The Majority Report with Sam Seder - 3579 - ICE Admits Defeat in Minnesota; U.S. Starving Cuba w/ Noah Kulwin & Brendan James

Episode Date: February 12, 2026

It's a Mattjority Report Thursday on the Majority Report   On today's program:   Tom Homan announces that the ICE Operation Surge in Minnesota have concluded. We'll see that really means.   David Bier from the Cato Institute testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Somali Fraud where he details that massive fraud that is being committed by DHS.   Noah Kulwin and Brendan James from the Blowback Podcast join Matt to discuss the U.S. oil blockade on Cuba that is starving the country.   In the Fun Half:   Brandon Sutton and Matt Binder join the show.   AOC says that Pam Bondi's erratic performance at the House Judiciary Committee hearing was a result of her knowledge that she is implicated in a massive cover-up on behalf of the Epstein class.   Pam Bondi insinuates that Rep. Becca Balint is antisemitic. Balint, who lost her grandfather in the holocaust goes ballistic over Bondi's heinous accusation.   Rep. Deborah Ross (D-NC) asks Pam Bondi if she believes that Ghislaine Maxwell should have been transferred to a minimum-security prison and Bondi erupts.   Rep. Thomas Massie tells CNN that he has seen in the unredacted files that Howard Lutnick gave Epstein his number some 7 years after he claims to have been repulsed by Epstein.   Bill Maher and Adam Carolla talk about how they think they are not conservatives but rather that the left has recently lost their mind.   In the 90s Bill Maher was talking about how Vietnam was a just war and needed to happen. This muddies his theory that he wasn't always a conservative.   all that and more To connect and organize with your local ICE rapid response team visit ICERRT.com The Congress switchboard number is [phone]. You can use this number to connect with either the U.S. Senate or the House of Representatives. Follow us on TikTok here: https://www.tiktok.com/@majorityreportfm Check us out on Twitch here: https://www.twitch.tv/themajorityreport Find our Rumble stream here: https://rumble.com/user/majorityreport Check out our alt YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/majorityreportlive Gift a Majority Report subscription here: https://fans.fm/majority/gift Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! https://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: https://majority.fm/app Go to https://JustCoffee.coop and use coupon code majority to get 10% off your purchase Check out today's sponsors: SELECT QUOTE: Get the right life insurance for you and save more than fifty percent on term life insurance at SelectQuote.com/MAJORITY ROCKET MONEY: Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster: RocketMoney.com/MAJORITY SUNSET LAKE: Use coupon code "Left Is Best" (all one word) for 20% off of your entire order at SunsetLakeCBD.com  Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech On Instagram: @MrBryanVokey Check out Matt's show, Left Reckoning, on YouTube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Check out Matt Binder's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Subscribe to Brandon's show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Check out Ava Raiza's music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com

You are listening to a free version of The Majority Report with Sam Cedar. To support this show and get another 15 minutes of daily program, go to majority.fm. Please. The Majority Report with Sam Cedar. It is Thursday, February 12th, 2026. My name is Matthew Leck in for Emma Vigland, who would usually be in for Sam Cedar. We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal. Live in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, USA.

On the program today, Brendan James, Noah Cole, one of the blowback podcast, talking about the Marco Rubio Donald Trump, Starvation of Cuba. Also on the program. Trump threatens Republicans who may vote against his tariffs, even though he could just override any legislation with a veto and give them the cover of not supporting his insane tariffs. But he doesn't want anything like that. Also, the IRS is illegally sharing info

on tax-paying non-citizens with the DHS ICE Gestapa. That as, ICE is losing hard drives that they're supposed to keep footage of detention centers on at the same time. Yeah. I can't find that hard drive that I had all those crimes. Illegal movies on.

Yeah. Of crime. Snuff films on. My snuff film hard drive got I was still looking for it. I might be at someone's house. And also, Texas lawmakers, a soundly alarm on killings and torture

at the Fort Bliss detention center. Look up any detention center near you, folks, because you're going to want to be aware of any atrocities being committed in your backyards. Trump administration also continues its efforts to strip already naturalized citizens of their citizenship, something that had previously mainly been done for Nazis, who lied about being Nazis in World War II. That sort of fraud is what typically has been looked at. Now it's probably going to be like, did you tweet anything negatively about Israel any time in the past three years? The Pentagon?

This is exciting news for everyone in America. that's struggling with the cost of living. The Pentagon is sending a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East. Oh, nice. So everyone can feel safe over there. And then finally, Kerry Prigin Boler, also as White House Religious Liberty Commission member following an anti-Semitism row.

We'll probably get into that in the fun half. Carrie Prigin was the Miss California, who was sort of anti-gay marriage. And now she's sort of pro-canned a so-ones in a way that's not acceptable for the Republicans who want to use anti-Semitism as a big cudgel for their agenda. All that and more on today's majority report. Folks, I apologize for being here and Emma not being here. She is still under the weather get well soon.

Emma, hopefully back tomorrow. But if not, Sam will be back and maybe we can just give Emma some more time to recuperate. We have an announcement on something by a guy who's great at making these announcements, Tom Holman, the Borders Are. And let's let him sort of break the news here. This is something I hadn't heard about until it broke about two hours ago. And it's something that I don't want to rush to credit immediately, but I think it's still interesting to a discuss. Anyway, here's Tom Homan. With that, in success that has been made arresting public safety threats,

and other priorities since this surge operation began, as well as the unprecedented levels of coordination we have obtained from state officials and local law enforcement. I have proposed, and President Trump has concurred, that this surge operation conclude. A significant drawdown has already been underway this week, and we'll continue through the next week. We have a lot of work to do across this country

to remove public safety risk who shouldn't even be in this country. What? And to deliver on present Trump's promise for strong border security mass deportation. Can we take that again? We're on the down from this sort of job. Yeah. It's like he, uh, that wasn't a stream error, folks. You just sort of stopped talking mid-sentence.

It was a tongue error. All right. Here it is. Maybe it was us. Let's give him another chance. You shouldn't even be in this country. And to deliver on present Trump's promise for strong border security. mass deportation. Law enforcement officers drawn down from this surgery operation will either return

to the duty station or be signed elsewhere to achieve just that. Now, since Tom Holman was sent to Minnesota to basically change faces with Bovino, they've been talking about this drawdown. And I don't think it should be credited that it's going to happen immediately or at all. But I do think it's true that, they can't stay occupying our cities forever. And the other thing he mentioned, in addition to the success they've had, killing two people, arresting

hundreds of people who are just out there protesting the kidnapping of their fellow citizens, they can't occupy the city for more. And in addition to those things, like I said, he also mentioned the protests for making it difficult for them to stay in there.

And there's a little bit of politics here because they don't want show weakness. And they, so like, there's, they have to play politics both ways. There's an extent to which like people like us on the left, like I said, don't want to rush to credit this because we've heard this sort of thing before. And even since Holman has got there, there's been horrific incidents. There was a, there was a car crash in St. Paul the other, just yesterday.

But also, it is untenable. This is massively unpopular. People hate this. And people are getting better and better at responding to it. And they're not being afraid. They're not being made afraid, despite two people being murdered on camera. And everyone saw it. And the administration lied about it.

And what did people do? They continued to show up and protest these people. They continue to play drums outside their hotels. Continue to show up to the Whipple Building, which is a concentration camp once again in that area, which is a history of that, going back to 1862. And it's really great. And let's move now to this Cato Institute guy. What's this fellow's name? David J. Beer.

Yeah. And there's, Cato Institute's not my preferred, you know, think tank. But on immigration, they'll make points very well. And this is, yeah, David Beer, who of the Cato Institute, director of immigration studies. And he's talking about this concept of fraud, which we're hearing a lot about. And it's important to know, like, a drawdown of the Gestapo still leaves a Gestapo with a budget greater than the FBI's annually. They're going to want to occupy more cities going forward. And the important thing is not that it's done in an orderly way.

It's that it's not acceptable at all. This is a fever of hysteria that we are going through with immigration. There are two main planks, one, the economy is not being, is not delivering for normal. people. And there's no plans from the Republicans to make it do that. And also, they are a minority party in a democracy. So they need another thing to point to for why they lose elections. That's it. That's why we gave an agency with killer goons, a budget grid and FBI so they can march around our cities pretending that there's a solution to those issues. But here's the Kato Institute. Member Padilla and distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify.

For nearly half a century, the Cato Institute's research has shown that people of any ancestry, background, or birthplace can be assets in a free society. America's immigrants exemplify this truth. Despite often leaving terrible conditions abroad, immigrants work, start businesses, and invent at higher rates. in the U.S.-born population. Cato's recent analysis shows that immigrants reduced deficits by $11.5 trillion over the last 30 years, including about $140 billion in Minnesota. Although welfare fraud is a serious problem, immigrants aren't to blame.

Non-citizens account for just 5% of welfare fraud losses, 31% less per capita than U.S. citizens. Rather than targeting entire ethnic groups, Congress should end the broken welfare systems, namely the oversight-free aid to states that led to all the fraud in Minnesota. But let's be clear. DHS is an anti-fraud. DHS is itself openly carrying out the largest fraud in the history of the U.S. immigration system.

DHS and the State Department are raking in billions of dollars in immigration fees and not providing the adjudications that applicants are entitled to. For individuals for over 90 countries, half of all legal immigrants, the administration is simply not processing their applications. The burden of proof is already on these applicants. DHS and state can deny anyone who fails to make their case. Instead, this administration is pocketing thousands of dollars from hardworking Americans and their relatives, including spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens and then not even looking at their applications. This is a scam. It is fraud. DHS's entire Minnesota operation is another kind of scam sold to the public on lies.

DHS hasn't criminally charged anyone with fraud there, and 60% of its immigrant arrests in Minnesota have no criminal convictions or charges. DHS itself classifies just 8% of its arrests in Minnesota as the highest threat level. And three-quarters of arrests, it classifies as not being a threat at all. Instead of arresting fraudsters, it's seeking to jail 5,600 legal vetted refugees. Nursing mothers, single parents, long-term residents already dragged away from their families without any evidence of fraud at all. Rather than a law enforcer, DHS has become the biggest lawbreaker in America today. In less than a year, DHSs has become the biggest lawbreaker in America today.

In less than a year, DHS has attacked the first, the second, the fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth, tenth, fourteenth, fourth, fourth, fourth, fourth, fourth, fourth, fourth, fourth, fourth, fourth, fourth, fourth, fourths, the U.S. Constitution, the writ of habeas corpus, the independent judiciary, and much more. Every day, massed DHS agents detain Americans based on their race and demographics. They arrest legal immigrants for criticizing their foreign policy and Americans for recording them doing it. They threaten, assault, and even shoot people for exercising their first and their Second Amendment rights. They break into our homes without judicial warrants. They sentence legal immigrants to foreign prisons without trials. They are trying to strip the citizenship of Americans born in this country. They detain people without lawful basis, and they ignore court orders to release them.

And of course, they lie about all of it. Combating fraud and upholding the rule of law is important, but the public cannot have faith. in that effort by an administration that regularly gets away with fraud, lies, and lawlessness. Even the FBI... Yeah, and, you know, I appreciate his anger there. And besides the point about fraud, which I would emphasize is mainly an issue with, the contractors we put in charge. Oh, yeah.

I haven't been solo in a while. Yeah, Ryan's not used to the squiddly diddling in it. it's very important though the thing about the stats about even by DHS's own numbers that they're not going after the high risk individuals these new hires that you know are signing up for a bonus that they can spend on a truck they can drunk drive in they're not they're not keen to go after the scary guys they want to go after people who are like unarmed because they're going into a court or because they're at a school being a teacher's assistant because that's the easier way to get their quota up. And all of their propaganda, DHS is, look at this rapist we took off the street. This is what the Democrats are afraid of.

Well, first of all, cops can deal with those folks. That's what we have cops for. We don't need to create a whole new go gun squad, federal Gestapo, to go march around and shoot our citizens in the face and stake out schools because, because we, so, some idea that if you're an immigrant or not undocumented person, you can commit rapes in this country. That's just not the case. And we don't need to, we can also lock them up in our own jails.

Like this whole sort of thing is absolutely ludicrous. But yeah, I mean, it's, we're going to need a lot of people to break on this. And the Cato Institute, like I said, I'm not a fan of their libertarian politics. but on immigration, like even Chase Oliver, the candidate who Dave Smith stole the libertarian support for instead and gave it to Donald Trump, he had probably the best position on immigration of all the candidates in the 2024 race. We are going to be joined by Noah Colwyn and Brendan James to talk about Cuba in just a second, but I have some ad reads to do here. First, Rocket Money.

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We're going to take a quick break here and we'll have Brendan and Noah in. We are back. Welcome back to the majority of part, folks. Returning to the show, Brendan James and Noah Colwin of the Blowback podcast, guys, thanks for being here. We have, I mean, you're never really talking about that cheery of topics, frankly, when you're here. But we got another atrocity America's committing. So Cuba, just for folks, let's start with you, Noah.

Why is Cuba in the news right now, as opposed to, say, our long-term strangulation of that country? Sure. So in the wake of the kidnapping of Venezuelan leader, Nicholas Maduro, in early January, shortly thereafter the U.S. began making noises about how Cuba was next on the list. And the way that it is manifested most dramatically is Trump's threat to issue massive tariffs on any country or sorry, any country that sends fuel, in particular oil, most of all, to Cuba right now. And consequently, because Cuba does not produce enough oil, to keep its grid running and submit the needs of its own country,

this has resulted in the, I mean, sort of a slow siege that is picking up steam in Cuba, which is, you know, kids are being sent home from school. There's no power. They have massive power outages as a result of this intensified action. And it is not clear what the Trump administration is after beyond just trying to see if they can foment a collapse of the government at the price of, you know, negatively affecting the lives of, you know, almost 10 million people. And, Brennan, can you talk about you, you've both returned from Cuba a couple weeks or a week

or a change ago. Can you tell the folks why you were there and what you saw there? We had heard that there was the probability of increased pressure on Cuba. And we thought we were also in Latin America to cover. a sort of conference or summit in Bogota and Colombia, O'Astra America, which sort of had, was an interesting prelude to what happened in Cuba over the next few days, because the summit was about increased cooperation or the goal of increased cooperation and solidarity at the moment of a lot of aggressive actions taken by the Trump administration, the kidnapping of Venezuela's

leader being the most prominent. But then we got there, we got to Cuba, and there was while we were there this new measure of cutting off the island from any of its regularly scheduled fuel deliveries chiefly and most importantly from Mexico. So that happened while we were there. You know, it was just coincidence, but we were able to speak to people and listen mostly. to what the anxieties and what the expectations were going forward from this new move by the Trump administration. And what, you know, that wider political context of the Caribbean states, I'm curious either of your perspectives on that, because the Maduro thing, like you said, Claudia Shinebaum in Mexico has been sort of lamenting the embargo. I'm not sure has she actually, have they sent, I'm not sure what the status is of if they're going to send oil, but, um, they're not. They've sent aid and their aid deliveries being made.

I think the latest country to announce that they're sending aid is Chile, and that comes on the heels of China and Russia. But nobody is sending oils, and all of the statements are qualified and caveated tremendously. For example, the Chinese statement says that they will help Cuba to the best of its ability. And so none of these governments are, I've seriously talked about sending oil against the American demands. I believe yesterday Russia did say it would send fuel quote unquote soon, but that's about all that the, at least the Reuters report that I saw said. I mean, that's the thing is like all of this acting in like, I mean, maybe intensifying of American imperialism.

I think it could be interpreted as weakness, but it doesn't seem like the rest of the world is interpreting it that way. I'm curious to your guys' perspective on that. Sorry, no, you go ahead. I think one way of looking at it is that just because something is in decline doesn't mean that it's not dangerous. And while it is true, I think that America's ability to project power in the way that it has that made the 20th century, the so-called American century, well, that may be slipping. And we see evidence of how that kind of rot is growing from within day by day. you know, some animals get quite dangerous when they're cornered. And or when they're sick.

And I think that many countries are understandably concerned about the capacity of the United States to deal damage in such a state. When we were in Bogota for that summit, I remember the Mexican delegates were more from like the kind of bureaucratic you know, government side of things. They weren't party leaders or

sort of ideologically charged in their statements. They, they already seemed to be, you know, hoping for, yes, increased cooperation, yes, a defensiveness against any of these new, volatile and destructive measures from the United

States. But ultimately, they sounded, you know, fairly pragmatic and moderate. What then happened was the concession, at least for the moment, a few days later, while we were in Cuba. Shinebaum has been able to handle Trump pretty well during the second term, and I know the people we spoke to in Cuba hoped that there was some longer term plan to handle this and not simply have this be the end of the line.

But it was, I don't think it's a contradiction in terms for this to be a weaker and more desperate version of Washington lashing out while still causing horrible damage and, and destruction in some of these places. Yeah, America's been intervening, has its thumb on, Cuba ever since the overthrowing of the Batista sort of plantation gambling regime. I'm curious how you would put this in the context of that long-term, you know, strangulation of this country. Yeah. You know, Thomas Jefferson thought Cuba should have been an American state. When, you know, in the sort of first waves, the first stirrings of American imperialism,

as we kind of understand the term, expressed themselves. It was in the character of the same forces that brought about the Monroe Doctrine, which today we know Donald Trump has repurposed as the Donro Doctrine and this idea that American dominance

over the Western Hemisphere, United States dominance over the American hemisphere is perhaps a better way to put it, prevails, you know, for, you know, eternity, I suppose. A kind of a pretty clear retrenchment in the face of, of clear shortcomings in its, you know, against the fact that America's bigger than China and so forth.

I think that that is the latest incarnation of, as you describe, what is a long heritage of U.S. I guess impunity in dealing with the little countries that populate the global South and that the U.S. has pretty uniformly supported the most reaction. actionary elements in in order to prevent forces of social change and progressivism from developing. And in that respect, yeah, I don't think that you can really, you know, look at what the U.S. is doing in Cuba at this moment or doing to Cuba at this moment and say that is all that different. Yeah, and this is sort of stuff that blowback covers these sorts of, I mean, grand,

horrific events of imperialism, but it does seem like we're in a period of like an end game. whereas whether the West Bank stuff and Gaza, the Maduro thing, I'm curious, like, that's where we're at right now globally, isn't that right? I think that there is, in the case of Cuba, to stick with that for a moment, you know, you have this odd mixture of MAGA-ism that's announcing everything as a bold and up until now unconsidered. brilliant strategy to finally get American interests on the table for many of these countries. Yet it's coexisting with old-fashioned neocon speak and ideology. Because Marco Rubio, who's an old neocon, I know he's tried on some different hats over the past years, but when it comes to these things, and especially Cuba, because he himself is Cuban and dreams, It's been his dream to preside over the fall of the Cuban government as it's existed since the revolution.

He's the one actually calling the shots and making policy. And as Noah reported with others at was it drop site Noah, you'll have to remind me. The other day, he has been telling even his own president that, oh yeah, we're in touch with the Cubans. I'm handling it. Whereas the Cubans themselves have said, we are not in. any kind of dialogue right now, even though we would, they would probably welcome it. So the, even just the letterhead saying MAGA, but then all of the policy details being in neocons speak about the rescuing the Cuban people, delivering the Cuban people, the new government,

that's the old school stuff of, you know, back to Kennedy and this continuity we've been discussing, strangling the islands so that it will, you know, burning the village, to save it or whatever you want to call it. So it will pass into a new phase of good relations with America and most importantly, new markets for America and its friends. But Trump himself, while I'm sure he's very ignorant of all this, he may be considering without Rubio telling him what to do all the time that this could be like Venezuela, where they swooped in

and they made a bold and, you know, to many people, horrifying gesture that then resulted in a deal getting made for the benefit of Americans, which would follow up at least ideologically with the MAGA, you know, framing of everything. So is Trump thinking that we'll squeeze them until they're ready to pop, and then I'll get, you know, some exclusive rights for America back into Cuba? I'll do a different version of what Obama did, which he welcomed in at the end of Obama's second term, but said it should have been a better deal, as he's. he usually said about anything, you know, Obama did. That's a very different track than Marco Rubio. And I don't know if anyone knows which track we're actually on or which, which place will end up. Yeah, I mean, I saw a tweet about Trump saying he didn't want to put Machado in power

because she didn't have any sort of backing and as like, looking like it being so unexpected. That's like a dog playing chess. And then immediately we have these sort of right wing Cuban. Let's talk about the right wing in Cuba. First, I want to ask about the right wing, the Cuban right wing in America, because they've played a huge role for over a half a century since the Cuban Revolution. And Marco Rubio is, I guess, one of the main figures in that now hit that history. Could you just historicize that a bit for us, Noah? Sure.

So the Cuban-American diaspora is an incredibly sort of potent and reactionary force in America. domestic politics. The largest sort of population center of Cuban Americans is, of course, Southern Florida and Miami, but there are actually lots of Cubans throughout the United States, particularly in northern New Jersey and New York City. And the U.S. government essentially beginning in the early 60s with the kind of consolidation of the communist government in Cuba began cultivating Cuban Americans as kind of, you know, know, like their own contras, their own counter-revolutionary militias, as well as, you know,

soft political force as well, creating huge government-funded propaganda outfits, make work jobs for, you know, to essentially keep the anti-communist cause going. And Florida also became a swing state for a quarter century plus, a very valuable piece of contested political real estate every four years. And the Cuban Americans, you know, similar historically, you could argue to say, like, Jews in New York City, they were a very effective and well-organized ethnic political bloc in Florida. And the influence that they were able to exert over, you know, I mean, the Bush family was very involved in the Cuba lobby. And so it became a constituent part of both political establishments.

also much like the pro-Israel lobby and to this day uh there exists like a pretty well coordinated and powerful Cuban-American diaspora among the American political elite and in media that are able to shape the dominant portrait that most Americans have of what life is like in Cuba what its political leadership is like and why it's worth it for us to continue you know torturing that little island nation um because many of them yes are directly descended or have you know, ties in rolling back the clock in Cuba. But also, many of them, I mean, it's become, it's a, it's a cause even bigger than the idea now.

And the Cuba America lobby is a, you know, it's a, it is a powerful force in some corners of American politics. Yeah, I mean, I think it's fast. I think it's an important example to point out in this day and age that like Zionism isn't the only right wing nationalism that has a, uh, finds fertile, ground in our political system. How about in Cuba? Did you notice much, was there a lot of Rubio supporters in Cuba when you were there? I didn't spot any, but my eyes are going in my old age. Maybe there was a lot of pro-Marco. We did hear a couple people call him Little Narco. I don't even

want to say that in case it pisses him off more. But yeah, I mean, there's a lot of, as you might expect. There's there's a lot of awareness of the position and the power that Rubio has in this new Trump government there right now. And we talked a lot about that with people. I think, I mean, as far as a right wing in Cuba, this is not like Venezuela. Cuba has had a much longer political and social sort of you know homogeneity since the revolution

whereas in Venezuela you can you have your like Venezuelans versions of Fox News where they called Chavez you know Hitler too or maybe they like Hitler but they called them Stalin too or whatever and and you can kind of

you can actually see a more divided and uh, nasty political showdown. That's not really the case in Cuba. So the center of power for any kind of reaction is in Miami and in Washington, which is partly why I think that there is this sort of wait and see attitude at the moment, at least from observers like us, but also I'm sure maybe to a certain degree to Marco Rubio himself. I mean, he was really feeling himself that week we were

there in a couple days after. But as we've, you know, all adjusted to, with the Trump era. Now, eyes are on Iran, tomorrow, maybe it'll be Greenland again, maybe it'll be someplace totally new. So I think in order to build a consensus,

the way that the Bush administration, for example, did incredibly deliberately for the period of a year and a half, if not longer, before the invasion of Iraq, for some large scale or significant action against Cuba, right now it's just one of many plates that they've got spinning. And while people are very scared there,

and we had some friends who said as we left, they said, you know, hope to see again, either because they maybe have to move or they have to flee or something worse, it still doesn't entirely seem like the administration knows what it wants to do. Hence why Rubio says, oh, yeah, we're having discussions, and the Cubans aren't even privy to that.

Yeah, for folks wondering, like, what Cubans want, I mean, I think generally it'd be a normalization of trade relations with the rest of the world. What other, like, sort of demands did you hear from folks or, I mean, desires for, like, did you hear from folks when you were there? I mean, I think a lot of it's the same as what anybody wants, you know. They really, they would like to have electricity all the time. They would like to have enough energy to run the country. They would like to, you know, for people who are. starting businesses in Cuba to be able to do business internationally and bring in foreign exchange

and help stabilize the economy and let it participate normally in the world economy. I think people would like it to make it easier to have relationships with people in the United States. Cuba is 90 miles off the Florida coast and many Cuban families in Cuba are both, you know, linked by blood and by economics with family in the United States. And a huge chunk of what also has to happen is a process by which those relationships can be eased as well. To me, there's a very clear that when you just, when you talk to people that, you know, there is a, at least I found an incredible sense of curiosity about what the average American thinks, whether or not they can really stand Donald Trump.

And then also, you know, a sort of, you know, a wilderness about like, why is the U.S. care so much? like why are they doing this? Because it isn't, it's not, the logic to them is even, you know, aside from just putting it in the context of history, I mean, we can all do that. That still doesn't answer the immediate, satisfy the immediate reality. And I think it's a very, it's a very, I mean, it's, it's, the sense of tragedy is heavy. Yeah, you know, I asked that because we got a comment about civil liberties. And I have no shyness about talking about civil liberties in other countries.

but I will warn folks that like when we're talking about places like Cuba or Venezuela, I can't, and I'm curious what your guys' perspective is, I think it's ludicrous to divorce that from, say, how we've tried to assassinate their heads of state for years and years and years. But I'm just curious what you would respond to somebody who asks you to talk about civil liberties in Cuba. Here's how I would respond. They're at war. if they're currently asking or piping up about civil liberties in Ukraine, then I guess power to them. They're checking everybody off the list. But if they're not currently talking about how there's no elections in Ukraine,

how Ukraine is shut down free press, how Ukraine has had to curtail what was considered some kind of liberal order, I don't really see why they're so interested in. in Cuba, which is also at war, or Venezuela, which has been threatened by war, but actually had more liberties than this questioner may be aware. I don't know why they're so curious about the one case and not the other. And that, I think, has been the mentality since the revolution. It hasn't just been assassinations, by the way, assassination attempts and successful assassinations. There's been obviously threatened invasions. There have been CIA operations and terrorism inside of the

country. There have been homegrown terrorists from Cuba, cuddling up with the U.S., and then hijacking planes, murdering people, networks that stem from the United States, trying to infiltrate Cuba. It's war. And no sensible country would be expected to dot the eyes and cross the of an American observer popping off about it because they hear that, you know, there is that whole one-party state problem there. What's that about? Well, I think a glance at the history answers that question. And I would just say, again, if you don't have a problem with the Ukrainians doing what they need to do in a time of war, then I don't know why you're picking on the Cubans. Yeah, I think any liberal in America should be able to understand that war is not conducive to

liberties in our current environment after the Department of Homeland Security. Yeah, go ahead, Noah. Well, I would also add that it's like, you know, like, we're not also just like, you know, like what does it mean that they're at war? Like, our government actively funds, uh, organizations, you know, whether it's, you know, historically been to the National Endowment of Democracy. By the way, organizations that have been able to keep the lights on, despite all the Doge cuts to other organizations under this funding purview, because after Doge cut them,

Rubio turned the money spigot back on for this. stuff. You know, they actively, they are trying to sustain a narrative on social media about Cuba that, like, reality can't support. And, you know, like, political prisoners exist in Cuba. As we said, it's both a country at war. And our government, the government we ostensibly, you know, are supposed to have some influence over or at the very least are implicated in by virtue of, you know, It's our government. We, where we have citizenship, where we vote, our government is the one actively trying to, you know, develop wedges in civil society there for the purpose of sewing enough disorder to lead to a, you know, spontaneous collapse of the state there, leading to intense suffering more than we already have. It's just to me not, it's just not a, yeah, it's not a credible concern.

This is one of this the one thing that is very clear that that we got while we were there is this is worse than the special period, which people don't know was the period after the collapse of the USSR, which was thought to be maybe the high point of the apocalyptic breakdown of the socialist block in any country that was left standing after that happened. For many years, it was thought that those were the worst times. They're behind us. After the Obama thaw, which was then interrupted by Trump, he slapped on turbo sanctions. Trump did. Biden did not remove them. COVID happened, of course, in the middle of that, things got worse. And everyone was saying this is as bad as the special period, if not worse. Now this is unprecedented, this level. And to say, I'm sorry, but to, but, but to say from the comfort of your spot, wherever you are in America, you know, and say, well, are they letting people blog enough? I just don't know where that impulse comes from. At least I can't speculate as to where that impulse comes from. So that's what we saw. It's not a liberal.

I think it comes from the impulse to blame this on Marxism instead of American imperialism. Like as if it's, they want to say it's just him doing a Stalin or Cuba doing a Stalin. So we need Americans need to save them for freedom. as, you know, Department of Homeland Security has developed into a Gestapo and we look at people's visas for if they've criticized Israel. Yeah, so how, this has been going on. Where do we stand now with this policy? You've mentioned the sort of Marco Rubio obfuscation about whether there's dealings going on or not. Do you think this will ever penetrate Trump or is he just too distracted?

like what's the what's the sort of outlook here um i think the the immediate outlook is pain and suffering for cubans um and we're we've really not seen any individual country um actually take steps to move against the u.s edict that no oil go to cuba um i think you know we we shall see if the plight in Cuba is able to break through the American news cycle right now. Because I'll tell you, Cuba's already in pretty catastrophic streets, and it doesn't really seem to be getting adequate attention in the United States. Not that there isn't a whole bunch of other worthy stuff for inclusion in the day's headlines these days. But the reality is that Rubio is surely able to get away with going over Trump's head

and making sure that there is no negotiation going on, despite that evidently, at least in Trump's mind, being some part of the plan. Because, like, you know, Cuba may, you know, it's a low-intensity W for them. You know, they get to put on the sanctions, they slowly squeeze, and, hey, maybe they, maybe something happens that they, you know,

because the Lord knows they've tried for 70 years through a bunch of other means that haven't failed. But, you know, let's try a new experiment. Let's do a Gaza in slow motion. Let's starve a place of any resources, any capacity for the basic requirements for human flourishing and see what happens. You know, it's like that's the test and whether the world acts against Trump, whether American politicians decide to act against Trump or at the very least apply some pressure,

you know, motivated by the images and footage and real. news, not fake news, but real news that we see come out of Cuba in the coming months, you know, that's as much as I can say with any certainty about what's coming if things don't change. Brendan James and Noah Colwin of the Blowback podcast. What's the website? People can subscribe to Blowback? Blowback. Blowback. Show.

Blowback. Show. I am a proud subscriber of that show. It's great. The most recent season on Angola and South Africa, Is there anything to announce coming up? Are you guys still been releasing on that series? Isn't that right?

We will be announcing our seventh season very shortly, which will be coming out later in the year. But we have already announced a mini-series. It's our first time doing this, a three-episode, shorter-form miniseries about the low points, the points of tension, the points of conflict between the United States and Israel, because we all know it's a very close relationship,

but it is not one that has not had its peaks and valleys. So that's the miniseries we'll be releasing in, I would say, early May. There you go, folks. There's not a smarter history podcast going. Thank you, Brendan and Noah so much for your time today, guys. Thank you. Thank you. All right, good to talk to those guys.

I'm genuinely a huge fan of their work. Do we have Binder and Brandon in? Or do you want to take a little break? They are not in just yet, but I bet Brandon's listening, and I bet he'll log in right as I finish his sentence. Okay, cool. I'll just plug my stuff. Yeah, plug your stuff.

I guess I can stretch out and have a little mat time. Tomorrow we have a new Jacobin show. I'm not sure which of our interviews we are going to be talking about there. But do subscribe to the Jacobin Meg YouTube channel, David Griscom, and I were given the keys to that show, which was started by Michael. Brooks six years ago, seven, some long-ass time ago. And we've been building it up, back up after a little bit of a hiatus. And it's a very well-polished show, and I exported it at very high quality.

And there's like chyrines and stuff on it. So I check that out tomorrow at 10 o'clock, a.m. Eastern time and every Friday. And we also had a left reckoning, left reckoning, which, which was on Tuesday, and I always forget what we do every week, but go check out Left Reckoning and subscribe to us on Patreon because we'll be doing a Sunday show. Probably getting into some... If you're a Texas politics follower,

you need to be following Left Reckoning because Griscombe is all over the Tilarico Crockett stuff. He's all over at Taylor Remet. He had a piece in the Jacobin magazine about Remet. You got something to say there, Brian? You can finish your plug. I was going to plug Emma's stuff too. Yeah, go ahead and plug Emma.

What's she got? March 22nd, she's going to be at the Dynasty Typewriter in Los Angeles, California, doing a live biduation room with Francesca Fierantini. I think that's at 830, but tickets are still available. And you may be confused. Dynasty Typewriter is also the Hayworth Theater, so the Marquises Hayworth, but it's actually called Dynasty Typewriter, whatever. It's like a, well, they call that a, in the,

It's like a speakeasy show. Right. And then also... No bit in the code. And then also Emma's hosting Griscombe's book event in New York. I'm trying to remember... I'm looking up where that is. That's true.

I don't know if it's worth plugging though because that's all sold out. So you're going to just need to buy David Griscombe's book, folks, because you ain't going going to get into that event as far as I'm concerned. But David Griscom's book is coming out soon, and it is selling well from what I can hear because people are very interested in here. hearing the lefty talk about Texas politics. Matt Binder, can you hear me? I can. Can you hear me?

We can in one second here. I think we might have to re-enter Binder into, let's just take a real quick break here. And then we can, not the fun half, just the news break. So we can get the area. Matt Binder, what do you have going on, doomed and your other various media, offerings. Just plug in

Leftist Mafia tonight at 8.30 p.m. Eastern Time at YouTube.com slash Matt Binder. All right. Well, check that out tonight, folks. We'll be back with Brandon Sutton and some interesting clips to have a little bit of fun with.

We'll see you in a little bit, folks. Okay, Emma, please. Well, I just, I feel that my voice is sorely lacking in the majority report. Wait, whoa. Look, Sam is unpopular. deserve a vacation at Disney World. So, ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to welcome Emma to the show. It is Thursday.

Yeah, I think you need to take over for Sam. Yes, please. Sir, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna pause you right there. Wait, what? You can't encourage Emma to live like this. And I'll tell you why. So it was offered a tour, sushi, and poker with the boys. Offered a tour? Yeah. Sushi and poker with the boys. What? Twirl? Suci and polter boys. What's offered it?

Uh, that's what we call this. I just think that what you did to Tim Poole was mean. Free speech. That's not what we're about here. Look at how sad he's become now. You shouldn't even talk about it because I think you're responsible. I probably am in a certain way, but let's get to the meltdown here. Boys, oh my gosh.

Wow. Sushi. I'm sorry, I'm losing my fucking mind. So it's offered with twerk. Yeah. Sushi and poker with the boys. Logic. Tuft.

Sushi and puck. A little kid. I think I'm like a little kid. A little kid. I think I'm like a little kid. Add this debate. I'm not trying to be a dick right now, but like, I absolutely think the U.S. should be providing me with a wife and kids. That's not what we're talking about here.

It's not a fun job. That's a real thing. That's a real thing. Willie Walker. That's a real thing. That's a real thing. That's a real thing. Now, the clue is to what's going on.

Live YouTube. Sam has like the way of the world on the shoulders. Sam doesn't want to do this show anymore. It was so much easier. One of the majority of report was just you. You were happy. Let's change the subject. Rangers and Nick are going great.

Now, shut up. Don't want people saying reckless things on your program. That's one of the most difficult parts of this show. This is a pro-killing podcast. I'm thinking maybe it's kind of buried the hatchet. Left is best. Trump. Violet twerk.

My honor's thesis Of the old policy We already fund Israel, dude Tougher question I have an answer to Incredible steam song I Bumbler Emma Viglin

Absolutely one of my favorite people Actually not just in the game Like period