look at next year's employment. It is going to explode. All these factories we're building, all the plants that are coming into America. You look at the unemployment numbers today, wait until a year from today.
Starting point is 00:20:27 Wow, it will be amazing. Well, let's talk about that. We do have a doubt. That dude, you know, people are like, how can he be so excited? How does he maintain that? Well, because his sons just made billions of dollars on having bought up all of these tariff refund financial instruments several months ago, betting that the tariffs were going to be found to be illegal. Next year is going to look great for the Lutniks. Oh.
Starting point is 00:20:58 this dude is like fire me now i've cashed in he is so excited about next year i can't even contain myself i'm so excited about the next year i can't wait think about next year's employment i think about this next month's rent incidentally it's september right so let's just give him a couple of months into next year he's saying six months out i mean how many literally tens of hundreds of thousands of people are going to lose their jobs
Starting point is 00:21:33 between now and his mystery time when we're going to get mystery explosive job growth to make the robots that clean the and the amazing thing is like if construction's down 7,000 people like where are these mystery jobs going to be created ice
Starting point is 00:21:56 and incidentally we have yet to see all of those federal workers who took involuntary or voluntary, you know, so-called retirement. Those are all people who thought they could enter into the job force in another place. So those people are going to be, at one point, filing for unemployment. I suspect that's going to be sometime around the first quarter of next year. And now we're going to probably see the Fed raise rates, I should say drop rates to deal with this unemployment. And it just increases the chances of stagflation
Starting point is 00:22:42 because our economic numbers are no better than the job numbers. There'll be a little disturbance, but we're okay with that. It won't be much. Don't worry. Lutnik says it's going to be great. 2026. Maybe 2027. We'll see how it looks.
Starting point is 00:23:00 But one of those years, it's going to be great. Next year, everybody's net worth will be up. Five Bill. So good. Heather Parton will be with us in just a moment. In the meantime, a couple words from our sponsors. Oh, I've gotten back into. my babble because saul is now taking
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Starting point is 00:28:22 USC's longevity institute all right quick break when we come back heather part and we'll be joining us we are back sam seater on the majority of port emma vigland out today it is a pleasure as always, to welcome back to the program. Yes, well done, Matt. Heather Parton, otherwise known as Digby, writerat salon.com, proprietor of the Uber blog, Hullabaloo. Heather, welcome. I, you know, I feel like we start every one of our conversations
Starting point is 00:29:10 or end them almost identically over the past. You know, a decent amount over the past six, seven, ten years. I don't know. But before we get on air, when we're in the sort of the green room, we're going over like the topics we were going to talk about. And I've got a list now of 15 top stories. And that's just the highlights. So, I mean, there's so much more than that. The, I mean, I honestly don't know where to start this.
Starting point is 00:29:45 week because there's been so much happening but let's i let's work backwards a little bit let's talk about this uh venezuela thing because or i should say you know presumably venusuelan i mean like you know we don't know much about the whoever yeah 11 people venusuelans yes that we blew up in a boat um in the um caribbean people who were they were going uh to i think it was trinidad was it um no real relationship to the united states whatsoever as far as we know and we decided to blow them up um i i can't help but think i mean i tell us you know what what your thoughts on this but i can't help but think that like this was uh trump thought this was going to be a much bigger story uh and it happened uh
Starting point is 00:30:45 the day that you had Epstein survivors on Capitol Hill as they're pushing dramatically to keep the Republicans, you know, any two Republicans from signing on to this discharge petition. But, but tell us on both sides of that story. Okay, well, the Venezuela thing, I think people should start to pay attention to it, start reading up on it when it comes out, you know, it's just been sort of in the periphery for the last month or so that there's something going on down there. they deployed this rather large deployment of naval ships and all kinds of support to cruise just outside the Venezuelan waters.
Starting point is 00:31:22 And this has been going on for the last few weeks. And there's already a bounty on the president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro's head for $50 million. The United States has put a bounty on him, captured and potentially killed. And it's pretty clear there's something happening down there. there. Let's just put it that way. Well, this week, it kind of, it escalated. And they decided to blow up this boat. I think you're right. I think a lot of it was that Trump wanted to create a big story here. And he is the one, according to Marco Rubio, who gave the order. He personally, they told him, they gave him the option of saying, well, we can just interdict this boat and, you know,
Starting point is 00:32:03 do what is normal, what is lawful and what is normally done in that situation. Usually it's the Coast Guard. It's not the U.S. Navy, but assuming that they would use the U.S. Navy did this. They would board the ship, check it out. If there's drugs on board, they arrest the people. They take them back and, you know, try them like, you know, like normal, like what you do with drug runners of any kind. Or they could blow the ship out of the water. And that was, those were the two choices. And Trump decided to blow the ship out of the water. He was very proud and excited about that. He tweeted about it. He was said, this was really great. They even sent out a video of it so we could watch these people being murdered on the high seas. What this is really about, I think, and we'll see, I could be wrong here. Part of it is an escalation of this idea that these alleged gang members, we have no idea who these people really were. They could have been completely innocent people. We have no idea. And they're not offering any evidence of anything.
Starting point is 00:33:01 But what I think this is happening is that I think that Trump is looking to provoke the Venezuelans into doing something against this big deployment that's sitting right outside their world. waters. And in fact, they did a flyover yesterday, the Venezuelan Air Force did, to give them the excuse to go in. I think this is regime change. I think that's what they're talking about. I think that's what they plan to do. People forget that, because the Democrats sort of participated in this, at least some of the Democratic leadership. But Trump, I think, had Guaido. Juan Guaido, who was the, not the president elected by Venezuela, but the president, he sort of claimed the presidency in Venezuela.
Starting point is 00:33:50 And it had him, if I remember correctly, I think he was at a state of the union address, like literally physically showed up there. And so this has been an ongoing. bugaboo for Donald Trump. And of course, Marco Rubio also virulently against any type of social movement that would come to power in Venezuela. That's right.
Starting point is 00:34:22 And the thing is, I mean, Maduro's not a great guy. I'm not going to defend him. He's done a lot of things, authoritarian things. He's kind of a lefty authoritarian in many ways. but he was democratically elected, although they say that he wasn't, and that, you know, he's, of course, he rigged the election. I mean, don't they all? And this has been a bugaboo, and there's one reason for it. Venezuela has a lot of oil. It is an oil country. It is the biggest supply of oil in South America, and Donald Trump has always believed, people will remember this, that he always thought that, you know, Iraq was a mistake, but if we went in, we should have at least kept the oil. He said it over and over and over again. that you can see what the motives are for this. And it's also, and it's not just that.
Starting point is 00:35:06 I mean, I think that's the ultimate goal, certainly on the part of Marco Rubio, who apparently is driving the bus on this one. Everything I read says that he's the guy who wanted to, who pushed for this deployment down there, that he's the guy who's been out there. He gave a press conference after this event where they blew up the boat in Mexico City
Starting point is 00:35:25 that was just bone chilling. I mean, I couldn't believe it. It was like, you know, we're going to take them out. And that's just it. You know, they want, nothing else will show them what's going to happen. I mean, he sounded like Sebastian Gorka. It was creepy. And he was very, very hostile and violent.
Starting point is 00:35:41 And this is, I think this is his plan. This is what he wants to depose Nicolas Maduro. So, but there's also this new excuse. There's this whole legal framework they're trying to build. It's not really, it shouldn't call it a legal framework. They're basically saying the president has the authority to do whatever he wants. And we know that. He says that in every case.
Starting point is 00:36:00 This is his new thing. They don't, there is no rule of law when it comes to the president. He has an article, I mean, article one. Supreme Court may not, may not disagree with him on that. It doesn't seem like they are at least not adamantly opposed as yet. So it does look like this may be something they will grant him the right to do. Now, you know, look, you and I've been through a lot over the last 20 years. We watched what happened in Iraq.
Starting point is 00:36:25 They lied us into that war. But they did go to Congress and they got that vote. to do it. They, I mean, as horrifying as that whole thing was and the lies that went into it, you know, the Gulf of Tonkin incident in Vietnam, you know, but let me just point out, look at the results of those two things. Those were the two longest wars in American history. They were an absolute nightmare. They totally destroyed America's, you know, place as a, as a, you know, a country with principles, at least, or that adhered to international principles. In both those cases, the Johnson administration and the Bush administration, there was at least a sort of a fig leaf, you know, one of those, you know, hypocrisy is the, is the tribute, vice pays to virtue kind of thing, where at least we'll try and create the illusion that there's a legal authority for doing what we're doing and we'll follow, we'll do some kind of kabuki dance to pretend like we're doing that.
Starting point is 00:37:24 Trump isn't even doing that. He's just saying, I have the authority. They asked Rubio and they asked Hegseth, whether or not what authority, by. by what authority they murdered a bunch of people in the middle of the ocean, blew them up. And they just said the president has the authority. That's it. That's his authority. And they're doing this based on the Article 2 thing, which is going to come to the Supreme Court.
Starting point is 00:37:43 There's already a ton of litigation on that. But apparently, the idea that Congress has anything to say about this is just out the window. They're not even bothering. They don't care. And neither does the Congress, by the way. The Congress is fine with it, too, as far as I can tell. No, but I'm not hearing anything. I mean, this one with the Venezuelan boat, I didn't hear any Democrats talking about this.
Starting point is 00:38:06 Maybe I missed it, but I haven't heard anything. And, I mean, there must have been somebody. I mean, if Rand Paul is the only one I've heard that came out and said, hey, you know, where's the authority to do this? You have to come to Congress before you start blowing people up. But I think that that is really, I mean, it shocked the legal, you know, the people who studied the law of war were stunned by this action. because it is clearly a, you know, and it's murder is what they did with impunity. And by the way, just one little thing. Rodrigo Duterte, who ran a drug war in the Philippines, where he rounded up drug users and drug runners in his country and killed them, was arrested last March and is now under indictment in Hague for crimes against humanity for what he did.
Starting point is 00:38:56 That is the only legal authorization that the Trump administration is claiming on this, that these are drug, you know, they're drug lords and they have the right to take them out to protect the American people in Venezuelan waters, a thousand miles from America. But apparently they're claiming, yeah, well, Trump's to claim they were coming to America in a speedboat, a thousand miles away. Yeah, I mean, but whatever, you know, but they, this is, this is the. The only hint of the legal authority that the Trump administration is claiming is that this is a, you know, they have attacked us under the Alien Enemies Act and some other, just basically article two, giving the commander and chief the ability to do whatever he wants, they say. But it's basically based on this drug war, drug war that Trump is claiming. And I'm just pointing out, Duterte is under indictment right now in the Hague. they arrested him. Interpol arrested Duterte last March on this very thing that he had committed crimes against demand. So just saying, I think that may be what we've done. And we'll see where that
Starting point is 00:40:06 ends up. Everybody just start reading when you see Venezuela pop up in the news, take a minute to just sort of catch up because I think this story is going to potentially get very, very ugly. I can't help but think, too, when you see these rogue actions that one of the projects, And I know this is far afield, but, you know, so much of recent history has, it just gets memory hold, basically because, you know, I don't know, there's just too much, too much information. But one of the projects that Obama had coming into office was to take the extrajudicial, extra legal activity. of the Bush administration and put them into a legal regime. And so, you know, when we had things like you can assassinate a U.S. citizen, if they, you know, if a committee on Tuesdays decides it, then we did it.
Starting point is 00:41:09 And it was all sort of like codified within at least executive administrative law, if not actually passed by the Congress. And, you know, these type of actions, if we do have an opportunity to vote Donald Trump out in 2028 and have the opportunity to elect someone else, this is something to watch for because presidents don't give up power. And so once this is established, like this is a viable thing that the U.S. can really, there's no other way to describe it. I mean, it may not be arbitrary, but it is random, blow up a boat full of people who have absolutely no relationship whatsoever to the United States. They pose no remote threat. They just in a boat in a place that has nothing to do with the United States, just anywhere. It's sort of extraordinary.
Starting point is 00:42:17 Like, I wonder at what point we would have to do. do something like this, like, could we blow up, I don't know, a cruise liner that is down in the Caribbean? We think there might be a drug dealer on there. Boom. We killed 200 people. I wonder if that's what it would take for, like, Congress to go like, hey, wait a second. You can't do that. I mean, it seems sort of crazy to me. Well, it does. And like you say, this has been going on for a long time. I mean, there's nothing, it's sort of, it's the frog in boiling water thing, you know, which I know is apocryphal. Nobody needs to point that out. But the, the idea that over time, this has incrementally become more and more and more with every successive executive branch has
Starting point is 00:43:11 become, you know, they've assumed more and more power to do this sort of thing. And I think now, of course, Donald Trump is, you know, he's sui generis. He's a guy who, you know, I mean, he has no limits. Of course, he is going to take this to an entirely new level. But as with everything else, this has been in the works for a long time, this idea. And we know this, because look at a guy like Marco Rubio. He comes out of the Republican establishment. He's not, you know, he's not, didn't come out of the MAGA movement.
Starting point is 00:43:45 He's been part of the Republican establishment. And he's the guy leading the charge on this. So, I mean, that tells you something. And it tells you something that nobody seems to have any, you know, real, you know, any kind of strong reaction to what's happened, other than legal scholars and people who, you know, observe, who are sort of study this sort of thing, they see that this is taking it to a new level. But most people in the Congress and I think in the political establishment generally, just, yeah, well, what else is new? The problem here, though, is, I mean, let's look at the sort of global situation. Donald Trump's declared war in the entire war. world, economic war with his tariffs. I mean, he is basically alienated most of the world by what he's done. The Europeans are, you know, they're moving as fast as they can to arm up
Starting point is 00:44:33 and extricate themselves from the American security umbrella. You have this meeting in China just last week with Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin and Modi of India, all, you know, hugging and kissing and holding hands and saying, we are, you know, we are the best of friends and creating an alliance that is very, very formidable. And that alliance is not aligned with us. And, you know, I'm not saying that that's only Donald Trump's doing. You know, this has been happening for quite some time. But he has exacerbated it. And with that, with, I mean, in the case of India, it is him. He did it. I mean, India was just literally. taking his boots. Modi was his best friend. He endorsed him for president, Modi did. And Trump
Starting point is 00:45:25 comes along and says to him, you know, he wants to take credit for the rapprochement between Pakistan and India in this latest skirmish, and they've had skirmishes for many years, so that he can get the Nobel Peace Prize. And Modi says, no, because domestically, that's just poison, right? To have a third party in India, you know, come into India and say they created a peace agreement between them in Pakistan. That's poison to hit to Modi's politics and to the country at large because they're very independent and very, you know, proud of their independence and they don't want the U.S. interfering and things like that. And Trump just wouldn't listen. So he's going around taking credit for it and it has completely alienated that relationship. And so Modi's
Starting point is 00:46:05 running, you know, and Modi was, you know, I mean, he's, they're all looking around for, you know, how they can get away from from having to answer to the United States because we're so unstable and so completely unpredictable because we keep voting in, you know, clowns and corrupt monsters into our leadership that, you know, he was already looking to China, but that just blew up the relationship as it was. So that's the kind of thing that's happening globally. So yeah, sure. We're in a situation where, you know, I could totally see the United States, you know, well, Venezuela. That's, I think that's a place where you can see. There's absolutely. There's absolutely no, you know, way that they could, you know, perpetrate a regime change in Venezuela
Starting point is 00:46:54 without completely inflaming the world. I don't think. But I don't think Trump knows that. And if he did know it, I don't think he cares. He exits running around going, you know, yeah, I'm in the secretary of the Department of War, you know, he's saying today, because they've changed the name of the Defense Department. That's one of the few things where I'm like, you know what, good, because now every time they use it, like, the idea that he's somehow the anti-war, I know, I actually think it's, like, I think it's healthy. I think, like, Department of Defense, at least the way that the United States has been using that department for the last 80 years is arguably a misnomer and misleading.
Starting point is 00:47:36 And so, Department of War, okay, good. If, you know, I know that the reason why they did it wasn't for that. It was so that they could feel more masculine. And I imagine I will have, you know, the same needs to feel a little less soy-e when I am, you know, in the shape that Trump is in. I would imagine. Let's talk about Epstein. I can't help but think. they may have had this sort of like idea of like this is how we're going to escalate it
Starting point is 00:48:13 but the timing we're going to use the bombing of a because I think he was I think they must have been surprised like nobody seemed to like oh we just blew up a boat of Venezuelans but you know they were probably narco terrorists and um you know or Trenta da Agua and uh and you know why not it but I don't think it was a coincidence that happened on the same day In the same news cycle as the Epstein survivors testifying, having a press conference on the hill. This is, I guess, at the beginning of week, it also occurs to me like Donald Trump had disappeared five days. And he's got these blotches on his hands, which my understanding is that there is some, there are some anti- Alzheimer's drugs, from very expensive ones that need to be administered IV on a monthly
Starting point is 00:49:15 basis. Who knows? I think he was training moitai. Or he could have been doing it. Of course. Part of his workout. Very likely. Could have his workout.
Starting point is 00:49:27 But people can look up. I think it's Kassoon. Interesting. I hadn't heard that. But sure. And they give it either, they either give it in the vein here or right here. and you know sometimes you don't have the veins here yeah and so you got to get this is the place you give it um yeah and and old people bruise very easily i mean that's just a common thing my dad's hands
Starting point is 00:49:51 were all bruised up to tell me about it i think i got one right here i'm sure i'm coming um but uh the epstein thing it now appears that they only need two more republicans to do this discharge petition but it appears that Massey may not be able to find them. Well, Trump was calling them all up and saying it will be considered a hostile act if you vote for this. And which, I mean, to me, that's such a cell phone, right? A hostile to who? Trump? Well, that kind of proves the point, doesn't it?
Starting point is 00:50:29 I mean, if it's hostile to release this, obviously, he personally has something to hide here. He's personally involved himself in it now. He doesn't even, you know, I mean, he says, oh, it's a hoax, and they're a bunch of Democrats. And I read something, maybe it's on the Daily Beast or one of those sort of gossipy sites, saying that he was known to be saying that these women were all liars and, you know, and horrors. So he's definitely, but this has all been behind the scenes. He actually came out and said, it'll be a hostile act. You will be hostile to me personally if you do this.
Starting point is 00:51:05 And it seems weird. Yeah. Why would that be? Why would it be hostile to him? Why would he even involve himself in this thing? Why is he even care? I have nothing to do it, do with it, except for just the memory of Jeffrey. I just, I don't want him.
Starting point is 00:51:23 I wish him well. I wish him well. Let's put this up. This is number seven. This is, he posted this today. I so don't care about this at all. that he writes, as far as I can tell, maybe the longest thing he's ever written his entire life.
Starting point is 00:51:43 I'll read it here. The confused and badly failing Democrat Party did nothing about Jeffrey Epstein while he was alive except befriend him, socialize with him, travel to his island, and take his money. So at least he's acknowledging that there were some relationships like this. They knew everything there was to know about Epstein. I suppose also they could have just
Starting point is 00:52:05 asked Donald Trump's former labor secretary, Acosta, who is testifying behind closed doors, I think, in a week or something. But now, years after his death, they out of nowhere seeming to sow such love and heartfelt concern for his victims. Does anybody really believe that? Where were they during the very public trial, his public trial, and all those years before his death? The answer is nowhere to be found.
Starting point is 00:52:33 now dying after the DOJ gave thousands of pages of documents in full compliance with very comprehensive and exacting subpoena from Congress. He wrote that sentence. That does not sound like Donald Trump. Signature DJT. Lost, can I put in a parentheses? A what? What?
Starting point is 00:52:52 It won't be, it'll just be a parentheses. Um, how many times as he said exacting? Exacting. Yeah. capital the S on subpoena, so they know it's for me. Epstein case was only brought back to life by the radical left Democrats because they're doing so poorly with the lowest poll numbers in the history of the party, 16% while the Republicans are doing so well among the highest approvals the party has ever had.
Starting point is 00:53:20 The Dem doesn't care about the victim. And blah, blah, blah, blah. I mean, whatever. It's all the, it's all the same stuff. But what's interesting is between his saying that the bags being thrown out of the White House, his instant lie of like, it's all AI. Anything bad is AI. And then his little treaties, he's written about like the Democrats, it's interesting
Starting point is 00:53:51 because this radical left-wing organization, set up like a sting with a guy who turns out to be deputy, acting deputy secretary of the DOJ or acting deputy chief of the DOJ. Oh, in this radical left wing organization is like James O'Keefe. I don't know if he's still involved with Project Veritas. No, it's his new, it's his new group that did this. new veritas or whatever it is he got kicked out of project veritas because he well i know that he stole money yeah i know he did but uh he on the video he's talking in front of a project veritas thing so i can't quite make it out but um this is joseph schnitch he is the acting deputy chief
Starting point is 00:54:46 office of enforcement operations in the doj now there's i think like a dozen deputy chiefs although like traditionally but they've gotten rid of the the civil rights division practically so i don't know if there's a i don't know if there's any deputy chiefs frankly around enforcement operations is really sort of like the um he's in charge of the shock troops and uh so i would imagine he is like um the he is in the he's not like some holdover uh from the civil rights division, in other words. Like, he is a Trump, political, approved hire. And here he is on, I guess it was a hinge date.
Starting point is 00:55:44 You know, shout out. And being secretly recorded talking about what he later claims is just news reports. you just think that because his claim was like oh i was talking personally everything i just got from the news and i haven't heard i you know i haven't read anything about this news to me yep good recently the fbi and doj have come under fire for promising transparency so this is a joint uh i think play with uh with o'keef and uh veritas okay okay Oh, those files do exist? Yeah, thousands and thousands of pages of five.
Starting point is 00:56:31 Oh, pause it for one second. Go back, go back. I just want you to hear this. The date, the undercover journalist, says those files exist. They're talking about the Epstein files, and he's like, oh, yeah. Those files do exist? Yeah, thousands and thousands of pages of five minutes.
Starting point is 00:56:52 They'll reject every Republican or the Supreme Court. person in those files, leave all the liberal, democratic people in those vows. And they visited that Masswell person. Yeah. And also involved. She got transferred to a minimum security person too recently, which is against BOP policy because she's a convicted sex owner. They're offering or something to keep it on show.
Starting point is 00:57:18 That was the acting deputy. Whoa. Wait a second. Second date incoming. Yeah, I guess so. um wait has james will keep it negatively polarized to be against the republicans now i i mean i think the guy who needs hits um and um now what's interesting is like how little this is traveling through those uh channels like it's almost as if all the regular um uh conduits but this seems like a big deal now
Starting point is 00:57:49 again the this deputy chief claims like he only read about this in the news now the maxwell thing I don't know. He's talking about BOP policy. I think that must be Bureau of Prisons. I didn't know that was Bureau of Prisons policy. That's sort of news to me, but maybe I don't, I didn't, I don't read the right newspapers. But this, I mean, this Epstein thing, it's hard to imagine it goes away unless like, because those women who
Starting point is 00:58:28 who are at the press conference said, we have a list, we're compiling a list, and we will put it out if Congress does nothing. Well, that's right. And the fact that O'Keefe did this, let me just say that he was quoted later he posted
Starting point is 00:58:44 on X that sort of a weird tip of thing, well, I think that guy might be a Democrat. He's not. I mean, the DOD came out and defended him and said, you know, yes, he does work here, but he doesn't have access to the information and blah, blah, blah, but they did not come down on him as they would have if he was a Democrat.
Starting point is 00:59:05 He's one of them. There's no doubt about it. But anyway, that's what O'Keefe said. But the fact that O'Keefe is one of the people doing it, I don't think he's been negatively polarized. He's a part, well, he needs hits. Yes, that's what it's all about for him. And for many of these influencers, but there is a whole faction on the Magaside that is not
Starting point is 00:59:23 letting go of this. And we know this because Marjorie Taylor Green, of all people, and Lauren Bobert and Nancy Mace are the three, aside from Thomas Massey, who have signed on to the discharge petition. And when the survivors came out and said, we've got, you know, we've been waiting for somebody to put out the names and they're not doing it. So we will do it because we know who trafficked us. They, you know, their lawyers were concerned because what they've been afraid of, this whole. whole time is they're naming very powerful people. And that's kind of terrifying, especially in today's environment, that they would, you know, find themselves on the wrong side of, you know, I don't know, violence even. So Marjorie Taylor Green and Thomas Massey said, that's okay.
Starting point is 01:00:11 They can give us the list. We'll go on the floor of Congress. And we will name all these names. And we have a constitutional protection that, you know, you cannot, you know, hold anyone liable for what they say on the floor of Congress, according to the Constitution, was done in the context of Mike Ravel, the Pentagon Papers, former senator from Alaska. Yeah, and so this is, Green came out and said she was at that press conference, and she came out and said it. Now, Marjor Taylor Green is as MAGA as it gets, right? I mean, she was the space lasers and Q and on and everything before she got in Congress. Total Trump. After she got in Congress, I think.
Starting point is 01:00:53 Yeah, of course, after she got, yeah, she got in Congress. But, you know, this is not a person, this is a person who has tremendous credibility among the MAGA faithful. There's no doubt about it. I mean, she's, I think she's nuts. But nonetheless, on this particular issue, she is representing a fair number of MAGA people who do not believe, who see this as a cover up and are beginning to see the cover up is Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
Starting point is 01:01:19 They're already hostile to Pam Bondi. They're hostile to cash potential. both of whom promised to release this stuff and didn't really do it. They're starting to turn on members of Congress like James Comer. And so you've got that tells you something. And that is why this thing is not going to go away. If it was just Democrats holding another press conference on the steps, Trump wouldn't care.
Starting point is 01:01:40 I don't think it would matter. The MAGA people would be behind him. He wouldn't have to call up people personally and say, I will, you know, take it personally, that this is a hostile act if you vote for this. he knows that there is a that this is a problem for him among his own people and so you know i don't think it can go away there's no way it can go away because this thing they're by the way these people will never be satisfied i don't care what they put out at this point they're not going to believe it so this is going to jog him forever do you have a sense of like what's driving someone
Starting point is 01:02:16 like marjorie taylor green i don't i don't get it is it i mean like let's speculate for a moment, right? Because Trump can't come out and be actively hostile to somebody who wants this released. Because if it's all Democrats on the list, right? Like, it doesn't make sense. Like, you know, we can read reporting in Axios that he's like, this is a hostile act. But, you know, nobody's going to see that on Fox. And to the extent that it's not being released, he's just going to throw people under
Starting point is 01:02:51 under the bus. He's not going to fire him, but like it's a much better story to tell your MAGA supporters. Like, oh, Trump, just, Trump is in, you know, it's, it's Pam Bondi. It's Cash Patel. They're, they're the ones who are doing this.
Starting point is 01:03:06 And, you know, Trump doesn't know because he's, he's very busy. He's got to attack Venice well or whatever it is. I wonder if this isn't Marjorie Taylor Green, like envisioning a post-Trump era. already, which seems early to me. But she is one of the few people who, it seems, is outside of Donald Trump directly attacking her. She has her own base.
Starting point is 01:03:37 She's like one of the top fundraisers. You know, she's sort of like, and in the Republican Party, there's enough, like, sort of maga adjacent people. And we could see this just from like how many, you know, two weeks ago. or like, I'll sign the discharge petition and now they sort of cave to Trump only. That, you know, it's not the, she's sort of their AOC, except for the Democrats, there's not enough sort of like AOC lights in the Democratic Party to have, for AOC to have the sort of play that Marjorie Taylor Green has in the Republican Party.
Starting point is 01:04:16 It feels like she's setting herself up for a post-Trump, um, uh, uh, era in some way by doing this because someone's going to inherit the maga base and i don't know that it's jd vance i mean i'm getting a little aspirational here too where the in my mind don't trump uh takes a vacation from the presidency if you know what i mean uh but i can't figure out any other sort of like i mean massey i think it's like he he is also in the situation where Trump already, he's on the wrong side of Trump anyways. So you might as well at that point, like, go as far as you can looking for support. And that's with the people who do care about the Epstein thing in the Republican Party.
Starting point is 01:05:05 But Mason, Bobert, I can't quite figure out. I don't get it either. But I think you may be right about Green. And, you know, she's all, she marches to her own drummer in more ways than one. It's more than just Epstein. She's also very anti, you know, forever war. This is one of her things. She hates the idea of the U.S. supporting Ukraine, for instance, you know, and not, she, she, she sort of took seriously a lot of what Trump said and has not moved off of that.
Starting point is 01:05:40 And so I think you're right that she's tried to claim that maga mantle. And she may just believe all this stuff. I mean, I don't even know. I mean, maybe she thinks there is an international pedophile. run by Hillary Clinton and Bill Gates or something. I mean, I don't know. She may believe that stuff. She's pretty crazy.
Starting point is 01:05:57 But I think you're right, just on a political level, she's not, you know, she's not idiotic. She has a certain kind of feral savvy, kind of like Trump does, about the people that support her and understands what they want to hear. That's why she is important in this thing, because I think she really does represent a, you know, a fair number of MAGA true believers. And I think that she knows who they are. I think she understands them perhaps better than even Donald Trump does. And certainly on this Epstein thing, he dug himself a hole with this. And, you know, what's starting to bubble up, what I think is starting to bubble up, and I could be wrong, is the fact that all this is going on and Trump's
Starting point is 01:06:42 calling it a hoax and saying, why are we wasting time? And when he ever talks about it, it's always a waste of time. Why aren't we talking about how great everything is and how great I am? And, you know, what a wonderful person I am. Instead, they were talking about this. And what they're, what they're seeing, though, is they're seeing all these pictures of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. And it's relentless. It's everywhere. The pictures of him and Jeffrey Epstein and Gilane Maxwell and Melania, and it's clear that he was part of that group. Yeah, AI. Yeah, going way back 20-some-odd years the AI has been out there. So I think that start, there's, you know, they're not the brightest,
Starting point is 01:07:23 but there is a little cognitive dissonance happening among the megabase. And, you know, Green may definitely be on that. Now, why Bobert and Mace are on it? Mace is just a, she's just a drama queen. She just does whatever's going to get her. You know, she came crying out of the testimony the other day. And, you know, but Bobert and Green are not close friends. They're not, you know, they're kind of rivals.
Starting point is 01:07:46 Yeah. And I'd put my money on Green any day against Bober. But, you know, so I'm not quite sure why the three of them have banded together to do this. But, you know, it's good to see. And I absolutely believe that Marjorie Taylor Green will walk onto the floor of the house and read those names off. I think she will do it. You know, that's just something that she's the kind of thing she would do. She's not, you know, say many things about her, but she's not. a coward. She will, she will, you know, go way out front and do whatever she feels like is going to benefit her and what, you know, what is going to get her the kind of attention that she's looking for. So, you know, in some ways, I have to wonder if Trump isn't, you know, a little afraid of Marge. She's kind of like Laura Lumer in some ways. We haven't even talked about her, but that's another one that's doing. There are some things that I don't know that we're ever going to understand. It's just too weird. No, the Laura Lumer thing is absolutely bizarre.
Starting point is 01:08:48 And but, you know, the thing is Marjorie Taylor Green, it's like once she's boxed out of leadership in the House or, you know, for the moment, she's sort of untouchable because it's not like she's a senator. She has her district. She's not going to lose. There's no going to be anybody to her right in the primary. And she's not going to lose in the general, and she's raising all this money. So that's where her, you know, with Laura Lumer, I, God knows what is going on with that. She's going to have something on Trump. Right.
Starting point is 01:09:28 She has to have something on Trump. But he's afraid of her. It's got to be that because she is operating completely with impunity by coming, by dictating who can be on the national security. It's nuts. It's nuts. Canceling intelligence meetings. I mean, this isn't just around the policy. She just canceled an intelligence meeting somehow got the, the Intel community to cancel their, their meeting with Mark Warner on the Intel committee. Like, who is in the meeting going like, Laura Lumer says we can't do this? Okay, never mind. Yeah. Oh, okay. Well, I realized, Laura Lueh, like, what? I know. I mean, you know, I think, I think it's pretty.
Starting point is 01:10:13 Listen, I think it's pretty straightforward. This is the reports of Laura Lumer's activities on Air Force One from the campaign where they had to keep her away are done. And she probably has some evidence of those activities. And Trump doesn't give two shits about the governing what he cares about. I am quite convinced is whatever documents he has with Melania about any type of like public revelations
Starting point is 01:10:52 about anything like that. And I'm just convinced that it is so it's almost impossible to wrap our heads around the idea that this is just like well she fooled around with me
Starting point is 01:11:11 and I don't want her to tell anybody. So whatever she says, just do. I don't care. She was a fire general or the entire general staff or no intel or whatever it is. She, what she says goes. Yeah. I mean, that's got to be.
Starting point is 01:11:30 All right. Yeah, I mean, whatever. You know, dear leader says that that's the way it's got to go. And that's the only thing that makes any sense, honestly, that he is just terrified. She has evidence. I can't even come up with an alternative. I can't either.
Starting point is 01:11:46 She's very bright, guys. She's bright in so many different areas of our government that whatever she says you follow. From the FDA to national security and to everything in between whatever Laura says goes. Yeah. I mean, that's the only thing that it can be. I mean, that's where I've come up to, Sam. I mean, there's no other explanation. it has to be. There's no other reason why this person could have this level, this high level of influence on these very, very important aspects of our government. But there it is. And, you know, I don't know if we'll ever know either. But I just, I think it's beyond speculation. I think it's the only logical explanation. They call it. P-taped two. That's what they call it. The P-taped two.
Starting point is 01:12:38 total myth total fake news it's a democratic hoax definitely all right we have to talk about this because you're the only person I'm watching writing about this I mentioned it I think
Starting point is 01:12:54 on the first day I was back from vacation in March there was a government shut down showdown if you will and I think it was like eight or a dozen senators all ultimately, voted to essentially fund the government.
Starting point is 01:13:16 And at the time, I'm sure you were too. We all hear where our hair is on fire. And it's like, there is no other leverage. And Chuck Schumer desperately wanted to go on his book tour about his anti-Semitism book. But he argued that if we. Don't fund the government. It gives Elon Musk and Donald Trump total power. And what's his face over at OMB, Russ vote, total power to shut down whatever they want and defund it, whatever they want in the government.
Starting point is 01:13:59 And it was, you did not have to be a soothsayer. You could look at what was going on and noticing they're already doing that. exactly they're already doing that and they're doing it in such a way that it's so piecemeal that the american public's not aware of it now uh schumer uh passed the bill aided and abetted in the passing the bill it was a but for schumer support and and a lot of people say that it was jillibrand who was really for it and schumer was giving cover i have a feeling it's some combination of both of them and then others joined on um And absolutely, Donald Trump continued fire 80% of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Starting point is 01:14:46 We just had the other day, like, you know, tens of thousands of other federal workers fired. USAID, foreign aid support, you know, on and on and on and on. They have not slowed one iota. No. And it was the only opportunity for Democrats to push back, fight, and make the Republicans as a group own all of these cuts so that they weren't like, oh, it's in the courts. And then three weeks later, an appeal court says you can go ahead and do it. And then six months later, it happens and nobody notices it because it's not, you know, it's not a big thing. it's these tiny things and normal human beings aren't uh you know supposed to follow this stuff in the
Starting point is 01:15:36 way that we do and there's another showdown coming down up and they seem to be taking the exact same tact i honestly cannot believe what i'm seeing i did not i didn't think that they would actually do that this time you know we all watch that go down and you know people were just furious with chuck schumer and it wasn't just people like you and me his own senators were furious with him. Corey Booker talked about it in that big 24-hour marathon speech that he gave, that he was upset with Chuck Schumer for doing it. Even Hakeem Jeffries, who, you know, barely has anything, you know,
Starting point is 01:16:16 even slightly spoken in anger about anyone, Donald Trump or otherwise, was openly critical of what they did because the Democrats all hung together on that, even ones in the frontline districts who are always terrified that they're going to be held liable, for a shutdown they all held together and you know schumer and his gang that group uh mostly in the leadership and the few around him um decided to go ahead and do that and they and they ended up you know breaking the filibuster which is how that happened and they ended up passing it um and and it was a continuing resolution at that point they passed that they couldn't pass a budget of course but they did i don't even think they had a budget at the time they were they just
Starting point is 01:17:00 passed a continuing resolution to come up through here. And let me just add, that was not a clean continuing resolution. There was a lot of actually cuts and a lot of things that the details escaped, but that we've been feeling the impact of down the road. But go ahead. Yes, absolutely. And the Democrats knew that. And I thought at the time, though, I thought, all right, if there's any strategy here,
Starting point is 01:17:24 it's that they want to get it closer to the election. You know, it's a little too far away. Maybe they can have their big showdown closer. to the election and push this up past the summer and do all that. It was lame, but I thought maybe that's what they were thinking. And so here we are now. We have even less to go on to justify allowing this budget or even another continuing resolution to go forward. I don't know what excuse they can actually come up with. Oh, think of all the bad things Trump can do if we shut down the government. I mean, what could be worse than what he's already doing? And that was obvious
Starting point is 01:17:59 in March, it's doubly obvious now. He spent the entire last eight months just taking a wrecking ball to the federal government and passed the, in the interim, they passed the one big beautiful bill and look at what they've got in there. I mean, they're cutting subsidies for Obamacare, the Medicaid cuts. I mean, it was an absolute travesty. Now, that was done under reconciliation, and the Democrats really didn't have this kind of leverage at the time. I mean, you know, they did, you know, they did what they could, I guess, they rallied against it, they spoke against it, but the Democrats, the Republicans had the votes to get that passed. That's not the same thing here. Now is the time to say no, we're not, this is what we demand. And I read a great
Starting point is 01:18:45 thing by Brian Boytler, you know, who writes, he, I can't remember his, his substacks called off message, I think. And he has a lot of sort of strategic advice, and much of it is quite, quite good and he's absolutely beside himself over this particular thing saying what Jeffries and Schumer have done have come in and they've sent strongly worded letters to the Republicans saying we'd really like to know what you're doing about trying to come up with a bipartisan agreement and we don't see why you're making any effort to get you find common ground that's what they're saying and that is not what you do you make demands make some demands come in and say unless you reverse all the medicare things unless you stop
Starting point is 01:19:27 occupying cities unless you know with withdraw um you know your your tariffs unless you know and i mean there's a lot the democrats could be demanding here and they're demanding nothing they're they're no more automatic rescission you know or unilateral rescission i mean you the list could go on and on and on And it can be, if they want like, you know, kitchen table issue, it could be something. Oh, there's tons of them. Tons of kitchen table issues there. The entire strategy seems to be pretend we're not here. Yes.
Starting point is 01:20:09 Just pretend we're not here. Don't make trouble. And let's wait until November 2026 and two weeks before we'll, we'll like announce we're on the ballot. it. And the other guy, it's either us or the other guys. And we don't have to do anything else. I mean, that seems to be it. Well, that's the James Carville advice, right? Oh, I mean, it certainly was. Don't get in their way. Don't get in their way. If they're, you know, shooting themselves in the foot, just let them keep doing it. Well, the problem is that really hasn't been working. And not to mention the fact that, you know, one of the things that I don't
Starting point is 01:20:47 understand why Democrats don't understand this, they have voters, too. You know, it's not just MAGA people who are voters. It's, you know, look at what the Republicans do backflips to try and appease their voters to get them to come out and vote. And the Democrats just completely take their voters for granted. And this one really has me stymied. I mean, you know, granted, we've been winning off year elections that looks like, you know, that's, you know, yeah. And the thing is that that doesn't even matter. What's happening here, it's not, it's beyond just winning elections.
Starting point is 01:21:26 We are under assault from this, from this administration and the Republican, and more importantly, the Republican Party, which has completely abdicated its duty to do anything in the Congress. We've got a Supreme Court that looks like it's going to rubber stamp everything Donald Trump is doing. And there are, you know, vast tens of millions of Americans out here who are sitting here going, what the hell you know what this is this is an abomination and i mean basically the democratic party is saying hey if you don't like it maybe you need to take to the streets and get violent or something because nothing we can do and that is you know that seems to me to be you know that that's all that's left and this is crazy because it is not all that's left the democrats have a lot of leverage here
Starting point is 01:22:15 they have a lot they can shut down this government Donald Trump does not want that to happen. This economy is going south very quickly. The jobs numbers that came out today were absolutely horrible, and it's getting worse every day. These tariffs are getting worse every day. The cost of living is going through the roof. And I think a lot of Americans are waking up and going, hey, you know, maybe things aren't going that grade. And the Democrats could make that, make them own every bit of, the Republican Party own every bit of this. And they're just terrified. They're just terrified. They're going to get blamed for the government reaction and and and they're going to get blamed for the government shut down and yeah that's the thing is that first of all i guarantee you a government shut down
Starting point is 01:23:00 in september of 2025 uh no one is going to remember what happened and um but it's going to send a message that there is a there is a five i mean we've talked about this we've said i feel like we've said this so many times you know it's like uh because both of us having come from the film business in some respect if you don't have a reaction shot the audience does not know how to respond to 98% of what it watches yeah you need to have somebody go like whoa what the you know and the democrats are providing no reaction shot whatsoever hakeem jeffreys there's a video of him the other day at some baseball field in Brooklyn, because he's now starting to worry about his job as well he should, going like, we got, I got haters in Washington, D.C. I got haters in
Starting point is 01:23:59 the Trump people. I got haters in Maga. But it doesn't matter because God is great. And it's like, oh, okay. Okay, never mind. Yeah, sorry. Yeah. What's God doing right now? Because maybe he, maybe he should like um yeah maybe we need to do something to get the great god's attention uh so he starts to focus on some of this shit that's going on here because you may be great but it seems like he's distracted by other things right now so maybe we need to do something to say like hey uh just you know five minutes of your time here uh this is insane it's insane it is it's absolutely insane and it is incredibly stupid because you know let's just assume that we're looking at elections, you know, we've got one in about a year. We've got another one, you know,
Starting point is 01:24:50 two years after that. I mean, it seems like, you know, God only knows what will happen in that interim, but they are coming up and assuming they happen and we survive and, you know, there's the Democrats ever take power again. They, they will be taking charge of a government that has been, that is in basically in rubble. It is, it is rubble. And it is going to take something very, very, very creative and very, very bold to be able to rebuild in some way and hopefully in a better way than what it was before and what it is now. But they are not laying any kind of groundwork for that. There is nothing being done to suggest that what is required in order to set our country. And if you look at the right way, wrong way, you know,
Starting point is 01:25:41 the people's pessimistic versus optimistic views, this country is. is you know clinically depressed about the future right now and and well it should be i am i'm sure you are i mean you're looking at it's something you know this is a nightmare that we're living through this is a historic time i hope everybody knows you're living through some really historical moments here and this has never happened before this is brand new stuff in many many ways and the democrats are doing nothing to sort of you know lay the groundwork for or to just express this to express what's actually happening right you have to emotionally set people up for for this stuff you cannot do it on the 29th day at the end of the month as it were and here's the other thing
Starting point is 01:26:28 and really over the past like month i my attitude towards this has um uh really i mean not dramatically turned but i mean six months ago if you said to me like there's you know uh they're going to cancel elections in 2026, I would have been like, nah, but right now, there does not seem to be any reason in the world why Donald Trump won't say October 20th of 2026, we have an emergency. We're at war. We're at war. Trend to Argo's here. We're fighting Venezuela or I have a secret intel.
Starting point is 01:27:13 that says the Epstein list is actually, like, radioactive and they've released it, like, whatever. And the thing is, is that how do you then mount any type of resistance? Exactly. If there has been no even, like, dry run or fight amongst Democratic leaders, like, how do you then all of a sudden, like, you need to build the organizational support and the sort of awareness that something is wrong here. Something is fundamentally wrong. So we're going to do something that is fundamentally different than we've done in the past to make it clear that there's something fundamentally wrong here.
Starting point is 01:27:59 Because like Trump's getting away with it, whatever he wants. And a year from now, he's only been in office for nine months, eight months. less than nine months when he's in office for 21 months like he's going to be that much bolder assuming that you know he knows what day it is but uh stepan miller if step miller's got to you know stick his hand up his uh his rump and move his mouth or just you know uh type into truth social and the democrats are not showing the american public that there's something wrong even if you lose that fight, which of course they will. But I mean, even if you lose that fight, you're indicating to the American public, hey, it's time to start paying attention. Yeah, exactly,
Starting point is 01:28:52 exactly. It's time to start paying attention. I get it. It's depressing. I meet people in my civilian life here that they're just going, oh, I can't stand. I can't stand or watch the news. It's just so awful and blah, blah, blah. And so they don't know anything. And, you know, they turn to me because I write about politics. And I say, you know, what do you think? and I start laying out the litany, and they're shocked because they literally do not know it. And this is a huge problem, and people have got to start paying attention. And the Democratic leadership, that's their job. I'm sorry, it's their job.
Starting point is 01:29:25 The media will go, will follow their credo is, unless the Democrats are saying it, then it's not an issue. You know what? I don't, like that idea of us counting, on a media that is going to sort of like articulate the truth in the urgency of a situation is absurd that it that does not happen they always wait for who is going to lobby at them and you know i mean look we do the show every day if somebody reaches out to us a half a dozen times and there's anything remotely compelling about it like that's what gets our attention
Starting point is 01:30:07 of course and you know i we we just it's just a matter of resources if the democrats are not making a case you cannot wait for the um uh the public and i and that's it's like i don't know if people like who watch this show or in general understand how little of this stuff breaks through you know in terms of like the actual details and so you need the democratic party like this is the value when people say like i'm not interested in electoral politics that's all well and good but the fact of the matter is our society is set up in a certain way yes and i don't i don't i wouldn't prescribe it i don't sub you know i i don't advocate it i you know and i am happy to push it but it is what it is there are certain physics and so these people at the very least
Starting point is 01:30:56 they're in a position their rhetoric and what their performative acts do is important And they need to perform. And there's one way to perform this. And it's the one time they have leverage where everything's going to come to a halt. Like this is why people block highways is because everything comes to a halt and you have to pay attention. That's right. You have to read the sign because you're just sitting there and you've got to read that sign. And just, I mean, before we go, I do want to just give, there is it, there are some people who are trying.
Starting point is 01:31:33 I mean, I've got to give, and also just some leadership. I think Governor Pritzker in Illinois, he's out there trying to do it. Newsom, in his way, is trying to do it here in California. There are the governors, there's some, you know, action there where they're, you know, because they're kind of on the front lines of this invasion by Trump's, you know, stormtroopers of ice stormtroopers in the cities. So there is that, but, you know, it's kind of disparate, you know, it's kind of all over the place. And the Congress is, you know, front, what they are running against, what they, what their job is, is to confront the Republican Party.
Starting point is 01:32:13 That is who they're running against in this next election. They are, the Republican Party across the board has completely abdicated its responsibility as, you know, a reasonable majority party. They are nothing but a cult now, and they absolutely. they're following the edicts of their of their you know basically their king and the democratic party in washington has an opportunity to make that clear to make it clear it's not just trump it is the republican party this is what they have to do and i i've been saying this for 10 years and they're they have no interest it's extremist maga extremist republicans not republicans it's extrema magist it's like hyper what did what did what did bide have uber mega mega extreme mega mega like anything to say
Starting point is 01:33:09 like republicans right anything like and you oh and there are good republicans i'm going uh where i mean i you know i don't even know how how to define that anymore it's you know this is this is a problem and you know watch this unfold this uh government shutdown thing um i think they're probably going to kick the can because they don't have enough time to do anything well i the democrats are going to agree to kick the can and they're going to kick it to christmas exactly and then it'll be oh we can't shut down the government because every one is christmas it's christmas what about the toys yeah i mean that's going to be the thing it's what we're doing now and it's just it's so inferior indivisible and a couple other groups i think uh run for something and there's a couple other groups
Starting point is 01:33:54 uh and maybe we got to have some people on who are pressuring Democrats, House Democrats, to the extent that you can Senate Democrats, too. Like, Hakeem Jeffries needs to be primaried, and he needs to be primaried by somebody who can beat him. And this is, they need to have fear for their own jobs. They need to be forced. Like, we have seen it now with APEC where you're starting to see. you know backbench democrats go i'm no longer taking apac money some dude from kentucky what was
Starting point is 01:34:33 his name again mciver or something like that um and uh somebody else said i'm no longer taking apac money and we're starting to see this because they're getting afraid you know that that the being associated with apac is a liability i mean no shit i mean the the polling is so obvious on this But Jeffries and Schumer and everybody who is not, all of these electeds who are not pushing back on their leadership of basically playing dead, they need to feel like that is also a threat to their fortunes going forward. So any groups that are in any way challenging them and making them the feel the heat on this in particular is the best way to get any type of. of activity. Absolutely. Digby, always a pleasure.
Starting point is 01:35:28 We went way long, but I really appreciate it. We had a lot to talk about. And we probably could have gone for another two hours, frankly. I feel better. With just top stories. What would have been a top story three years ago? I know, I know. But at least, you know, we got some Epstein.
Starting point is 01:35:42 We got some Venezuela. We got the show down. I think we've covered at least, you know, some of the bases here today. Let's just hope that, like, you know, somebody's careless with their intravenous stuff. And, you know, things get... Yeah, just take.
Starting point is 01:36:01 Bacteria on these things is not unheard of. Oops, an air bubble. Oh, no. Yeah. I mean, who knows? Heather Parton, always a pleasure. Of course, we were talking satirically about fictional characters. Yeah, of course. Don't even know what that was about.
Starting point is 01:36:17 Thank you, Biggie. All right. Talk to you later. Bye-bye. All right, we're going to head into the fun half of the program. Short fun half today. Got a lot of, got a lot of that free show. Watch Harry Emden. Yes, there you go.
Starting point is 01:36:40 It's so cool, like, having these old guys be president where they're very clearly not there. I think it was the woman who is running to be D.C.'s non-voting representative. she's running for reelection and she is what like 80 88 battle tested years 88 ballot she'll be 89 when she runs right like it's it's 13 months ago she must have another birthday she's going to be 89 I don't even vote what difference is it make I never missed the vote I mean I like the Navy bean soup on Tuesdays exactly in turn in my neurological capacity.
Starting point is 01:37:24 I can't remember who it was that had a piece of it. I think it was Atrios wrote about this. Like one thing that people don't understand. And he was saying this as a way of giving credit to Jerry Nadler, who stepped down. He said, you know, being that age and having a staff that is around to make sure that, like, everything's cool. for you, uh, is very helpful. I mean, it, you know, having had parents, uh, who are in their late 70s, in their 80s, like, you know, there are times you're like, hey, can you get somebody to help you with this? And like, you know, uh, uh, those parents, sometimes they, they can. Sometimes
Starting point is 01:38:18 they can't. But even if they can, they're like reluctant to do it. But these, uh, um, you know, represented. They're not reluctant. No, remember Feinstein? They should build a shadow center. Well, I mean, that, I mean, that was like, you had to have people do it. But people who are Steven, like, aware of what's going on. I don't think Feinstein had a clue as to where she was, you know, 80% of the time. But, you know, Nadler is like, he's going to have to, you know, like your staff, they're doing,
Starting point is 01:38:52 there's like at least 20% of the work they're doing is just like not full you know the most ridiculous of errands for you but I think they're just doing errands it's sort of like what we got around here with how much yeah exactly with how much like nursing homes and stuff cost already you think they could just build a giant replica of Congress in west Virginia somewhere and have like pretend yeah exactly right near that foam stonehenge in Virginia just put them right there would be so awesome it's like Like a, instead of like a model you end, it's like a model Congress, but for all old people, so they can all pretend like they're still there. I'm going to my committee meeting.
Starting point is 01:39:33 I think that place is called the villages. The chairs are extra padded. Oh, God. The only difference. Folks, it's your support that makes this show possible. You can become a member of Join the Majority Report.com. When you do, you only get the free show. You also get the fun half.
Starting point is 01:39:49 And you keep this show surviving and thriving. join the majority report.com. That's where you do it. Join the majority report.com. Also, just coffee. Justcoffee.coffey. Fair trade coffee from a co-op in Madison, Wisconsin, that they got great politics. They got set up to protect and help farmers in places like Chiapas and in East Africa.
Starting point is 01:40:19 and they work with their farmers. They got great coffee, too, and you can get the majority report blend. Use the coupon code majority, get 10% off. Check them out. Matt, Left Reckoning. Yeah, Left Reckoning for anybody who hasn't seen it yet, Brian appeared, our very own, Brian,
Starting point is 01:40:40 appeared on Left Reckoning on Tuesday. Talked a little bit about comedy. I heard he really handed it to you. Yeah. I mean, we debate it. It was a big debate. And also, yeah, we'll have a Sunday show for folks. Patreon.com to select reckoning to get access to that on Sunday.
Starting point is 01:40:59 See you. And a fun half. Three months from now, six months from now, nine months from now. And I don't think it's going to be the same as it looks like in six months from now. And I don't know if it's necessarily going to be better six months from now than it is three months from now. But I think around 18 months out, we're going to look back and go like, wow. What? What is that going on?
Starting point is 01:41:28 It's nuts. Wait a second. Hold on for a second. The majority report. Emma, welcome to the program. Hey. Fun hat. What is up, everyone?
Starting point is 01:41:44 Fun hat. No, Mekine. You did it. Let's go Brandon. Brandon. Bradley, you want to say hello? Sorry to disappointment. Everyone, I'm just a random guy.
Starting point is 01:41:58 It's all the boys today. Fundamentally false. No, I'm sorry. Women's? Stop talking for a second. Let me finish. Where is this coming from, dude? But dude, you want to smoke this?
Starting point is 01:42:09 7.8. Yes. Hi, me. You're safe? Yes. Is it me? Is it me? It is you.
Starting point is 01:42:25 It is me? I think it is you. Who is you? No sound. Every single freaking day. What's on your mind? We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism. I'm going to just know what.
Starting point is 01:42:40 Who libertarians? They're so stupid though. Common sense says, of course. Gobbled e-gook. We fucking nailed him. So what's 79 plus 21? Challenge man I'm positively clovering
Starting point is 01:42:51 I believe 96 I want to say 857 210 35 501 1 1⁄2801 911 1⁄ 3,400 $1,900
Starting point is 01:43:01 $1,500 $6,5,4 $3 trillion sold It's a zero-sum game Actually, you're making think less of it But let me say this Poopin
Starting point is 01:43:10 If you call it satire Sam goes to satire On top of it all My favorite part about you It was just like every day all day, let you do. Without a doubt.
Starting point is 01:43:21 Hey, buddy, we see 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 anymore.
Starting point is 01:43:44 I have a question. Who cares? Our chat is enabled folks I love it I do love that I gotta jump I gotta be quick I get a jump
Starting point is 01:43:57 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 What is wrong with you Love you
Starting point is 01:44:12 Love you Bye bye

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