7/22/26: Trump Imposes New Canada Tariffs, Jon Stewart Defends DSA, Whitmer Hot Mic

Summary

Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

Episode: July 22, 2026 – "Trump Imposes New Canada Tariffs, Jon Stewart Defends DSA, Whitmer Hot Mic"
Hosts: Krystal Ball & Saagar Enjeti
Date: July 22, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into three major political stories: President Trump's sudden imposition of sweeping tariffs on Canada and its diplomatic fallout; Jon Stewart’s public defense of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the ongoing semantics battle over the “socialism” label; and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s revealing hot mic moment regarding unpopular data centers, explored in a candid conversation with congressional candidate Kyle Blomquist. The show explores the real-world impacts of trade wars, the manipulation of labeling in American politics, and the disconnection between political leaders and grassroots communities.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Trump’s New Canada Tariffs and Escalating Tensions

• Background: Canada canceled a planned joint ribbon-cutting for the Gordie Howe International Bridge, in protest of Trump's surprise 50% tariffs on diverse Canadian imports (cars, alcohol, dairy), announced to start within 30 days (02:11).
• Trump’s Stance:
  • Quote (Trump, 03:36): “Only responding to the way they've treated our farmers and our people. Canada has been very, very tough on us over the years.”
  • Asserts Canada “needs us to survive” (03:49) and blames its leadership for decades of tough trade practices.
• Legal Justification: The administration invokes Section 338 of the 1930 Trade Act (04:12) and targets goods previously covered by USMCA (which Trump didn’t renew).
• Excluded Goods: Energy, potash, fish, critical minerals excluded from tariffs (04:32).
• Administration's View:
  • Jamison Greer, US Trade Rep (05:04): “It’s not new to have trade tensions with Canada… We want outcomes that are good for American workers and businesses. Sometimes you take an action that leads to a better negotiation.”
  • This is seen as an “opening salvo” to force Canada back to the negotiating table (05:53).

Trade Policy and Political Theater

• Trump links tariffs not just to economics but also recent Canadian wildfires, adding a culture war gloss (03:28, 08:22).
• Hosts critique Trump’s erratic tariff use—framing it as emotional reaction, not industrial strategy (09:09).
  • B (09:09): “Trump has just loved using tariffs as this political weapon.”
• Comparison to Biden: Biden added over 700,000 manufacturing jobs; Trump lost 75,000–100,000 (12:16).
  • Quote (B, 12:23): “So Biden added 700,000, Trump has taken away 100,000.”
• The conclusion: Trade resets are politically challenging and Trump’s approach yields friction with U.S. allies—with real risk of higher prices and job loss for Americans.

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2. Jon Stewart Defends DSA: The Semantics and the Smears

• Jon Stewart, discussing with WI Dem chair Ben Wickler, pushes back on “socialism” panic surrounding DSA and left-wing politics (16:07).
  • Stewart (16:27): “The energy isn't around like we shouldn't have prisons or borders. The energy is around a belief in economic populism … when you call it socialism, I think it’s a misnomer.”
  • Emphasizes the real debate: elevating labor and work over capital and money (16:47).
• Host Commentary:
  • The left is animated not by radical stances, but by economic justice and rigging of the system (17:52).
  • The battle over the “socialist” label is largely media-driven and exploited by the right for political gain.
    • C (18:04): “The semantics battle is important… it’s a tug of war over what constitutes socialism.”
• GOP Rhetoric:
  • Steve Scalise (18:34): “The Bolshevik takeover of the Democrat Party is in full swing and communism is on the ballot this November against freedom.”
  • Hosts analyze this as hyperbolic framing, which collapses nuanced left positions into communism for political attacks.

State Department & Rising Repression

• Segue to government reports labeling far-left groups as terror threats, paralleling McCarthy era tactics.
  • State Dep’t advocates “pre-crime” surveillance on “far left terrorists” (20:01).
• Hosts warn of civil liberties abuses, liken blacklists and infiltration of leftist groups to cold war repression.
  • B (27:04): “The report is saying… state repression... worked, and we smashed these ideas. That is un-American.”
• They argue these tactics historically decimated the U.S. middle class and militant labor, fueling decades of deindustrialization.
• Ultimately, labeling ideological opponents as enemies is not only dangerous but also self-defeating.

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3. Michigan Politics: Governor Whitmer’s Hot Mic & Voter Backlash on Data Centers

Whitmer’s Hot Mic Moment

• Clip Recap: Michigan Gov. Whitmer, unaware of a live mic, says: “We're used to people saying ‘F no’ and then doing it anyway” regarding controversial data centers (34:27).
  • Reveals state willingness to override local opposition for big tech projects.
• Data centers—perceived as a “unifying issue” by both parties’ voters, who increasingly resent being ignored.

Interview: Kyle Blomquist, Democratic Congressional Candidate (35:55)

• Blomquist explains:
  • The Upper Peninsula’s vast rural beauty attracts exploitative industries; state incentives benefit big tech, not locals (36:31).
  • Community opposition to rezoning for data centers ignored; companies use legal threats and bribes to win (37:49).
  • Blomquist: “They override the binding will of the population to do whatever the hell they wanted with our communities and our environment.” (37:49)
• Local vs. State Power:
  • Both parties seen as captured by donors; grassroots want independent, class-based representation (40:25).
  • Being labeled a Democrat is now “worse than socialist” in the Upper Peninsula. Party brands seen as toxic; authenticity and class solidarity matter more (42:48).

On Running as a DSA-Backed Candidate

• Blomquist welcomes DSA label, but finds more suspicion towards official Democratic Party than towards “socialism” itself.
  • Blomquist (45:06): “I don’t walk into rooms and pound my chest and wave around the red book… I use class language to talk about all the ways our system is abusing all of us.”

Democratic Senate Primary – Stevens vs. Al Sayed

• Haley Stevens, criticized for focus on Detroit metro, perceived as disconnected from rest of state.
  • Her campaign praised for ties to Obama-era auto bailout, but Blomquist suggests local support is with Abdul Al Sayed (49:09).
• Abdul Al Sayed’s Palestine Position:
  • Al Sayed (51:11): “Why is it our responsibility to ensure [the survival of Israel]? Why should our tax dollars backstop a foreign government… when our own kids don’t have good schools?”
  • Blomquist (51:51): “There's not a single person I've talked to… who believes we should be sending our tax dollars to a foreign government… especially when they're committing atrocities. This is personal for me.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Trump’s Canada Rationale (03:36): “Only responding to the way they've treated our farmers and our people. Canada has been very, very tough on us over the years, for many years, and no other president's done anything about it.”
• Jon Stewart on DSA (16:47): “It's about strengthening a safety net for a country that has suffered too long, overvaluing capital and money and undervaluing labor and work.”
• Steve Scalise (18:34): “The Bolshevik takeover of the Democrat Party is in full swing and communism is on the ballot this November against freedom.”
• Krystal on Whitmer’s hot mic (34:27): “We're used to people saying ‘F no’ and then doing it anyway.”
• Blomquist on Party Labels (42:48): "There's something far worse that you just tapped into than being called a socialist here in Northern Michigan. That's becoming being called a Democrat."
• Abdul Al Sayed on Israel Aid (51:11): “Why is it our responsibility to ensure [Israel’s survival]? … our tax dollars ought to secure the interests of a foreign government, like this is the United States and our own kids don't have good schools.”
• Blomquist on Gaza & Personal Motivation (51:51): "I saw my own son's face on a child in Gaza. And by an accident of their birth, that child was dead. And my child was sleeping soundly in the next room. ... I reject wholeheartedly that we can't detach the Israeli government from the Jewish people writ large."

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Topic | |:-------------:|:-------------------------------------------------| | 02:11 | Canada cancels bridge celebration; tariff details | | 03:28–04:12 | Trump’s justification and Oval Office comments | | 05:04 | Jamison Greer, admin tariff defense | | 09:09–12:26 | Tariffs as political weapons; Trump vs. Biden jobs| | 16:07–19:49 | Jon Stewart & DSA, battle over “socialism” label | | 20:01–27:04 | State Dep’t report, surveillance, repression | | 34:27 | Whitmer’s hot mic on data centers | | 35:55–47:37 | Interview with Kyle Blomquist | | 49:09 | Senate race – Stevens vs. Abdul Al Sayed | | 51:05–53:51 | Abdul’s Gaza/Israel stance; Blomquist personalizes| | 54:00+ | (Non-political content) Fish concert review |

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Tone & Language

• Direct, unsparing, often skeptical of elite talking points.
• Hosts use colloquial, sometimes irreverent language (“party loyalty at a time when both parties seem to be primarily loyal to their donors” – 41:55).
• Emphasis on “real talk” and holding both left and right to account—echoing the show’s “fearless” independent media ethos.

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In Summary

This Breaking Points episode delivers critical reporting and sharp analysis of the fracturing U.S.-Canada relationship due to Trump’s abrupt tariffs, the toxic politics of “socialist” labeling in American discourse, and Michigan’s crisis of local representation in the face of powerful national and corporate interests. Through in-depth interviews and candid dialogue, Krystal and Saagar highlight how culture war, big money, and heavy-handed state action are eroding public trust—a theme encapsulated in Governor Whitmer’s hot mic moment and in congressional candidate Kyle Blomquist’s passionate advocacy for the working class above party or donor loyalty.

Transcript

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[C]

well, we're going to be talking to a candidate in Michigan in just a bit, but some news on the Michigan front but also the Canadian front here right now. Breaking this morning, Canada has canceled a planned joint celebration with the United States to mark the opening of the Gordie Howe International bridge between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, citing trade fair threats from President Trump. That was scheduled to open, it is scheduled to open a traffic on July 22. But the ribbon cutting ceremony that was planned for, I believe Friday has been canceled. Now, Trump's 50% tariffs on imports from Canada was announced on Monday. All kinds of imports, we're talking cars, alcohol, dairy. That is scheduled to go into effect within the next 30 days. So there's room for negotiation, but is obviously roiling U.S. canada relations. We can go ahead right now and put up the first element here. This is D1. He is going to be asked if this is in response to the wildfires. Remember last week he said he was going to retaliate for Canadian wildfires. Where were the tariffs in response to the wildfires? The timing was at least interesting. Here's what President Trump said yesterday in the Oval Office.

[B]

The Canada tariffs, one, Are those a

[C]

response to the wildfires in Canada?

[D]

That's separate. We're looking at that separately.

[C]

And what is there anything?

[D]

Only responsive the way they've treated our farmers and our people. Canada has been very, very tough on us over the years, for many years, and no other president's done anything about it.

[B]

I love Canada.

[D]

I love the people of Canada, many friends that live in Canada, but their leadership, from Trudeau to the current leadership, I mean, in all fairness to them, they need us to survive. Without us, there's no way they can survive.

[B]

So.

[D]

But they've been very, very tough over a period of the last 50 years, actually.

[C]

So NPR reports that the administration is citing Section 338 of the 1930 Trade act for the legal justification. Now, it's going to include things that were under usmca, which Trump obviously has not renewed. It's still good for. Or is it right, like seven years? Something like that. Yeah. Until it comes up again.

[B]

Negotiated it, by the way.

[C]

Yes, that was the Trump usmca. Now, it's going to exclude energy products, potash fish and critical memorial minerals, but they would include those previously included goods that were, you may remember, as we were just talking about automobiles, dairy, liquor, those sorts of things. Jamison Greer was on cnbc. He is the US Trade representative who has been overseeing the implementation of the tariffs. Here's what he had to say yesterday.

[B]

First of all, one thing to remember is we have always had trade issues with Canada. It's always been the most contentious part of our relationship across decades, whether it's with softwood lumber or, you know, 20, 30 years ago with trade in grains and pork across the borders. So it's not new to have trade tensions with Canada. I would say going forward, I'm going to keep talking to my counterparts in Canada. The prime minister put out a letter yesterday, responded responding to the president's action. His letter was, you know, firm but moderate in tone. So they haven't cut off talk. So we're going to keep discussing with them. The reality is we want outcomes that are good for American workers and American businesses, and we're going to pursue those. Sometimes you have to take trade action to incentivize those actions, and sometimes you take an action that leads to a better negotiation. In the end, we will see where it leads.

[C]

So it run pretty clear from that sound bite from Jamison Greer that they see this as an opening salvo and that it's intended to bring Canada back to the table on this. But again, I'm reading here from NPR's reporting. They say Trump claims in the proclamation that Canada discriminates against American autos, alcohol and cheese relative to other nations. They're talking particularly about the EU and actually, I think they have a very good case to make on cheese with the eu, how Canada as its deal with the EU on dairy versus how it has deals with the United States on dairy. But also remember that Canada, as the administration has been pointing out, what was along with China, basically like the countries that were most retaliatory after Liberation Day. So USMCA on the rocks, to say the least. It's an agreement that goes into the future. But they're, they're saying in this auto proclamation that Canada maintained, starting in April 2025, a 25% tariff on the imports of U.S. motor vehicles that did not qualify for preferential treatment under the usmca. The White House has said that regarding alcohol, all but two Canadian provinces and territories halted the purchase and retailing of American alcoholic beverages beginning year, which was a response to Trump's tariffs and taunts of making Canada the 51st state. But Trump has long objected to Canada's treatment of U.S. cheese, saying in his proclamation that Canada discriminates against the US Compared to Europe on dairy products. One thing that strikes me is that any president who wanted to actually reset the table on trade relations would have an impossible political job politically. We saw this in Trump's first term. It's not easy, and that's partially by design, because people who want these free trade policies want to make it really hard for you to roll back their trade policies and to reset and rejigger. But right now, Trump has clearly not done himself Any favors whatsoever. It's like, now that we're looking back on more than a year since Liberation Day, it's that he's trying to. I think he was trying to add strategically, culture war fights, like, inject the culture war fights into the tariff fights to maybe give people something to cling to that feels a little bit more justified. Like, even just the wildfire which was affecting the daily lives of Americans in many places over the last week, it's like he wanted to cling to something tangible and say, we're going to retaliate. Canada's mismanaging. Canada is going to be the 51st state. And he's like, stoking the culture war as a kind of gloss for trade policies that were going to be tough to sell because they're obviously going to, in the short term, produce price hikes.

[B]

And he's. Does he think that Canada is, like, setting fires on purpose?

[C]

No. Yeah.

[B]

Like, it's like, what do you mean? Punish them for having a fire? Like, like the. The A pre. In a previous generation, like, a country would say, how can we help? Like, can we send assistance? What can we do? Like, we're sorry that you're going through this. And it does suck because, like, it's our entire, like, Northeast and Mid Atlantic is even, like, feeling the effect of the smoke from this. So this is a collective problem. We've all produced it by. Well, we don't even get into how we produced it.

[C]

Many years.

[B]

Many years. So let's work together again. But we're gonna, like, tariff you because we're mad at you. And, you know, Trump has just loved using tariffs as this political weapon.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, Let's say Lula criticizes Bolsonaro, so he's going to do tariffs about that. Or the EU has an oil industry policy that he doesn't like. Well, extra 20% tariffs on them until they get rid of this policy. And so when a business leader is a CEO of a company is making decisions, the idea of the tariff is that it's going to incentivize kind of reshoring of manufacturing, but the CEO knows it has nothing to do with manufacturing. It's because he's angry about a forest fire, or he's angry about something Lula did, or he's angry about an oil policy that some country has, or God only knows what. And so you wouldn't then make a business decision assuming that that tariff is going to be in place a couple months from now. In fact, he went through this entire renegotiation of the US Mexico, Canada Trade Agreement and then just said, forget it. I'm just doing all of these different things anyway. So all you kind of can do is just batten down the hatches. If you compare. Forget what you can look at Biden and like by this point in Biden's term, I think he'd added something like 600,000 manufacturing jobs. But some of that was just rebound from COVID Some of it was genuine, you know, reindustrialization and actual industrial policy. Set that aside, look up how many jobs Trump has created in manufacturing and I think it's something like negative 100,000.

[C]

He slowed the decline is the number. So he slowed the decline, but it's

[B]

not which is a lie. It was actually booming under Biden. So he didn't slow decline. He took an increase and drove it downward. Maybe we'll Google it before the end of this segment. It's his record on what he'll say is, oh, we have trillions of dollars of investment that's going to eventually translate. But those are just promises made to him by corrupt people who know how to flatter him. That's not actual real money.

[C]

Yeah, it's going to depend on how you count it and what counts.

[B]

Did you find how many manufacturing jobs in Trump's term?

[C]

Yeah, it does look like it's slowed down. But the other thing, while you look that up, the Globe and Mail has a good write up of the dairy stuff today. Obviously Canadian publication and there's some like pretty serious conversation about treatment of the US versus the eu. But the question of whether then Trump in the driver's seat of dealing with that serious issue is going to end in a better way for the United States obviously remains. So let me read a bit from your number.

[B]

We've lost 75,000 to 108,000 jobs during Trump's first year in manufacturing.

[C]

Job manufacturing jobs.

[B]

Lost them.

[C]

And what was that compared to the last year Biden doing now? The last couple years of Biden? Because this is just a claim that the White House does. Okay, so the Trump administration complained that Canada gives European cheese producers better market access. Under the CETA, the comprehensive.

[B]

Biden added over 700,000 manufacturing jobs.

[C]

There you go, a little fact check here. So we'll.

[B]

So Biden added 700,000, Trump has taken away 100,000.

[C]

It's pretty easy to peg that specifically then to tariffs. That would be.

[B]

And Biden gets. He got a boost because of the COVID thing. But yes, like Trump, you suck at this.

[C]

Oh, maybe that's the claim we'll dig into it. But anyway, under the usmca, Ottawa only allows Canadian dairy processors and distributors access to import licenses, not retailers such as grocery stores. Under the ceta, Canadian retailers can import cheese directly from EU producers. The White refers to that as discrimination, basically in the US Dairy industry. The Globe of Mail Rights argues that because Canadian retailers are not permitted to import their products, they are unable to make the most of the total tariff free quota granted to them in 2018 when Ottawa and Washington negotiated the USMCA. So that's something to keep an eye on over the course of the next 29, I think days as the White House negotiates with Mark Carney and the Canadians, we'll see if any deal. I mean again, we started off the segment with them canceling a ribbon ribbon cutting ceremony for the Gordie Howe Bridge. So not looking great on the negotiation front right now.

[B]

Yeah, embarrassing.

[C]

All right, well Ryan, let's move on to Jon Stewart's thoughts on the dsa.

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[B]

Jon Stewart yesterday interviewed Ben Wickler, who is the chair of the Democratic Party in Wisconsin, who has a new book out called this Is the Plan. And they talked a little bit about the dsa. Want to unpack some of this? Let's roll this. We're in that same bullshit place now where all these new ideas, suddenly the Democrats are these democratic socialists.

[D]

They're crazy.

[B]

And you're like, well, but that generally

[D]

their crazy ideas aren't where the energy is.

[B]

The energy isn't around like we shouldn't have prisons or borders. The energy is around a belief that their economic populism. And when you call it socialism, I think it's a misnomer. Like in the same way that if

[D]

you call Social Security socialism, that's kind of a misnomer.

[B]

It's about strengthening a safety net for a country that has suffered too long, overvaluing capital and money and undervaluing labor and work. That's all a million. That's it. And it's so I don't get the whole hullabaloo. By the way, I've actually read the book. I like it, recommend it. But on the point about the dsa, I agree with Jon Stewart here. Curious for your take on this and I actually kind of see myself in it too. Because if you roll back through this show, you can find me saying all sorts of crazy stuff. But if you applies to all of us, right? But if you think about and crazy to you, to me, it makes perfect Sense, always. But if you think about what I actually focus on, it's what he said, that we have spent way too long overvaluing money and capital and not enough time valuing work and labor. Like that. Like, that's the essence of what. So, yeah, you can be like, oh, Ryan's crazy with the drugs and the open borders and all this, but, like, that's not.

[C]

He's like my mom.

[B]

That's not actually the thing that's like, animating kind of the entire agenda. The thing that's animating the agenda is like, people feel like the system's rigged against them and they want to collectively fight back against that.

[C]

Well, and the semantics battle is obviously important, though, because it becomes, and I think that's a good point, that, like, it's the tug of war over what constitutes socialism. Just depends on who's doing the labeling. So meanwhile, let's take a listen to Steve Scalise talking about how he sees the takeover of the Democratic Party. This is him at a press conference on Capitol Hill yesterday. One of the top Republicans on the house side.

[B]

E2, the Bolshevik takeover of the Democrat Party is in full swing and communism is on the ballot this November against freedom.

[D]

Make no mistake about that. The lines have never been more clear in an election.

[C]

You know, Crystal, I thought, did a good job of bringing this out in her interview with Adam Smith, where he was pointing, and I think reasonably pointing to Darieliza Chevalier as somebody who was genuinely radical and she was pretty obviously expecting expressing Communist sympathies on her social media page, which, frankly, would be objectionable to many voters and probably many Democratic, normal Democrat voters around the country. But socialism, when people talk about it, often does, to the point Stewart's making, refer to maybe sewer socialist policies that are just more robust government intervention in certain things, like trash collection or buster buses, buses, those sorts of things. So the semantic battle for Republicans is to say this is the Bolshevik takeover and the semantics do matter when it gets baked into law. I mean, we have a bunch of elements here from the State Department cracking down on leftists. We can Skip ahead to E4 here. I read this entire report from.

[B]

And think about it in the context of what he just said. It's communism versus freedom. So he claims to be standing up for freedom.

[C]

That's a good point.

[B]

Okay, so anyway, he stands for freedom. Let's see what he's. Let's see how he's implementing his freedom agenda.

[C]

And the State Department rolled out a new report on Cuba, but they're also, as Ken KLIPPENSTEIN. Pointed out calling for a pre crime approach to combat far left terrorists to prevent quote, plots before they happen. Let's take a listen here to E4 as outlined in the United States Counterterrorism Strategy. We currently are addressing three major types of terror groups. Narco terrorists, Islamic or jihadi terrorists, and far left terrorists. For all three, we need to identify terror actors and plots before they happen. Okay, now we can put E5 up on the screen. This is the State Department report itself which is on Cuban subversion. And Ryan, as you scroll through it, I mean I bet you probably wouldn't object to a lot of it. You'd be like, yep, this is exactly what's this is right. Yes, these leftists do align themselves with these people in Cuba or these groups. Groups in Cuba. And the question though is whether you now have this on a government report or what happens when you have this in a government report. How it combines with things like the NSPM7 to start becoming like real blacklists. I genuinely hate this stuff. So much so that when Zorin was in the Oval Office I asked Trump if he thought he was a jihadist. Like I hate, hate the over labeling of people. It drives me insane. I did not think the State Department report was quite as egregious as it was being considered or as it was being framed online. But I will say when you combine with NSPM7 and the broader efforts of the administration to infiltrate some of these leftist groups, use informants which they MAGA is still furious about happening on January 6th. If you're furious about that happening in principle, then you should be furious about it happening with some of these leftist groups. If we're fomenting terror, whether it's against Gretchen Whitmer, against the Capitol or against ice, that should be something you object to in principle. And when you put the full picture together, yes, this is your point about the Bolsheviks versus freedom is well taken.

[B]

Yeah. The silliest part maybe of the report is they argue that Cuba's long term strategy has been to conquer the United States. That is in a report put out by the United States where they said with a straight face that Cuba is going to conquer the US at that point you're like, okay, I want to elevate this report because it's so dangerous, but also it's so absurd. The idea that Cuba is going to do this is laughable. The report then goes on from okay, Cuba wants to conquer the United States. Dsa, they say, has some ideological affinity with the Cuban government and there's A lot of disagreement within DSA and then they go on to say and DSA has become a powerful electoral force that is winning elections inside the Democratic primary. And you're reading this in this report about terrorism. You're like, so what? Like what's your point? So it's terrorism to run a candidate who supports who's supported by the DSA and that a majority of voters elect to Congress. Like where did the terrorism happen in that. And then it names Hasan Piker and Medea Benjamin and a bunch of other Americans who have gone to Cuba. Did not name me. They're afraid of me.

[C]

You dodged that one.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Maybe they like you.

[B]

They must. Maybe it looks a little absurd. I don't know. So we put up E6 to show the how seriously they take freedom. They are referring to blacklists and McCarthy era investigations and prosecutions as a model to be replicated according to our current State Department. The thing that we were all raised to believe was a deviation from the principles of American freedom. McCarthy era investigations and blacklists, the very thing that cut against the freedom that we fight for and that we stand for as a beacon around the world. That thing was actually good and it needs to be brought back. And so in that context, here are the blacklists that they're putting out. Hasan Piker is on a blacklist. But the old blacklists were more effective because it was all right, here's a person that nobody should hire. And you know, they tried to do that with anybody who participated in like a Columbia encampment. Don't ever hire these people anywhere. I was putting Hasan Piker on a blacklist is that he works for himself. So how are you going to get him fired? Benjamin? How are you going to get Medea Benjamin blacklisted from what? There's a much they're going to prosecute and investigate. That's different.

[C]

There's a much bigger problem which is that we are not locked in an immediate post nuclear cold war with Cuba, China or the Soviet Union right now, which again the Cuba document.

[B]

Cuba can't keep its lights on.

[C]

The Cuba document would actually be much more logical to defend if this was 1954 or whatever and we could object to that. I keep meaning to have like some forum for united debate Joseph McCarthy. I think that's like if we put Ken's post up again, it notes how many communists were in the United States. But it would be at the time I think it said like 75,000. But it would be even funnier to do that in the State Department because There were Communists in the State Department. The question is whether or not they were like secret sleeper cells of the Soviet Union. And that's a debate for another time. But the point remains. Never justify abuses of civil liberties, never justified, whether it's 1954 or 2026. And even if McCarthy was directionally correct that there were more spies that had infiltrated major institutions in the United States that were actually tied to a foreign government's apparatus, that's different. Because right now we are not in the same situation at all. It's not comparable. And to treat it as though we are literally in 1950, whatever, 1960, 1970, it's not the same situation. But they're literally trotting out the exact same playbook, as Ken's tweet points out.

[B]

And think about what that Tweet says. In 1947, by the way, it was

[C]

a bad playbook anyway.

[B]

Go on. In 1947, the CPUSA reportedly boasted well over 75,000 members. By 1959, by one estimate, the number had fallen to below 5,000. And so basically, the report is saying, look, this state repression of these ideas that were being put forward by Americans for Americans, the state repression worked, and we smashed these ideas. That is un American.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And what if by having a more robust Communist Party usa, the country fended off some of the deindustrialization that happened in the 1980s and 1990s? What if it created earlier pressure against the Vietnam War? The Vietnam war and the 80s and 90s deindustrialization, which kind of went hand in hand, broke the back of the United States and sent tens of millions of people into poverty and misery, Communist Party USA would have been against all of those things. And so, like, how is it so obvious that we're better off by having destroyed those democratic elements, nonviolent democratic elements of our civic infrastructure?

[C]

You are allowed to have Communists in the United States. You are allowed to be a Communist in the United States. You're allowed to be an anarchist.

[B]

Except you weren't for a while, basically.

[C]

Right. But we came to a point of consensus, at least until now. But what they're trying to do is say, no, you're allowed to be a communist. But if you are, and you express sympathies with or end up with any indirect connections to foreign governments, sometimes direct connections to foreign governments which are legal, there may be some things to look at that are not. But for the most part, everything that's laid out in that State Department document that appears to be legal, because if it weren't there would be arrests happening right now, eagerly now, they may try to find some way to cook up like RICO cases style schemes. But that's not what's happening right now because they don't have it. Cuz a lot of these relationships are legal free expression from Americans who are allowed to say I like China. Like you would think it's dumb, but you're allowed to say it. And by the way, again, what's frustrating about this is the Arctic Frost split screen which found recently, I mean, Chuck Grassley's releasing these documents that show Jack Smith totally abusing his power, knowingly abusing his power, likely perjuring himself about how he abused his power to spy on Republican members of Congress. What's even worse than that, and it's gotten zero coverage in the corporate press, is that they were spying on the conservative movement apparatus. So things like Turning Point usa, love it or hate it, they were being like surveilled by Jack Smith and the FBI at that point in time, the DOJ in that point of time. We're talking about dozens of conservative groups, we're talking about Republicans, conversations with the press, CBS News, part of the Smith Dragnet. And there's no outrage about that. There is outrage about it on the right. But then you see similar abuses of civil liberties starting to creep into the conversation or potential for similar abuses of civil liberties creep into the conversation. And there's a really easy first principle to just apply across the board to stop treating your domestic enemies, who are actually just domestic ideological opponents as enemies.

[D]

Right?

[B]

Yeah, exactly. It's wrong to do in principle and then also in practice. The other thing that this McCarthyism did is it destroyed militant Democratic organized labor, like actual Democratic unions that represented the workers and replaced them with either boss run or mob run corrupt unions, which then were very quick kind of to sell out their workers, which fueled the deindustrialization of the United States. So again, if you like what happened to the United states in the second half of the 20th century and the destruction of our middle class, then you should cheer McCarthyism and you should want it to come back. If you think that maybe you liked having a middle class, then you should be aghast that they're looking back at this and celebrating. But you shouldn't be surprised because these are the people that profited off of the smashing of the middle class. So of course they want to keep the boot on the neck of working people.

[C]

It's also just going to backfire as it's done in the past. I mean, maybe you have short term gains, but in the long term, you end up with growing populism like you see exactly right now. And you have the CEO of or the owner of Flock out there saying deflock activists are comparable to antifa. Terrence, why is he doing that? Why is he making a distinction between the ACLU and the eef? I'm sorry, the eff. He's doing it because he's trying to send a signal to the Trump administration, which is putting things out like NSPM7 to say people who are taking on Flock cameras, even if they're just making maps of where the Flock cameras are, are comparable to antifa. Take it seriously. This is abolish the police. This is antifa. And so it becomes a really powerful sort of, like, incantation. That's not. It's not gonna end well for anyone.

[B]

Yeah, a lot of that rage is bubbling up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to transition to our guest Kyle Blomquist, who's gonna talk about the Haley Stevens, Abdul Al Said race and also his own race against Republican Jack Bergman, who apparently might even live in Louisiana.

[C]

We gotta dig into that one.

[B]

This is the rumor. We're dig into that one. And yet he represents the Upper Peninsula in Michigan. All right, let's move over to Kyle.

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[B]

of Michigan, in a curious turn of events, seem to revolve now primarily around how supportive you are of the state of Israel and of the state of the data center buildout. Michigan Governor Meg Whitmer, here in a clip that has circulated pretty wide, pretty widely, is seen getting kind of to the heart of this question. When it comes to data centers, We're used to people saying f no and then doing it anyway is what she was caught on that hot mic saying. And FNO is what people are saying around the state to the build out of data centers. And, and here is why. Let's put up F2 just so you get a sense of what it sounds like to live near one of these things. So joining us now to discuss is Kyle Blomquist, who's a Democratic candidate for Congress in Michigan's 1st district, which is that that Upper Peninsula part that for some reason stretches into like another state, like part of it looks like it. If you look at the map, it really should be Wisconsin, but it's not and apparently makes up almost 50% of the entire state, this district. Kyle, thanks so much for being here to walk us through some of this.

[D]

Thank you so much for having me.

[B]

By the way, do you have any idea why that is part of Michigan and not Wisconsin? Like, if you look at them, do you know the history?

[D]

Yeah, it was actually a war with. It was called the Toledo War. It was between Michigan in Ohio and the consolation prize was the entirety of the Upper Peninsula.

[B]

That's amazing.

[D]

We made out pretty good.

[C]

That's a great. Yeah, it's a great prize.

[B]

I have to go read up on the Toledo War after this.

[C]

I was telling Ryan before the segment he would absolutely love the up. So maybe he'll get up there sometime.

[B]

Yeah I've never been. We'd love to have this. Yeah, just describe it a little bit for us. Like what is this area of the country like? A little bit.

[D]

You know, I think that it's deeply rural. It gorgeous. You know, we're the only congressional district that touches more than one Great Lake and we touched three of them. It's 44% of Michigan for a reason. It's deeply rural. It's got a lot of untapped potential in terms of its beauty, its natural beauty. It's the reason why most yoopers in northern Michiganders live where they live. And I think that. But unfortunately it also opens us up to a lot of exploitation and I think that's what being with the data center issue is. We have an abundance of land and water and a lot of these AI data center companies want to come here and exploit that. And unfortunately the state of Michigan has kind of opened up the floodgates to that by providing tax breaks to these companies.

[B]

Yeah. And you saw the comment from Whitmer there, clearly kind of basically supportive of this. No matter what local people are saying. What has been, how many data center fights are there in your district and where are your other Democratic opponents? Where is your Republican, the incumbent opponent on it? And how have you seen it affect your race?

[D]

You know, one thing about data centers is it's a unifying issue. When you see what happened in Saline Township where Governor Whitmer was saying, you know, we're used to people saying f no and doing it anyways, that's exactly what they did in Saline Township. Saline Township was faced with the rezoning of around 600 acres of farmland to industrial use just so that they could put up one of these hyper scale data centers. And all of the people of Saline Township, whether they voted Democrat, Republican, Independent or otherwise, they came out and they said F no quite literally. And the township board said no. And that should have been the end of it. But instead these data center companies use their considerable means to threaten an exclusionary zoning lawsuit onto this small township, a township with an operating budget I believe around $1 million. And so they were faced with the option of either having all that money sitting on their chest and suffocating their community or they were going to be given a gift which was, I believe it was $10 million or so for a community center. And what everybody saw as part of that was how rapacious those data centers were being in terms of entering communities, overriding the bind will of the population to do whatever the hell they wanted with our Communities and our environment. And then when you see Governor Whitmer there digging a hole alongside Sam Altman, you know, effectively digging the grave of local control, I think that that's becoming a unifying issue. And unfortunately, it's a unifying issue that neither of the other candidates on the Democratic Party side or the Republican incumbent or his competition wants to take on as forcefully as we need to. Right now in America, we have something like 12 times the number of data centers that China has. And we're supposed to believe that we're in some kind of AI race with China. And if that's somehow physically contained by its infrastructure, I have to imagine we're doing pretty good and that we don't need to be invading communities against their will.

[C]

Yeah, I wanted to ask how this is affecting the politics, because obviously Gretchen Whitmer is a Democrat and you were just laying out some of these dynamics that both major parties seem unresponsive to the concerns of people on the ground. So as you are talking to people on the ground, rank and file voters, normal people, how are they seeing this through a political lens or not through a political lens? And how is it affecting some of these elections, like the one that you're running in for Democrats and just again, like for voters who are trying to decide who they want to cast a ballot for in November?

[D]

Well, I'll tell you what, when you're running as a Democrat, you know, when you're running as a Democrat in Northern Michigan, you're always going to be at somewhat of a disadvantage because of the partisan identity. You know, we don't speak through party. You know, in our race, our campaign speaks through class. And it is the working class that's unified against these data centers. And I have absolutely no hesitation to calling out BS on either side and calling out Gretchen Whitmer and the way that she's operating against our best interest. She does the same thing when her administration is now issued permits for the Line 5 pipeline, pipeline tunnel going through the Straits of Mackinac. That is an infringement on a lot of people's wishes here in Northern Michigan, but also our treaty obligations to our native brothers and sisters. So it's interesting because the dynamic as I see it is this. It's tough to be a Democrat while one of the most prominent Democrats in the state is doing what she's doing on behalf of Big Tech. But at the same time, it gives me an opening to people who vote differently than me or are independent or looking for something different because they see that I am absolutely willing to call that BS out on both sides. It's a bridge issue in that way, because I think really what people are tired of is party loyalty at a time when both parties seem to be primarily loyal to their donors.

[B]

There's a bit of a catch 22 when it comes to running as an independent in this country. Like, if you run as an independent, but there's also a somewhat credible Democrat on the ballot, and they cleave off like, you know, 15, 20% of the vote, then it's going to be enough for the other major party candidate to get, you know, move first past the post, the way that Bernie Sanders handled that in Vermont. So what he does is he runs in the Democratic primary, he wins it, and then he rejects the nomination. And so then the Democrats can't put somebody on the ballot. I wonder what, have you looked into what Michigan's law is around this question? Like, would you be able to win the nomination and then reject it and say, you know what? I'm actually going to run as an independent? Because I imagine in the Upper Peninsula there, there are a lot of people who would agree with your politics, but the brand of the Democratic Party is just so toxic that it's going to be hard for them to, to overcome it.

[D]

Really. The, the election law here in Michigan is such that you have to have more petition signatures. If you're running on an independent line compared to one of the two major parties, you have to go through that process. I believe that, that, that deadline, I believe it was July 14th. So I don't believe it's possible to go the route that, that Bernie Sanders has gone. But, you know, as, as a DSA candidate, I'm running through the Democratic Party like most candidates do. And it's funny because most of the things I get when people are saying, well, aren't you afraid that people are going to call you socialist? One, I have no problem with that label. But two, there's something far worse that you just tapped into than being called a socialist here in Northern Michigan. That's becoming being called a Democrat. It's because we've seen so many places in this country where the Democratic Party has basically thrown up their hands and they said, we're not going to participate in those districts. And we feel absolutely forgotten. It's the reason why we, our material conditions continue to deteriorate because they have just decided that these districts are not worth running in. But I can tell you what, it's a lot cheaper to run and win a race in a weakened Democratic Party in a place like Northern Michigan than it is to try to compete a deep blue district like down in Illinois or out in California where you have $30 million flying around.

[C]

Yeah. And so do you anticipate, I mean, you're talking to people. So what's your, do you anticipate serious challenges with the DSA affiliation? I mean, AOC said something interesting over the last couple of days that she wasn't raised in a family that was steeped in leftist politics. Something like that. Basically a nudge to talk more like regular people and perhaps less like some of the old tweets that get thrown front and center that some of the candidates have had to bat away in their successful races, like Dariel Lisa Chevalier in cases like those. So is that sticking? I mean, your point is really important about how it's worse to be called like a Democrat than socialist, but in a place that you just mentioned is pretty independent minded. What's your, you said you don't mind the label. What's your experience with people maybe asking you about the label, if they do at all, and then, you know, kind of talking through it?

[D]

Well, you know, the, the label is something that's there. You know, what I explained to people is there's nothing dogmatic behind it. You know, when I was a kid, I was, I was baptized Catholic. And they told me, all right, you're Catholic, you're going to go to catechism every Wednesday and you're going to learn what that means and you're going to be kind of, you're going to backfill that label with the belief. Same thing. When I left high school, I left high school in 2004 in a rural, you know, conventionally red district. Most of my friends and family were Republican. So what was I, I was a Republican. Right. When you gain distance and you start to divorce your political, your, your personal ideology from whatever political label you have, it's very quickly that you become rightfully distrustful of this two party system. And the way that we label people, the way that we take three dimensional individuals and we place them first on one dimension, which is we're supposed to believe is a left right spectrum. And then worse yet, we put them into a binary between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party and not, you know, the Republican Party seems to be moving consistently further to the right where the Democratic Party is consistently inconsistent. That it's, it has an incoherent platform for the most part. What I'm finding is I don't walk into rooms and it's pound my chest and, you know, you know, wave around the red book or nothing like that. What I'm doing is I'm walking into those rooms and I'm using class language to talk about all the things, things that we have in common, to talk about all the ways that our system is abusing all of us, regardless of how we vote. That once the dust settles on our elections, we're all on the menu and we need to start working together. That if you sell some of your finite time on this earth for a dollar, at any point you stop, the system abuses you, jails you and forgets you, then congratulations, you're in the American working class. And by that definition it's 90% of us. And we have a tremendous amount of agency and power so long as we start looking at our neighbors like allies rather than adversaries. And I'll tell you what, this partisan shit like this, this stuff is, is fake. This stuff is, there's nothing real behind it. What's real is when there's an ice storm or there's a, an erosion event here, which are happening more and more because of our, you know, man made climate change or death in the family. Like that's what's real. When somebody comes out and they already have their chainsaw clearing your road before you get out there, even though you vote differently, it's when there's a meal trained for the death in the family and doing those sorts of things, that's what we, that's how we are as human beings naturally. And all this other stuff is pumped into us to keep us divided and keep us from pulling the cart in the same direction.

[B]

And speaking of ignoring different parts of the state, Haley Stevens, a Senate candidate, has gotten a lot of criticism up in the UP and elsewhere for focusing her campaign almost exclusively on the Detroit kind of metro area and not leaving that, that, that part of Detroit. I wanted to play a little clip of her talking about, well, just roll this and ask about it. Let's play F3.

[C]

Of course, we do have this rally tomorrow with Sanders and AOC for your opponent. There are a lot of people in the Democratic Party that are looking for that progressive kind of movement.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

How would you try to bring those people in? I'm just curious if, you know, know

[A]

Mr. Sanders is willing to acknowledge the

[C]

great work that I did alongside President Obama on the auto rescue. You know, he had just himself gotten into the United States Senate and I don't remember him being around for the auto rescue, but I certainly remember our sleeves being rolled up to save the 200,000 Michigan jobs to stand up for working people and to do the, the right thing. And I, I'm also really proud of the record that I have.

[B]

Interestingly, I think it's kind of a low bar being set for that clip has gotten a lot of praise as it's been circulated. But if you listen to his closer, just kind of a swipe at Bernie Sanders for not being in the room on the auto Rescue in 2008, 2009. But I'm curious how you think Haley Stevens is playing up in the Upper Peninsula versus her opponent, Abdul Al Sayed.

[D]

Well, I can tell you this much and this might not be, might be the worst kept secret in the world, but before I was ever a candidate in this race, I was a believer in Abdul Al. You know, and I met Abdul in, I think it was May or June of 2025. He had come up to the Upper Peninsula, he had come up to Escanaba. He was making the rounds even then to the deeper, darker places of our, of our state, the places that are often forgotten. And he was having these conversations, same conversations that I'm having, telling people that they deserve more from their government. And he's willing to go to those contended places and have those difficult conversations even in rooms that might not be predisposed to agreeing with him. That's what the work is. Seems to understand that that's what the work is. I can tell you this much, is I have never seen a Haley Steven yard sign in all my travels here in Northern Michigan. Painted this district with three coats by now. I see a lot of Abdul signs. I talk to a lot of people and it, you know, whether there are volunteers or people that are coming to our events, it's Abdul Buttons all the way. I can tell you that every single time I see a poll and they have the split cell and they're looking at various different regions, the north seems like it's solidly for Abdul. I think that the way that Abdul has been running his race is honest, it's authentic. I think everybody can see that and I think it's playing well. And then the question, the outlying question is only whether or not the amount of money that is being pumped into this race from outside sources is going to have the desired impact to mislead people into believing that Ms. Stevens is the better candidate.

[B]

Finally, as we talked about at the very top here, Israel's playing a huge role in the, in the Stevens Abdul Al said race roll F4. This is a little bit of an interview between Abdul El Sayed and Alex Wagner.

[A]

So no funding to ensure the survival or future of the Jewish state.

[B]

Well, I turn that back around on

[D]

you, Alex, and say, why is it our responsibility to ensure that?

[A]

I, I'm just asking because I think.

[B]

No, I mean, but like, why is

[D]

it, why is it understanding?

[B]

I think, hear me out, hear me out, hear me me out. Why is that the essential frame from which we work?

[D]

Like, why is it assumed that the United States ought to be in the

[B]

business of backstopping a foreign government? Like I'm just saying, like I don't want ill will for, for Jewish Israeli people at all. I really don't.

[D]

I just want equal rights to peace, dignity and self determination for all people.

[B]

But the notion that somehow our tax dollars ought to secure the interests of a foreign government, like this is the United States and our own kids don't have good schools. And you're telling me that that should be a primary concern over this there. How is this argument kind of playing out in the Upper Peninsula?

[D]

Well, I can tell you this much. I think that what we've seen is the entanglement between the United States government and the government of Israel, not only at a time where they are committing a genocide in Gaza, when they have legal annexation of grams in the west bank, when we have incursions into Lebanon, when we're getting ourselves entangled into a broader regional conflict now in Iran that's starting to our pocketbooks. There is not a single person that I've talked to, Democrat, Republican, Independent or otherwise, who believes that we should be sending our tax dollars to a foreign government like Abdul said, to be able to backstop their ability to perpetrate violence against their neighbors, to be able to starve, brutalize a community that is mostly children. And I can tell you this much is personal. Personally, I want my community's needs met. I believe in Medicare for all. I believe in guaranteeing health care, and as an architect, I believe in guaranteeing housing. I believe that we should have housing first policy in this country. But if there's one thing that physically compelled me to run in this race is I was sitting up in the Upper Peninsula, halfway between some of it and the rest of it, and I was watching on my phone as my tax dollars murdered children that looked like my children. And that's not, that's not something I say lightly. I, quite literally with a tired mind one night looked at my phone and in an instant, that'll last the rest of my life. I saw my own son's face on a child in Gaza. And by an accident of their birth, that child was dead. And my child was sleeping soundly in the next room. And I found it impossible to believe that on either side of the aisle that there was a consensus that we should continue to fund that right wing Israeli government during a time when they're committing those sorts of atrocities in the name of the beautiful Jewish people. This idea that we can't separate, that we can't detach the Israeli government from the Jewish people writ large is bizarre and I reject it wholeheartedly.

[B]

Well, Kyle Blomquist, candidate for Michigan's 1st congressional district. The primary is on August 4th. Thanks so much for joining us.

[D]

Thanks a lot. Take care.

[B]

Talk to you later. That was Kyle Blomquist. That's our show. But of course we can't leave without getting Emily's review of Sunday night Fish concert Meriwether Post Pavilion. We can throw this up. This is us at the show. That's actually my uncle Archie in the background. He was awesome, but he's great.

[C]

Oh my gosh, he was telling me the best story. I bet he's from outside of allentown.

[B]

Yeah, Kutztown, Pennsylvania.

[C]

Good stuff.

[B]

Yeah. He ran for state rep in 2006 in a heavily Republican area. Lost by like 110 votes or something like that.

[C]

You think we didn't talk about this at length?

[B]

Amazing.

[C]

Of course we did.

[B]

Hopefully not while the music was playing. They call that chomping.

[C]

Yeah, we were chomping.

[B]

Uh oh. Anyway, so what'd you think of the. What'd you think of the show?

[C]

Smells were bad, vibes were good. Basic recap. You know, I'm not a jam band person, but I can concede that jam bands are usually great musicians. And it's just genuinely good music, like objectively fun music to listen to. It was a beautiful night. So awesome. Guy came up to us, said he loved the show. That was fun. Definitely a lot of breaking points.

[B]

Viewers, I would say open minded people there.

[C]

Yeah, it was, it was chill. It was a beautiful night with like the sun setting to the side of the stage. So it was lots of nice people.

[B]

Emily and Phil stayed for the first set and then you left a set break. But did you catch any of the second set with this light show or anything?

[C]

No, we didn't. There was a light show. I didn't even realize there was going to be a light show. Nobody told me there was a light show. I'm just hearing of this.

[B]

Catch the light show.

[C]

You probably wanted to get out of there.

[B]

You missed the second set started with a 40 minute carini.

[C]

Okay. We probably made the right decision.

[B]

You don't want to miss the 40 minute Carini.

[C]

We went and got McFlurries, to be honest.

[B]

All right, well, so next time, let's. They'll. Maybe they'll be in Hampton fall tour.

[C]

I mean, again, if the weather's nice, it's like just a great time. It's a.

[B]

Like, you can't have a bad time.

[C]

No, yeah, you. You actually couldn't have a bad time, especially if you're not in the middle of the throngs. Although they kind of. We kind of were in the middle of the throngs. As you know, people are getting up to different stuff.

[B]

At the fish concert, people certainly are.

[C]

Beach balls, bopping around. Lots of kids. We pointed that out. Lots of families. Lots of kids.

[B]

Yeah, there were.

[C]

It was a fun time. I get it. I get it. I'll say that. Thanks for the invite.

[B]

It was tons of fun.

[C]

It really was fun.

[B]

Thanks for coming.

[C]

And your family's fun. So it's always cool to be with the Grimms.

[B]

Yeah. Indeed. Indeed. All right. Until next time.

[A]

Time.

[B]

We'll see you guys soon.

[A]

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[C]

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[A]

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