The Majority Report with Sam Seder - 3582 - CBS Censors Colbert's Talarico Interview; Breaking Trump's Cuba Siege w/ David Adler

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

It's News Day Tuesday on the Majority Report   On today's program:   Trump's FCC pulls Stephen Colbert's interview with Democratic candidate for Senate in Texas, James Talarico citing the Equal Time Rule. This comes just the day before early voting begins for the primary in Texas.   Rep. Chip Roy attempts to debunk the idea that the Save Act will make voting more difficult for over 69 million women in America who have taken their husband's name in marriage. In doing so, Rep. Roy describes a process that will be very tedious including providing two different proofs if identification and getting a signed affidavit.   General Coordinator of Progressive International, David Adler joins Emma to discuss the Nuestra America Flotilla  which will set sail next month in an attempt to break the siege and provide aid and medicine to the people of Cuba.   Rev. Jesse Jackson has passed away, and we take a look of his iconic recitation of the poem "I Am - Somebody" with children on Sesame Street.   In the Fun Half:   In light of Jesse Jackson's passing, we look back to 1988, when Jackson was running for president and clashed with the Chuck Schumer faction of the Democratic Party over Palestinian liberation.   Spike Lee hurts some feelings with his Gaza themed outfit he wore at the NBA All-Star game.   Greg Gutfeld, Jesse Watters, and Kennedy joke about Jeffrey Epstein, downplaying his crimes by describing him as a "fixer" and a "sex rabbi."   Ana Kasparian clashes with Jennifer Welch over whether Tucker Carlson is antisemitic or not.   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: PROLON: Get 15% off plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their 5-Day Program at ProlonLife.com/majority FAST GROWING TREES: Get 20% off your first purchase.  FastGrowingTrees.com/majority SUNSET LAKE: Use code FlowerPower to save 30% on all CBD smokables 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

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On the program today, David Adler of Progressive International will be with us to talk about Trump's siege on Cuba and the aid flotilla being organized to break it. Also on the program, Rest in Power, Jesse Jackson, civil rights icon, champion of multiracial coalition politics, and a fierce opponent of militarism, and inequality. At 84. Two people killed, three injured during a shooting at a Rhode Island high school hockey game. On Capitol Hill, the DHS funding standoff continues. So Republicans turn to disenfranchising voters. Majority Leader Thune promises a vote on the SAVE Act. House Republicans sponsor an amendment that would give Congress the power to block presidential pardons.

Interesting. It faces a steep climb in the Senate, but that Republicans are breaking with Trump. It's something. A Bush-appointed federal judge orders the Trump administration to restore the slavery exhibits that the National Park Service removed at his direction. Minnesota law enforcement once again says the FBI is refusing to share any evidence on, the killing of Alex Pready. The FBI won't do that. Gonna reform ice? Body cams will do the trick. A two-month-old baby detained at the Dilley concentration camp in Texas

has been choking on their own vomit and has not been able to get medical care. CBS censors Colbert's interview with James Tolariko the night before Texas's early voting begins, which is today. Tom Pritzker steps down as Hyatt's chairman due to Epstein connections. Trump refuses to rule out regime change in Cuba as he starves the population. Good luck with that, and we've only been trying for 60, 70 years.

And lastly, at least 60 people killed in Sudan remains one of the bloodiest conflicts, horror shows on the planet right now. All this and more. on today's majority report. Welcome to the show, everybody. It's an emmajority report Tuesday, newsday, Tuesday. I guess my camera's being a little bit funky here, but hopefully it corrects itself in just a second.

Hello, everybody. Welcome to the show. Do you think that we can keep going? Yeah, I'm not sure what's going on, but hopefully it's just the internet weather. Okay, all right. Let's hope that that's the case. Prince Harry Anton said,

I remember you talking about Jack Schlossberg's performance at that forum yesterday. While, yes, his views were dry and it was a bit awkward to watch, it's important to remember that less than two months ago his sister died. So emotionally he might be in a complicated place right now. You shouldn't be in the race, then don't be in the race.

Yeah, simple. But yes, that is a very, very horrible story. It was horrible to read. But, you know, we're talking about Congress. We're talking about fighting fascism. We're talking about defeating Zionism and white supremacy and taxing the rich

and so we can't play with people's individual issues right now with their individual heroic story exactly or like they're like again and also a lot of people have horrible circumstances

going on their lives yeah like you know I'm sure like some people on that stage next to him had some pretty horrible things happen as well recently in their lives I don't know yeah I mean I think super relevant I think that's the point yes um hopefully we're

back with the camera. Should I go? Okay, I'm good. So, as I mentioned, in Washington, the fight over DHS funding continues. The only demand that is being reported that the White House is open to listening to is the body camera one, of course, the one that ICE kind of secretly wants. So that fight is still ongoing. However, in Texas, early voting in both Senate primaries begins today. The official primary is on March 3rd. On the Republican side, you have the incumbent, Senator John Cornyn facing off against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and also this other candidate Wesley Hunt. But Cornyn's in Senate leadership. I mean, he's as a part of the elected Republican establishment. as much so as much a part of that establishment as it gets.

He has a major advantage in fundraising. Ken Paxton is a name you'll be familiar with, in part because he was recently impeached by the Republican Texas House and then the state Senate ended up acquitting him for a litany of bribery and corruption charges. He's just a sketchy character. He tried to help Trump overturn the 2020 election. Trump was asked about an end. on Air Force One about this, and he said, I still haven't made a decision.

As I mentioned, early voting begins today. I think at one point a few days ago, he said I endorse all of them. Ken Paxson's got to be like, dude, I'm one of the many, like, criminal acts that I engaging was trying to help you overturn the election and you're not going to endorse me. Don't care. Yeah, sorry. What's in it for me? A little bit thirsty, actually, to do that.

Yeah. You need to leave me wanting more. Stop trying so hard. Republican groups have just been pouring in money on behalf of Korn. And I would be shocked if Kornan doesn't pull through in the primary. But Republicans remain immensely concerned about this race. So much so that as we talked about in January, notice reported that the National Republican Senate Committee was like amplifying these dubious polls about Jasmine Crockett being a good candidate in Texas, then was sending

them around and sending out texts and mailers and calls to Democratic voters urging them to call Jasmine Crockett to encourage her to run. And it ended up working. And so they feel that that Crockett would be an easier general election candidate against a guy like Cornyn. And, you know, this race is going to be really, really important because, one, of course, the Senate and the balance of power is at stake, but also because I really do think that Greg Abbott, the Republicans in the state of Texas, they have aligned incentives with Donald Trump with voter suppression. And we'll be talking about the SAVE Act in just a second. But you think that this Republican governor isn't going to be on board with ICE or the National Guard, terrorizing people at polling stations in the state of Texas in November, in a heavily Latino state where the, what we're seeing since Trump won in 2024 is a massive swing of that demographic, double digit swings.

back to the Democrats, you think that the Republican governor isn't going to be welcoming Trump trying to engage in voter suppression and using an intimidation tactic that's racialized, having ICE go there and try to intimidate people. They're rounding up U.S. citizens.

People who are going to these polling locations, they're going to be, they're eligible to vote. We'll talk about the myth of voter fraud again after this, but it still is an intimidation tactic Because say you have family members that are undocumented, for example. Or say that you just are Latino or brown. You could be rounded up by ice. They're not discriminating based on your citizenship status.

They're making these determinations based on your race. So that is down the line and something that we need to be keeping an eye on here for sure. But in terms of this primary race, last night, Stephen Colbert went on air. once again accusing the Trump administration of censorship, I would just say, exposing their censorship. Because CBS, with their new ownership, the pro-Maga Zionist Ellison Nepo kid, who has been acquiescing to the Trump administration since this purchase went through, apparently agreed to take this interview with James Talleyico off the air last night, told Colbert that he couldn't air this interview.

Here he is explaining what his side of the story is and his dealings with Trump's FCC and Brendan Carr. You know, you know who is not one of my guests tonight? That's Texas State Representative James Tala Rico. He was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network's lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast. Then I was told, in some uncertain terms, that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention me not having him on.

And because my network clearly doesn't want us to talk about this, let's talk about this. So you might have heard of this thing called the Equal Time Rule, okay? It's an old FCC rule that applies only to radio and broadcast television, not cable or streaming, that says if a show has a candidate on during an election, they have to have all that candidate's opponents on as well. It's the FCC's most time-honored rule right after no nipples at the Super Bowl. There's long been an exception for this rule, an exception for news interviews,

and talk show interviews with politicians. Now, that's crucial. How else were voters supposed to know back in 92 that Bill Clinton sucked its saxophone? But on January 21st of this year, a letter was released by FCC chairman and smug bowling pin, Brendan Carr. In this letter, Carr said he was thinking

about dropping the exception for talk shows because he said some of them were motivated by partisan purposes. Well, sir, your choice. chairman of the FCC. So FCCU. All right. So that's how he opened the show. I mean, why

would Colbert, why would Colbert have any Fs to give at this point? He's off the air, what, in May, June? That's when his show is set to cancel and to go off the air. And let's remind people

the reason that he was canceled in the first place was because they wanted this merger to go through. That was one of the conditions because Trump didn't like the content of his speech. And as, you know, frankly, Anodyne, as I find his criticisms of Republicans to be, that doesn't really necessarily matter.

It's the precedent that it sets. And I mean, I don't know if Tala RICO could have asked for a better outcome, by the way. Like, if he went on, Colbert and this interview aired on TV, it would not even be much of a story. He gets, like, press attention as being an opponent of this authoritarian, deeply unpopular president,

two weeks or so before the two or three weeks before the election is, and the day early voting starts, Talarico's got to be pretty happy here. Yeah, it's a crazy gift for him to activate Democrats at a national level to pay attention to him. the state level to make it clear who the Republicans are afraid of. I think it's pretty obvious. It's kind of the definition of the stric and effect. Like the fascists are just not good at this part of it. And so that's why they're going to do more

of what I'm warning about. The authoritarian stuff, it's all they have is there's more mechanisms of control because they can't bully their way into what they want. And I'll say like CBS, again, what's the point of being owned by billionaires if you can't? can't stand up to things like that. There's a willingness to the lawyer's side of CBS saying, oh, yeah, I guess we can't do that. You could fight it. You can, instead of going to Stephen and say, you can't have mine,

you could say, actually, we'll see you in court, Trump. Yeah. But they're owned by people who actually agree with Trump on a whole lot of things. And let's turn here now, though, to the Save Act. Aaron Reiklinck, I saw he posted this on Twitter. Just a piece of the text of the SAVE Act, which I hadn't seen before, just to underscore like how poorly written this piece of legislation is, it had a provision in it that said military members can use if they want to prove that they can vote.

A document that's both a record of service and shows that you were born in the U.S. Brian, our veteran correspondent. DD-214. Is that for real? DD-214 and your birth certificate, yeah. Okay, but those are two separate documents. The text of the legislation seems to, like, claim that there is one document that can provide both forms of proof.

It doesn't exist is basically the point that has been made. Just how sloppily it's being written. Yeah. Like, for people that, you know, know, aren't aware, right now the Republican Party, it's been bubbling for a while. They were trying to include it in the appropriations negotiations that were happening some weeks ago. Thankfully, that was not tacked on to any of the appropriations bills because this is an immensely terrifying piece of legislation for democracy and for the future of voting in this country.

Um, look, people who follow Congress say it's a tough, going to be an uphill, uh, climb for the SAVE Act to pass. But that doesn't really give me too much comfort here when I, when you understand how much the Republican Party has been trying to restrict voting. They'll never overturn Roe versus Wade. Exactly right. Exactly right. Um, and so the SAVE Act is this mass disenfranchisement bill essentially. that says that you have to have a passport or a real ID and all of these different forms of identification to vote in the United States to prevent the scourge of non-citizens voting in our elections.

Not a real thing that happens. Not a real thing. The Heritage Foundation's own data looked at this. And you know what they found? Since 1982, there have been under 100 cases, cases under a hundred ninety-nine cases nationwide of non-citizens voting. Have any of those given gotten close to impacting the outcome of an election? I'll answer that no.

No, well, wasn't there about Kevin Costor movie where he's this final vote in America that decides the election? And it turns out he's undocumented. That would be a great twist of that movie. I know that we're conservatives have a really hard time differentiating movies from reality or understanding art. I mean, that's kind of a part of the whole problem. But no, that movie was not a real thing that occurred. But in 2024, there was apparently one documented case of a non-citizen voting. And in that scenario, the Kevin Costner movie would determine the election.

And it would really be important to know his citizenship status. This is important because the reason our cities are being occupied by these alcoholic Nazis is because the Republicans have this theory that the reason Democrats winning elections and have won most of the popular votes in my lifetime is because there's illegals floating the polls on election day. It is a hysterical Nazi type lie. And it's, again, left to the occupation of our cities. That originated from an anti-Semitic, white nationalist conspiracy theory, the great replacement theory. The great replacement theory has been embraced by the Republican Party in 2015, 2016, when Trump was running and was giving lip service to this notion,

we were told by conservatives that it was outrageous that we would even claim that they would embrace what Klan members have spoken about, that they feel that the Jewish population are the puppet masters that are orchestrating the mass migration of black and brown people into this country

to replace white people in voting, but also in society, to change the contours of society. That is now wholly embraced by the Republican Party. I mean, particularly the final two-thirds of that conspiracy theory. If you ask after a few drinks with some of these guys, they'll say that first third, but they're more focused on the brown people element. I mean, it's basically what Marco Rubio was talking about at the security conference.

Yeah. And basically, it just was. And so it's not a thing. Non-citizens voting. It's so infantestimal that it's. talking about it, you know, it's barely worth it. And there's already a law on the books on this front.

In 1996, they passed this law, the illegal immigration reform and immigrant responsibility act that prohibited non-citizens from voting in federal elections. It's against the law. It doesn't happen. And our existing protections are more than sufficient to prevent it from happening. But what's also horrifying, though, is that the SAVE Act in its, the way it's written,

also embeds the Department of Homeland Security, which we need to be talking about abolishing in addition to its child ICE. It embeds DHS into the systems of verifying voter eligibility. So the ICE Gestapo organization is, under this piece of legislation, would take an even greater, role in cross-checking voter roles across the country. The existing problems with DHS would be even more pronounced in this scenario because, as we

mentioned, DHS is outside of the Department of Justice. It's a national security agency that is not confined by our domestic laws being applied to verifying people's voting data. this should scare everybody. Yeah, or destroying it in an opportune way. Like, they can't be trusted. Look at what they're doing with the Epstein files. And now you're going to put them in charge of the voting rolls.

It's, uh, that's really what this is about. It is the whole thing about, look at the scary immigrant might do this. That's just for them to get their guns out and be able to be in control of things. And here is Chip Roy, representative, uh, Chip Roy, Republican. Was he the guy that was the lone vote on, that didn't want to release, the Epstein files. It might be him. He might be one of those cranks.

Who was that loan vote? I'm sorry, I'm grinding us to the halt here, but, uh, uh, all right. Clay Higgins. It wasn't him. Dang it. All right. Well, Chip Roy, uh, here he is explaining how the save act, don't worry about it. It's not going to disenfranchise women because let's, we should mention that there was an

analysis done that nearly 70 men. million American women have taken their spouse's name. And they don't have a birth certificate, which is one of the requirements here, that would reflect their current legal name. And so this is what Chip Roy says should, like, should be the perspective on that massive bureaucratic problem that they're creating, let alone the disenfranchisement problem. A lot of people are asking questions. They're saying, well, that's going to prevent women who've got complications with name changes.

Hold on. We actually allow a failsafe that you go and you can sign an affidavit that says, this is my driver's license. My name is Sarah Jones on my driver's license. Here's my birth certificate, Sarah Smith. I certify under penalty and perjury that I, that I'm the same person. And we allow that. And we allow states to make other mechanisms under their laws to make sure that they match it. So just requiring a process. That is all that would be required of a married woman, because that is a major talking point coming from Democrats and across the mainstream media that you are disenfranchising some 69 million married women. That's all that it'll count.

How about the men in this country? Do they have to do it? How about white men? I mean, like, you know, when the Trump administration, when they, you know, he's obsessed with the Gilded Age. He's obsessed with the Monroe Doctrine. He's obsessed with, with that period of history. What was the president that he was all over?

McKinley. McKinley, they are nostalgic for pre-suffrage days, for pre-civil rights legislation days, for Jim, they are nostalgic for Jim Crow. Peter Thiel said all this explicitly. They are nostalgic for the poll tax system. They want to make it harder for women to vote. And they're pretending like, oh, gosh, all you got to do is just go sign an affidavit. all you have to do is sign an affidavit and jump through all of these hoops and this population. We're not going to, we're going to create a legitimately additional barrier for nearly 70 million Americans in this country and then tell you it's not that big of a deal that you have to go through this extra step that your husband doesn't have to.

Hassling people on a mass scale, which, you know, on the individual level, they say, well, can I go get a real ID? Can I go get this or that? It's annoying to do it on an individual's level. You may think, yes, I can do that. These people know, like, stop being a baby about this and thinking about just being so impressed that you can have your own business. They know on a mass level that this will disenfranchise lots and lots of people that won't go through that hassle because their life is too occupied. And so those people get disenfranchised. Those people will skew to be less wealthy and more under the heel of this economic system because they just know that. Rich people have the time to go sort this stuff out. Or the money.

I mean, the real IDs and passports cost money. Real IDs and passports cost money. Because we decided as a society, we could just give them for free. We could absolutely, you could just apply, you could get them for free. But no,

we've tiered this. This is, this is a part of creating different barriers to, uh, to, to voting. This is,

let's play a clip. I think that there's a great example here of, an analogy of metaphor, however. however you want to say it of the republicans plan for how they want voting to look like in this country i give you uh nathan fielder as well herbert when is herbert oh wait no no go go just like 30 seconds go okay The customer may have been determined. Wait, show that.

Show that. Show this. But once he came face to face with our alligator, it was all over. I'm sorry. I mean, I feel bad because that's a dollar we're losing as well. You know? So I didn't fully launch into that correct. Time Sam was wrong. We're fine.

We're fine. That is Nathan for you when he gives the business an idea. It's all right, Brian. Brian doesn't like when a joke set up. It doesn't know that well. Shocks your conscience. But that was naving for you when he was like gave an idea for the business. If you want to sell a discounted TV, you can offer the lowest price as possible,

but people have to dress up in a tuxedo, go through a trap door, face an alligator to get to the TV. There you go. The same act is just turning voting into a trip to the DMV, is what it is. Which they, Republicans love to use as an example of why government doesn't work. and in reality the DMV yeah it's annoying but but it works

but I still have a California ID because I don't want to deal with it well there you go yeah make me go to there to have to vote right I hate that they hate the DMV

so much they make you go there to vote exactly before you vote exactly in a moment we're going to be talking to David Adler about the Cuba siege and the flotilla that these progressive advocacy groups

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Let's grow together. Use majority to save today. Offer is valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions may apply. Link down below in the video and episode descriptions and at majority.com. Quick break. when we come back, we'll be joined by David Adler.

We are back, and we are joined now by David Adler, political economist and general coordinator of Progressive International, here to discuss the Neuestra, America, Flotilla, that you are a part of organizing. David, welcome back to the show. Thanks again for having me. Always a pleasure to be with you, Emma. Of course. I mean, I don't think that we spoke since you got back, by the way, from your... experience with the Gaza Samud flotilla. Before we talk about Cuba, just just speak a little bit about your experience.

I know you face some incredibly harsh treatment as a Jewish American and as somebody who was bringing aid to Gaza when you were in Israeli detention. Just what you'd like our audience to know about that experience. Yeah, I think it's also important to contextualize the last mission. then the largest in history to traverse the Mediterranean Sea carrying critical humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza, with the important note that an even bigger mission, more than twice the size of the one that we led in October, will be setting sail at the end of March, again, seeking to break the siege of Gaza, but with a mission even more ambitious, which is to rebuild Gaza, to sort of say, you know, we're not going to let the so-called Gaza Peace Board

and Jared Kushner's vision of real estate development on Zamgaza Riviera be the one that determines the future of Palestine. On the contrary, we're going to be bringing all the doctors and teachers and builders that can contribute to a more popular effort around reconstruction. So very excited to be playing a small part in the preparation of the next global Somud Flotilla. And with respect to my own experience in Ketsiot at the hands of Ben-Gavir and his goons, You know, it was pretty terrifying at the times, and certainly I witnessed things there that I wish I hadn't, just a fraction of what we know are Palestinian brothers and sisters in the same concentration camp we're suffering in Kizio to the Negev Desert. But it's important for me, I think, to remember that that initiative, that form of direct action,

that form of popular diplomacy. At the time that we were sailing back in October, it was the same time, as you know, the United Nations, witnessing the inaction, whether unwilling or incapable of mounting a collective response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, I was really inspired to be part of this very beautiful popular act of popular diplomacy, taking matters into our own hands to respond to that humanitarian crisis. And so a similar logic, as we're going to discuss, I think applies to the case of Cuba, were once again in a more direct way, whereas Gaza was indirect in terms of U.S. participation through sales of weapons and diplomatic cover for Israel to lead that assault on Gaza.

Now we really have our hand on the throat of the Cuban people. And once again, I think it's the responsibility of U.S. American citizens in particular, but also friends and allies across the world, those who believe in international law, those who believe in human rights, to stand up once again and plant a flag that says, you know, we're not going to normalize these violations of international law, these tactics of siege with risk contagion into the international system much further than just our hemisphere. And, I mean, I do think that that flotilla was one of the most successful acts of civil, you know, disobedience that I feel like either of us probably live through. So I'm just incredible

that you were able to be a part of it. And of course, thank you for your bravery on this and all of your organizing. When you talk about the tax. of siege. I think that brings us nicely to our conversation here around Cuba, because we're going to just, let's play this clip of Trump here. He was on Air Force One yesterday. He was asked about Cuba. He says that they're talking to Cuba. And he claims that there's an embargo. And I want to respond to that on the other side of this clip. make a deal. What does that deal look like? What do you want them to make a deal? Cuba is right now a failed nation. And they don't even have jet fuel to get for airplanes to take

off. They're plugging up their runway. We're talking to Cuba right now. And Marco Rubio talking to Cuba right now. And they should absolutely make a deal because it's a humanitarian threat. And we have a lot of great Cuban Americans. And they're going to be very happy when they're going to be able to go back and say hello to their relatives and do things that they should have been allowed to do for a long time. I'm very interested in the people that are here that were treated so badly by Castro and the Cuban authorities. They have been treated horribly. So we'll see how it all turns out. But Cuba and us, we are talking. In the meantime, there's an embargo. There's no oil. There's no money. There's no anything.

No, no. Keep going. Why would I answer that? If I was, it wouldn't be a very tough operation as you could. But I don't think that'll be necessary. Wouldn't be a very tough operation. Well, tell that to the CIA and to United States intelligence since the 1950s who tried to assassinate Castro, what dozens, if not hundreds of times and failed over and over again. You know, when he talks about it being a failed country, no, it's a failure for United States intelligence and capital.

It's a thumb in their eye because the United States has already had an embargo on Cuba for over 60 years. This is not an embargo. An embargo, trade embargo has been the policy of the United States, much to my chagrin. Even though, like, if you're looking just in an American power, it would probably benefit us more than it would hurt us to have a more chilled relationship. Or maybe not chilled. that's the wrong word, but to chill tensions with Cuba, to have a warmer relationship with Cuba because they're right off of our coast and engage in trade. But instead, what the Trump administration and Marco Rubio are engaging in, and Trump gave away the game saying the people that are here, he's referring to the far right Cuban diaspora, which Marco Rubio is very much a part of and represents here. This is not an embargo.

This is a siege. And it's a revenge. They're starving people in this country right now over decades old humiliations to the United States intelligence and power and capital here in this country. And there doesn't seem to be any discernible foreign policy objective except as a gift to the far right Cuban diaspora. Yeah. So let's talk about the layers of U.S. policy when it comes to the strangulation of U.S. policy. the island of Cuba and the asphyxiation of its people. I agree with you. Calling this an embargo seems to be a criminal understatement of the seeds that we are now laying against Cuba.

And Trump is quite forthright about saying, you know, we are the ones who are inflaming a humanitarian crisis and we're the ones who are advancing the logic that was once set out in black and white, a 1960 state department cable. that's explicitly said, you know, the goal of U.S. policy towards Cuba in the case of Castro's victory is to prevent the arrival of any cash or money to inflame hunger and desperation on the island and to inflict a form of social uprising that can lead to the fall of a government that the United States perceived to be somewhat adversarial to its prior interest in the Batista regime from which Marco Rubio's family originally fled, that was known for its brutality, known for its criminality,

and known for its immiseration of the Cuban people, leaving them in forms of poverty and miseration, for many years. But this is a multi-layered siege. So first of all, you know, if you go online and you have the misfortune, as I often do, of engaging with that far-right Cuban diaspora, the line that often emerges, their narrative, which is one that Marco Rubio has made

in Congress, you know, under oath, is that there is no blockade, there is no embargo, that anyone is, that everyone is free to trade with Cuba, you know, the United States decides its relationship to the Cuban people, or its relationship with the Cuban government, so to speak, that, you know, we determine them to be some kind of threat to our national interests and national security, but really there's no embargo. That's just a term that the Cuban socialist government uses as a way of excusing its own failures and mismanagement of the island.

So first of all, we're looking at a huge admission that I think is going to embarrass, not just Marco Rubio, but that whole community in Miami, where he's explicitly saying we do have an embargo. And we do have the overwhelming capacity in terms of our control over the international systems of trade, in particular our system over the international system of finance to keep Cuba completely isolated out of that system. So let's talk about those layers. There's the original blockade that's, as you say, been going on for longer than 60 years, which basically not only prevents countries, not only prevents U.S. companies from engaging in commerce with Cuba, but also prevents

third party countries from engaging with Cuba. That's not a Republican policy. It's also a Democrat policy.

I believe it was Obama who sanctioned Pari Ba for one of the largest fines in history of

U.S. kind of economic statecraft really for daring to engage with financial services with the

island of Cuba. So this is a long-standing bipartisan legal framework that is built in Congress that can even

be undone by an executive order. That's how deeply established interwoven into a bipartisan view of our moral and political obligation to oversee the immiseration of the Cuban people. That's the blockade. Then you've got what's called a state sponsor of terrorism list. So Donald Trump's a big fan. He did it in Trump one in his final week in office. And he's done it again in Trump, too, of putting Cuba on a list of state sponsors of terrorism. What kind of terrorism we don't really know? The justifications are extremely superficial and very difficult to believe. But,

effectively, this is one of our strongest forms of financial strangulation that bars Cuba and its people from the participating in the international financial system, not just accessing financial developmental aid, for example, loans from the IMF grants from the World Bank, we're talking about for any major financial institution or even wire service like PayPal, for example, of engaging with transfers on the island. So it's the SSOT. Joe Biden was generous enough to take Cuba off the SSOT list in his last week in office, only for Trump to put it back on the week after. So a lot of the blame for the present conjuncture with Cuba should be laid at the feet of the Biden administration,

should be at the feet of his state department, of Jake Sullivan and Tony Blinken in particular, who failed to restore the diplomatic relations that Cuba managed to establish with Barack Obama at a time that, as you say, with this thaw, oversawed, you know, a really golden period in Cuba when tourism was taking off, when there was really healthy relations between the two countries. But it was Joe Biden, who was really convinced by Marco Rubio then head of the Senate Intelligence Committee that he could be the president that liberated Cuba finally from the groups of castrista socialism. Now, you know, Marco Rubio is in poll position. He's leading out this, you know, clan of Gussano psychopaths who, you know, say, really are leading under the refrain of, you know,

the beatings will continue until morale improves with respect to the Cuban. people. You know, we're going to make you poor. We're going to kill babies. We're going to kill mothers. We're going to kill grandmothers and grandfathers in order to secure their freedom. And that white Orwellian logic is the dominant one. And as you say, it's really disparating that we're not seeing a more forthright response, not just on the hill, but in the international community, and the failure to recognize that that tactic of siege, once normalized in Gaza, has been explored to Cuba and the bruce contagion to the rest of the world. And so those are really the stakes of what we're up against in Cuba. And I think we're a bit slow a lot of people to come online

to what a siege really means. It doesn't just mean, you know, one life at risk or another. It means the rapid collapse of critical infrastructure that sustains the island. Homes and hospitals and schools, basic medicines, you know, if there's no electricity, you can't store blood, you can't store important medicine, you can't move people from point A to point B. This is in unfathomable situation, I think, for any, you know, so-called first world country. And until we switch on to those humanitarian consequences. We're going to be very slow to realize that what we're doing right now is a historic war crime that will never be forgotten by the world at large. So much there. Just an observation, thinking about how both Biden and Trump 2.0, their foreign

policies have been so retrograde, but in a bit, you know, in different ways. One, you have the Trump talking about the Don Roe doctrine, but really returning to, uh, a Cold War kind of era hawkishness towards Cuba that makes very little sense in our current context politically. And when I say that there's no discernible foreign policy objective outside of just giving the Cuban diaspora what it wants in terms of the miseration, I just, I have a hard time seeing it, except perhaps as a show of force for the rest of of Latin America. But with Biden, you know, he was trying to fortify NATO and re re, re-vans. the kind of like, you know, crumbling, uh, uh, system of alliances that may have outlived its,

its usefulness from, um, the post-World War II era. And both of these kinds of visions lack dynamism, lack a connection to a reality, let alone, you know, I mean, specifically the Trump of, Trumps is so anti-human and anti-humanity and, and both are committed to the genocide in Gaza. But when you talk about the tactics, you know, the tactics. of siege. I'm wondering if you could explain that to our audience, because people may not be familiar with these tactics. And if you could also expand on Cuba versus Gaza with this tactic, because obviously a key difference is is that, you know, Gaza's 141 square miles. There's also an occupation genocidal force within the Gaza Strip that makes the siege on Gaza even more acute,

but also more easily controlled by the Israelis. With Cuba, okay, this is a siege, but they are still a sovereign nation without, say, you know, U.S. occupation forces on the ground there, of course, that we know of. There may be some CIA agents or assets or whatever, but you understand what I'm saying. I do. And with all due respect, the U.S. is currently occupying Cuba. we run a massive detention in prison camp on the far end of Cuba that we call Guantanamo Bay. Fair enough.

Fair enough. Failed to close and that Joe Biden also failed to close. There is an active occupation of Cuban territory. And as we approach the anniversary of February of the failure, they have a big invasion. I wouldn't take for granted that facility is not being used actively for more forward-based operations. And I think this has to do, you know, Cuba is a sovereign nation and has expressed that sovereignty in glorious forms, whether it's supporting anti-apartheid struggles on the African continent to setting medical brigades to impoverished parts of the world to provide critical medical services in places that

oftentimes existing systems of public health can reach. But the United States, because of our hegemonic control of international systems of finance and trade, wields a very, very heavy stick of so-called secondary sanctions. So when we say there's no fuel that will reach Cuba, we're not just saying that we won't allow our companies, Chavron or Exxon, to engage in fuel trades with Cuba. We're saying that any third nation that chooses on the basis of its sovereignty to engage in a fuel exchange with Cuba, we will initiate massive terrorists against that country. This is what's played out in the case of Mexico. Mexico has sustained a long, you know, cross-partisan history of solidarity and support and cooperation with Cuba. They've always opposed

to blockade. It doesn't matter if it's been a right-wing government or a left-wing government in power in Mexico. They've always been, you know, obviously that's where, you know, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara once led the historic Grandin Mission that led to the Cuban Revolution 59. But there's always been that history of a friendship, a partnership with economic cooperation. And the U.S. bore down so hard on the government of Claudia Shembaum that they had to retract themselves their own fuel shipments to Cuba. And then the U.S. has issued similar threats to other oil-producing countries that could provide for the energy needs of Cuba. And that giant stick of secondary sanctions is something that few U.S. Americans understand what we do,

understand that way in which we basically criminalize solidarity efforts from any third country. So it's not just about Cuban sovereignty and the ways it's constrained by the U.S. encirclement of the island in the Caribbean Sea. This is also closely related to the kind of war games. And we played out in the Caribbean before the coup in Venezuela, before we sort of decapitated. the Bolivarian government and captured its president and First Lady in Caracas, right? So we moved our Navy into this region and we used places like the Dominican Republic Trinand Tobago as four bases for U.S. power in the region.

This is not simply a question of trading sovereignties or these countries having their ability to negotiate kind of openly or evenly or fairly with Cuba. But the U.S. dictating the terms beneath that banner of the Donrood doctrine, as you put it, Emma, of how countries are going to negotiate with Cuba. What's so remarkable and what's so important to emphasize is that Cuba is not Venezuela. It's exactly like you mentioned. You know, there's no oil for Trump to, you know, sort of take over on behalf of U.S. oil corporations.

There's no natural resources like, you know, lithium or gold for us to capture. This is an old-school resuscitation of a Cold War logic of anti-communism. And I think that the parallel, to take to your second point with Gaza, beyond simply the territorial occupation that I was mentioning at the outset is also political. You know, APEC is a parasite on the body politic of U.S. democracy that is basically advancing a particular, in a particularly genocidal set of ideas and policies and, you know, weaseling those into U.S. policy in ways that don't correspond to public opinion. And I don't think that the community that Marco Rubi represents this far-right reactionary community of so-called Cuban Americans who live in Miami is any less parasitic. The U.S. public is overwhelmingly against intervention in Cuba. They don't understand or even know that we have led this ramped up, you know, blockade, then SSOT, and now this outright siege.

If they did know and when they do know in the public opinion polls that we've personally conducted in recent years, they're overwhelmingly against when they understand that our blockade. for example, led to so many unnecessary deaths during COVID-19, not just on the island, but the prevention of the diffusion and export of critical vaccine technology by QID other parts of the world that could have saved literally millions of lives, just because of the imperial arrogance of our blockade. The United States public is overwhelmingly against these policies, and it's high time that we kick the tail that's wagging the dog, so to speak, and say, we're not going to have these psychopathic Floridians control our U.S. foreign policy, for, as you say, Emma,

no discernible foreign policy objective beyond adding another star onto our flag. I mean, Florida at this point, like, is just a hotbed of intelligence activity. I mean, whether it's a certain, you know, like, it's basically the Cuban diaspora down there. I mean, and whatever was going on with Epstein and intelligence connections and the cover up with with, with his crimes down. there. It's just, it's, it's amazing to kind of see how successful the right has been at, you know, importing the populations on their terms that are going to be more favorable to capitalism or to conservative ideas. But sure, but you know, but my point is let them have it. Let them have it. Fine. Those people, they're naturalized U.S. citizens or they're right. Right. Right.

soil. Okay, they're Republicans. Let them have it. It's time for Democrats to wake the fuck up. We are never going to win these people to our side. Why are we not being more forthright with our own constituencies about the human costs of this siege? Why are they not more enterprising Democrats who are ticking on this cause? As some of them began to switch on to the issue in Palestine and say, you know what, why have we been basically waterboarding our neighbor nation for 60 years? enough. It's time to end the siege. It's time to end the SSOT designation that even the Biden administration recognized was bullshit. It's time to end this blockade and move back to what Barack Obama, that crazy radical socialist, communist, castrista, Chavista, Barack Obama was proposing,

which was a relationship of fraternity so that people could go back and forth with their island, send remittances, open businesses, go on cruises, and the like. We're not talking about waving the flag of the Cuban Revolution. We're talking about engaging on the basis of what is enshrined in the UN Charter as sovereign equality between nations. And so we have to not be cowed by what's sort of being spread so maliciously on social media as if anyone who speaks out about this humanitarian crisis

or speaks out about the truly, I don't want to use the G word, but lethal consequences of our intervention on the island. We can't be cowed by the so-called Cuban voices in Florida who we're basically saying, you know, we want liberties, so bomb our people. This is, this is not, this is not a, this is not a way that we can govern the world and find peace and purpose in it. And I think that if you're, you know, a Democrat, if you're a Democratic voter or you're, you know, someone who's an elected and who's thinking about this crisis of our place in the world, that it begins with a country that's 90 miles off our coast. That's going to begin with us,

you know, being able to put forward a proposal that's not based on, you know, our domination or, even dictating the terms of their own governance, but is based on an honest evaluation of, as you said, I'm at the beginning of mutual benefit. That can be, you know, a celebration of Cuban culture, as well as one of its close relationships and friendships in our own country in the United States. Well, yeah, I mean, for all of our criticisms of Obama, it is very interesting to reflect on his attempts to chill relation, or, geez, I keep doing that.

All right, yes. to warm relations with Cuba, to thaw them essentially. But also the Iran nuclear deal, which was where you saw APAC, really, as you mentioned, that it's become, you know, it's so parasitic to American politics sucking the life out of it. They were trenched at that point. They, when the Obama administration engaged in diplomacy with Iran in a way that the Zionist lobby did not like and was not sufficiently hawkish, who ended up being the leader of the Democrats in the Senate. Oh, it's Chuck Schumer right now who was meeting and posing with Maria

Karina Machado a few weeks ago and almost giving his show of support for a far right, basically, United States imperialist puppet in Venezuela that even the Trump administration's own intelligence apparatus says has no credibility in the country. So the rot here is it feels like the Zionist lobby and the APEC lobby and the military industrial complex since 2016, they have been tripling their efforts within the Democratic Party and it's had great effects for them. And some of the knock on effects include anti-communist fervor like with Cuba. Yeah. And I think that we cannot forget how poorly spent those four years of the Biden administration were in terms of resetting our relationships in Latin America and in throwing out.

again, that bilateral relationship with Cuba. And I, you know, I worked with Ryan Graham on some important reporting in those days. The Biden administration was lying to the U.S. American public. They said that they were conducting a six-month review of the SSOT designation, the state-sponsored terrorism designation. And then after pending that review from the outcome of that review, they were going to revisit the issue and take them off the SSOT, knowing how cynical it was.

Trump literally did it in January 2021 as he's leaving the White House as a final fuck you as a final way of punishing the Cuban people and, you know, servicing a community he thought could be useful to him in a further re-election campaign. And Joe Biden did nothing about that. I mean, the cynicism of that is insane. And then, of course, the outright duplicity of saying that we're reviewing, you know, a act of collective punishment when they weren't and they got caught out by some progressive Dems who pushed the administration to admit that they were lying. I mean, this is a huge, hugely scandalous thing that we shouldn't forget in terms of our own Democratic leadership. But I think it's important, you know, to come back to the issue that, you know, Cuba is in

Venezuela. And I think that's important not just for the issue of resource endowments that we talked about before, but, you know, every year of the United Nations, 98% of the entire global community votes to condemn the U.S. blockade of Cuba. I'm talking like the far-right psychopaths who are in New Delhi. I'm talking about our new friends in Malaysia. I'm talking about, you you know, the conservative CDU of Germany, save occasionally for like, you know, Zelensky's Ukraine and Netanyahu's Israel. Every year at the UN, they condemn the blockade of Cuba. They recognize that it's a criminal violation of international law. They recognize the dangerous precedent sets for the global community at large. And they recognize the historical contributions that the Cuban

people have made to the well-being of the world. So, you know, I think that it may be the case that this administration is just really high in their own supply. I'm not going to, you know, go as far as to say that in diplomatically speaking, you know, Havana could be Marco Rubio's Waterloo, but there has to be a line that's drawn in the sand. We have to say, you know, enough is enough. These guys think that their adventures in Caracas were so successful that they can just trundle across the world and, you know, kill who they want and kidnap who they want, you know, and it's very Trumpian, if you can recall a certain video from, you know, 2016, right? And I think that that's being translated now into his foreign policy doctrine.

Are you accusing the president of being a predator? I mean, David, how could you? How could you? Well, I think in some cases, you know, understanding Trumpism, understanding the composition of this coalition is often very useful in the contradictions or the temporary contradictions or their resolutions towards coherence in the Trump coalition, it's often a very useful way of making sense of a mysterious foreign policy. You know, sometimes it's the, you know, the Pete Hegset kind of Langley camp that wants to exercise

raw U.S. power and enrich U.S. military corporations. Sometimes it's the New York set of Manhattan wheelers and dealers and real estate developers who want to sort of, you know, are out in it for the money, basically, and looking for a quick buck and want to make deals in that way. And sometimes it's these crusader anti-communists in Florida who are really at the wheel. And what's interesting about the clip you played of Trump on Air Force One is he's just handed this to Marco Rubio. I don't think Trump is thinking about, you know, making a deal. And I don't think that even Trump is interested in really exercising U.S. American power in the kind of Langley, Virginia set that I was talking about because I don't really think he's thinking about some of these operations. So what's interesting to see is how those play out between those three groups.

I know we're going long, but I just, I'm enjoying our conversation. Sorry, David. But it's just like, I mean, it seems like Rubio has said, we, Delci Rodriguez, we can control Cuba's oil, I mean, Venezuela's oil flow with a gun to her head. And that's how we can govern essentially indefinitely with Cuba not having this like Venezuela not having the sovereignty. And they're trying to apply the same logic to Cuba, it appears. But I mean, it's just not the same difference. Yeah, the big difference, which is that, which is that, you know, as Jose Luis and Ryan and Noah Col. when I've reported recently, Marco Rubio is lying to the president.

There are no negotiations between the Cubans and the U.S. Americans. And I know this because I talk to everyone all the time. And there are no ongoing negotiations. Now, that just begs the question. When Marco Rubio says, we're talking to the Cubans, when Trump says we're talking to the Cubans, who's he talking about? Have they already anointed some Gusano in Florida as the new president's protemporary, as the new kind of viceroy of Havana?

I wouldn't be surprised to find out that that's actually the imagination. That's actually what's in the works is some combination of exercising, you know, our economic might through the siege, our military might through whatever, you know, crazy J-Soc, Fort Braque initiative they're cooking up right now in a basement in Virginia. And some negotiation, some deal they're cutting for who knows how much money is being transacted in, you know, suitcases at Mar-a-Lago where, you know, someone's designated, basically, you know, Maria Lvilla Salazar, someone's being designated to basically run as vice-roway of Havana and control Cuba as we controlled it in the early 20th century, essentially as a colony of the United States.

Now, if all that sounds bad to you, then speak up, you know, if all that sounds bad to you, go to Cuba, stand with the people of Cuba, put your body on the line. That's the kind of call that we're making. Bring humanitarian aid that people so desperately need. And of course, let's pressure our representatives not to, you know, be able to get away with their studied silences with respect to the siege, but to actually, you know, make moves around, you know, let's give them the points. Let's give talk the points. You know, let's just call, you know, we want to restore Barack Obama's glorious legacy of, you know, warming diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Why is that now such a radical proposal? How far has the so-called Overton window shifted to the radical right that even our moderate or progressive leadership is struggling to articulate a vision that was already rather uncontroversially set out, in a handshape between Rao Castro and Barack Obama a decade ago. So your call for people to help and to join this Flotilla effort. Lastly, how can people do so? And we'll put a link down below to whatever you reference here. But what would be, what's your call to action with our audience?

So this week, we were, you know, we were overwhelmed with support, enthusiasm and donations. People really wanting to get involved with this Flotilla effort in the Western American Flotilla, the name coming from a very famous essay by the Cuban Revolutionary, Jose Mardi, who fought, died, but eventually won Cuban independence. In Western America, you know, let's take on the bad bunny mantle of thinking about our hemisphere as a place of sovereign equality and cooperation as opposed to U.S. American domination. Now, taking that name, you know, we're convening, you know, peoples of the world to join us on this mission, not only through sea-based routes, but also sending humanitarian aid

over land, that can be loaded into cargo ships, over flights, that still remain in operation through lines in Mexico, for example. I think some Colombian airlines are also taking part. You know, one of the major efforts that the United States undertakes when it seeks out to lead regime change is, you know, first they make it, first they go for isolation, right? So first they try to say, don't go to this place. It's a war zone. You know, you'll, there's nothing there. And that's the line that's coming out of the most rancid parts of the Republican Party right now, you know, and let alone establish kind of the relations of friendship and solidarity that might mean at an effective level, you know, you oppose forms of intervention that are

going to and already are costing lives. So our call to action is very simple. Organize your community, you know, get some critical humanitarian aid. We'll be publishing on our website, you know, an FAA key that helps you understand what the Cuban people need most. And then plan your delegation. All of this is completely legal in the OFFAP license of supporting the Cuban people. You know, plan your trip, you know, stay with a family or find some way to engage with people on the ground and understand their reality. See for yourself. Don't take my word for it of what Cuba is or isn't, but certainly don't take the word for it of those Floridian psychopaths. you know, try to break this siege both literally, but also politically, culturally, socially,

and make a major contribution from your respective community towards not just people's consciousness of the kind of crimes that we're committing just next door, but also a contribution to the well-being of a family, of a child, of a mother, of a grandmother, who is suffering right now the most immediate consequences of the collapse of infrastructure that we are not just overseeing as United States America, but that our president is celebrating in their face. David Adler, thank you so much for your time today. We will put a link down below to the resources that you need to support the flotilla. Thanks so much for coming on the show.

Really appreciate your time. Thanks, Emma. With that, folks, we're going to wrap up in a sec. Wanted to just before we go into the fun half, play a little bit of Jesse Jackson. You know, Jesse Jackson, RIP, passed away at 84 years old. You know, Bernie Sanders himself has talked about how this campaign was inspirational for him. Jackson was born in South Carolina in the 40s.

He marched in Selma. He was with Martin Luther King Jr. When he was killed, likely with the push from our own government. He was a champion of multiracial coalition politics. You've probably heard about the Rainbow Coalition. That was Jesse Jackson. Go ahead, Matt. Bernie supported Jackson.

It's interesting to look at that moment and how Bernie negotiated it. And Jackson, that was a moment, sort of a pre-2016 moment where the Democrats could have taken a better path and instead chose a different path. And it's in part why we're here where we are now. Exactly right. Jackson ran for president twice, 84, 88. and I didn't realize in 88 he won 13 primaries in caucuses. That's really amazing. It was a very, very conservative time.

Obviously, this is Reagan's America in the 80s. But he performed the best that any black presidential candidate has, with the exception of Obama in the primary process within the Democratic Party. He spoke out during his life on behalf of Palestinian. Indian rights. He was also a key advocate opposing apartheid in South Africa. And he really was a kind of, you know, a trailblazer for black people, for people of color in this country. And as a critic of inequality and his health issues were really significant later in his life. I think he had a difficulty because he had a neurological disorder communicating and moving around. But even still, he

one of the last things he did was he was at that the DNC and you know as they were shutting out Palestinians from speaking at the very least you had Jesse Jackson who I believe he spoke about the ceasefire or maybe that was a different thing or maybe I'm misremembering either way you know just to show that the pro-Palestine movement didn't start yesterday you know advocates for racial justice have understood what Zionism and Palestinian rights were really about for quite a while, and how the fight for equality is also linked with the fight to end militarism. So here's Jesse Jackson on with this great clip here, with his poem, his famous poem, I Am Somebody, reciting it on Sesame Street to children.

Ready on a stop? Yeah. Okay. Here we go. I am. Somebust. I am. Somebody.

I may be poor. But I am. But I am. Somebody. Somebody. I may be young. But I am. But I am.

Somebody. Aren't welfare. But I am. I am. Somebody. I may be small, but I am. Somebody. I may make a mistake. But I am. Somebody. Somebody. My clothes are different. My face is different. My hair is different. But I am. I am. Somebody. I am black. I am black. Brown, white. I speak a different language. But I must be respected. Protected. Never rejected. I am. I am. God's child. I am. I am. Somebody. Give yourself a big hand. Love that version.

Yeah. So, great American who we lost. And wonder why the Republicans want to defund PBS and are doing so because of programming like that. Also, speaking to move on from Republicans in the fun half, we'll talk about some Democrats who had a problem with him. And who got their way in effect, in effect, supported Dukakis in 1988 in 2008. And when Dukakis ended up getting 111. electoral votes to 426. How long is this clip?

This is a little bit long. Okay, I was like, do you want to just throw it up now? But yeah, so that's a bit of a teaser. Which prominent Democrats still in power was that big of an asshole? We will find out in the fun half. As a reminder, this show relies on your support. If you like this program, if you think the work we do is good and should keep going and you have some money to throw around. You couldn't be rely on big tech platforms.

Yes, which makes me on easy every time we do this plug here, just thinking about how reliant we are, unfortunately, on the medium of YouTube or Twitch or whatever. But with every membership, you make us less reliant on that, and it's much more direct the way that you can support us. So join the Majority Report.com. Also, folks, if you're in L.A. or you're in California, and you are going to be there March 22nd, join myself and Francesca Furentini at Dynasty Typewriter.

It's a matinee show 3.30 p.m. doors open at 2.30 p.m. The Bituation Room Live at Dynasty Typewriter Sunday, March 22nd. I will be there. Special guest to be announced. Matt, what's happening on Left Reckoning? Yeah, right up after the show at 2.30 Eastern today. So just stay watching YouTube or Twitch after this. after the fun half. A few things.

Oliver Larkin, who's running for Congress in Florida's 23rd District as a socialist, talk with David Griscom, Nathan Bernard talked to me about the main race and Platner and Mills

is fundraising. And I also monologue for 20 minutes about Hillary Clinton and Honduras at the beginning of the episode, so you're going to want to check that out

because, yeah, I have some axes to grind. I don't know if people are surprised by that, but yeah, I grind one for, 20 minutes talking about Hillary and her not standing up to a coup that was a coup of Manuel Zelaya in 2009 that Obama initially said, you know, that coup's not legal. He's still the

president. And Hillary said, we do not believe later, came out and contradicted Obama saying, we do not believe that was actually developed into a coup. And the reason she said that is because they didn't want to have to do anything as a state department to respond to a coup. And the country got thrown into sort of a cartel, sort of mafiosas. state where indigenous and environmental activists were killed. Their public sector was completely stripped bare, doge style. It's interesting that we have people like that telling us about how to protect our security on an international level.

Meanwhile, her husband and daughter are massively implicated in the Epstein conspiracy. So, I don't know, more on that at 2.30. In the fun half, I mean, there's a book. to be written, and I could have asked David about this, but I didn't want to keep him for so long, about Obama's first term foreign policy versus his second term and how much better John Kerry was just in general than Hillary Clinton. Night and day. Night and day.

And how Obama's best achievements on foreign policy all occurred under John Kerry. And that is the team of, you know, part of why, again, like we were trying to maybe sell Kamala versus Trump was that was some of the people that she was considering staffing her foreign policy team with. It's still wildly insufficient, but, you know, when you compare it to Joe Biden and the rot of that whole West Exec crew, there's a there needs to be an entire overhaul of the brain trust of foreign policy in Washington, D.C. And so like, you know, we'll have people right in, and I guess they have some disagreements with sometimes how Matt Dust frames things. But Matt Duss is a really important figure as like an actual person who has the ear of progressives and Democrats as a foreign policy thinker.

And he's like a lone wolf in Washington. Everybody else is like vying for a job at Lockheed Martin and advising the rest of the party. I mean, it's going to take a lot of effort. And frankly, a lot of personnel and a lot of removing a personnel because this is pretty endemic. I mean, a lot of data. Democrats thought Blinken was going to be better. That's true, though. Like, even people in the sort of like progressivey policy space, and they were wrong.

And there has to be a recalibration of my, and a more aggressive, more boldness, frankly, in this. Because these people are bad. Like, to make the decision that we're going to allow a coup government, these coup governments to fall. And all they're talking about this. I mean, we didn't. need to go into the fun half, but I'm, I'm agging you on and I want to yes and all of these points, but we'll talk more in the fun half. Am I forgetting anything? I don't think so. See you in the fun half. Okay, Emma, please. Well, I just, I feel that my voice is sorely lacking

on the majority report. Wait, look, look, Samma's unpopular. I do deserve a vacation at Disney World. So, ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to welcome Emma to the show. It is Thursday. I think you need to take over 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's offered a twerk, sushi, and poker with the boys.

The boys. So it's offered a twerk? Yeah. Sushi and poker with the boys. What? Twerk? Sushi and poll. That's what we call bids.

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. become now. You shouldn't even talk about it. I think you're responsible. I probably am in a certain way, but let's get to the meltdown here. Twir? I'm sorry, I'm losing my fucking mind. Someone's offered a twirp? Yeah. Sushi and poker. Boy, boy, boy, twerk.

I think I'm like a little kid. I think I'm like a little kid. Add this debate seven thousand times. A little kid. I think I'm like a little kid. A little kid. I'm not trying to be a dip right now, but like, I absolutely think the U.S. should be providing me with Hawaii. and kids. That's not what we're talking about here. It's not a fun job. It's a real thing. That's a real fit.

That's a real fit. Sam has like the weight of the world on the shoulders. Sam doesn't want to do this show anymore. It was so much easier. When the majority report was just you, you were happy. Let's change the subject. No, shut up. Don't want people saying reckless things on your program.

That's one of the most difficult parts about this show. This is a pro-killing podcast. I'm thinking maybe it's time we bury the hatchet. Left is best. Trump. Pilot. Word. I don't see that's one positive.

We already fund Israel. Incredible theme song. I Bumbler. Emma Viglin, absolutely one of my favorite people. Actually, not just in the game, like, period.