The Majority Report with Sam Seder - 3583 - China Decarbonizing; AIPAC On the Ballot in North Carolina w/ Assaad Razzouk, Nida Allam

Episode Date: February 18, 2026

It's Hump Day on the Majority Report   On today's program:   Mayor Zohran Mamdani looks like he cleared a major hurdle in his promise of freezing rent for rent-controlled housing in NYC after nominating 6 appointees to the Rent Board.   Mayor Mamdani is now applying pressure to Governor Kathy Hochul to raise taxes by 2% on those earning more than $1 million a year in order to avoid having to raid the city's reserves and raising property taxes in order to bridge the $5.4 billion dollar budget gap.   Assaad Razzouki, host of the Angry Clean Energy Guy Podcast and CEO of Gurin Energy a clean energy company, joins Emma to talk about China's ability to decarbonize while still growing their economy.   Nida Allam, progressive candidate for North Carolina's 4th Congressional district joins Emma for a conversation about her campaign.   In the Fun Half:   Francesca Fiorentini, comedian and host of the Bitchuation Room joins show.   RFK, Jr. and Kid Rock post a video of them working out together.   Michigan candidate for Senate, Haley Stevens touts the great female leadership at an ICE Facility that she just toured. If you are in Michigan vote for Abdul El-Sayed.   Journalist Tara Palmeri directly asks Michael Tracey if the basis of his slandering of Epstein survivors is a result of him being on the payroll of someone implicated in the Epstein files.   Dave Clips, a Dave Rubin parody account makes an incredible compilation of Dave Rubin begging Elon Musk to put him on the guest list for the fabled Mars colony.   Rep. Randy Fine uses an innocent joke about Islam coming to NYC and banning dogs as pets as an opportunity to launch another Islamophobic attack.   all that and more   To connect and organize with your local ICE rapid response team visit ICERRT.com The Congress switchboard number is [phone]. You can use this number to connect with either the U.S. Senate or the House of Representatives. Follow us on TikTok here: https://www.tiktok.com/@majorityreportfm Check us out on Twitch here: https://www.twitch.tv/themajorityreport Find our Rumble stream here: https://rumble.com/user/majorityreport Check out our alt YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/majorityreportlive Gift a Majority Report subscription here: https://fans.fm/majority/gift Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! https://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: https://majority.fm/app Go to https://JustCoffee.coop and use coupon code majority to get 10% off your purchase Check out today's sponsors: ZOCDOC: Go to Zocdoc.com/MAJORITY and download the Zocdoc app to sign-up for FREE and book a top-rated doctor WILD GRAIN: 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

Majority Report with Sam Cedar. It is Wednesday, February 18th, 2026. My name is Emma Vigeland in for Sam Cedar, and this is the five-time award-winning majority report. We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, USA. On the program today, Assad Razuk will be with us. to talk about China's CO2 emissions falling despite their massively growing economy. We were told it couldn't be done. And later in the show, Nita Alam, candidate for Congress in North Carolina's fourth district,

will be with us to talk about her race. Also on the program, the U.S. kills 11 more people with illegal strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific. And an enormous military buildup of U.S. personnel ships continues off Iran's coast. FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the sole Democrat left in the FCC, calls CBS's censorship of Colbert's Tala Rico interview, corporate capitulation. A Cambodian national, Lourth Sim, is the latest to die in ICE custody, the seventh immigrant. this year. So far. That we know of.

Federal judges sound the alarm on ICE's abuse of pregnant people and nursing people in their custody. And ICE just deported that two-month-old, I mentioned, earlier this week, who was hospitalized for vomiting. They only waited a few hours.

Christine Nome's spokesperson at the DHS is resigning. Why? Some good news, though, a judge has blocked the deportation of Palestinian peace activist Mosen Madawi. And some more good news here. RFK's FDA reverses its position and now says they will review Moderna's application for an MRNA-based flu vaccine. Fauci strikes back.

Yeah. Who paid them off? Who got the Moderna check? House Democrats are discussing forcing a vote to censure far-right Zionist Republican Randy Fine after he said Muslims are inferior to dogs. A third Adams-era Rent Guidelines Board member resigns, allowing Zoron to deliver on his campaign promise to freeze the rent for rent-sabilized units. And speaking of rent, lastly, the Twin Cities Tenants Union, announces plans for the largest rent strike in over a hundred years. All this and more on today's majority report.

Welcome to the show, everybody. It is hump day. Middle of the week, right smack dab in the middle around noon here. Hello, Matt. Hello, Brian. Great show today. People are praising my jacket in the IMs. I do love this jacket.

I bring it out for some special occasions. because it's white and I don't like to get stains on it, but I am actually going to be going on that podcast later this afternoon, Doom Scroll, if people have heard of it with Josh, I don't know how to say his last name. Ciderella. So I'm really looking forward to that and that's why we got the big guns out today, aka my white jacket. So this is going to be the story for blue cities around the country right now, what Zoran Mamdani is facing here. Because the federal government, led by Donald Trump is waging all-out war on cities that are led by Democrats, particularly if you're a person of color. What cities aren't? Right. I mean, but and in blue states, he's got it. The way he's terrorized L.A., the way he's terrorized Chicago, the only thing, even though we're seeing increased ice activity in New York City, it seems like the only thing that is keeping him from doing the same. to his hometown is, one, his affection for it, two, his affection for Zoran Mamdani,

but particularly as Politico reported, Zoran apparently kind of appealed to Trump in that, in that meeting a few months ago by talking about his desire to, like, reform zoning, which is apparently something that Trump had been railing about for years prior to his political career as well. So someone on Zoron's team did great research. To figure out which keys to jingle. Exactly, exactly. But he, as a headline, did not just significant win yesterday. He's going to be able to appoint six members to the Rent Guidelines Board,

which is the board that basically determines whether or not he's going to be able to deliver on his campaign promise to freeze rent for one million rent-stabilized apartments. The concern being that Adams had stacked it with a bunch of toadies that were going to get in the way. way of that, that has already cleared itself out. Exactly. There were three resignations of the Adams TOTES, meaning we don't know how Zoron got them to resign, but probably leveraging his enormous popularity and some other arm twisting behind the scenes. I mean, this is, his governance is a laboratory for future left-wing and progressive governance in many ways, but including his aggression and his ruthlessness. I mean, we don't, in the best way.

You know, that is what a lesson that should be learned, is that he acts with urgency and he doesn't mess around. So he's gotten three resignations and he's going to be able to freeze the rent. And that means we're on, we're in mid to late February. He's already secured the ability to deliver on two of his four campaign promises, freezing the rent for those units and he already secured funding from Kathy Hockel for his universal

child care pilot program but we've still got free buses and we still got the city run grocery stores to worry about. Which frankly I would think the lower 100% It seems to be an order of operations. Yeah, smart.

I mean that's where you move in terms of left politics there's a time for expression of left ideals there's also a time for implementing those things and I think we're in that phase right now for Zoran at least. Yes. And he's going to need, though, significant help from Albany because he's going to need Hockel to raise taxes on the rich. And he's been priming the public to understand this with talking about how Eric Adams left the city budget in disarray. It's just a smart way to frame it too because Adams is an unpopular former mayor. And he's using that unpopular, he's using his popularity to leverage what. what he needs and Adams's unpopularity to leverage what he needs. So he yesterday, when talking about

the city budget, basically issued kind of a warning here that if Albany does not approve tax hikes on the rich, the city might have to raise property taxes significantly and he emphasizes that this is a last resort. Legally, you have to balance the budget in New York City. So this is not a question of if he can do it. Or if he has to do it, he has to do it. And so, of course, the New York Post and all these other right-wing outlets are running with the property tax hike piece, but Zauron repeatedly emphasizes that this is a last resort.

Because those papers work for the ultra-wealthy. Exactly right. And property owners in New York City, or I mean, that might be the number one class of people other than just Zionists that the New York Post is trying to appeal to. And then also suburbanites who don't even live here but want to see some like racialized content about crime in the scary city. But I digress. Here is Zorn Mamdani. Mayor of New York feels good to say it still. Explaining what the two paths are right now for balancing the budget. But I want to be clear. 5.4.4.4. billion dollars is still a very steep mountain to climb. And there are two paths that we can walk,

one that offers long-term stability, and a second one with significant pain that we deeply hope to avoid. The first path repairs the structural imbalance between the city and the state. We want to work with Albany to raise personal income taxes by 2% on the 33,000 New Yorkers earning more than $1 million a year, and to raise corporate taxes on the most profitable corporations. And we know that for far too long, New Yorkers have given far more to the state than what we have received in return. It is time to end the drain. If we cannot follow this first path, we will be forced onto a much more damaging path of last resort, one where we have to use the only tools at the city's disposal, raising property taxes and raiding our reserves. This second path is painful. We will continue

to work with Albany to avoid it. This first path will deliver the structural change that we need to recalibrate the relationship between the city and the state. Because as we know, New Yorkers contribute 54.5% of state revenue, but receive only 40.5% back. At the same time, New York City's portion of the state's GDP has grown by nearly 10% since 2010. That imbalance is untenable. Once again, I'm calling for Albany to end the drain. There is no third option of failing to balance the budget. By law, ever since the fiscal crisis of the 1970s, which placed the city on the brink of bankruptcy, New York City has been legally required to balance its budget. We will do so. If we cannot pursue the first path, the only option we have remaining is the second path. At the heart

of this path is a property tax increase. This would effectively be a tax on working in middle-class New Yorkers who have a median income of $122,000. The second path also requires us to raid our reserves. It would mean withdrawing $980 million from our city's rainy day fund in fiscal year 2026 and $229 million from the retiree health benefit trust in fiscal year 2017. These are steps that have been taken before, but only in moments of extraordinary external crisis. Mayor Bloomberg's response to the 2008 financial collapse and Mayor de Blasio's response to the enormous revenue shortfall caused by the pandemic. We do not want to have to have a lot of to turn to such drastic measures to balance our budget.

I love his refusal to treat voters like idiots and the way that he explains exactly what he's thinking to the public. He and and and through an explanation though, putting enormous pressure on Kathy Hochel, enormous pressure. One, pointing out that the dynamic in New York in terms of. terms of taxation and what New York City provides for the state versus what it receives, that dynamic is quite similar to what we see on the federal level with blue states like California and New York contributing a disproportionate amount to the funds that are at the

federal government's disposal and providing and subsidizing more rural states in that regard. so you can see how these dynamics play out more broadly. But he lays out the number. 33,000 New Yorkers earn more than a million dollars a year, and raising those income taxes by 2% is the way to avoid the disaster scenario that he's talking about. Simple. Two birds with one stone, as far as I'm concerned. But as he mentions, property taxes are the only thing that he has control over.

The income tax piece is what Kathy Hockel needs to agree to. Apparently the last time that the city raised property taxes, which is amazing, was in 2003 under Bloomberg because 9-11 led to a recession in the city. But that's the last time that property taxes have been increased in New York City. And, you know, I mean, as he mentions, it would really impact all New Yorkers more broadly. so of course that's not the path that we should be going down. But just, I don't know, something to note there. This is a Democrat Party problem, and they need to be able to handle this sort of thing. And you don't have Republicans to point the finger to.

This is the state Senate. The Democrats have as big a majority as they've had in decades, basically these past few years. It's 41 to 22 in the state Senate. Assembly is 103 to 47. Figure it out. Any Democrats, and the problem is, is there's a lot of Democrats who are basically bought by the rich. And so, and which is to say like the ultra rich, not even like the property owning class. It's the extremely wealthy, like the big billionaires who are making the giant towers

in parking their investments in there so they can sell them later. That needs to be addressed. Tax them. Or it's going to fall on somebody else. And I love how he lays out the raw numbers too there where you have the 33,000. New Yorkers that would be taxed an extra 2% versus the over 3 million residential owners in New York

City and over 100,000 commercial property owners who would be affected by a 9.5% increase in property taxes and also what in when he would have to draw on the city's reserves in this scenario in the rainy day fund it would also mean taking hundreds of millions of dollars out of a fund that provides for health benefits for municipal retirees.

Yeah, I'm the only tenant of my landlord. If they get a tax increase on property taxes, my rent will probably go up. Exactly. So I definitely prefer going after the ultra-rich folks. And there's no excuse to not raise their taxes other than our political system and our press, like the New York Post, is corrupted by them. And I hope that there's a plan outside of just the public pressure campaign here. And I imagine there is.

I have no reason to doubt Zoran Mamdani's strategy at this point. given the success he's had so far. But I am a little bit surprised that he endorsed Hockel so early on when she still has not agreed to raise taxes on the rich. Perhaps they have some sort of handshake understanding that she has to put up some sort of fight. But given the severity of what he lays out there, it doesn't seem like there's been an agreement.

What perhaps preceded this endorsement was Hockel saying that she was going to agree to give a $1.5 billion, to give $1.5 billion, dollar to give 1.5 billion dollars to the city over the next two fiscal years which did address the budget gap projections it drew it down from 7 billion to 5.4 billion but without that tax increase that mom dany is talking about the doomsday scenario is what is being laid out and um we all you know this is this the the the right wing media is just clipping that point. part where he talks about the property tax increase and not all of the other context about it.

And just we should, everybody should be aware of the dirty tactics that are going to be used to try to try to smear this. Because the successes so far have been so undeniable that this is where they have to go. They have to lie and talk about snow. Yeah. Right. And the opposite should be, yeah, he needs to do more snow removal, but also we can't do anything to raise tax.

what's the alternative? But besides these two things, it's massively slashing the government budget, austerity, which is an absolute no-go. And even the New York Post can't even say that's what we want, because they just spent the last month saying Zoran needs to do more to do snow removal. Well, guess who pays for that, you idiots? Exactly right. Exactly right.

Chelsea, the sanitation department has done a great job in a really hard winter. Heroes. Around the clock shoveling snow into trucks that melt. it straight into the sewer. I've been shocked by how impressive that is... I mean, and the people that are like the snow thing that all they have... The snow is still here. It's been the coldest winter in like 20 years.

You know, there was some dummy I saw on Twitter being like, it's been sunny every day and the snow hasn't melted. This was a few weeks ago. Girl, if it's... That was John Petoritz. Check out Antarctica. It was John Potorz. Yeah. It's like, it needs to be above freezing, dumbass.

Yeah. What? It's sunny in Antarctica like every day. Exactly right. I mean, skiers. You think that like skiing stops if it's not cloudy? Do you have to explain this to adults? This isn't, I was about to make a twilight reference and I stopped myself, okay? In a moment, we are going to be speaking to our next guest, Asad Razouk, about the advances that China has made in infrastructure and clean energy. But first, a word from some of our sponsors here. Life can feel like a big puzzle.

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when you go to wildgrain.com slash majority to start your subscription today. That's $30 off your first box and free croissants for life when you visit Wildcrain. dot com slash majority or you can use promo code majority at checkout link down below in the video and episode descriptions and at majority dot fm quick break when we come back we join by assad razouk we are back and we are joined now by assad razuk CEO of gurin energy a renewable energy company and host of the angry clean energy guide podcast uh assad thank you so much for coming on the show thank you emma it's a pleasure uh really have happy to have you here to talk about this pretty incredible news about China, basically being

able to grow at this rapid pace, but also successfully decarbonizing. Last week, Carbon Brief published this analysis showing that China's carbon dioxide emissions fell by 1% in the final quarter of last year, which means when you added up with the rest of the quarters of last year, it indicates that China's CO2 emissions have fell overall in 2025, and this matches with other trends showing their emissions flatlining or falling. Talk about the significance of this. Yeah, the Chinese don't really mess around. And I've seen this over 15 years. It's all previewed and they then just deliver. So if you go back to the history of their decarbonization,

it started with a war on pollution. But then it was enshrined in the Communist Party constitution back in 2017 as under ecological civilization. And it wasn't coming out of nowhere. It came from the fact that in the early 2010, they routinely had 80,000 riots per year about pollution. And so if you're the Communist Party governing China, that is an attack potentially on your legitimacy. And their reaction has been to enshrine this ecological civilization concept into their constitution

and then move their entire economy to deliver on what they said they were going to do. So they said, I think that President Xi Jinping said in 2020 that they will cap emissions by 2030. And as you can see, they usually don't like to miss their goals and they like to be a few years early and that's what they delivered. And it's very consequential because it takes away many arguments against decarbonization. because of course not only are they still growing, but they are dominating the space because they're number one in solar deployment, wind deployment, offshore wind deployment,

electric cars, then the manufacturing of solar panels, wind turbines. I mean, you name it. They're number one globally as a machine, and it's all geared towards that ecological civilization enshrined in their constitution. Can you speak a little bit about the arguments that you mention that have been used to basically say that decarbonization and electrifying your economy isn't incompatible with economic growth? Yeah. These are cheap arguments, to be honest, because they have no basis, in fact, really. The thing is that we have built, I mean, we had good reasons to do so, but since the Industrial Revolution, We built a fossil fuel electricity system, which is remarkably wasteful and destructive. And, you know, order of magnitude, you put in, whatever you put in, basically two-thirds of it is wasted before you get any useful energy.

Whereas when you electrify, almost 100% of what you use is usable energy. not only that your footprint, your environmental footprint, is massively lower. I mean, orders of magnitudes of something like 1,000th of the environmental footprint of a fossil fuel economy. And so on. However, you know, you can understand where these arguments are coming from, because you've had a fossil fuel industry that's gotten very wealthy over, over 100 years. It's got a lot of money.

It buys a lot of airtime and whatever. And it pollutes the, not only does it pollutes our air, but it also pollutes the waves, the airwaves, so to speak. So. Right. It pollutes the conversation. Exactly. Can you speak a little bit about how, you know,

you mentioned how China's long-term planning, has led us led them to this moment. And that's something obviously that the United States completely lacks. We, it is a completely unstable political system, unstable, I should say, political system here. Biden does the Inflation Reduction Act, does some sort of like infrastructure bill. And then Trump comes in just three years later,

two years later, scraps the entire thing. So there's no long-term planning here in the United States. And when you compare that to the targets that China has set out, I mean, like, their investment in high-speed rail and infrastructure also allowed them to advance green energy because you can more quickly transport materials and energy. And it's a big part of why this massive country has been able to electrify so quickly. Yeah. And it's even more concerning, I think, from a, If you look at the kind of state of the U.S. economy today, it's even more concerning because China today has already on its books the manufacturing capacity to deliver about one entire United States of energy, of electricity, per year from 2030, only from solar, wind, and batteries.

What this means is they'll build an entire U.S. electricity system each year per year from 2030. Then in terms, what that means is they will reach a state of overabundance of energy, which will allow them to have a massive competitive advantage when it comes to things like, you know, AI and data centers and what have you, all at much cheaper cost than the, American competition can. And you know, you don't have to go far away to see who's shouting from the roofs. I mean, Elon Musk, if you just read his Twitter feed, you know, one third is about the craziness of what's going on in the United States now because it's not building the electricity of the future. And it's therefore limiting its ability to power the chips that it needs

for AGI, right? And I think the U.S. is going to run of electricity to power all the ships that have been ordered by the end of this year. And I'm not quoting anybody else other than Elon Musk again. So you've got voices across the political spectrum that are all actually talking sense, yet the machine is just driving in the wrong direction. And can you elaborate a little bit on? on what types of energy China is using to reduce their emissions? I mean, solar, wind, what is driving this most, mostly, or a combination of all of it?

Well, the overwhelming tech is solar. It's now, China's now rapidly also ramping up batteries, as well as nuclear. I mean, they have an enormous, by global standards, they have an enormous nuclear energy program. And what, notwithstanding how big their nuclear energy effort is, if you project to 2035 or 2040, effectively the overwhelming source of electricity in China is going to be solar. and then batteries, followed by wind with nuclear probably stabilizing at 5% just because it takes you so much longer to build nuclear power plants. And it's a much, much slower process.

So you can do, it takes you say 15 or 20 years to deliver a nuclear power plant. By that time, you've delivered maybe 150 nuclear power plants in solar power. The Chinese are also building coal, which is another common argument that you hear. Yes, I was going to be my next question about, because then you'll hear the argument about how much coal they're burning, but it's being offset by everything we just discussed. I see it on my Twitter feed and LinkedIn feed all the time. And yeah, I mean, but you have to look at what they're doing because it's actually very small. Yes, they're building coal. They're building coal partly to replace old coal, but also partly because it's insurance. I mean, if you think about it logically for a minute, the argument falls away. If I'm going to replace the entire US electricity system today with solar, wind, and batteries, it's going to take me a few years to do so. In those years, I'm going to have a stressed grid. And my grid needs a stabilizing factor. which has to come from coal until the batteries have scaled up.

And you can see it in their capacity utilization, all the data is public. So their typical coal fire at power plant used to run 5,600 hours per year. So say 60% capacity factor. And it's now on its way to running at 35% capacity factor, which means they're going to be losing money on that call. but they need it as a bridge in effect and as insurance until they have built out enough solar, wind and batteries. And what I'm saying is not controversial.

I mean, it's literally math, basically. What is the, how much do the Chinese have a monopoly on this technology? I mean, and we know that they're producing around 70% of electric vehicles. that are being manufactured across the globe. But in terms of like the technology of solar and some of the more these advancements that we're talking about here, how far ahead are they of the United States? They're very far ahead, but the United States can catch up.

They're very far ahead. Yes, they control over 70% of pretty much every single. sector that matters in the clean technology revolution. But the United States can, of course, catch up, right? And there are efforts to do so in terms of building out the capacity of the country to deliver the technology of the future. So that's solar panels and batteries and, you know, wind turbines, notwithstanding the current political climate,

because U.S. businesses and big tech and the hypers, you know, they know exactly how their competitive position is going to be weakened once China, and it's very close, has an overabundance of electricity, which means the ability to develop data centers and therefore ultimately AGI faster than the United States. And these are consequential choices that are being made today in the U.S. political environment. Because it's not like you can catch up forever, right?

Once you have scaled enough, it's going to be not possible to catch up. But catching up also still means that China is going to own the technology. I mean, just from like a leverage standpoint, the United States is eventually going to have to rely on China, most likely, for this advanced technology. If and, you know, when we're forced to build out the capacity of green energy that we should be doing right now. Yes, I think so. I think it's actually better off relying it because you can buy Chinese once. But then it's your solar power, right? And the solar panels are going to be around for 30 years.

So why would you not 40 years? Why would you not buy them that once? It's the same thing with the wind turbines. The batteries last 20 years, right? So if you want to catch up, yes, of course, build your own manufacturing capacity. But why would you not buy that solar panel that lasts 40 years, given that once you've bought it, the fuel is free and yours? I mean, it's an energy security issue.

And the argument does not make sense. Yes, but that is where I think, you know, we see why China's state capacity versus the United States is the, is in a big reason for this dynamic. Because the, I mean, in part, it's when you install solar panels, when you install wind turbines, that it is finite, as you say. These can be structural and they can produce energy. But oil and gas is a resource that you have to keep tapping into. And so if your economy is driven more by speculators, by investors, by the market versus like a state impulse to build out infrastructure for the betterment of the country, investors prefer oil, gas, coal, what have you, versus. solar panels and stuff like that, or at least here in America, the existing wealthy? I find that, okay, that argument's going to go away.

And it's going to go away because of economics. Right? Yes. It's already, it's already cheaper. We look at Texas or California. No, forget California. Look at Texas. Why would an oil and gas state a proud oil and gas.

state. Be building solar batteries and wind turbines like there's no tomorrow, right? They've leapfrogged California now in solar power, for example. And they're doing that because in Texas, the market speaks. And the market says it's cheaper, it's better, and therefore they are building it. And as a bonus, they don't have any blackouts anymore, electricity blackouts anymore, when they have extreme weather events, for example. And so I think the argument, the economics, has got to win, especially, as you say, in a market economy. It's just unavoidable. It's, you know, today, tomorrow is the day after, but it's unavoidable. Well, from your mouth to God's ears, really appreciate your time today.

Asad Razuk, CEO of Guren Energy, a renewable energy company, and host of the angry, clean energy guy podcast. You can check that out. We'll put a link down below to that in the video description and episode descriptions. Thanks so much for your time today. Pleasure. Quick break, folks. And when we come back, we'll be joined by Nita Alam. We are back and we are joined now by Nita Alam, vice chair of the Durham County Board of Commissioners and candidate for Congress in North Carolina's fourth congressional district. The primary is on March 3rd, early voting.

ends February 28th. Nita, welcome to the show. So glad to have you. Thank you so much for having me, Emma. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be speaking with you because you are a, you're a justice Democrat. You're one of the progressive candidates running this cycle against an incumbent. And you already ran for Congress in 2022. And the pro-Israel lobby went really hard against you, both APAC and DMFI, spending millions of dollars. against you.

And this time, four years later, you're running against the same opponent, the incumbent representative, Valerie Foucher, who eventually buckled and refused to accept APAC money in August after all of this pressure. So talk a little bit about

that four-year difference between the first time you ran and the dynamics of your candidacy and that of your opponent and how things have changed. Absolutely. Yeah. And let's not forget the crypto billionaire who is sitting in the Bahamas, now in jail for fraud, that also dumped in over a million dollars into the race in 22. Right. Right. And we're seeing like this momentum and energy of

anti-genocide, anti-war candidates all across the country because it's what working class people want in this country. They are sick and tired of seeing their taxpayer dollars to be used funding wars when they're struggling here right now to make ends meet, that families are not even able to keep a roof over their heads, put food on their table, and told that we don't have enough money to fully fund our public education, that we don't have enough money to make health care a human right, but yet we have money to endlessly send bombs and missiles overseas.

So, I mean, the fact that your opponent caved on this front on the money that she was taking is, I think, indicative of what you're talking. about here, that she sees that energy within the voting population and that they want to be prioritized over genocide, over cryptocurrency and all of these kind of tech AI venture capital people. But she still takes corporate PAC money. Talk a little bit about the funders of her campaign that she still is accepting. Absolutely. And it also, to note, as you mentioned, It just happened this past August, we're what, like two, three years into the genocide

for that stance to be taken. And it happened even in the middle of this genocide to fly to Israel and take pictures smiling with Netanyahu, still to this day continuing to refuse to call it a genocide, refusing to call Nathan Yahoo a war criminal, when we've seen this live streamed in front of our eyes every single day. And now she's still continuing to. to take money from these corporate defense contractors that are profiting off of the United States

endlessly funding war. The Pentagon has not passed an audit in over 30 years. Why is a member of Congress in a safe blue seat accepting corporate checks from Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Honeywell, Caterpillar, all of these corporations that profit off of the genocide and also taking money from organizations, corporations like Meta, that we know has been working to limit people's voice. voice in putting outreach and information out about ICE. She has been asked, there's a data center being debated in this district. She's been asked point blank by residents, are you going to reject AI PAC money? And she refuses to answer.

There you go. And that data center is becoming a flashpoint. It's not just in your potential district. It's across the country. But it's causing people's electricity bills to go up. and they're trying to buy off politicians to ignore that very fact. What are you hearing from your members of your community about the potential construction of this AI data center?

Oh, majority, I've heard from hundreds of residents that are all against it. They've been showing up to, you know, town council meetings to express their anger and frustration that they don't want this fund, they don't want this center being built because we see corporations like META spending millions of dollars across the country right now with these ads to try to convince us that these AI data centers are going to create jobs and they're good for us. The data is very clear and it shows us that they are killing our jobs, along with destroying our environment.

Here in this district, Duke Energy is already hiking up our electricity prices to provide the services that it needs to for the data centers. Why is that price increase being passed down to residents? We also have seen across the country that these data centers are using millions of gallons of water a day. The town of Apex, their water source is a lake. When that lake runs dry, what happens? Right. Right.

And you support the Green New Deal I saw on your website. Have people in your district or potential district spoken to you about the AI data centers in that context? Like, I mean, do you find that it's basically easier to make some more environmental arguments when it's become really practical for people when they've experienced it with their energy bills? Yeah, folks are saying it from multiple aspects. It's that job aspect that people are fearful of losing their jobs. This district was hit with the highest number of federal funding cuts more than any congressional

district in the country. So those are hundreds of jobs that were lost already. And now people are scared that what is it? AI data set are going to mean for their jobs. And then on top of losing their, potentially losing their jobs, their electricity prices are going to go up. And there's no regulations put in place. And our current member is the co-chair of the AI task force in Congress.

And to be the co-chair of an AI task force that's meant to regulate an industry, but then not say you're going to reject money from that industry, how are you supposed to regulate them? Well, I mean, that's why they're interested in spending on her behalf, it seems. I saw that you received an endorsement from Bernie Sanders. He went and he campaigned with you last week in Durham. Just I guess if you could speak a little bit about that event and that endorsement and how you would define your political ideology maybe in comparison to someone like Sanders. Yeah, I mean, my first start into politics, it wasn't a traditional one. I never expected to ever run for office myself.

However, when I was in my final year of undergrad, I lost my best friend Yasser Abu Salha, her younger sister, Razan, and Yasser's husband, Thia Barakat, when they were murdered in their home in Chapel Hill, by their neighbor who hated them because they were Muslim. Wow. And seeing how politicians and the media labeled it a parking dispute and having grown up in a post-9-11 America

where Muslims were demonized, and now to just be dehumanized in such a way to have our debts be brushed under the rug, that's what pushed me to start looking at how do we have a louder voice and a seat at the table so that others are writing our narratives. And that led me to Senator Sanders when I was still in undergrad and actually started organizing and working for him. And so it's kind of come full circle moment now that 11 years ago I was in Greensboro speaking at a Coliseum campaigning for him. And now he's come to Durham to campaign for me. I mean, I'm just so happy for you in just hearing that story.

That is just so heartwarming. I mean, he's an inspiration for many of us, so I relate to you on that front. You mentioned that your district had like the largest single loss in federal funding because of Doge. What has your opponent said about that? She's put out letters, strongly worded letters. Or done about that, I should say. I mean, in Congress, she's in power. Yeah, no, we've been having sit downs and meetings with laid off FEMA workers, FEMA responders,

USAID workers, academic professors and researchers that have been doing lifesaving research and talking to them about the impact that these cuts have had on them. And we've heard the same thing in all of these conversations that they've been over a year of looking for a new job, months on unemployment, a lot of them were about to start their own families or had just started their own families or were just weeks away from being laid off, sorry, from being, from retired. And so to have a member that's not proactively fighting for them to have their jobs be returned and to just be putting out letters and providing sympathy, our residents need more than that. And that's why we've introduced the Carolina contract, which is my promise to the district of how, once I get to D.C., we're going to be advocating for not just a return of the federal funding, but a return at a higher level of 150% until we return to the same level of work that was being done prior to the doge cuts, creating protections for our federal employees so that they can't just be laid off for doing their jobs well.

and that there's actually protections for them and the right to unionize and also a fund created so that if push comes to shove and we have an emergency situation, that there's a fund to help workers get through that difficult time. Yes. I mean, that's a phenomenal idea. Has she responded directly to your proposal? No. Okay.

So lastly, I wanted to ask you about ICE because I know that ICE has been, you know, quite active terrorizing people in North Carolina. We saw some really, I think, positive examples of resistance. I believe it was in Charlotte of ICE. What would you do as a member of Congress to protect your community from ICE? I would, one, do the same thing I've been doing as a county commissioner, is showing up in the streets, standing shoulder to shoulder with my neighbors as an immigrant woman, as a Muslim woman who is the very person that ICE was created under the Bush administration to target.

I am the only candidate in this race that is called for the abolishment of ICE. The fact that our member of Congress has seen what's happening in Minneapolis, seen what's happened in our own backyards, seeing our taxpayer dollars be used to murder innocent civilians in broad daylight, and still only be saying that body cameras will save us. They're being live streamed, murdering people. What is a camera going to change about that? Exactly. Exactly.

I mean, it's, and you read a little bit about, like, what, ice, what would benefit ice? And they kind of like the body camera thing, because it's surveillance of people that they can put into some sort of, you know, Palantier technology. and they have a recording of every single interaction that they can use for mass surveillance. So, you know, obviously you're not taking corporate PAC money. You're taking only small dollar contributions as a Justice Democrat.

That's the barrier to entry. How can people support your campaign in the critical final weeks ahead of, I guess now it's 13 days until election day? Yes, 13 days. It's a sprint. Ways that people can support is nithaalam.com slash donate to make a contribution, but also you can volunteer from anywhere in the country. So if you go to nithalam.com slash volunteer, you can sign up to text bank, phone bank, or if you're in the district or around us, come out and canvas and knock doors because

we're also the only campaign that's running any sort of field program that's meeting voters where they're at and building those relationships. That's great. All right, well, we'll put a link to that down below in the video and episode descriptions. Nita Alam, thank you so much for your time today. As a reminder, you're running in North Carolina's fourth congressional district. The election day is March 3rd, but early voting ends February 28th. So you can still early vote up until that point, until 10 days from now.

So thanks so much for coming on the show today. I really appreciate it. And best of luck. Thanks, Emma. Of course. With that, folks, we are going to head into the fun half in just a second. We'll bring in Francesca Furentini, who's going to be joining us for the fun half. But Matt, what's happening on Left Reckoning and with the Jacobin Show? Yeah, big giant left reckoning yesterday afternoon.

I talked about Hillary Clinton going to the security conference and say, we can have a debate about immigration. They didn't go too far, which is rich for someone who failed to stay. stand up to a coup that the administration she worked for initially stood up to and in Honduras, which led to half a million people being displaced. So yeah, it's bad when migration has to happen. This idea that it happens because our border is weak because we're not giving security contractors enough to do it down there and not because of our foreign policy is, I can't

believe we still are stuck in the mud on that object permanence of why people come here. It's not because of the apple pie and the freedoms that we all love to have. And our non-existent social programs. It's because we destroy their governments and civil society by letting mafiosas and cartels taken over. But yeah, and we also had a number of guests on the program. So check that out, Love for a YouTube channel. All right. Check it out, folks.

And, uh, hello. That's my body. I was getting my stretch in. I was like, uh, I'm on deck. All right. Get ready. Stretch. We're going to make fun of some.

right-wingers and you're going to probably have to see RFK without his shirt on. Hello, Francesca Furentini. I am Vigeland. Thank you for having me on White Jacket Day. Wow, this jacket is really, really causing quite a stir. What's happening on the bituation room outside of what I've been talking about? And I mean, I'm just teeing you up to plug our live show. Just do it. Oh, sorry, I was going to tell you about our last show. Abby Martin was on our live. show that I'm going to plug now, but also, yes, Emma and I will be live at the dynasty typewriter in Los Angeles on March 22nd. That's a Sunday at 3.30 p.m. Just very, very, very... It's perfect for our crowd. Oh, beautiful. We know you're coming from far away. We know we're still drinking. I just

want to put that out there. The bar is open. But the special guests other than yourself will be announced soon. But yes, get your tickets in the link or Dynasty typewriter or Francesca Durantini.com or all of the other things. And I'm so excited. I'm so excited too. I mean, I've been telling, I've been texting you every time it's getting cold here. Like, wish it was tomorrow. Wish I wasn't here. What it was a real feel minus two degrees. Oh my God. It's at least better now. But there we are. Hey. The Bituation Room Live. That's going to be a blast. Okay. So, yeah, link in the episode description and right, like down below. and yeah, you can go to Francesca's site as well.

Anything else? Join the MajorityReport.com. Justcoffee.com. Just coffee.com. Fair trade, tea, and... Fair trade coffee and chocolate. What's the one that we're not supposed to... That it doesn't exist.

I don't know. Whatever. I don't know which ones don't exist. I know the coffee does exist. Sam, I've been saying it the same way for three years, and then we, like, figured out that two of the things he was saying are not offered on the website, and I forget which one that. are so just coffee.coop fair trade stuff but definitely coffee and you can get the majority report blend all right guys see you in the fun half

okay emma please well i just i feel that my voice is sorely lacking in the majority report wait look sam is unpopular i do deserve a vacation at disney world so ladies and gentlemen it is my pleasure to welcome emma to the show it is Thursday I think you need to take 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 him to live like this. And I'll tell you why. So it's offered a twerk, sushi, and poker.

That's what we call it, biz. 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. Dwerp?

Ugh. Sushi and poker with the boys. Oh my God. Wow. sushi. I'm sorry, I'm losing my fucking mind. Someone's offered a twir? Sushi and poker sushi and add this debate. I'm not trying to be a dick right now, but like, I absolutely think the U.S.

should be providing meat with a wife and kids. That's not what we're talking about. It's not a fun job. Twirp. That's a real thing. That's a real fit. Willie Walker. That's a real thing.

That's a real fit. Offered it twirman. And has like the weight of the world on the shoulders. Hager. do it anymore it was so much easier one of the majority report was just you let's change the subject right 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 kind of we bury the hatchet left his best

trum violet twirlet word to the way that's all possible minimal theme song i bumbler emma viglin absolutely one of my favorite people actually not just in the game like period