The Majority Report with Sam Seder - 3700 - Sam Seder Returns! Haley Stevens Loses it; Franchise Scams w/ David Dayen

Episode Date: July 31, 2026

It's Casual Friday on The Majority Report On today's program: Sam is back and we swear he is not an AI rendering; you have to believe us. Abdul El-Sayed calls out AIPAC and dares them to keep pouring money into the least capable candidate in the country. Haley Stevens responds by claiming that El-Sayed blames all of his problems on Jewish Americans. David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect and co-host of the Organized Money Podcast, joins the program to discuss his recent work in TAP. In the Fun Half: Maine Senate candidate, Troy Jackson laughs as he admits to having a burner account to troll former Republican governor of Maine, Paul LePage. On MS NOW Troy Jackson explains how his views on abortion changed over the years. Polling is looking positive for Democrats heading into the midterms, but this appears to be more attributed to Republican corruption and failures than the Democratic party's popularity. Florida candidate primarying Rep. Jared Moskowitz, Oliver Larkin calls Donald Trump a pedophile on Fox News, causing the host to cut the interview immediately. Meanwhile Moskowitz uses his panel time on Fox News to advocate for more bombing of Iran, saying he is to the right of the Vance and Witkoff on this issue. Sen. Chuck Schumer speaks at a combatting corruption event and is interrupted by journalist Sam Husseini over his support if Israel's genocide. Georgia GOP candidate for Senate Mike Collins is asked about his neo-Nazi son-in-law prompting him to end a press conference early. Sen. Tommy Tuberville claims that Dr. Anthony Fauci was involved in the death of 9 million people during peak COVID era. 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 AM Quickie 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 SUNSET LAKE CBD: Visit SunsetLakeCBD.com and use coupon code DOGDAYS26 to save 30% on all CBD pet products. This sale ends August 5th at midnight Eastern time. 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.

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That means Monday is casual Monday. Tuesday, casual Tuesday. Wednesday, casual hump day. Thursday, casual thursday. casual thurs. That's what we call it. And Friday, casual Shabbat. The Majority Report with Sam Cedar. It is Friday. July 31st, 2006. My name is Sam Cedar. 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, David Dayn, executive editor of the American prospect, co-host of the Organized Money podcast with Matt Stoller. Also on the program today, Hamas agrees to a multi-phase disarmament plan. More on that later. Trump says, Israel better go along with it,

or I'll do nothing. Meanwhile, Todd Blanche, nomination on its last legs. 60,000 or near 60,000 people cross into Spanish enclave on the tip of Morocco. Chevron Exxon earnings through the roof as Iran launches strikes against U.S. targets in Kuwait. New York State sues Kalshi for being an illegal gambling. the site. Bernie Marino's daughter

files yet another restraining order against Republican Congressman Max Miller. Mandela Barnes drops out of the Wisconsin governor race. DHS, what's this?

Like any room to be this. Oh, DHS notice on Haitian temporary protected status revocation causes massive layoffs at airports, health care facilities,

and schools. All this and more on today's majority report. Welcome back. Welcome back to myself. To yourself, yes. Welcome, folks. Very smooth. Sam Cedar here with Emma Vigland.

I am back. I am alive. Yes. I am not. This is not an AI replica of myself. You have recovered. I have all my fingers, as you can see. You've recovered from your plastic surgery.

I've recovered from my plastic surgery. So many different procedures. Yep. That is grandma. Oh, was that one of the theories? No, you're going to have to be reintroduced to what... There's a lot of new lore. Might be the greatest sound drop that we...

Or be introduced for the first time. It might be the greatest sound drop that Matt has come up with at this point. Donnie was trying to erase Little Little Italy while you were gone. Yes. Of course. And the free press interviewed some people in Little Little Little. The people that might... in Jersey but still like to go to Little Italy are not going to stand for it.

Exactly. But there wasn't any, I mean, there was rumors that maybe I was going to get a full hair replacement in Turkey, and that's what it took me a month for the scars to heal. Well, I mean, you've been very convincing with that wig for so long, and some time for a more permanent solution. Yep. Folks are asking if I had a calf reduction surgery. No, suddenly you're six foot five, though.

No, I got, I had my spine elongated. Just briefly, I was, some time ago, I was requested to audition for a show and a TV show. And I figured on a lark I would do it. Occasionally, you know, I maybe go on one audition every 18 months or something like that. Right. as some of you know I used to do a little acting and I got it

I thought the part was going to be I thought the shoot was going to be a little shorter than it was I can't say what the show is because I actually had to sign an NDA so they because I guess they have the timing in which but it comes out I think it comes out in next April

and just one episode but I got a chance to work with some really great actors in a beautiful location. It's a show that I had seen. One season had come out, and I really enjoyed it. And we'll talk more about it. I said with the...

Why you look like you're about to, like... No, I'm just smiling. Why are you so uncomfortable with me showing joy? It's the whole thing with the microphone. It's all very confusing. Look, as an actor. Oh, God. I'm just like I'm more sensitive to my surroundings now.

And so. So everyone has to coddle you. When I entered in, it's not White Lotus. It's not White Lotus. That's three seasons. When I came in today, I blared back in black. You did. I heard it coming down the hallway.

From your phone. Yeah, for right. And of course, I missed the, I missed a big interview yesterday. And I saw that, it went very, very well. Yes, I thought it went well. I found it really interesting, the stuff about the Maha stuff, I did not anticipate that. And it was very interesting to see, like, who knows if she's going to run for president, or speaking of AOC, of course, or Senate.

But I suspect it's going to be one of those two things. But regardless of what she runs for, she's still a very, very, very, very. very prominent voice in terms of setting the narrative for the Democratic Party. We saw what Mom Donnie did to affordability and it became the watchword. And the idea that tying in both corruption and corporate malfeasance and just corporate power as a way of undermining the maha element of the coalition, I thought that was really interesting. Yeah, it's interesting to get a peek under the hood, I guess, and how, you know, we've talked about how she's been strategic, but to get to ask her about, like, the substance of that strategy was really great. And I also heard reports that both you guys, both Matt and Brian wore collard shirts.

They did. I put on my court shirt. Exactly. And Matt even wore his best gym shorts. Yes, the dressed gym shorts. First of all, they're khaki shorts. They're not gym shorts. But the polo I did where it was atleisure, so.

Yeah, very nice. Good. That's good. I'm glad to hear. And both you guys I heard you came in with your hair combed. It was really. It was impressive. Okay.

Moving on. Well, what I was laughing about is that once this show comes out, the meme potential is going to be so good. And I can't wait for the audience to see. That's right. And just a tiny clue. and I will not, if you guess it, I'm still not going to say anything. But the idea that

Lindsay Graham passed away unexpectedly while I was on this job is extra suspicious. Extra suspicious. It's going to fuel the heated rivalry.

You said second season. Brian. That is perfect. Brian, the NDA. That's one way to go with that. It's one way to go with that. But when the episode comes out of the closet, we will have all the cast on. Now that is grandma.

Oh, man. Oh, yeah. I saw that too. Yeah, that's what that sound drop is. Oh, right. That is grandma. Okay, got it. Got it.

Now it all makes sense. And that is grandpa. All right. Well, thanks. You can be my mayor. Um, on Tuesday of next week, we will be doing coverage of the Michigan primaries. There's one other state. I can't remember at the moment.

I'm sorry. I've been out of town for a bit. I can. I have it up here on the calendar. There's a few other states. Yes. Kansas, Missouri, Michigan, Virginia, Washington. But Missouri and Michigan have races that we're watching pretty closely.

We'll be doing coverage at the very least that day. We may end up actually doing the entire show later in the day. We've got to check on when they are fixing the air conditioning, which is perfectly tight. I mean, who knows? Yeah. Nevertheless, this is a big, big race that has taken on even more. import as it has become sort of the test as to whether

the reinvigorated progressive movement driven largely by the DSA successes in New York and other places around the country. Now, Abdul al-Sal-Sai. It is not DSA, but he is associated with the progressive movement. and many shares many. Bernie endorsed him early on.

Bernie endorsed him early on. Wrote the book on Medicare for all. And literally wrote the book on Medicare for All. And so this race is going to be important as a bellwether as to what's happening with the Democratic Party. There have been tens of millions of dollars dumped into this race literally in the past month. I mean, dollars an outside spending on haley stevens's behalf it's nuts and um they're trying to make an example out of abdul al-said that's what the the israel lobby and the ai and crypto lobbies are trying to do

and not just make it cuts both ways they also know that i mean it's not just that they want to make sure that he's defeated they also know the implications are dire if he wins because in particularly now with the $60 million, because if $60 million cannot win you a race in Michigan as a sitting congresswoman running for the Senate, when Mallory McMurrow, who ostensibly was going to be the sort of like neither fish nor foul candidate, she drops out ostensibly to help Haley Stevens. I mean, that was her. that was her thinking. Yeah.

And you have the entire apparatus of the democratic establishment behind you. Plyburn and Whitmer, Whitmer endorsed. You have fake ads about Obama endorsing you. If all that plus $60 million doesn't win, it says a couple of things. Generically speaking, it's saying that, um, The candidate, the establishment candidate again was a total flop. Janet Mills 2.0. And they made a mistake in not backing Mallory McMorrow

and still desperately clinging on to Haley Stevens. But it also says like, if $60 million can't beat Abdul al-Said in Michigan, like what can $60 million do? You know, we saw the failure of money, in the New York City mayoral race. We saw the failure of Janet Mills in Maine. I mean, and this has been also kind of the theme of Trump 2.0, just to kick it off,

there was record spending by Elon Musk, who's renewing his super PAC for this election cycle. We just headline that yesterday. And that was a negative in that race. And he failed spectacularly. That's been the story of Trump 2.0 in many ways. Here is Abdul al-Said calling Haley Stevens one of the least capable candidates in America. Hard to argue. I mean.

But that's a little sexist to say anything negative about your opponent. I mean, she's a woman after all. Well, also, we all also understand the code there. Least capable. Right. I mean, most Jewish. Let's play this. But you know what he or she means.

She's not Jewish, but you know what, you know what, you know what, and you know what that means. Yeah. Go ahead. You know, when A-PAC watches this, come for me. See what happens. Come for me. Like, you know, I know you keep coming, but like, you picked them like literally the least capable candidate in America. Right.

And then Chuck Schumer doubles down. And then A-PAC doubles down. And part of me is like, okay, look, if you think you can beat money out of politics, money in your pocket, Medicare for all, come. But I tell you what people don't want. They don't want money in. in a foreign government. They want money here. It's a good point. And of course, Haley Stevens responded.

And of course, it's quite clear. I mean, I think you can hear when he says, we want Medicare for all or we want higher taxes on a millionaire's will money out of politics. We all know who he's blaming. Right. Folks like me. Exactly.

Jewish people. Here's Haley Stevens. Just to make it clear. And what I like about this tweet from Haley Stevens when she goes full racist here is she goes full racist. Oh, yeah. This is not like, you don't have to read between the lines here, going. Oh, she writes, Abdul, we were both on the ballot in 2018. I was capable of winning my competitive primary in general election.

You lost. You lost by, incidentally, for those of you who are not. aware, 2018 was eight years ago. Yeah. So let me just rephrase this. Abdul, eight years ago, when we were both on the ballot in 2018, I was capable of winning my competitive primary and general election. You lost.

You lost by over 20 points to Gretchen Whitmer, and you will lose to Mike Rogers by talking like this. Everyone in America understands you want to blame all of your problems. on Jewish Americans. I don't understand that. No, I'm not understanding that at all. You know what? Not only does everyone in America not understand,

I don't even understand this sentence. Put this back up, like, you want to blame all of your problems on Jewish Americans. Like, is he saying, like, he missed his legs day in the gym because of the Jews? Like, what does he go? understand all his problems are on Jewish Americans. It seems like she's conflating Jewish Americans

with APEC, which seems like a bit of a problem. It seems to be what she's doing. But also, all his problems, he's up by 15 points right now. In the polls. I mean, we'll see. Who knows? Yes. Who knows? But

what does that even mean? I mean, she's also like trying to do this thing. Like, I am capable of winning and you are not. Now, this is also part of what AOC said to me yesterday, people don't have the trust that the establishment centrist winners can't even win anymore because Trump just won for a second time. And they don't have the credibility to win elections.

So she's quadrupling down on something that used to be a strength for a centrist like her, but is not a strength anymore. 10 years on from 2016, this, what if you win the primary but lose to the Republicans, is a harder thing for the establishment to sell when they have repeatedly won the primaries and lost to the republic. Yes. And I would add to that, if you can't beat your primary opponent with $60 million, how many millions of dollars do you need to defeat the Republican? And why do you anticipate an organization like APAC, which is largely funded by Republican donors, is going to give you that money in the general election.

Well, that's where that's what Abdul is saying in that clip. It's shortened, but it's a continuation of the argument he was also making at the debate. He calls it a $60 million crutch, essentially saying that she's such, he's flipped the narrative to say that that amount of outside spending by corporate interest actually is indicative of your weakness. 100%. And so that's what he's saying. in that clip and she's as she clutches her pearls and says he's blaming all Jewish Americans.

And to be clear, if anybody, I mean, if we had somebody on this program a year ago who said, Haley Stevens is going to need $60 million in outside spending to beat Abdul El-Said, people would laugh at anybody who implied, she didn't have going to need $60 million. And if she doesn't get $60 million, this guy's going to be in the dust. Right. I mean, this is, it is stunning. And it, and at one point, when we look back on this era of these primaries, we're going to see that something has fundamentally changed, not just in the context of the electorate, but in what it takes to win a primary. Because the money is, even if she somehow wins Tuesday night, the money to vote ratio is just completely out of way.

whack. But I will continue to read. But buddy. Let me be very clear. Now, I sort of feel like, I mean, I'm not, it's weird that she didn't capitalize the B. Will you go there? I mean, I don't know what she's saying, but this seems to me to be some type of slight, some type of, like very um that's coded language when you don't capitalize the b it's like um i'm not saying it's anti-semitism but let me be very clear i will lower the cost of groceries ban stront trading for elected officials oh i don't think she will by herself i think she means i will support these things stop trump's abuses of power and protect michigan manufacturing and you'll just be a celebrity that's my favorite why well that is what they attacked Obama for Sam I played the ad of McCain

okay literally we're damn it and celebrity whining and writing books uh to get even richer yeah you're part of the complainer class that's amazing looking for their next book or podcast deal can you imagine if he said to his female opponent you're part of the complainer of the whiner class yeah Part of the nagging class. Shut up, you dumb nag. Bro. Bro. First of all,

should have been bruh. That's the thing. She's trying to be hip, but she doesn't realize. Bro is like, that's like 15 years ago. It should be BRUH. You know how I know this?

Your son. My daughter. She does like using bro a lot. Oh, no, it's like, hey, what's this? Why do you need a? extra 40 bucks for food. I gave you money for food

at the beginning of the month. Bruh. That's it. You see the straight of Hormuz, br. Exactly. Brat, do you see the cost of gas? Honestly, I've got that to you. I just want to work for Michigan. Well, I think there's going to be many opportunities for her to get a state job. Maybe become a substitute teacher.

Or join Second City and flop flop around the stage. That's in Illinois, Chicago, right? She's not going to have a job? Yeah. Relocate, go work with... Okay, she wants to work from Michigan.

Brough. She wants to work. She's a workhorse, not a show horse. But honestly, this whole thing about blaming it on Jewish Americans is just I cannot tell you, and this has been going on for multiple years now,

where Gentiles are getting offended on behalf of Jews in a way that is, you know, grotesque. Yes. Despite seeing Israel in her dreams, Haley Stevens is not a Jewish American herself. And here's the other thing is that like,

we see this in New York all the time, where there's such a desperate, desperation to foment anger against Mamdani. And we see the same sort of playbook with Abdul al-Said. I'm trying to think about like what it would be. that would in some way make them both susceptible, at least in the minds of these people, to these attacks. And the fascinating thing to me about it is it stopped working.

I don't know if it was 10 months ago or 15 months ago or 18 months ago, but it completely doesn't work. And it actually, I'm convinced, has the opposite effect. They've lost the argument, but the money wants them to argue one way. And they're blaring out a losing message. That's all. It is the ultimate in beating of a dead horse. And I don't mean that in the way to disparage Jews.

Or to disparage her, the workhorse. Oh, right. Oh, yeah, sorry. Stop joking about beating up women. I know how misogynist that sounds. Anti-Sintarism. It's beating a dead Philly. Is that the, you would know, right?

Is that a female horse? Yeah, okay. Why? Because it's all the time he spent at the tracks? Exactly. You would know. Are you kidding? Degenerate.

All right. Pee, the aqueduct. That broke my heart when that closed. Brian's on off-track bedding website right now. He's like, we got to go to break because the third race that Saratoga is going in. I got to get a bed in. I love how this is taking the heat off me, by the way. and my gambling.

Folks, in a moment, we'll be talking to David Day and executive editor of the American Prospect and co-host of the Organized Money podcast. But first, a word from our sponsor, which would be NutraFal. I was on set last week. Uh-huh. And they have hair and makeup people. And the hair guy said, your hair is super thick and healthy. he asked me if I was taking one of those drugs drugs and I was like no dude neutrofoal he was like

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It's pleasure. Welcome back to this. the program, David Dayan. Of course, he is the executive editor of the American prospect and co-host of the organized money podcast, Matt Stoller. David Dayan, welcome back. Thank you. I heard you were away. I was generating an entire pitch to Emma on why she needs to just get out of here. I still like to hear it. I mean, this guy's not talent. Come on. But it's a tougher pitch to make when I'm not here.

It's much easier to make it while I'm here. Well, there is a proof of concept when you're here. Right. Exactly. Right. Meaning he's more likely to be agitating me in the current moment than when he's away. Exactly. Yes.

The most compelling reason for her to be here is when I'm not here, of course. Right. We'll give it up. We'll work on it later. I'll call you later. All right. Great. I want to go, I want to talk to you about a couple of pieces that you've written over the past week. I mean, obviously we've had some stuff in the news this week, but there's sort of like largely everything is sort of frozen in amber, it seems like, this week.

We have re-engaged in Iran and Todd Blanche is just going to stay on as acting AG, it appears. but you wrote a piece about a franchisee called Bath Tuneup, which was a remodeling franchise. We interviewed Brian Kalichi on Chains of Command about the franchises, I don't know, several months ago. And so it's caught my eye. Tell us the story because it's indicative of another problem that we have in our economy?

Well, something we've seen ever since the pandemic is that people want to be their own boss. Get it, Emma? So people want to be their own boss. The actual rates of

business formation have skyrocketed since 2020. I think people realized they feel better relying on themselves than anybody else in this economy. And we've seen this really, really take off. And one of the ways, one of the sort of more convenient ways to engage in that entrepreneurship is by purchasing a franchise.

And franchises are everything from the McDonald's to the smaller franchises that maybe people don't know a lot about. the one you referenced kitchen tune-up and bath tune-up is a franchise has been around. I think the kitchen tune-up side has been around since the 80s. And now they're part of a larger conglomerate called Home Franchise Concepts, which has eight or nine brands, including maid services and dog grooming and also this remodeling thing. And the issue is that as you talked about with Brian Kalachi, the regulatory regime for franchising is really just disclosure. There is no real protection for a franchisee when they buy a franchise

other than a piece of paper that says, here's how the business works. And if there are violations that are at odds with that piece of paper, then, you know, there's a case to be made. However, what this means is that if the franchise tells you in fine print, how they're going to screw you, they can screw you, right? And frequently they do.

When I looked into this particular thing, when I talked to people, apparently 54 franchises of this particular company have file complaints to the FTC about violations of that disclosure rule. But what they're being subjected to is far, it goes far beyond a lack of disclosure. They are being asked to give away kind of their life savings to purchase this business and all of the promises that are made to them about how easy this business is, how it's easy to make money, how it's a turnkey operation. None of them are true.

They end up basically paying tons of junk fees to this franchise operator, the parent company. They're told that they're going to get better, purchasing power. This is why you hook up with a franchise, because you can get the supplies much cheaper from us than if you go independent. Turns out that's not true. They're paying more for these supplies and materials. They're spending all this money on advertising funds and these marketing deals that are supposed to bring these leads to them. I talked to one franchisee who got four leads in four years from the National Advertising fund. They paid $100,000. into. So $25,000 per lead. And they're forced to buy from all these vendors that have

kickbacks with the franchise operator. It's basically impossible to make a profit. And you lose hundreds of thousands of dollars. In many and most cases, the life savings of these people who just wanted sort of that American dream to be their own boss. I want to get to what a regulatory regime would look like to protect people here. But there, this is like, you know, and this is a, an antitrust issue in some respects, I think. And there's a, there seems to me, like, and this is a perfect example of it, of like a, a worldview you have to have to, which I think many people have, but often the pushback comes back like, well,

These people knew what they were getting into. Like you say, it was written out there. There were promises, but like nothing's guaranteed in business. Because this is, this is a predatory business, right? Like we should have in the same way that it's like, you know, any other type of predatory business, we have protection for people because you're talking about people who almost definitionally, they look for a franchise because they don't have to. the confidence, the business experience and the confidence to know how to do it from a jump.

The franchise ostensibly is like, we've got this whole thing. It's turned key for you. You just got to come in and do the work. And then it turns out to be basically just a money suck. How is it we don't have laws to protect people against this? Or do we? And they're just not enforced. I'd say two things. Number one, even the bare bones laws around disclosure that we have, according to the many franchises I've talked to, have been violated. The rebates are not disclosed until later.

They're not told that their fees are on what is called a per-territori basis. You buy a franchise for a particular territory, and then you're told, hey, buy the second territory. You'll make even more money. And it turns out the fees double, and that's not disclosed. the franchising fee. One interesting thing that was not disclosed, you're supposed to be able to contact all current and former franchisees. That is in the law that you're supposed to be able to do

your own due diligence by asking the people who've actually been through this how it goes. And what happened was that the parent company, when a franchisee bought out, exited the business, they would change their contact number to the headquarters of the company. So there was no way to actually contact the people who lost out on this business. And that is a violation of the rule. So even the bare bones disclosure that we have, that regime was violated. In this case, according to these 54-odd franchisees. As far as what the regime should or could.

be. I mean, obviously what you're talking about here when you're told this stuff, there's truth in advertising. These are very misleading claims that are being made. These claims are being made to get small business administration loans, right? So they're telling the SBA, we have an average of $2 million of sales every year, and you can expect within three years of profit of $900,000. These are misinterpretations to get a loan. I mean, that should be a real violation, right? And then you add the fact of these tying arrangements to get made, that it's not in the franchise documents, disclosure documents, but you have to use their call center service.

You have to use their recommendation engine. You have to use these particular, you have to use a certain amount of suppliers. These are exclusive deals that are, under the antitrust laws if this was any other business, but because it's a franchise, and as Brian Kalachi pointed out, these kind of ways in which franchising is regulated were changed in the 1970s, those things that would be illegal otherwise are not. So there are a lot of things that you could do to bulk up this regime. One of the biggest would be to just give individuals a private right of action to sue,

because here we go, there's an arbitration clause in all of these franchise agreements, so they can't get to court. So there's plenty of things that you can do. But what's fascinating to me is that even under the very meager terms of the current regulatory regime, these franchisees, and according to surveys that I've seen apparently routinely, are violating even those meager laws. what are um you know i i suppose if if lena con was still uh at the f tc we would see a different or a we would be hearing about you know if if not already the idea that like there's talk at the

f tc to regulate the franchises in a more um you know both the make sure that they're providing disclosure so the people can make their own assessments, but also other protections. Do you get the sense that people are talking about that for the next time that, you know, a Democratic administration that may or may not be as sort of like sensitive to antitrust as the Biden administration was? I talked to Alvar Badorioa, who was an FTC commissioner during Lena Kahn's tenure, and he said the disclosure regime is just absolutely and totally broke. and that we need to do a big update of the franchise rules.

During Con's tenure, the FTC warned franchises about these undisclosed fees and these efforts to shield people from being able to talk to the former franchisees and encourage franchisees to report abuses. And there was a recent case, a $17 million dollar, a fine settlement against exponential fitness, which is a, you know, like a gym, a franchise of gyms.

But what I've been told is that the FTC doesn't even really collect these franchisee disclosure documents, let alone review them. And so they're kind of reliant on people coming to them. And even when people come to them, the first of

these 54 complaints on this franchise came to the FTC eight months ago. And they have not released any information on whether they've opened investigation or done any work to that end. So I think the overall sentiment is that a regime based on disclosure where you have to rely on the franchisees to do all the work for you doesn't really work very well. So this all just, I mean, is this a relatively new thing? Or why is it that we're just starting to see the first of these of 54 in less than a year? Yeah, I mean, I think that this is the function of, as it often is in these things, as you know,

and I've reported on them for a while, you have to get one really dedicated person to start coordinating people. So there's this woman named Kay Sharoff. She's from Bloomington, Minnesota. She's a franchisee. after four years her business went bust her and her husband uh she was a dentist in yemen and and and came over here and was a real estate agent and then became uh a franchisee and lost all this money and decided to call other franchisees to see if this was happening to them and there was this

great almost liberating feeling when she realized this wasn't about her because she was constantly told by the parent company oh you're just not doing a you're not working hard enough you're doing a good enough job. Look at everybody else. They're all doing fantastic. You should be doing better. When she actually called the other franchisees and contacted them, none of them were doing well either. And she started what is now, I believe, a 29-part YouTube series about this. And halfway through, she got a cease and desist from the company. And they said, we're going to terminate your franchise if you don't take this stuff down. She said, great, I'm losing $10,000 a month on the franchise. Please take this down. And so I think you have to have those, those determined people to

organize. And she was the one who really got everybody together and coordinated everybody on these FTC complaints. It feels like there should be like a website, like, you know, glass ceiling or whatever, you know, but, you know, franchise experience or something. Yeah, something like that. but um all right let's also talk about uh the the prospect is um running um i guess in celebration of uh donald trump's birthday the 250th uh 250th um in celebration of 250th birthday you i can't tell how many people are you going to um talk about but it's basically like activists how would you describe who you're highlighting through American history So, you know, I'm probably not going to get a chance to do a tricentennial issue.

So we wanted to make this one count. So for the 250. It's a little bleak, but I get it. Even though we're a little late, you know, I mean, July 4th was earlier, but we're still within the month. We did this thing called Prospect Patriots. And the idea was during this time when you sort of take a step back and look through American history, you get a lot of people imposing their own sort of vision on telling the American story. And I think it was important to us to tell the story from our perspective that change is made

when people really get together and challenge power from the bottom up. And we wanted to look at representatives of that throughout history. These aren't the 10 best people in American history. These aren't the 10 people that made the most change in American history. I don't think history actually works like that. But these are 10 people who are representative of this idea of challenging power to taking on risks and thriving. And we did 10 profiles, but we also have 40 other people mentioned throughout these things.

If you go to the issue and prospect.org slash subscribe, you will see sort of in the margins of the, these profiles that there are these other people recognized and honored. But yeah, we had a rule, no elected officials. So none of the 50 that we mentioned are elected officials. Some of them are close to power, but most of them are trying to influence power from the bottom up. And I thought it was a really interesting exercise and a learning experience. given the time that we're in now, a time of oligarchy, a time of extreme corruption, authoritarianism at the top, to understand how history reflects the changes in American life through this structure of really, you know, people with without institutional power taking it on.

So that that was the goal of the series. I want to ask you who some of your favorites are. I suspect one of them is Brandeis, who was one of the early people. And he is one of my faves as well. But who best represents if there was another era that echoes this. And I don't know that there was. But I would suspect it would be like, you know, 1900 to 1920 or some. some time around there post-reconstruction.

Who best, what the people that you write about were most prominent during that era in changing things? I mean, Brandeis was one. Yeah. So I did the piece on Lewis. I did the piece on Lewis Brandeis as a attorney as a reformer as an aide who basically wrote and inspired the agenda that eventually. became the New Deal. What he wrote was with, you know, Woodrow Wilson's domestic agenda,

which was called the New Freedom. But much of what Brandeis was talking about there eventually gets realized during the New Deal. So, you know, you can talk about all of these things of Brandeis and how revolutionary he was before he was a Supreme Court justice, before he actually gets on the Supreme Court. And most of the story that I wrote about him actually is about that era of his life. We also talk about, you know, one of the profiles is Ida Tarbell. That's out today, who was a muck-raking journalist who really took down, she was instrumental in taking down Standard Oil, which was the dominant sort of the Google of its time. And it was almost like a weird revenge story because Standard Oil ruined her father. She lived in Pennsylvania,

and they and standard oil bought up all these companies in not just Pennsylvania refineries, but all around the Northeast at that time. And her father was was sort of caught up in that and was monetarily financially ruined as a result. And sort of this was sort of the origin story of Ida Tarvel going back. But we also talk about the, you know, obviously if you're going to talk about power in America, you're going to talk about white supremacy. and so we have pieces on Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells. We have, you've got to talk about labor and that subjugation.

We have the pieces on A. Philip Randolph coming next week. Francis Perkins as well. We have a piece on Ferdinand Piccora, one of my favorites coming on Monday, about, you know, his role on the Pecora Commission to understand the origins of the Great Depression and the perfidy of the great banking trust. So I think it's, and then we go on to the present day with people like Judy Human, who is one of our prospect patriots. She was a disability rights advocate

and really was instrumental in getting all disability rights that exist in the United States into being. And she's a fascinating character. So we tried to really get a really strong cross-section of folks who exemplify, I think, the best sort of epitome of the spirit of America. I can't wait to read that. And also, I got to recommend for people to read this story about these franchises. I mean, it's just the devastation wreaked on people. It's just, I feel like, as I was reading, I was like, you know, there's so many stories, you get the sense, there's so many different stories, versions of this story, not necessarily this one franchisee, or really just sort of like largely people getting screwed that where everyone does feel isolated, it reminded me of like when the financial crisis hit, people lost their homes.

everybody thought it was their own fault and it took a long time for people to understand there was something systemic. All right, one last question before you go. On the hill, like, what's your sense of where we're going in terms of all this budget stuff? I know it's far afield, but

I've been out of the loop. It's quite clear the filibuster's not, reform is not happening because the Republicans are particularly nervous about I think the Democrats taking over the Senate. Mitch McConnell hasn't been around much. Maybe not at all.

But what's your sense of like where this is headed? Yeah. So yeah, there's not going to be filibuster reform. And I think it's not only because Democrats might take over the Senate, but a different kind of set of Democrats might take over the Senate. Like we're going to see next Tuesday the Michigan primary and see what Abdul-Sayette is able to do. And I think that there's a sense of a more activist, a more, more, you know, more fighting spirit from the Democrats coming up. So it's more of a real fear than kind of a paper tiger kind of fear.

This isn't a bunch of Schumer Democrats anymore. So that's number one. Yeah, I mean, I think what's interesting right now is what we're seeing is. So what the Senate wants to do is come up with a way to fund the government after September. So the reconciliation bill is kind of an afterthought, whether they're going to increase military spending on a party line vote. But what they want to do in this just sort of continuing resolution is actually kind of fascinating because they want to stop this rule that the Office of Management and Budget put together that would. give the Trump administration more discretion to cancel grants, particularly scientific grants, but really any kind of federal grants. And we've seen so much news over the last couple of weeks

about what I would call vengeance-based budgeting, where whether it's FEMA grants or whether it's energy grants, they're being determined based on what state is asking for the money and who would benefit. And it's a way that Donald Trump is, is punishing his enemies. And the Senate on apparently a bipartisan basis is going to put together a continuing resolution that says, you can't do that anymore. And so that's really interesting. And it'll, you know, we'll see what happens on that, because is Donald Trump going to sign that? I'm not sure.

And so the, to the extent that there's going to be after September 30th in the middle of an election, year a government shutdown. It may be because Donald Trump doesn't want to follow the law as it relates to the power of the purse. There's a lesson there in terms of being president and attacking incumbents who have primaries who will now, who will now basically decide the fate of whatever his legislative agenda is. David Dayan, executive editor of the American prospect, disclosure. I am a supporter, a financial supporter of your magazine. You may be aware.

I don't know if you check the email list. Thank you very much for that $10 donation. We appreciate it. Anytime. I mean, not necessarily on a rolling basis, but in exchange. It's a wonderful magazine. It wasn't a recurring.

It was a long time. Yeah, not a recurring. I mean, let's not get crazy. Honestly, folks, the American Prospect does amazing work. If you want to have a sense of what policy makers are reading. Very easy. Just go to prospect.org. Great stuff there.

And of course, Whitney Wimbush, who does the aim quickie, wrote that piece on Ida Wells and many pieces. Folks, check it out. Tarbell one. Tarbell, sorry. Sorry. Yeah. David Dan, thanks so much for your time.

Thanks a lot. Thanks, David. There you go, folks. I guess we'll head into the fun half. I guess we will. I've forgotten how to do this. Yeah, I know. I'm rusty.

It's very rusty. It's not easy to notice the difference, though. There's a slight bit of rust right around the edges. I try and maintain, even when I'm not rusty, a certain veneer of rust. Right. That way. Lack of polish. Exactly.

The patina podcast. Exactly. It gives a little bit of a margin for error. That's my... It's like a vintage feel. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

I mean, that's basically my middle name, margin for error. Folks, it's your support that makes this show possible. You can become a member at join the majority report.com. When you do, not only get the free show, free of commercial, but you also get the fun half. And, oh, I would be remiss to not say hello to one of our producer, Meredithus, who are in studio. Maybe hop on the mic, just one second. Ladies and gentlemen, Brendan, he forgot how to do it. What's up to the old listeners, Brendan?

Yeah. I produced the show from like 2017 to 2021. I still have the key. Do you really? All right. Is that how you got any? You can reach me on social media if you want a copy of the key. That's right.

Brendan will be handing out, or if there's just stuff that you want from the office, Brendan will run down. and open it up and steal stuff. So welcome back, Brendan. It's short, short live, but thanks for stopping by. Of course. And I'll come back after the show, too, to say, Okay, great.

Great. Also, folks, just coffee.comop. On my, on the shoot that I just did, there was a couple of Major Report fans in the crew. Very cool. And some of whom get Just Coffee. Wow. Yeah.

Justcoffee. Dot Co-op. Fair trade coffee. You can get the Majority Report blend or you can get the other types of blends or just single origin. Just Coffee. Dot Coop. Matt, what's happening in the Matt Leck Media Universe? Yeah, big show for Jacobin.

Coming up at 3 o'clock Eastern Time right after Majority Report today, Mahmoud Khalil. talking about David Griskel about his lawsuit against the Trump administration about citing Reconstruction Era Klan Act going after the Trump administration for conspiring with private groups like the Canary Mission to suppress the speech of folks who want to criticize Israel. So a really big interview, a very big honor to have Mahmoud on the program. Great guest. Okay, we will see you in the fun half. Three months from now, six months from now,

months from now and I don't think it's going to be the same as it looks like in six months from now and I don't know if it's necessarily going to be better six months from now than it is three months from now but I think around 18 months out we're going to look back and go like wow what what is that going on it's nuts wait a second hold on for hold on for a second Emma welcome to the program Hey. Fun hat. Matt. Drew.

Fun. What is up, everyone? Fun hat. No, me, T. You did it. Fun hat. Let's go Brandon. Let's go Brandon.

Fun hat. Bradley, you want to say hello? Sorry to disappoint. Everyone, I'm just a random guy. It's all the boys today. Fundamentally false. No, I'm sorry. Women's...

Stop talking for a second. Let me finish. Where is this coming from, dude? But dude, you want to smoke this? Seven and eight. Yes. Yes? It is you.

Oliver's me. I think it is you. Who is you? No sound. Every single freaking day. What's on your mind? We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism. I'm going to just know what.

Libertarians. They're so stupid though. Common sense says of course. Gobbled e gook. We fucking nailed him. So what's 79 plus 21? Challenge men. I'm positively quivering.

I believe 96 I want to see. Say, 857, 210, 35, 501, 1 half, 3-8s, 9-11 for instance, $3,400, $1,900, $6,5,4, $3 trillion sold. It's a zero-sum game. Actually, you're making me think less. But let me say this. Poop. You can call it satire, Sam goes satire.

On top of it all, my favorite part about you is just like every day, all day, like, everything you do. Without a doubt. Hey, buddy, we've seen you. Folks, folks It's just the week being weeded out, obviously Yeah, sundown guns out. But you shouldn't. People just don't like to entertain ideas anymore.

I have a question. Who cares? Our chat is enabled, folks. I gotta be quick. I get a jump. We're already late, and the guy's being a dick. So screw him. Sent to a gulaw?

Outrageous. Like, what is wrong with you? Love you. Bye. Love you. Bye-bye.