The Majority Report with Sam Seder - 3583 - Gaza City Ground Invasion; Starbucks CEO on the Ropes w/ Zachary Foster & Michelle Eisen

Episode Date: September 17, 2025

It's Hump day on the Majority Report. On today's show: Stephen Miller and JD Vance guest host The Charlie Kirk Show and Miller promises to dismantle "Left-Wing Terrorist Networks", whatever that means. Rolling Stone publishes a profile piece on Stephen Miller where they reveal that he likes to play with porcelain dolls, has a short fuse and operates as a shadow president. Thom Tillis acknowledges that Alex Jones and Steve Bannon proclaiming "war" on the left exemplifies the right's role in escalating the violent division in this country. Contributor to the Palestine Nexus Newsletter, Zachary Foster joins us to discuss the most recent evacuation order in Gaza City and the current state of the Israeli genocide of Palestinians. 15-year barista and Starbuck's Worker's United leader, Michelle Eisen joins the show to discuss current negotiations with Starbucks, their union busting efforts and a potential strike. In the Fun Half: Kash Patel continues his humiliation tour of congress, as he testifies before the House Judiciary Committee. Patel is getting hit from both sides over his Epstein hypocrisy. Recently fired CDC director Dr. Susan Monarez testifies before Congress to describe her experiences under HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr. Ta-Nehisi Coates writes a great piece about the sanitization of Charlie Kirk's legacy. All that and a lot more The Congress switchboard number is [phone]. You can use this number to connect with either the U.S. Senate or the House of Representatives. Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com: https://fans.fm/majority/join Follow us on TikTok here: https://www.tiktok.com/@majorityreportfm Check us out on Twitch here: https://www.twitch.tv/themajorityreport Find our Rumble stream here: https://rumble.com/user/majorityreport Check out our alt YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/majorityreportlive Gift a Majority Report subscription here: https://fans.fm/majority/gift Subscribe to the 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: NUTRAFOL: Get $10 off your first month’s subscription + free shipping at Nutrafol.com when you use promo code TMR10 CURRENT AFFAIRS: Use code MAJORITYREPORT for 30% for a year on any subscription of your choice. BLUELAND: Right now, get 15% off your first order by going to Blueland dot com slash majority SUNSET LAKE:  Head to SunsetLakeCBD.com and use coupon code “Left Is Best” (all one word) for 20% off of your entire order. Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech Check out Matt’s show, Left Reckoning, on YouTube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Check out Matt Binder’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Check out Ava Raiza’s music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com/

You are listening to a free version of The Majority Report with Sam Cedar. To support this show and get another 15 minutes of daily program, go to Majority.fm. Please. The Majority Report with Sam Cedar. It is Wednesday, September 17th, 2025. 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, Zachary Foster will be back

with us to talk about Israel's ground invasion in a new hellish, ground invasion of Gaza City, a new hellish chapter in this genocide. And later in the show, Michelle Eisen, national leader of Starbucks Workers United, will be with us to talk about the ongoing negotiations and the new CEO being in a bit of a tough position. Also on the program, Cash Patel testifies in front of the House Oversight Committee today and is being hammered over the Epstein files cover up, claiming there was no trafficking and then backtracking.

It's a good thing this isn't under oath or anything, right? It's a good thing they're also turning to all the FBI agents that used to look into human trafficking for elite clientele, let's say, into Border Patrol. Yeah. And the fired CDC director and former chief medical officer are testifying in front of the Senate right now

about RFK's complete disregard for the scientists there. Charlie Kirk's suspected killer charged in Utah, and authorities release a transcript of text messages of him supposedly confessing. Trump and company are struggling to tie the shooter to the left, but are still using it as justification to attack liberal nonprofits that are bracing for impact. Dozens of Americans have already lost their jobs for their reaction to the killing of Charlie Kirk.

And Deputy Attorney General and Trump's personal attorney, Todd Blanche, threatens investigations of organized anti-Trump protests. Shocker, ICE officers were not wearing body cameras when they shot and killed an undocumented immigrant in Chicago last. week. A body of a 20-year-old black man, de Martrevian Reed, was found hanging from a tree near a university in Mississippi in what appears to be a lynching. Israel advances tanks into Gaza City. The EU plans to hit Israel with tariffs and sanctions. That's good. And lastly, the Fed is expected to cut rates as the economy slows all this and more on today's

majority report. Welcome to the show, everybody. It is hump day. Sam is out today. We mentioned this earlier. He is with family. He had a death in the family. So condolences to the Cedars. He will be back with us on Friday. Obviously, tomorrow's and majority report Thursday. So Looking forward to having him back. We wanted to play this. We didn't get to this yesterday, but Charlie Kirk's old show, what was it called? Charlie Kirk, yeah. Oh, okay, that's very straightforward.

There was like a guest host of it in honor of him after he was killed last week. And that guest host was the vice president of the United States, where he said a lot of inflammatory things and threatened political retaliation and prosecution of left-wing activists broadly because of this killing. They're trying really hard to manufacture consent for an authoritarian free speech crackdown. They've been trying to incite reactions to ICE officers, to the National Guardsmen that are coming into cities as a pretext for further authoritarianism. I mean, look at the hyping up of the assault on big balls. Look at the way they were treating this Ukrainian refugee, which is the first time any of them have shown any compassion for a refugee. Yep. Well, she was a white woman.

Right, which definitely helps. And, yeah, they are looking for warrants, basically. This is their same interest in supposedly human trafficking, which, as I said earlier, there's a big article about how they're turning all of the agents that had been on that beat, a pretty important thing to be looking into, pretty nasty crimes. They're turning them into, you know, see who's undocumented in a kitchen somewhere. Exactly right. And I, in terms of, like, the popular sentiment about that,

this, I already see the story kind of fading. And I think in part that's due to the fact that Trump is deploying J.D. Vance for in the keeping with, in the tradition of Biden, giving the vice president all of the unsavory tasks, is trying to get sending him out there. And he just doesn't have the juice to kind of manufacture consent for the vengeance that they're talking about. But Trump doesn't care about Charlie Kirk. I mean, he was asked about his, how he's holding up about his death, and he talked about the construction of the White House ballroom.

Look at those trucks. Yes. Bringing in all that gold. And the, or gold-plated. We got to be cheap here, folks. And, like, then he skipped his Kennedy Center vigil as well. The Republicans, their turn towards authoritarianism is extremely reliant on Trump using the bully pulpit.

And I don't think he's doing it very effectively in this case. So J.D. Vance has this task, and he's a charisma vacuum, and no one cares what he has to say. But the guy that's closest to Donald Trump is Stephen Miller. And there was a great piece in Rolling Stone I'll read some excerpts from basically showing that he's the shadow president on all of these matters. And he's a legitimate Nazi. So he was the guest on the Charlie Kirk show hosted by J.D. Vance, the vice president. And this was what he had to say about, you know, what the plans are after this killing. You know, what emotions I'm feeling right now is just something people say. I mean, you kind of know the answer. There's incredible sadness, but there's incredible anger.

And the thing about anger is that unfocused anger or blind rage is not a productive emotion. Right. But focused anger, righteous anger, directed for a just cause, is one of the most important agents of change. human history. Probably showed that, amen. And we are going to channel all of the anger that we have over the organized campaign that led to this assassination to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks. So let me explain a bit of what that means.

So I've got 30 seconds. So be quick, Stephen. The organized box on campaign. The organized riots, the organized street violence, the organized campaigns, the organized campaigns of dehumanization, vilification, posting people's addresses, combining that with messaging this design to trigger and cite violence in the actual organized cells that carry out and facilitate the violence.

It is a vast domestic terror movement. And with God is my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks and make America safe again for the American people.

It will happen, and we will do it in Charlie's name. Thank you, Stephen. Don't go away. I'll be joined by a guest. Great mic work. I mean, they all want to be podcasters. But it's Ted Cruz now wanting to be a podcaster. It's now a guest, J.D. Vance, and we have a podcaster who's head of the FBI.

The hours are nice. Yeah, I'd imagine. I mean, right, especially if you just go up there and just shoot the shit and don't care if you're saying anything true or not. We'll get to that in just a sec Because Tom Tillis When questioning Cash Patel Makes a good point And the reason that he's able to say this is because he's a Republican

That is retiring But this rolling stone piece from Sunday On Stephen Miller Talks about him And shows the influence that he has on the president In great detail It's called Inside Stephen Miller reign of terror by Asowen Suvasang, Nikki McCam Ramirez, Andrew Perez.

More than seven months into Trump's term, Stephen Miller has become America's, if not the world's most powerful, unelected bureaucrat. With Trump's blessing, Miller has been allowed to run and remake the country in a manner virtually unheard of for a U.S. government official of his rank. Think any egregious policy from the Trump administration, chances are it was driven by Stephen Miller. All of it bears Trump's signature, but the president is not the one spending his night's writing executive orders and bending legal

theory to his will. We know he's spending his time watching television or golfing or sleeping. How about them Yankees? YMCA. That's fun to stay at that. All of it bears Trump signature, as I mentioned.

Nearly all of this bears bears the authorship or at least co-authorship of Miller. Everything you loathe or love about Donald Trump's America, you hate or cherish about Stephen Miller's Republic of Fear. Under Miller's guiding hand, the government can deport or kidnap or rendition and rendition you or your spouse without due process to a foreign gulog if the president feels like it. The White House can repeatedly threaten to take away the most basic of constitutional protection such as habeas corpus. The president can launch Justice Department criminal investigations against his enemies who, by all known accounts, did nothing wrong except annoy the commander-in-chief or refuse to help him

steal an election, et cetera, et cetera. But there's more, they talk a lot about, we mentioned Jean Guerrero's book about Stephen Miller growing up in California and his deep Latino, anti-latino sentiment from having Latino classmates, but also how he was radicalized as a Zionist and anti-Muslim extremist in college. The article goes over that. But they talk about how he berates all of their colleagues and more and cites him as influencing some of the most insane decisions that Trump has made, including it was he, according to this reporting, that floated the suspension of habeas corpus. Miller has no legal background, but according to Trump officials, Miller was the mastermind behind Trump's ploy to use the Alien Enemies Act to conduct mass deportations without. due process, a plot he detailed in 2020 in 2023 during an interview with conservative radio

host Clay Travis and Buck Sexton. Miller was also the first member of, I know, of the administration to publicly suggest the suspension of habeas corpus, as I mentioned. And there's another part of this piece. I don't have it here, but it talks about maybe, can you look up the Immigration Act of 1924 if words search that? Thank you. This is the part I wanted to also highlight. Miller speaks almost exclusively in apocalyptic terms in the caricatured language of military combat forever war and invasion against the culture and the homeland.

He's a camp of the state-style Nazi that came out in the Breitbart emails in 2017. He's yearned to erect a vast hyper-militarized network of what he's dubbed camps for detention and mass deportation, a network he hopes will change the American political and physical landscape forever. Miller, who is Jewish, has been denounced by, his own uncle as a one-man betrayal of Jewish moral and political values, Miller has long held the deepest admiration for the Immigration Act of 1924 and wishes

to bring America back to those days. The law is notorious for making the Holocaust deadlier for Jews who tried to flee the Nazis only to be denied safe passage to the U.S. And that's accurate, because that was the Johnson Reed Act. It's extremely racist. it limited immigration to 2% of the number of people from the nationality that was already in the United States. So it was 2% of a proportion of people in the United States. And they used the 1890 census in this 1924 Act, which is important to know because they could have used the 1910 census, which was the more recent one.

They were doing it every 20 years at that point. But they didn't because by that point, there were more Italians, there were more Jews. There were more Polish people, Greeks, people from southern, eastern Europe as well. The act also explicitly banned Asian immigrants, Japanese immigrants. What did you say? The dromphs came in. Yes, right. And the Lex also, I'll just say, in that period.

To John Oliver's credit, that was also. So he's talked about how that was cringe now. So he's walked that back, the drum thing. But even I had a drunk hat. I hate to admit that. But, you know, I've grown out of that, hopefully. Still a little bit cringe. But then in the 1960s, basically, that is when they abolish these quotas based on race.

And Stephen Miller wants to return to the time when we had racial quotas for immigration, even though it affected Jews. And we turned boats away of Jews fleeing the Holocaust because of this racist act. And that is his vision for America. And we're well on our way. But they were refugees. That's icky. Right. They're infecting this.

And you just see how it's just, it'll be in a hundred years, there will be nativists that pick a different group that is poisoning the blood of America. This is his ideology. And he's trying to use any pretext that he can to effectuate that. including, obviously, the killing of Charlie Kirk. But as a contrast, this is what Tillis, who is freed to say sort of what he wants, at least now. It's not perfect, but in the Cash Patel hearings, pointing out how the Trump administration is directly inflaming the rhetoric in this country right now. Within 24 hours of Mr. Kirk's shooting, we had.

the guy that does the podcast for the war room and another guy who's denied the Sandy Hook shootings say we're at war. Now, how on earth, and I do believe it's a smaller number, but it's a number that has an influence. How on earth are we de-escalating the situation and with the tensions as high as they were last week with going out and saying we're at war? I'm not asking you to respond to this question. I'm just saying that there are people out here on our side of the aisle that still need to look in the mirror. Even if you agree that it's a lower number, bad is bad, no matter how many numbers they are, and that kind of rhetoric and that kind of mobilization makes your job more difficult

and puts us in a position where we're not being as productive as you want the FBI and state and local law enforcement to be. Well, that's if you actually care about the FBI functioning in a way that isn't just about persecuting Donald Trump's political enemies. I mean, he doesn't have an interest in really the FBI's functioning. We have many, many critiques of the FBI. Oh, no, the FBI won't be able to go after human traffickers. I would hate if that was the case.

The FBI, the idea that the FBI has been in any way left wing is the most counter historical false statement I could ever think of. The FBI was blackmailing Martin Luther. King. The FBI was responsible for the killing of a left-wing civil rights leader Fred Hampton. The FBI was likely responsible for the killing of Malcolm X. And there were some other police officers who allowed that to happen quite conveniently. The FBI has resources dedicated to targeting activism for Black Lives Matter

we had I think Trevor Aronson on the show talking about how the FBI had informants in the Black Lives Matter movement you think they're anti-war movement just mosques right exactly but what do you say

in there he's like that is like as close as you can get to Republican courage there by Tillis and as you said it's because he's not going to be running for office in the future but even there he has to couch it with a lie, which is to say, and look, I agree it's a smaller number. What he's saying is it's a smaller number that there's more wackos on the left than there is on the right.

And that is a lie that he must have to say for them to get them to continue listening to them. But this is from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. Murders by politically motivated terrorism excluding 9-11. The number one is right wing. It's 391 total counted here. Yeah. 63% to almost two thirds Islamism is 143 and the left is 65 so only 10% so this is just a lie and it is an important lie because it's one that they're using toward their political agenda which got gummed up in the gears of having all these people like pam bondi and cash Patel implicated in a cover up of sex trafficking ring and now you know it's charlie kirk to lubricate the wheels again and get the get the sort of

tanked back on the tracks. Right. Ramona Frankenstein said the FBI probably killed Martin Luther King as well. Yeah, that's true. There's the listen to the MLK files. There's a great podcast on that front. And also Illuminati Kids writes in, if it was up to you, would you keep the FBI around at all?

I do think that there is a function for a federal like police service service. But obviously it would need major reform. The The problem with the FBI is, of course, that it's kind of rotten in many ways in terms of the groups that it was targeting from its outset.

But there have been reforms. It would need a lot more oversight in my view. Yeah, I mean, I think a good person to ask that question would be Chip Gibbons of defending rights and dissent, what should be done about the FBI. Because, yes, I don't think it's leave it least to the states. Yeah, I don't want there to not be a federalized police. force and just have like Mississippi police be the final say on like the crimes that are happening there including you know in an ideal world the FBI could lead an investigation to this lynching

that we just saw but not in Trump's America in a moment we'll be talking to Zachary Foster but first a word from some of our sponsors are you secretly cleaning with microplastics I mean gosh I don't even like thinking about how many microplastics I've done. probably consumed in my life. But those detergent pods, they may not make your clean as clean as you think. We've all heard this. It's tough to stomach, but, uh, no pun intended, we're eating a credit card's worth of plastic a week. Ugh. And to limit microplastics, though, because of this anxiety I have, Blue Land is the best place for me to go. That's why I've made the switch to Blue Land across all the cleaning products around my house and around this office.

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We are back, and we are joined once again by friend of the show, Zachary Foster, historian of Palestine Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies and contributor to the Palestine Nexus newsletter, which everyone should subscribe to. Zach, thanks so much for coming on the show. Thanks so much for having me, Emma. Of course. Um, so Gaza city is burning. Uh, that is not a phrase that I, uh, said. It is actually what the Israeli defense minister, Israel cats tweeted out in glee yesterday. Um, they, the Israeli government announced this ground invasion of the north of Gaza a few weeks ago, but now they are following

through on it. Um, by all accounts, this is a new level of horror. Uh, the bombing has been absolutely overwhelming and now prior to the ground invasion and now it has begun. What are you seeing about what's happening right now in the north of the Gaza Strip? Israel announced its plans to invade Gaza City for the end time and has dropped something like 850 bombs, excuse me, has hit 850 targets in Gaza over the past week.

We're talking about 150 bombs a day in an area that has been pulverized in an area that most analysts are likening to the scenes we saw in Dresden after World War II. That's the area that Israel is continuing to bomb relentlessly. We are seeing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flee Gaza City on foot by truck, by car, however they can. Although we're also learning that a majority of Palestinians in Gaza City can't afford to leave. Can you talk a little bit about that? Because this siege has many impacts. Obviously, the most deadly one is the forced starvation by the Israeli government. But they're also not allowing things in like fuel.

So it's extremely expensive to get a ride anywhere because folks are, it's scarce. They're desperate. Tents I'm reading are becoming too expensive for folks. So, you know, Israel's bombing the places, the safe zones, right, where they say they're supposed to go. And those are the people that are intense. And then if a tank gets destroyed and you survive somehow, you can't get a new one because those are too expensive. Palestine Nexus contributed to Rama Hussein just posted the other day. It's going to cost me $2,000 U.S. dollars to rent a truck for a few hours to transport her belongings from Gaza City to the south.

who has $2,000 in Gaza? Who has any money in Gaza at all? The economy has been decimated. A tent, like you said, costs upwards of $1,000. Where do you get that money from? People have no way to flee. They have no money to move their belongings. And even if they move south, where are they going to go?

90% of the Gaza Strip is declared in Israeli military zone. That is to say it's a kill zone. If you enter it, you're a risk of being shot by a drone, killed by a tank shell, attacked by these armored personnel carriers, these robot bombs. I don't even know what to call them. Israel over the past couple of weeks is now embracing new military technology, as far as we can tell, where they're putting explosive devices inside these armored personnel carriers that are going around Gaza City and blowing. up entire city blocks. This is in addition to the mass destruction of every remaining tower in Gaza over the past week, Bibi Netanyahu bragged about bringing down something like 50 towers left in Gaza. The Israeli army isn't even going after Hamas anymore. They don't even claim to. They're claiming to completely eradicate all physical infrastructure. Flatten Gaza. Nowhere to live,

nowhere to sleep, no shelter, no homes, no schools, no roads, no water infrastructure, no cemeteries, no mosques, no churches, nothing. Just scorched earth. That's what Israel's doing in Gaza. It's what it did in Rafah, it's what it's doing in Chaniunis. It's what it already did in Baitlajia, in the north, and Jabilia. Israel's plan is to flatten the entirety of the strip, make it completely unlivable so that over the course of the next year or two, Palestinians will continue to move south, at which point they will be forced to leave Gaza because Gaza is unlivable. And that's what Israel's plan is. Can we put up this map here? This was from the UN report, which, as we headlined yesterday, the UN commission officially said Israel

has committed genocide. I find the past tense a little bit troubling, given the fact that It's ongoing. Also, the figures that they're using, we should say, the current population being 2.1 million. I still go back to Trump months ago saying 1.7 to 1.8 million are left. That would make sense, given the fact that hundreds of thousands actually are dead. But this is the evacuation order here. And you can see for the podcast audience, basically the white is supposed to be the safe zone in the south. But scroll up slightly here, Matt.

You can see the north of Gaza and Gaza City up there. You would have to pass through the purple zone, which is a kill zone, the militarized zone, for that ethnic cleansing to happen. So even if the folks that are able to abide by the order to leave their home are very much at risk of just being bombed or shot, because there's no way to move to the area they're asking them to move without being in the militarized kill zone. And IDF source claimed that for about 48 hours, they would allow Palestinians access to a single access road in which they would be able to move from the north to the south.

At the same time, that Israel has shut off Internet in the North. We just received reports just a few hours ago that the Israeli Army has shut off Internet. Now, let me ask you this, Emma. How am I supposed to know which roads I'm allowed to travel on if I can't access the internet? I mean, it's a death march is what it is. Not just because you have a million people living in Gaza City, many of whom have forgetting about having the funds to move. You have people, tens of thousands of people, sick, diseased, injured, elderly people, small children.

How are all these people supposed to move in 48 hours? It's a death march, the same march. that Armenians were sent on in World War I, the same march that millions of Jews were sent on in World War II is exactly the same march that millions of Palestinians are now being sent on. It's a death march. And what are you hearing about those Palestinian men that last week there were images of them being basically lined up and shuttled to God knows where? We still have very little information about what happened.

And where did that occur, Zach? I'm sorry if I blanked on it. Last week, the Israeli army rounded up something like 1,500 Palestinian men in the West Bank city, the occupied city of Tulkaram, which is in the West Bank, about an hour and a half west of Ramallah or Nablus. And it's an hour and a half right because of the 18 checkpoints you have to pass through. I mean, it's a 20-minute drive. But what we saw was thousands of Palestinian men. And a source in Tulgaram shared with me that the Israeli army just literally went door to door. They just walked into shops.

They walked into restaurants. They walked into homes, grabbing every Palestinian man that they could find. And what does that remind you of, Emma? I'll tell you what it reminds me of. It reminds me of the scenes after the Nazi army invaded Poland. occupied Poland in 1939, rounding up Jewish families, lining them up in single-file lines, shipping them off to ghettos, shipping them off to concentration camps, which is exactly where those Palestinian men are going. Where are they going? They're winding up in Israel's torture

dungeons, where over the past two years, 60 Palestinian men and women have been murdered. They've been tortured to death. They've been starved to death. You have cases of Palestinian men being raped inside Israeli We have video I mean that video that we can't play here but if people

want to see it and there are a lot of things we have to bear witness to it's our responsibility but you can choose of course what to protect yourself from but there is a video of a bunch of IDF soldiers

putting up their shields thinking that they were protecting it from the camera but you can see obviously what's happening they're raping that one of the IDF soldiers is raping a prisoner

we're we're witnessing the west bank turn into gaza in slow motion it's happening slowly but everything we've seen in gaza over the past years is now happening in the west bank we're talking about 40,000 plus Palestinians ethnically cleansed from the tulkaram norishamps and jean refugee camps they were woken up in the middle of the night forced to leave their homes for having committed the crime of being expelled from their homes in 1948 that's why they're in refugee camps in the West Bank. And so we're seeing mass ethnic cleansing happening. We're seeing mass arrests happening. We're seeing mass killings happening. We're seeing the murder of journalists. We're seeing the confiscation of land. We're seeing the expansion of

the Israeli settlement enterprise just this past week. Betelos Motritch is announcing plans to build something like 3,500 new housing units in the E1 zone, that famous zone that the European Union and the United States said was it red line for the past 30 years, that if you build in the E1 zone, you would effectively be dissecting the West Bank into two sections, thereby rendering a contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank effectively impossible. I mean, it's been impossible for a long time, but this is a final nail in that coffin. And that's what they just announced last week. What do you make of this turn to the West Bank in that way? There attempts to make it into Gaza. I mean, they want to just be openly bombing. They're bombing

the West Bank right now in the way that they were mowing the lawn in Gaza prior to October 7th, you know. So it's an escalation, obviously. But the fact that they're escalating beyond settler tactics there means, I mean, there's just nothing left to bomb in Gaza. They're bombing rubble and it and it seems like their campaign of mass starvation, you know, might be a little bit just more efficient for them and no one's stopping them. No one is stopping the mass starvation campaign. Every day, the Gaza Health Ministry reports four, five, ten, Palestinians dying from malnutrition being starved to death.

And that's because Israel controls every entry and exit point in the Gaza Strip and decides exactly how much food enters the Gaza Strip. We had two weeks to go, the UN declared a famine in the north of Gaza. And you talk about historical examples, Zach. I mean, it's a, it's, it's,

it's, it's, it's, it's the, it's the warsaw ghetto. It's, it's, it's unconscionable that the world is allowing the Israeli government to starve to death two million people. We, we,

we have reports every day. I mean, if you just open Twitter, open Instagram, open TikTok, every single day I receive a half dozen messages from Palestine saying, I'm starving to death. I haven't eaten in three days. I haven't eaten anything but moldy bread in three weeks. These are the reports we're seeing.

Israel has destroyed all the agricultural. 98% of the agricultural land in Gaza has been destroyed, so you can't grow anything in Gaza anymore. So that means that all the food that Palestinians have access to in the Gaza Strip right now is food that has made it into the Gaza Strip via one of three or four Israeli-controlled checkpoints where Palestinians are then forced to travel 10, 15 kilometers to these eight sites, these GHF eight sites, where every day to this day they're being slaughtered every day. The Gaza Health Ministry reports, however many Palestinians have been starved to death in the past 24th.

Now they're also breaking down how many Palestinians were murdered trying to collect. a box of aid, trying to collect some meager food rations. By the way, those boxes, those GHF boxes of eight include things like pasta. We need water to cook pasta and there's no fresh water in Gaza. So they're being given boxes of fake food, food that they can't even eat. And then you have the Israeli military aid sites, such as in the north of Gaza, where GHF doesn't operate because Israel is trying to push all Palestinians to the south. But there's the Zikim aid a point in the north where it's the same story as the GHF sites every day five 10 15 Palestinians are slaughtered to death trying to grab a bag of flour that's what

israel's doing it's a slow grinding starvation it's a grinding genocide where Israel can kill 100 Palestinians a day without the world caring and that was this that i'm quoting israeli officials when i say that they are acting with a level of impunity that is a direct result of US complicity, Western complicity. We do know now that the EU is finally talking about

sanctions, finally. And it's far too late. But what do you make of that shift in terms of like France recognizing Palestine as a state, Canada doing the same? I know it's

symbolic, but these are kind of diplomatic pressure points that I'm hoping at the very least has some sort of effect well the declaration by France and Canada and others calling for the establishment or recognizing the establishment of a Palestinian state is about as important as the ICJ case brought before Israel in January 2024 in which the ICJ declared that there's a risk of genocide, thus requiring all member states of the UN, who are all party to the genocide prevention convention of 1948, they're all required to take action, not issue condemnations, but take action.

And no one's taking action. And that's the fundamental problem with all of these declarations. I don't care what you say. Palestinians can't eat your words. They need food. They need water. They need medicine. They need shelter.

They need an end to the aerial bombardment. And issuing strongly worded statements condemning Israeli aggression in Qatar, condemning Israeli aggression in Tunisia, condemning Israeli aggression in Iran and Lebanon and Syria and the West Bank and Gaza. And now in Israel proper, where in the past 24 hours, the Israeli government has ethnically cleansed a few dozen Palestinians from Israel proper. A Palestinian Bedouin village in the South. So Israel is carrying out atrocities quite literally wherever it can.

And strongly ordered statements do nothing to stop those acts of aggression. We need action, not words. Well, you mentioned how many countries Israel has bombed. And I mean, they're just, if these were European countries with, you know, Renaissance architecture, the white people would be like, you know, having, losing their their minds if this were the case. But these are Muslim countries, Arab countries, Iran, obviously Persian,

but they bombed Iran, they bombed Syria. They bombed Tunisia, of course, as you mentioned, striking that aid ship at port. Yemen, Qatar, Lebanon, and of course, Palestine. Like, this is

this is Nazi Germany stuff. I mean, they are finding a major expansion. It's regional war, but you can't get white Westerners to care. I don't know what else there is to say. In the waning years of apartheid South Africa's rule in South Africa, that regime went on a killing spree all across the region. Zimbabwe, Botswana, what was then Rhodesia, all of these countries. They just, because you had African national leaders, resistance leaders, taking shelter in these places, it was a quite similar story where it just went on a bombing campaign, an invasion campaign, a killing campaign everywhere.

And it represents the last gasp of empire, the last gasp of when you lose the ability to maintain control of a peaceful means, you pursue violent means. And you see the same thing happening with the U.S. Empire as well, in which we're bombing Iran, we're bombing Yemen, we're bombing. boats thousands of miles away off the coast of Venezuela and Colombia, it's this inability to solve your problems through diplomacy, through peaceful means, you resort to violence. And that's exactly what Israel is doing. And it's just completely, it's a rogue state, right? There's no, restraints anymore, no even pretense of restraints. It used to be that when Israel carried out these attacks in other countries, they would feign ignorance. What? They're defending themselves. And now they're owning up to it.

They're embracing it. We attacked Hamas and Qatar. We bombed the United States' closest ally in the Middle East aside from Israel. And they're owning up to it. Well, we have a president that's allowing that. And, you know, it's amazing. Lastly, here, Zach, like to see Trump do the dance that Biden did about how mad he is. And it's a, Biden was.

prided himself on his like foreign policy but in part you know it's um it's like trump doesn't have he want it doesn't flatter his ego and he doesn't have the attention span so he'll he'll be pissed off too but not change anything obviously and he also got that major campaign donation where he wants israel to be able to do what it wants just wrap it up by the end of the year is what he's saying Trump has never been a person interested in details. He likes headlines. He likes accolades. He likes praise.

He clearly, I think, doesn't think all that much of Netanyahu, while at the same time is probably also scared of Netanyahu. He understands Netanyahu's reach in the United States, the power that Israel has, to murder, assassinate, invade, occupy. kill whoever it wants. And I think Trump was probably a little bit afraid of Netanyahu. Who knows what Netanyahu has on him if we're going to go fill tinfoil hat on who might have been an Israeli intelligence asset? Max Blumenthal reported at the Gray Zone was it last week that Israeli officials inside the White House that he has a source who told him Israeli officials planted spying devices, listening devices on the White House lawn. And during Netanyahu's most recent visit, we know as well that the Israeli government has a long history of planting spying devices inside the personal residences of other heads of state, including in the United Kingdom and including in the United States. Bill Clinton, the Israeli government knew, I believe, about the Monica Lewinsky Fair fairly before that broke to the public, too.

How did that happen? So this is a country that has a long history of spying on its friends, spying on its allies, including, and especially the United States and the U.K. It's a country that has no shame whatsoever in blackmailing whoever it wants, including U.N. official Richard Goldstone, who was the lead author of the Goldstone report, which described Israel's 2008-2009 invasion in Gaza. he described the goal of that operation whose aim was to terrorize the civilian population of Gaza. Those are his words. And that was the goal of the operation. They blackmailed him.

He recanted the report, although his staff did not. So there was a long, long history of blackmail, a bribery. Obviously, we know what happened to Karim Khan after he issued the arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Galant. They blackmailed, or I mean, certainly, certainly, tried to blackmail's Kareem Khan, who recently, I believe, resigned, perhaps owing to that blackmail. This is just a longstanding practice of the Israeli government for decades. You could almost say it's part of the DNA of Israel.

It blackmails Palestinians. It blackmails Israelis. It blackmail's heads of state around the world. There is no one that is off limits to the state of Israel, not even the U.S. president himself. Well, Zach, really appreciate your time to that today. Thank you so much, everyone. check out Palestine and Nexus newsletter, essential source in these times. Thanks so much. Thank you for having me. Of course. Quick break, folks, and when we come back, we'll be joined by

Michelle Eisen. We are back, and we are joined now by Michelle Eisen, national leader of Starbucks Workers United and a 15-year Starbucks barista veteran. Michelle, thanks so much for coming on the show today. Thank you so much for having me. Of course. Welcome back. We've had you on before.

And I wanted to get a little bit of an update from you because earlier this week, there was a new report from the Institute for Policy Studies that showed that the new CEO of Starbucks, Brian Nicol, made $95.8 million last year. and the median barista made $14,674. I wrote down that exact figure because that's a ratio of 6,666, it's a little satanic, to one. And that is the largest of, the joke, largest of all S&P 500 companies, which is incredible.

So just your reaction. to that as obviously the national leader of Starbucks workers united well obviously you cannot you can't make that number up um and it it is incredibly fitting given the situation that most starbucks workers feel like they find themselves in i think it's really important to note you said his salary last year he only worked for the company for four months last year he was hired in september so that's not like a 12 month salary that's what he made in four months months with the company. And that was 6,666 times more than the average barista made in the year, not what the average barista made in four months. So he made that in four months. The average

breastin made that in a year. We're not dealing with a small company. You know, we're not, this is not a mom and pop coffee company that can't afford to pay its workers a living wage. I mean, every company should pay its workers a living wage. But we're dealing with a multinational, multi-billion-dollar corporation who can afford to pay its CEO $96 million in four months. Why can't it afford to pay its workers? You know, the workers who run these stores every single day, the workers who most would say are responsible for bringing in the billions of dollars of profit that this company pulls in every year.

It's sad, it's disappointing, and it's completely unnecessary. There's no reason so many Starbucks, Risa should rely on, you know, federal, federally funded medical, you know, like this, what is going on here? That's just, it's- Well, we're subsidized. I mean, even if you want to expand it, like, all of us as a country are subsidizing the poor labor practices of not just Starbucks, but you hear this about Walmart employees. You hear this about, you know, whatever, other major companies around the country. the the we're subsidizing corporate greed because they should be providing these things for for for their workers and they have the means to but instead it's let's break records on a CEO pay versus worker pay yeah it's it really is like they are out to break the worst possible records you could be out to try to break which is coming from a company like Starbucks who for decades have has prided themselves on being. being a better company, right? You know, like they, they claim to be the first to offer the level of health benefits that they offer. They claim to be the first to offer those to part-time

employees. There are a lot of things that they are out there still patting themselves on the back for. And the reality is that they are not that company anymore. What I think is, I don't know if ironic is the right word, but what is certainly laughable is that the entire sort of mantra of Brian Nichols, since he stepped into this role, was trying to get the company back. to its roots, like trying to get back to Starbucks. That's his, that's his initiative. And yet every policy that he has rolled out since he stepped into this role just over a year ago has actually gotten us further away from that. And the way that the employees are being treated, the way that the workers who run these stores are being treated under his reign, if you will,

is completely contrary to what the company has always said they prided themselves. on. So it really is, we are at a point right now in the country and with this company where it is a, we're seeing this consolidation of wealth and power to this very select few. And what it is inevitably doing is causing workers to stand up and fight for what they know they deserve and what they feel like they have a right to. And it is fueling the organizing for our campaign, I think, across the country, but certainly for our campaign, we have seen organizing numbers surge since Brian Nichol took this role. We've organized an additional 155 stores. That's something like 2,600 Starbucks baristas. It's like three, on average, about three stores a week since he became

CEO, which is a huge, these are huge numbers. And they are, in my opinion, directly correlated to the current state of the country, and the fact that the policies that he has rolled out since he has stepped in have only made barista's jobs harder. Well, I mean, some of the government programs that I read the article from Lynn Fox, the SPWU president in these times, I mean, they were speaking about how Starbucks baristas are reliant on things like SNAP and Medicaid, which are getting gutted by the Trump administration. So in terms of the urgency of what you're talking about, that makes total sense. But also the piece outlines all of these like crazy changes that the new CEO has undertaken since taking over later last year. What have some of those changes been?

And what do you feel like their role is in accelerating the drive to organize amongst the workforce. Like I said, the policies he has rolled out under the guise of this back to Starbucks plan have actually made, made Marisa's jobs harder, made these cafes less habitable, I guess is maybe the best word. So a few of that rolled out just within a few months of him stepping in, you know, Starbucks kind of had this open door policy, a very community policy. I've worked, I started with this company in 2010. So I know how these stores run. I know what these cafes are typically like.

These lobbies are like, and you know, you could come in. You could get a glass of water. You could use the restroom. No, no questions asked. You know, this wasn't like you need to make a purchase. So in January, they rolled out this policy that essentially slammed that open door shut. And you could not come in unless you were making a purchase to use the restroom or to get a cup of water. which is really you're putting baristas in a very, very, very tight spot in a bad position

because they're the ones inevitably stuck with enforcing these policies that are incredibly unpopular. You know, this isn't, you can, we can go back and forth about what type of people or what type of crowds they were trying to discourage from coming into these cafes, which is just really awful to think about. But let's just say that that is not the direction that we're going in. there are lots of regular customers who I would see, you know, a few times a day, they'd go on a 5 a.m. run, stop into the cafe to get a cup of water before they went home

and showered and got dressed and then came back inevitably to get their coffee. I now have to tell this person who I know is going to make a purchase at some point today that they cannot have this cup of water that they've been getting for the last 10 years. Like what are we trying? What are we doing? Like what is the point of this other than to put workers in a very, potentially dangerous situation, you know, maybe this customer is just annoyed and they're still going to come back, but maybe the person I'm telling that they can't use the bathroom is not going to respond in that way. And so not only am I putting myself possibly at risk and my fellow

co-workers are at risk, but I'm also taking time away from the floor where I could be helping the customers who are making a purchase to have this conversation with somebody, as opposed to just, you know, letting them use the restroom or giving them a cup of water. That was one. That was one. For me, you know, on top of rolling these out, they also pulled workers out to do trainings, like paid trainings to teach us how to tell customers they could no longer use the bathroom and no longer have a couple of water. So that right there is, you know, millions of dollars of training to tell, to, you know, train us how to do these things. Instead of agreeing to a fair contract, we should add. Instead of agreeing to a fair contract. Yes. We are, we are, you know, we just. hit the four-year anniversary of the store that I worked at filing our union petition, and we're still without a contract. So resources just going to the wrong place. The other very, very unnecessary policy change was a more restrictive dress code. So actually a regressive dress code,

as opposed to what we were. And again, not entirely certain why. You know, like all of a sudden baristas have, you know, can only wear a black shirt and their jeans have to be, you know, within this color frame of wash. And there's all of these different things happening. And what it's leading to is because it's being enforced irregularly, you know, workers are being sent home because they show up and they're wearing the wrong shade of black. You know, like just the most ridiculous things. So now these stores that have been notoriously understaffed for at this point years are that much more understaffed because somebody is coming in. trying to do the right thing, thinking they're showing up in dress code, even though it's

ridiculous. And then their manager is like, sorry, you're going to have to go home and change if you want to come back and work. And, you know, so you're cutting back on staff that's already pretty, pretty thin. That was one of the other policies that we saw. And of course, the one that I think is probably the most controversial is this new back to writing on cups with Sharpies. you know, if you stepped into a Starbucks anytime in the 2010s, you would see the barista at the register with their Sharpie and you would place your order and they would mark your cup and they would say, can I have your name? And they put your name on the cup. And, you know, that was the purpose of the marking cups and the purpose of the Sharpies. Right around 2015, we replaced Sharpies with printers. You know, we would put everything in, including your name still, and it would print out on a sticker and it would be put on the cup. And I remember thinking, wow, Sharpie, like 3M is probably going to take a hit. Like we were going through so many sharpies a week that this is probably going to cause something.

But, you know, that kind of just went away. And it was a little bit sad to see something like that go. But considering the volume of orders, you know, it was kind of a necessary progression. So in walks, Brian, and he's like, we're going to write on Cups again. But we're not going to put your name. And we're not going to have it be the person at the point of sale where it makes the most sense. We're going to make it so that the barista who's responsible for producing your beverages, like on bar, also has to stop in between every beverage and write an affirmation or a positive message on your cup. And it can't be the, it can't be the name.

It can't just be writing the person's name. It has to be something, you know, super. And that rolled out. And I was like, wow, this is interesting. It's going to create some problems. And, you know, it initially rolled out with absolutely no guidelines. And that's, generally speaking, not, not great. It was fun for a minute, but not great.

No guidelines on the affirmations? There was not, not initially, no. And then, you know, now that has progressed into this very detailed, disciplinary, progressive track for writing on cups. So here's all the list of things you can't do. Here's what you can't write. Here's the categories you have to avoid. But you still need to do this on every single cup. or you could get disciplined for it, and you still have to maintain getting these beverages out

as quickly as possible. So these are the things just since he stepped in that workers are dealing with. And there's nothing that he has implemented that has made workers' jobs any easier. You know, what the union is demanding, I think the last time I spoke to you all was December of last year when we were in the middle of bargaining. It was actually what ended up being our final bargaining session of that period. And we were incredibly hopeful. We had spent nine pretty productive solid months going back and forth with the company. We had reached some tentative agreements on some really substantial significant non-economic proposals. And we were waiting for a response to our economic package. And I was hopeful, you know, like the company had

really sort of turned, turned the other cheek a few months prior and had seemed committed to this, what they called this new path forward to work on this foundational framework for contract language. And again, they're a multi-billion dollar corporation. So we, we didn't think that we were going to have such an issue solving the economic problems, but we did. You know, they showed up with a response to our package, which offered zero financial improvement in the first year of the contract. And then only a one and a half percent raise for the remainder years of the contract, just literally pennies, like actually pennies. And so we, we, we couldn't accept that. It led to our largest action on camp, you know, in the campaigns.

history, which was, you know, 5,000 Starbucks baristas on on strike through Christmas Eve of last year. And then the company kind of came back and said, okay, well, we're going to go into, we'll enter into some mediation. And we were like, okay, great, let's continue the conversations. And now, you know, it's, it's pretty clear. I think Lynn really hit the nail on the head in that op-ed that she wrote that the mediation was, was a delay tactic and kind of just to quiet things down while some financial reports on the company were put out there. And that showed no progress. So what we've been doing in the last year is just continuing to organize, organizing like crazy.

These policies have been very unpopular. So workers are realizing very quickly that the only way that we stand a chance within Starbucks is to organize and to get this contract. So we're 12,000 strong now and willing to do, you know, we will do whatever it takes to get this contract and to finalize it and to hopefully improve conditions in these stores. Two little remarks. One is that thing about the affirmation is literally almost like the office space flare thing with Jennifer Aniston not having enough. Flair. Okay. That's just amazing how this corporate BS is still going on. And two, I mean, it's the fastest growing union campaign in modern history. The 12,000 workers joining since

December 2021, since you guys kicked us off. And the stalling tactic, could you expand upon that a little bit? Because, you know, right now the Trump administration has gutted the National Labor Relations Board. So my anticipation is that this other companies are going to keep trying to stall because there's, since he's gutted it, I don't think they can reach a quorum. And it's make it the, the government's on their side, basically, if they want to just play this out, it doesn't seem like there's going to be any enforcement on the, on the federal level. So unfortunately, at least when you get to the bargaining side of all of this, there's very little protections for the bargaining process. Even under like a labor-friendly president,

you know, our labor laws just don't protect once, you know, there's a lot to sort of govern guidance the getting to the point of unionizing process, but there's not a whole lot to govern and guidance the actual securing the contract. And so, yes, what he is doing, what Trump is doing in office to the, to the NLRB and all of those things. It's awful and it's terrifying. And it absolutely, you know, could cause a lot of issues for folks that are attempting to get to the point of unionizing. But what has always secured a contract in this country has been the pressure that workers have put on companies around the bargaining process outside of the bargaining room or outside of the table, as we would say. it's showing them that we have the power to do what it takes to force their hand to give us this contract. What is, I think, the most disappointing when we're dealing with Starbucks.

And again, I keep going back to this sort of idealism that this is supposed to be a better company. Like, why are we having to fight this hard for things that they could easily afford to give us? I mean, on top of the $96 million that Brian made in the first four months of his employment, they spent $81 million on a three-day manager's conference in Vegas in June. And, you know, privately they said to the union, hey, let us just get through this training for our managers. We need to get through this manager training in Vegas. And then we'll get back to talking about the contract.

And we were like, okay, you know, like handle your business. And then we definitely want to talk to you. And it ended up being this, you know, multi-million dollar. I'll keep using the word conference in, you know, quotations because that's what they're calling it. But, you know, you have performers like Bruno Mars and Janelle Monet and like they're giving swag bags. And, you know, all of the managers were flown in from their various stores. And guess who was running the stores for the week? The baristas who you don't want to give enough respect to make sure that they have a living wage or enough hours to access the benefits that you offer.

Well, they're also, you know, I mean, they're creating a divide. too among the workforce in a way right and and and create that that that's cheaper for them in terms of and then setting the precedent of giving you guys a fair contract it seems yeah i mean we our calculations are that they could settle the economic side of this contract with us a multi-year you know economic side of this contract for with us for less than a day's worth of sales like less than a single day's worth of sales could settle this And you end with labor peace, right? You don't have to worry about the fact that your workers are so unsettled that, you know,

we are going to have to take further action. So you get labor peace of it. And, hey, maybe you actually solve some of the issues that are taking place in these stores that are keeping customers away. You know, like we know that customers are still staying away from Starbucks. We have presented many, many, many options to the company to help solve some of the issues in these cafes. We run the cafes every day are run by these baristas. They know what it takes to solve some of the issues that are keeping the customers out of these stores. And we want to

be a part of those conversations because, you know, selfishly, it would help make our lives a lot easier if we could help with some of these policies that we have to enforce and enact every single day. But we don't want the company to fail. We would like the customers to come back. You know, that's we're we're still here fighting because we want to make things better um otherwise what would the point of all of this be so we're we're just the ball is in their court you know like we've we've made a lot of offers we've we've asked brian himself to step in to bargaining um he is you know he's not responded at least to the best of my knowledge uh lastly left his rage rights in i would love to know the best way i can support my starbucks barista just boycott and stop buying there or

Is there something more impactful as a customer? I love my baristas. What would be your recommendation, Michelle, for how our audience can help best support the baristas? So, I mean, if you're a regular customer and you have those baristas that you love and you support disappearing on them, I don't think is the right thing to do right now.

What I will say is that we are committed to doing whatever it takes to finalize this contract. If we need to strike, if necessary, we will do that. we've already got commitments from thousands of allies who have agreed not to cross the picket line should we need to go on strike in the future. So I think just paying attention to what's going on. In the meantime, supporting your baristas, you know, you just heard what the median income is for the average barista. So if you can afford to drop a couple dollars in that tip jar, please do. If you visit our website, Starbucks Workers United.org, there's a

lot of information about our, like, current actions, current drives. There's a link to make a donation to our Solidarity Fund, which would be used for, you know, strike purposes should we need to go on strike. There's also a link to our merch shop, which has some really just, like, kick ass. I got to get some of that. Kick ass merch designed by, like, people on the campaign, union made, and those funds also go into that fund as well. And then when, if a call is made to not cross a picket line or to support in any way, just whatever your willingness is to do that, that would go an incredibly long way to helping us secure this first contract. We have some, you know, there's only a few remaining demands. We need better hours. You know, there are

workers who want to access Starbucks's benefits and can't because there's no guarantee that they're even going to get the hours they need to access that. Better take home pay, because we already know what that looks like, as has been illustrated. And there's still hundreds of unresolved unfair labor practice charges that are just hanging in the air that the company has promised to resolve over a year ago. And there were just 125 new ones filed at the beginning of 2025. You know, this is a, this is a company that shows like it's, it seems regressive right now with the way that it's treating its workers. And that's, that's just not good for their brand. You know, like if, even if you don't care about the workers at all, I hope that's not the

case. Even if you don't care about the people who are bringing responsible for creating the atmosphere that keeps the customers coming back day in and day out, you have to recognize that it looks really bad when you're continuing to violate U.S. labor law and pay the price tag that comes along with that. And I don't just mean, you know, we know there's no fiscal. Reputationally. Yeah, reputationalally. And, you know, someone has to defend these charges. And that's like paying tens of million dollars to firms like Littler Mendelsohn to go in and repeatedly lose in court. You know, like that has to be something that needs to be recognized.

as not a good look. So, yeah, just whatever you can do to support your baristas, we will be very public about whatever calls need to be made, but the time is now. One last question, because our audience really wants to help here. Out West, writes in question for the guests, are there ways non-Starbucks local coffee shop baristas who get in touch resources about strategies to unionize their shops?

Yeah, I mean, you can reach out the same way, you know, through our website, you don't have to be a Starbucks worker. We are organized under Workers United, which is a longstanding labor union in the country, and it's affiliated with SCIU. So they both, both unions also have organized cafe, coffee workers from different companies. And, you know, we would be happy to get you in contact with whomever you need to be in contact with for that. Amazing. Thank you so much, Michelle, a national leader of Starbucks Workers United, 15-year Starbucks barista veteran. Thanks so much for coming back on the show.

And we'd love to have you back in a few months, giving us an update and appreciate it. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. All right, folks. With that, we're going to wrap up the free part of the show and head into the not free part of the fun half, where we will breed your IMS, take your calls, maybe. We actually have a lot to get to clips-wise today.

I mean, these hearings, Congress kicking back up. Cash Patel is getting roasted. Yeah, it's piling up. Hell yeah. All right, we'll do a deep dive. Do you want to sample one for the free half people before we... Let's do it. Let's do it.

This is one. People just said the Swalwell stuff, so I haven't even really watched this clip, but this is Eric Swalwell question. Little teaser. Cash Patel here. Let's take a look at this. Who can tell the attorney general that Donald Trump's name is in the Epstein files. Yes or no. Why don't you try spelling

it out? Yes or no. No? Wait. I'm sorry. Ash is such fast wit. Yeah. Why don't you try spelling it out for me? It's not talking to me so meanly. It's a Tim Robinson character. I feel like I'm watching friendship. I know. I know.

I'm trying. Please, you're stressing me out right now. Okay? I'm still fucking stupid. Who? Did you tell the Attorney General that Donald Trump's name is in the Epstein files? Yes or no? Why don't you try spelling it out? Yes or no?

Use the alphabet. Yes or no? No? ABC. It sounds like you don't want to tell us. Did you tell the Attorney General that Donald Trump's name was in the Epstein files? Why don't you try serving your constituency by focusing on reducing violent crime in this country and the number of pedophiles that are legally carvered in sanctuary cities in California?

I'll work with you on that. I'm going to work with us on that. I'm the honest gentleman from California. Did you tell the attorney general that Donald Trump's name is in the Epstein Files question? The question has been asked and answered. You've not answered it and we will take your evasiveness as a consciousness of guilt. Ooh.

God. They're just, Brian, you're a boxing fan. Big time. What would you like in that interaction to? I would say that's a one-punch knockout. Oh, boy. Probably first round. But there is no one to ring the bell here, though, because he's just going to be laying out there and getting, taking some more hits.

I would say this thing about why don't you protect your constituents, and he mentions human trafficking. There's this insane piece that people need to read. In The Guardian. In The Guardian. Revealed Trump administration retreats on combating human trafficking and child exploitation. Let's just read the first few paragraphs of that. I'll read it here, just because it's, I mean, while we're on it, the Trump administration, has aggressively rolled back efforts across the federal government

to combat human trafficking a guardian investigation has found the sweeping retreat threatens to negate decades of progress in the drive to prevent sexual slavery, forced labor, and child sexual exploitation according to legal experts, former government officials,

and anti-trafficking advocates. They say the administration's moves are impeding efforts to prosecute perpetrators and protect survivors in the United States and around the world, this paragraph that gets a little more specific here. Under Trump, key initiatives for fighting human trafficking

have been cut back at the U.S. Department of State, Department of Justice, Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Homeland Security the Guardian found. Senior officials and other staffers have been forced out, workers shifted to other priorities.

What could, what, like immigration? That's what it is. There it is. Yep. And grants delayed or canceled. At DHS, Trump has ordered agents to formally dedicated to investigating and arresting human traffic Two, focus on deporting immigrants. Current and former DHS staffers interviewed by the Guardian

confirmed that these investigators' day-to-day work has been broadly shifted towards deportations and away from investigating major crimes with real victims. At the State Department of the Trump administration slash more than 70% of the workforce at the agency's office to monitor and combat trafficking in persons' tips office, which is responsible for leading anti-trafficking efforts across the U.S. government.

The department has also held up grants for non-profit organizations fighting trafficking around the world, putting their operations and services at risk. Shocked that the guy who Cash Patel won't answer curiously whether or not he is or is not in the Epstein files would want to cut back on human trafficking,

especially given some of the mysterious modeling agencies that Donald Trump was across in the 90s. They didn't do anything, grab him by the pussy. Allegations against Here's just the list of names To do with the Trump administration Pete Hagseth

Robert F. Kennedy Elon Musk Dana White Linda McMahon Which I forgot about this But sued for allegedly Knowing boys were being sexually abused by her employee

The Ringsside announcer of the world Wrestling Entertainment Usley Kimberly Guilfoyle Allegedly sexually harassed her assistant So it's not even just the man In Trump's administration And hovering around it That are accused of

sexual violence, but also the women. How about the chair? How about the guy leading these hearings? Jim Jordan, the head of the oversight committee. Who reportedly called some of the Ohio State victims and people relayed to them telling them to not testify against the guy who was a serial abuser at Ohio State. And Republicans saw that just the same way like an NHL team sees like an enforcer become a free agent. like, hey, we can use that on our team. Yeah, but I mean, like, there's a lot of talk about how so much of conservative

rhetoric is about projection. And like, you buy into that, of course, with their obsession with trans people and gay people. You get it. They're sexually repressed. They want to control things and use hierarchies and usually religious hierarchies as justification. But I'll admit that I was even a little bit naive about their fixation on Jeffrey Epstein. where, you know, I thought it was more of a political tool for them to use against the Democrats.

It had these, like, anti-Semitic undertones, too, that they like to use as, like, Jews and liberals as people that are pursuing perversion and are somewhat demonic. And you tap into, like, these Christian conspiracism. I thought that was kind of where it was. But no, it turns out it's just projection, because they're all, not all, many are predators and pedophiles themselves. Yep. or protectors of predators and pedophiles. I remember Matt Schlapp. I think he's probably beneath notice, but the groper.

Oh, yeah. The guy who's definitely not gay, despite all of those accusations, and was found to be sexually harassing and inappropriately touching. I think it was his bodyguard, male bodyguard. Something like that. I'm looking up the exact thing.

But yeah, I mean, just a bunch of creeps. Just a bunch of creeps. Anyway, can't wait to get more into the Patel on a spit, I guess, being roasted. What are you, what, are you hooked on phonics? To distract from a question you very clearly does not want to answer. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I could go on. I'm not even halfway through. We want to ask you.

A Hebrew alphabet. You're going to ask it in Chinese? Oh, God. Sanchico, Roe. Oh, God. I mean, he just wants to get out of there so he can get to another luxury dinner. That's where he was when Charlie Hercke was getting shot, hobnobbing at Rouse here in New York City. He's, like, has there ever been a more visible, he's visible in the fact that he has such an insane face that he stands out.

But, like, in terms of putting yourself out there, FBI director in history, like, isn't your whole thing supposed to be keeping information close to the vests and not live, tweeting evidence or like going to see alex ovechkin break the single season record and being like hey i'm here cash patel let's go on rogan yeah i'm looking at the fbi i'm trying to think of like do i like chris ray how much of chris ray did we see i mean chris ray was constantly going on uh podcast no i'm joking right like comie muller um lewis free bill sessions like i i yeah We don't typically see a lot from these guys. Hoover. Hoover is all over.

God, if Hoover would be such a great podcast, well, talking about repression. Oh, my goodness. And blackmail. Oh, my goodness. I have a feeling him and Stephen Miller have similar taste in undergarments. Did you hear that in the Rolling Stone article, they said he likes to play with porcelain dolls, Stephen Miller Stephen Miller?

Which is just the most The only thing white enough for Stephen Miller Right As as porcelain and as it gets As white as it gets But also it is You forgot your tea Yeah

Just bleaching it God they're so emotionally arrested It's like Anyway That is like It's what a horror villain would be interested in Little Susie has her outfit. No biscuit before you finish your tea.

Yes. It's the only thing I can control. I can't control the flow of migrants into the United States, but I can control the tea party. Anyway, Clearwater does he pop the heads off of dolls? No, they're his little friends. Anyway The White House insists he doesn't play with dolls, though

They literally came out and said that That's the world we're living in right now The White House is refusing the rumor of Stephen Miller Playing with Porcelain Dolls He's just a collector He doesn't play with them He's just a collector, okay? It's a liquid asset

It accrues value Anyway, Matt, what's happening on Left Reckoning? Yeah, Left Rekin We had a huge show last night talking to with a professor who actually everyone should check this one out particularly our interview with the fired tenured professor tom altar who was fired after carlin borsenko a lunatic sort of who was at jan 6th um sight real psycho um like basically clipped his uh talk he gave to a socialism conference i forget what the socialism uh organization was by apologies But something he said about, like, the Democrats aren't, you know, right way or aren't going to do socialism, whatever. And they're like, and she clipped him and got him fired from a university of Texas despite tenure. Insane.

And so we talked with him. I would also talk to Brian Mear about Bolsonaro getting 27 years at the age of 70. So we're hoping he survives for another 26 years. And also, Tomishi John talking about these strikes of boats in Venezuela and the, governments in the Caribbean which haven't really had much of a strong response and what neo-colonialism

is that sort of explains what's going on with sort of Trinidad and Tobago and stuff like that. So full show last night, patreon.com slash left reckoning. All right guys. See you in the fun half.

Left is best. Jamie and I may have a Disagreement. Yeah, you can't just say whatever you want about people just because you're rich. I have an absolute right to mock them on YouTube. He's up their buggy whipping like he's the boss. I am not your employer. You know, I'm tired of the negativity.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you. You're nervous. You're a little bit upset. You're riled up. Yeah, maybe you should rethink your defense of that, you're fucking idiots. We're just going to get rid of you. All right. But dude.

Dude. Dude. Dude. Dude. You want to smoke this joint? Yes. Do you feel like you are a dinosaur? It's a good shit.

Exactly. I'm happy now. It's a win, win, win. Uh, hell yeah. Now listen to me. Two, three, four, five times, eight, four, seven, nine oh, six, five oh, one, four, five, seven, two, thirty-eighth, five, five, seven, two, thirty-eighth, five-eighth, three point nine billion. He's the ultimate math nerds. Don't you see?

Why don't you get a real job instead of steering vitriol and hatred you left wing limbaugh? Everybody's taking their dumb juice today. Come on, Sammy. Dance, dance, dance. Grand Paul. I had my first post-coital scene with a woman. I'm hoping to add more moves to my repertoire. All I have is the dip and the swirl.

Fine, we can double-dip. Yes, this is a perfect moment. No. What? You make under a million dollars a year. You're scum. You're nothing. Excuse me? Fuck you. You fucking liberal elite. I think you belong in jail.

Thank you for saying that, Sam. You're a horrible, despicable person. All right. Going to take a quick break. I want to take a moment to talk to some of the libertarians out there. Take whatever vehicle you want to drive to the library. What you're talking about is jibber jabs. Classic. I'm feeling more chill already.

Good. Donald Trump can kiss all of our asses. Hey, Sam, hey, Andy. Are you guys ready to do some evil? Hitler was such an idiot. You think I might be a Nazi? Agreed. No.

Death to America. Blue. Yes. Wow. Wow, that's weird. No way. Unbelievable. This guy's got a really good.

good hook. Throw our hands. Wow. But Sam, I've got to get off. No worries. I want to just flesh this out a little bit. I mean, look, it's a free speech issue. If you don't like me, hey, hey, hey, shut up.

Thank you for calling into the majority report. Sam will be with you shortly.