3538 - Texas Blackmails Banks to Drop Climate Change & the GOP Dream of Dismantling the Department of Education Comes True

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Majority Report with Sam Seder
Episode 3538: "Texas Blackmails Banks to Drop Climate Change & the GOP Dream of Dismantling the Department of Education Comes True"
Release Date: July 15, 2025

Hosted by Sam Seder

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I. Introduction

In Episode 3538 of The Majority Report with Sam Seder, Sam delves into a series of pressing political developments shaping the United States. From a landmark Supreme Court ruling affecting the Department of Education to Republican tactics targeting banks' climate change investments, the episode offers a comprehensive analysis of current political maneuvers and their broader implications.

II. Supreme Court Ruling on the Department of Education

One of the episode's central discussions revolves around a significant Supreme Court decision that effectively allows former President Donald Trump to unilaterally dismantle the Department of Education. This ruling marks a profound shift in the separation of powers and federal oversight of education.

• Impact of the Ruling:
  The Supreme Court's decision permits the Trump administration to terminate approximately 1,400 employees within the Department of Education. This action jeopardizes billions in federal funding crucial for public schools, especially those serving low-income and special needs students. The abrupt reduction in workforce threatens the enforcement of civil rights laws in education, including protections under the ADA and measures against gender discrimination.

• Constitutional Concerns:
  Sam Seder emphasizes the gravity of the situation, stating, “This constitutes a constitutional crisis,” referring to the Court's refusal to provide detailed reasoning behind its ruling (25:13). The lack of a written decision leaves lower courts without guidance, exacerbating uncertainty and potential chaos in educational funding and oversight.

• Dissenting Opinions:
  Justice Sonia Sotomayor's dissent highlights the detrimental consequences of the ruling. She asserts, “Lifting the district court's injunction will unleash untold harm, delaying or denying educational opportunities and leaving students to suffer from discrimination...” (24:14). Her remarks underscore the ruling's potential to undermine decades of congressional intent to support equitable education.

III. New York City Mayoral Race

The episode also covers the outcome of the New York City mayoral race, where Zoran Mamdani emerged victorious, defeating incumbent Andrew Cuomo. This race serves as a bellwether for Democratic strategies and leadership efficacy nationwide.

• Zoran Mamdani's Victory:
  Zoran Mamdani's win in the primary marked the highest vote tally ever recorded in a NYC mayoral primary, despite only 13% voter turnout. This result underscores Mamdani's strong grassroots support and raises questions about Democratic endorsements, as prominent figures like House Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Leader Chuck Schumer refrained from backing him.

• Andrew Cuomo's Response:
  In his concession, Cuomo expressed determination to continue his political career, stating, “The fight to save our city isn't over. Only 13% of New Yorkers voted in the June primary. The general election is in November, and I am in it to win it” (07:03). However, Sam critiques Cuomo's approach, highlighting the lack of substantive policy solutions and reliance on rhetoric over actionable plans.

• Policy Debates:
  The discussion contrasts Mamdani's clear policy proposals, such as a rent freeze and increased corporate tax rates, with Cuomo's vague promises of making the city more affordable. Sam points out, “What you really want is the problem solver,” emphasizing the importance of concrete strategies over slogans (11:25).

IV. Republican Pressure on Banks Regarding ESG/Climate Investing

A major segment of the episode features an in-depth interview with Lauren Windsor of Undercurrent TV, who reveals strategies employed by Republicans in Texas to pressure banks into abandoning their climate change initiatives, specifically Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing.

• Exposing the Strategy:
  Lauren Windsor discusses secret recordings from a Consumers Research Summit at Sea Island Resort, where Republican figures outlined tactics to coerce financial institutions into dropping ESG commitments. These conversations reveal a coordinated effort to use legal and regulatory tools to enforce anti-climate investment policies.

• Weaponizing Legislation:
  The Republican strategy includes leveraging Texas laws like SB 13, which allows the Attorney General to exclude banks from the bond market if they invest in or support fossil fuels and gun industries. As Sam summarizes, “[Webster] outlines using lawsuits and essentially blackmail to get these people to leave” (64:49).

• Implications for Climate Finance:
  This maneuver threatens to undermine global climate initiatives by restricting financial firms' ability to support sustainable investments. By targeting major asset managers like BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street, Republicans aim to disrupt the flow of capital towards renewable energy projects, potentially stalling progress on climate mitigation.

• Systemic Critique:
  The episode highlights how these efforts are part of a broader ecosystem funded by conservative networks and influenced by key players like Leonard Leo. Sam remarks, “They are part of this ecosystem… the funding is like slushing around to all the different parts of the ecosystem” (74:17), indicating the deep-rooted nature of these political strategies.

V. Rescission Package and Government Disempowerment

The discussion moves to the stalled rescission package in the Senate, where Senator John Thune seeks votes to further disempower governmental institutions. This legislative impasse raises concerns about the government's ability to function effectively amidst partisan gridlock.

• Government Shutdown Risks:
  Sam explains that the rejection of the rescission package could lead to a government shutdown, where the executive branch gains unchecked authority to determine essential services. “They could say on day two of the shutdown, snap,” Sam warns (35:14), highlighting the potential for widespread disruption.

VI. ICE's Bond Hearings and Undocumented Immigrants

Another critical issue covered is ICE's decision to declare millions of undocumented immigrants ineligible for bond hearings, escalating the conditions within detention facilities.

• Impact on Immigrants:
  By removing eligibility for bond hearings, ICE increases the population of undocumented individuals in detention centers, akin to concentration camps. This policy exacerbates humanitarian concerns and strains already overcrowded facilities.

VII. Epstein Saga and Political Fallout

In the "fun half" of the show, the hosts briefly touch upon the ongoing Epstein saga, speculating on its impact on political figures and the broader implications for public trust. While treated with lighter banter, the topic underscores lingering concerns about accountability and transparency within political circles.

VIII. Conclusion

Episode 3538 of The Majority Report with Sam Seder provides a thorough examination of transformative political events. From the Supreme Court's controversial ruling on the Department of Education to strategic Republican maneuvers against climate-focused investments, Sam Seder presents a critical perspective on the evolving political landscape. The discussions underscore the urgent need for robust Democratic leadership and resistance against policies that threaten educational integrity and environmental sustainability.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Sam Seder on Supreme Court Ruling:
  “This constitutes a constitutional crisis” (25:13).

• Justice Sotomayor’s Dissent Excerpt:
  “Lifting the district court's injunction will unleash untold harm, delaying or denying educational opportunities…” (24:14).

• Andrew Cuomo’s Concession:
  “The fight to save our city isn't over. Only 13% of New Yorkers voted in the June primary...” (07:03).

• Sam Seder on Zoran Mamdani:
  “What you really want is the problem solver.” (11:25).

• Lauren Windsor on Republican Strategies:
  “[Webster] outlines using lawsuits and essentially blackmail to get these people to leave” (64:49).

• Emma Vigeland on Constitutional Crisis:
  “[Sotomayor] writes… this decision is indefensible.” (25:13).

• Sam Seder on GOP’s Historical Attempts:
  “Here is Ronald Reagan calling for the dismantling of the Department of Education” (41:03).

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This summary captures the key discussions, insights, and conclusions from Episode 3538, structured to provide a clear and comprehensive overview for those who haven't listened.

Transcript

[Sam Seder]

You are listening to a free version of the Majority Report. Support this [e-mail] and get an extra.

[Emma Vigeland]

Hour of content daily.

[Sam Seder]

It is Tuesday, July 15, 2025. My name is Sam Seder. 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, Lauren Windsor, you remember her, Begonia. She'll be on the program talking about worse v Worser as a Republican attacks banks over climate change investing. Meanwhile, the big story today, Supreme Court okays Trump's unilaterally gutting of the Department of Education. Meanwhile, the rescission package stalls in the Senate as Thune searches for votes to disempower our government. More ICE declares millions of undocumented ineligible for bond hearings, putting the concentration in those concentration camps. Richie Torres and Josh Gottheimer Ostensibly Democrats want other Democrats to vote for the Republican crypto bill as the crypto super PAC which took out Sherrod Brown announces over $140 million fundraising for the midterms. Trump regime won't publish climate reports on the NASA website. Zoran Mamdani winning in polls, but Cuomo insists he's mostly in it to win it. Dan Bongino in limbo as Trump fumes over the Epstein MAGA saga. Inflation pops back up as tariffs gets priced in Netanyahu coalition in jeopardy as ultra orthodox pull out over military draft law as some Democratic lawmakers acknowledge the anti Palestinian programs in the West Bank. Israel continues its relentless killing in Gaza. All this and more on today's Majority Report. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen.

[Emma Vigeland]

It is news day Tuesday. Newsday Tuesday, 66% news day. Right. And then we have a great guest coming up later on.

[Sam Seder]

I hadn't run the numbers, but yes, that's, that's true. 66% of news day today. This is going to be news. Lauren Windsor's story is going to be some news. It is an interesting battle in many respects, but it also speaks to why the right was so obsessed with BlackRock, I guess six to eight months ago. They don't seem to talk about it much anymore. But there was a time and now I think we have our answer. We'll get to that in a bit. First, let's get to this. We're going to be talking about the Department of Education ruling. It really is astonishing. It's hard to get astonished these days with what the Supreme Court rules and. And we'll get into this more. But let's be Clear, these are not decisions in the way that we have always considered Supreme Court decisions to be decisions. There is no decision has been written. It is simply an edict from the Supreme Court, which is going to have an incredibly long term and deleterious, I guess, impact on education across the country. We'll talk about that in a bit. But first to the New York City mayoral race, which of course has become a bellwether for Democrats across the country, including the leader of the Democrats in the House and the leader of the Democrats in the Senate. Hakeem Jeffries, as far as I know, has not endorsed Mamdani. I don't believe that Chuck Schumer has either.

[Emma Vigeland]

It's been three weeks since the primary.

[Sam Seder]

My understanding is that he won the, the Democratic primary and he is the Democratic nominee. But you have Hakeem Jeffries out there pushing the any type of lie to try and characterize Mamdani as anti Semitic, despite the fact that he was endorsed, cross endorsed during the race by the highest Jewish elected official in New York City, Brad Lander. Nevertheless, Andrew Cuomo has made it official, ladies and gentlemen, with this stellar video he released on what the kids call social media.

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh, yeah, he decided to go outside. I mean, you know, he know we know he doesn't live in New York City, so he probably took a car service to Manhattan, where he's been occasionally staying at his daughter's swanky apartment.

[Sam Seder]

And.

[Emma Vigeland]

And he goes zorons outside all the time talking to New Yorkers, creating actual energy and grassroots support. Maybe I'll leave a conference room or a town car on occasion and stand outside for my relaunch.

[Richie Torres]

I'm something of a Zoron myself.

[Emma Vigeland]

Does he have a humiliation fetish?

[Sam Seder]

Let's play this video first and then we'll comment.

[Andrew Cuomo]

Hello, I'm Andrew Cuomo, and unless you've been living under a rock, you probably know that the Democratic primary did not go the way I had hoped. To the 440,000 New Yorkers who voted for me, a sincere thank you. Thank you for believing in me, in my agenda, and in my experience. And I am truly sorry that I let you down.

[Unknown]

I'm sorry.

[Andrew Cuomo]

When you get knocked down, learn the lesson and pick yourself back up and get in the game. And that is what I'm going to do. The fight to save our city isn't over. Only 13% of New Yorkers voted in the June primary. The general election is in November.

[Sam Seder]

I just want to. We got to go back a little bit, but I want to make it clear we did not slow this video down. We did not put any type of filter on him to make it look like he was speaking after having a small mini stroke or that he had to articulate the words that he was saying and read them off of the. Whatever the cue cards that he had there. I just want to make that absolutely clear. And we also did not play around with the editing. You're wondering why at certain times, he just breaks away. I mean, it's almost like the people who were shaking his hand were saying, I'm sorry, you lost. You're gone. And also, let's also be clear, this story about, like, the numbers it should, you know, 13% of New Yorkers voted. Mamdani got the highest vote tally of any New York City mayoral primary that has been on record.

[Emma Vigeland]

In history.

[Sam Seder]

In history. So to be clear, if there's any metric to go by here, he is already one of the most successful mayoral candidates that we've seen in this city. But all right, continue, because Cuomo. I want to hear Cuomo's fake story about his grandpa.

[Andrew Cuomo]

The fight to save our city isn't over. Only 13% of New Yorkers voted in the June primary. The general election is in November, and I am in it to win it. My opponent, Mr. Mandani, offers slick slogans, but no real solutions. We need a city with lower rent, safer streets, where buying your first home is once again possible, where child care won't bankrupt you. That's the New York City we know. That's the one that is still possible. You haven't given up on it. And you deserve a mayor with the experience and ideas to make it happen again and the guts to take on anyone who stands in the way every day.

[Sam Seder]

That was a run on sentence.

[Andrew Cuomo]

We needed a meeting where you are to hear the good and the bad problems and solutions. Because for the next few months, it's my responsibility to earn your vote. So let's do this. I'll see you out there.

[Sam Seder]

Steaming with energy.

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, what's amazing is, is that he says he has no real solution. Zoran has been immensely clear. Policy specifics, the rent freeze. If he appoints the members of the board that he wants, he'll be able to do that fairly unilaterally. Bill de Blasio did it three times. The raising of the corporate tax rate from around 7 and change to 11 and change, which is what matches it in New Jersey. Yeah, he'll have to get Hochul on board with that. Good news for Zoran is that DSA has been quite effective in electing assembly members to Albany who can back up his agenda up north. And when he has a 12 point victory over the incumbent governor, he has a bit of leverage right now over Kathy Hochul, who is facing a primary challenge to her left where he could get some of these things done. So it's actually immensely achievable. And then David Friedlander of New York magazine interviewed Cuomo and asked him. I just want to read this short piece because he says that Zoron has slogans but no solutions. Cuomo has said he would make affordability a cornerstone of his general election campaign, but would run on the notion that he will actually be able to make the city more affordable. While Mamdani will only talk about it, it's about not just connecting with the perception of the problem, it's finding the real solution and then having the ability to do it. You don't want someone who just connects. That's step one. What you really want is the problem solver. And I can actually do that. So what would he do on housing affordability? There is no real answer. He said.

[Sam Seder]

What? Wait, what?

[Emma Vigeland]

The key is not to freeze the rent, but to build a lot more affordable and market rate housing abundance. While broadly afford broader affordability can only be tackled by making government more efficient and cutting taxes. That is really the only truth. That's not pithy or sexy, I know, but that's also the truth.

[Richie Torres]

That's the dark thing of we're dealing with these elite liberals, which is you look at what happened in the uk, they're doing doge, but it's just the Labour Party doing it. There is a constituency to attack government. Government as the problem that has existed from Bill Clinton and the DLC in the late 80s to now. And they are, they're, they're Vichy, like they are working with Doge and Elon and all those guys to attack the things that we're trying to preserve here.

[Emma Vigeland]

And as out of curiosity, I was looking up who Eric Adams put on that board and one of them is from the Nishkin Niskanin Center. Niskanin. I can never say it. So that's like another abundance libertarian thing.

[Sam Seder]

How does cutting taxes for low income New Yorkers help affordability? I mean, of the city, like what taxes is he talking about? It's just a way to sort of like a SOP to his wealthy benefactors.

[Emma Vigeland]

And he's a Republican, basically.

[Richie Torres]

It's the David Feldman lefty from way back thing too. It's like everything he says about affordability, I agree with But I know how.

[Sam Seder]

To do it correctly.

[Emma Vigeland]

But there's no real answer.

[Sam Seder]

Let's. But the. And for those of you of course, who are. Are not interested in Mamdani and. Or Cuomo. Of course we do have a. A third and fourth candidate. One is Curtis Sliwa. You can check him out. I think he's still doing a radio show. I'm not sure. Or of course there's Eric Adams who's out there really, you know, a concerned about what Hakeem Jeffries alluded to. That of course, is the. Well, I'll let Eric Adams say it.

[Emma Vigeland]

He's running on the end. Anti Semitism party. Just a primer for this clip.

[Sam Seder]

Do you think that Mamdani is an anti Semite? Yes, I do.

[Andrew Cuomo]

I think that when you're in the streets after what we saw took place on October 7th.

[Sam Seder]

When you.

[Andrew Cuomo]

In the street either the next day or days later. And don't immediately denounce it when you're unwilling to talk about global. Global infidada. Infat.

[Sam Seder]

Indifata. So.

[Emma Vigeland]

Gosh, get rid of.

[Sam Seder]

There's too many frittata. That's the problem.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, right. Globalize the.

[Sam Seder]

The.

[Emma Vigeland]

The enchilada.

[Andrew Cuomo]

Global infrata.

[Sam Seder]

Intifada and Tifata.

[Emma Vigeland]

Demonize the. The Muslim fella. Demonize the Muslim fella.

[Sam Seder]

Right.

[Richie Torres]

I'm sure it's not the like end. Antisemitism.com party. Like this is so low.

[Emma Vigeland]

It says dot com. Is it gonna say.

[Richie Torres]

No, I'm making a joke.

[Sam Seder]

Oh God. It's gonna be. It's gonna be clickable on your ballot. You're gonna be able to link to it.

[Emma Vigeland]

QR code hyperlink. You gotta go to a QR co. QR code to vote for the anti Semitism thing. And then it just links you to Bill Ackman's Twitter account.

[Sam Seder]

Exactly.

[Richie Torres]

Tweets.

[Unknown]

Something as simple as a crack pipe.

[Andrew Cuomo]

A used crack pipe.

[Emma Vigeland]

I'm sorry. That was so loud.

[Sam Seder]

B. All right, well, just a little bit of brev levity on a otherwise rather grim day. In a minute we're going to be talking to Laura. Oh, I should say no. We've got a while before we'll be talking to Lauren. First, a couple of words from our sponsors and then we'll get into this stuff about the Education Department. Summer's here, of course. We might set goals for swimsuit season. Maybe you want to exercise more. Maybe you want to lose weight. You want to eat better. It's hard to achieve that without a plan. That's what makes Prolon's five day fasting mimicking diet. Your summer ready secret weapon. Prolon gives you a science backed structured approach to target fat loss. Support lean muscle, reset your metabolism so you can look your best and feel confident all season long. Prolon is a plant based nutrition program featuring soups, snacks, beverages. Designed to nourish the body while keeping it in a fasting state, triggering cellular rejuvenation and renewal. 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You can see their site for terms and conditions and of course as always, 20% off with the coupon code left is best and you couldn't find a better movement partner. These guys have donated tens of thousands of dollars to things like refugee resettlement, carceral reform, Planned Parenthood strike relief funds. Just a great company. 25% off with the code news [e-mail] check it out. All right, let's get into this Supreme Court ruling. It's, it's bad. The Trump administration, as part of like their Doge project, basically fired almost half of the Department of education, got 4000 people working there, at least I think 1400 were given termination notices to two federal courts, had basically stopped the measure. It went to the Supreme Court and it was another shadow docket ruling. And again, what that means is no notion of what this decision was based upon. And ostensibly the shadow docket we talked about this yesterday existed to deal with urgent or emergency rulings. Someone's on death row. Obviously, if there's an appeal, the Supreme Court says, well, if you kill this person, there's no way to go back to dealing with what this problem is. In this instance, it is unclear why it's so desperately needed that a decision that is at least three or four months old needed to be resolved today. So from the Supreme Court's perspective, all they did was to remove the restraining order, but the merits of the case have not been decided. However, if you fire 1400 people from the Department of Education, which provides billions upon billions of billions of dollars to schools across the country, primarily to help low income children and special needs children, if you fire these people who are in charge of making sure that civil rights laws are being upheld, by schools not just for minorities, but for folks under the ADA for gender requirements. I mean, across the board. These divisions of the Department of Education have been decimated and they will not come back. There is no way to bring these things back. You've got schools making their budgets right now. They're trying to figure out how they're going to deal with after school programs, extracurricular, how they're going to deal with special needs. It is nuts. The supreme court has issued 15 rulings on 17 emergency applications filed by Trump. It has granted relief to Trump in all 15 rulings. This is since April 4th. So we're talking about April, May, June, three months. There are. It has written majority opinions in only three of those. Today's order is the seventh without any explanation at all. Let's look at what some of the dissent has been written. So there was, you know, there's time. Oh, yeah, but that means lower. And that means that lower courts. Sorry, that means that lower courts have no idea what this is based upon, so they have no direction on how to handle any of this.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, just ask the question to yourself. Why don't the conservative justices want to elucidate their thinking? Why don't they want to put it to paper as to why they are backing this? That should be a question that we all ask ourselves as we have these major corruption scandals that have trickled out over the, over recent years as it comes to the conservative organizations, billionaires and benefactors and at least two of our Supreme Court justices.

[Sam Seder]

Let's put up the first excerpt from Sonia Sotomor's dissent. She writes, lifting the district court's injunction will unleash untold harm, delaying or denying educational opportunities and leaving students to suffer from discrimination, sexual assault and other civil rights violations without the federal resources Congress has intended. The majority apparently deems it important to free government from the paying employees it had no right to fire than to avert these very real harms while the litigation continues. She goes on to write, the president must take care that the laws are faithfully executed, not set out to dismantle them. That basic rule undergirds our Constitution's separation of powers. Yet today, the majority rewards clear defiance of that core principle with emergency relief. And understand this constitutes a constitutional crisis.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes.

[Sam Seder]

When we have a court that is not even providing decisions, that shows absolutely no reasoning. Why is it that the federal government, which has already appropriated funds to pay for these employees, why is it that the government needs emergency relief from a temporary order to restrain it? As this court case winds its way through the courts versus all of the people who are going to lose services that's going to be immediate versus all of the schools that need to deal with this sudden lack of funding. I mean, it's, it is, this is a constitutional crisis because the Supreme Court has basically announced we are no longer in the judging business. We're in the edict edict business, the rubber stamp business.

[Emma Vigeland]

And what she said there about without the federal resources Congress intended. That piece I think is really important because the effects of this ruling could be even broader than just the Department of Education because it basically is rubber stamping the president, clawing back funds that have already been appropriated by Congress, like the Department of Education has been funded by Congress. Trump is supposed to faithfully execute that. And this is, allows him to impound. Right. This is kind of giving him the confidence. Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

And it really is fundamentally, I mean, when you, when you impound, hobble an agency this dramatically, you are basically getting rid of it. Let put up the next Sotomayor dissent. She goes on to write, when the executive, oh, it should just write, consistent with that executive order, Secretary Linda McMahon gutted the department's workforce, firing over 50% of its staff overnight. In her own words, that mass termination served as, quote, the first step, step on the road to total shutdown of the department. That is the essentially the lawbreaker telling you their intent to break the law. And she writes, when the executive publicly announces its intent to break the law and then executes on that promise, it is the judiciary's duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it. Two lower courts rose to the occasion preliminary in joining the mass firings. While the litigation remains ongoing. Rather than maintain the status quo, however, this court now intervenes, lifting the injunction and permitting the government to proceed with dismantling the department. That decision is indefensible. And just to give you a sense of what the history has been within the court, or I should say the court system to these type of rulings. Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a 2013 opinion when he was still lower court judge that quote, even the president does not have the unilateral authority to refuse to spend the funds. Instead, the president must propose the rescission of funds and Congress then may decide whether to approve a rescission bill. That process for a whole separate tranche of funding is going on right now and they need to do it by, I think within days, if not today. And they are that John TH is looking for votes to do this and he can't seem to find them. So There is a process. The administration is using that process at this very moment, yet the Supreme Court allows it to happen. For the Department of Education. Chief Justice William Rehnquist in 1969, before he was the to be the Chief justice, wrote in a Justice Department memo, quote, it is in our view, extremely difficult to formulate a constitutional theory to justify a refusal by the President to comply with a congressional directive to spend.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes, yes. I mean, I mean, these are the enumerated powers, as explicit as it could be that Congress is supposed to have. They have the power of the purse. They allocate the spending. If it's signed into law by Biden, Trump can't come in and claw that back unilaterally, consolidating basically all of the financial powers into his discretion. But this is the natural conclusion of the unitary executive theory. When we go back to George W. Bush and how so much of the fascistic administration that we're seeing right now was building off of that both legal theory and form of governance.

[Sam Seder]

The. The Trump administration wants to fire the entire Office of English Language Acquisition, which Congress specifically tasked with administering the department's bilingual education programs. It also seeks to eliminate, quote, all employees within the Office of General Counsel that specializes in K through 12 education funding and IDEA grants, 7 of 12 regional divisions of the Office of Civil Rights, most of the federal student aid office responsible for certifying schools so that their students can receive federal financial aid, and the entire unit of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, charged with providing technical assistance and guidance on complying with the Individuals with Disability and Education Act. I mean, in 2021, the funding that comes from the Education Department amounted to over 10% of all money spent on public schools that year. I mean, these public schools, to deal with a 10% cut, particularly two months before the schools are about to open, the student loan functions are shifting to the Small Business Administration. Who knows if they're capable of dealing with a $120 billion a year in federal student aid. This is just, it's shocking. It is absolutely debilitating. And I want to make this also clear. This is on the fact that this is going to happen and students, parents, people living across the country are going to have very little awareness as to why there's no more after school programs. They're going to have very little awareness as to why it's so much harder to get special needs education for their kids. They're going to have very little awareness as to why there's no one to come in and say, hey, wait a second. My child has a disability. The school's not doing what they're mandated to do, or there is some type of gender discrimination, or there is a history of sexual assault on this campus and why the federal government is not there. All of this stuff is obscured. Just like in the, in the bill that just passed. You're going to see Medicaid cuts that are going to happen in 2027. And people don't realize that the Medicaid program they belong to and whatever it's Kentucky Connect, or, you know, whatever the local name is, they're not going to realize this is a function of a bill that passed two years ago in reconciliation. And here is the point I want to try and make about this in terms of the failure of the political leadership of the Democratic Party. And I'm looking directly at Chuck Schumer back in, when he had the opportunity to stop the passage of the Republican budget bill, he was out there arguing, I can't do this. Here's his explanation on a PBS interview. Do we have that? Democrats have few options. This is the Audi. Do we have it? Listen to his response here for challenging President Trump and the GOP majorities in the House and Senate. But some on the left say they had a chance to do just that last week when Senate Republicans needed votes from their Democratic colleagues to pass the government funding bill. The top Democrat, Senator Chuck Schumer, however, voted with the GOP and supplied the needed votes, angering many in his party. Go forward to where he starts to speak, where he starts to say, well, Jeff, yeah, right here. Are they wrong in saying that you should have blocked it?

[Unknown]

Well, Jeff, I knew when I made my decision there'd be, there'd be a lot of people who disagreed with it, but I felt it was imperative that I do the seat. We had an awful choice, a Hobbs Simpson's choice between a CR bill, which had no Democratic input, a continuing resolution to fund the government and a government shutdown. As bad as the CR bill was, the shutdown I'd say would be 15, 20 times worse. And let me explain. In a shutdown, the whole government shuts down, and then the executive branch solely determines what is, quote, essentially and what is not essential. So they could say on day two of the shutdown, snap.

[Sam Seder]

We just got that. We just got that. The executive branch is deciding what they decide is essential and not essential. They are shutting down departments. Then he's going to go in to talk about SNAP and Medicaid, which the executive branch and the Republican Party has Effectively hobbled. Continue with this.

[Unknown]

Food for kids not essential. On day four, no transit funds, mass transit or other, are essential. We'll only declare as essential in the transportation bill air traffic controllers on day six, Medicaid, half of it. Not essential. We can cut Medicaid, cut rural hospitals, cut community health centers. And who has the power to do this? The Executive. The courts have ruled that they have no say that the Executive makes the sole determination. Now, in the old days with a shutdown, they might do little things around the edges, but look who's in charge now. Musk, Doge, and probably worst of all, this man Vogt. You spelled his name.

[Sam Seder]

Voj. We don't need to hear any more of this. I mean, everything he predicted would happen has now happened, except for it is unclear to the American public who's responsible for it. And this was wholly predictable, wholly predictable. You could see what the Supreme Court was, was doing. You knew who these people were, and yet you decided, well, we don't want to. We're not willing to show the American public exactly who the Republicans are. His job is to understand who he is fighting against, and he has no idea. He is living in a completely different world, and he is shit. The bet the bed is shat. I don't know how you unshit this, frankly.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, well, now he's essentially saying that he wants to pursue a bipartisan approach with the upcoming appropriations bill.

[Sam Seder]

Good luck with that.

[Emma Vigeland]

Because this ruling that we're talking about here effectively makes. Makes the. Makes Congress's task of appropriating moot because the Supreme Court is greenlighting Donald Trump to impound on the other end of things. And this is the effect of having a Republican Party that's essentially fascistic and a completely corrupted and impotent Democratic Party that's unable to fight against this, at least on the leadership level here.

[Sam Seder]

And how do you explain to the American public, is this the Republican Party doing this, or is it the Supreme Court or what? I mean, it is so convoluted now as a political message. There is, you know, there's no way to communicate this to people. And just for those people who said, like, well, we couldn't imagine the Republican Party wanted to get rid of the Department of Education. The Republican Party has been talking about this. Well, first of all, they rolled it back when it was first started in Reconstruction, because the Department of Education was first established to make sure that all of our citizens, particularly freed slaves, got educated.

[Emma Vigeland]

It was called the Office of Education then. And Andrew Johnson was the Department of Education.

[Sam Seder]

And then Johnson dropped it down to an office. It's been an office of education up until 1970. Ish. But the bottom line is this. This entity was set up to make sure that we have a. All of our citizens have access to education. And that is why the Republicans have been against it for so long. Put up, put up these quotes. You want John McCain, the maverick he was for cutting the Department of Education. How about the reasonable mitt Romney? Here's McCain. He backed the abolishing the Department of Education back in the day because, you know, as a Goldwater Arizona Republican, didn't like exactly who was getting educated at the time. Here is number two. Play this. This is Mitt Romney, the, The reasonable Republican. The Department of Education.

[Richie Torres]

Go back in time a little bit. We got Dole in 1995. Dole wants to cut four departments, Education, Energy, Commerce and HUD on his hit list. And also our boy Newt Gingrich. Gingrich goes on record, abolish the Education Department. We got a couple.

[Sam Seder]

And here's a couple of videos of folks you may remember. Here's Rick Perry saying that he would cut the Department of Education.

[Unknown]

It's three agencies of government when I get there that are gone. Commerce, Education, and the. What's the third one there?

[Sam Seder]

Let's see. Epa.

[Unknown]

Epa.

[Sam Seder]

There you go.

[Emma Vigeland]

Let's talk deposition.

[Sam Seder]

Seriously, is EPA the one you were talking about?

[Unknown]

No, sir.

[Sam Seder]

You can't name the third one.

[Unknown]

The third agency of government. I would, I would do away with the education, the commerce.

[Richie Torres]

We get the point.

[Sam Seder]

Whoops.

[Emma Vigeland]

That was a very fun moment in 2012.

[Sam Seder]

And here is Ronald Reagan calling for the. For the dismantling of the Department of Education. I propose, and would have already started, if your hypothesis is correct, a planned.

[Unknown]

And orderly transfer back to the states.

[Sam Seder]

And local communities of functions the federal government has usurped and which it has proven it is incapable of operating. And one of the first of those would be welfare. One of the second would be in.

[Unknown]

The field of education.

[Sam Seder]

I would like to dissolve the $10 billion National Department of Education created by President Carter and turn schools back to the local school districts where we built the greatest public school system the world has ever seen. Okay? And understand this is the same guy who started his 1980 campaign at the Neshoba County Fair just a couple of miles away from where those civil rights workers were killed in 1969 in Mississippi. This is always been a question of how can we avoid. How can we make it impossible to make sure that the full range of the American citizenry gets educated. And the Republicans have finally been able to achieve what they have been looking to achieve, and that is to dismantle particularly those parts of the Department of Education that ensured that education, a quality education, was available to all our citizens. And it is a failure of the Democratic leadership to not see this coming and to not make it clear to the American public where the Republicans stood on this. It is not enough that in Chuck Schumer's heart, he is for the Department of Education. It's not enough for him to sit there saying this is crazy. Who could have expected this? It's just an abject failure of leadership. All right. We got to take a break. In a second, we'll be talking to Laura Windsor of Undercurrent TV on a big story. She has some secret recordings of a Ken Paxton lieutenant who basically outlined how the Republicans are attempting to to fight the fight against climate change by inhibiting investment in any type of alternative power sources. We'll be right back after this. Sam, it Sam we are back. Sam Cedar, Emma Vigland on the Majority Report. It is a pleasure to welcome to the program Lauren Windsor. She's the EP of the Undercurrent. And folks may know her as the most recent thing that made a big news was a recording that you made of Sam Alito's wife, Mrs. Alito, I can't remember her name. You probably do. Where she was talking about that flag across the the bay and how she was going to put up a flag called Vigonia. Lauren Windsor, welcome to the program.

Thanks for having me, Sam. Thanks, Emma.

[Emma Vigeland]

You really provided us with some incredible, incredible laughs, including you are our merch muse. We like got a bunch of our viewers to put together a shirt with Virgonia on it. We ended up selling this. So we got to give you credit for this. This was like hilarious to list.

[Sam Seder]

You will be getting a T shirt.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes. You've got to get one.

[Sam Seder]

I need you both to autograph it, please.

[Emma Vigeland]

She sounded sure, she sounded so unhinged in that clip. Like, was it was that your reaction in person as it was happening? Did she have some liquid courage to share this stuff with you?

[Sam Seder]

I mean, this is at the end of December, so I imagine that she had had several glasses, but.

All right. Well, let's, let's get into this. You got a story that just broke on Rolling Stone and give us a little backdrop to, I don't know if folks know about the esg, things like that kind of investing, the Net Zero Banking Alliance, Net Zero Asset Managers. What Is that world.

Well, so esg, it's been around for a long time, really since the early 2000s. It's probably better known as, like socially responsible investing. But it really gained traction during the Biden administration in letters to CEOs that Larry Fink would write. And he started writing these letters in like 2012, but they became more and more sort of emphatic about sustainability and the role of climate change in investment making decisions. And so about 2020, 2021, he issued a letter where he said that, and.

Larry Frank, we should say, is the CEO of BlackRock.

Yes. And he's really the sort of boogeyman of this entire right wing network that is funded and fueled by Leonard Leo that's attacking the war on woke, this war on woke capitalism. The theory being that Wall street is super leftist. But.

So.

Larry Fink's been the evangelizer of esg. And because he's a Democrat and because he's talked about, well, I should say because he also runs the largest asset manager in the country. It now has over $12 trillion in assets under management. He is their primary target to take out.

And we should say, you know, I'm no fan of blackrock, but I was always fascinated over the past year or so when folks like Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon and many on the right started to demonize BlackRock in their, particularly in the run up to the election. And I really couldn't figure out why we should say Leonard Leo was the former, like, I think, essentially the guy behind the Federalist Society. And when he left the Federalist Society, having stacked the judiciary with judges who, you know, made rulings like the one Yesterday about the Department of Education, he got a billion dollars to essentially 1.6 billion. Where did, where did that come from?

It came from an industrialist from Chicago named Barry side. He's like, super reclusive, and not much was known about him prior to this coming out that he was selling his company and just bequeathing all of, you know, the proceeds from the sale of it to Leonard Leo in a way that sheltered the sale from taxes.

Oh, that's convenient. And do we have a notion of what Leonard Leo has been doing broadly, or is it just really glimpses?

Well, he talked about it. He came out. There was a piece in Axios that really announced, you know, he's leaving the Federalist Society. You know, obviously he still has ties there, but to become the chairman of CRC Advisors and also to run the Marble Freedom Trust. So the Marvel Freedom Trust is the main vehicle through which they disperse all this money. CRC Advisors is a for profit arm that provides services to all the entities in the orbit of the network. So they've actually been under investigation for self enrichment because of all the money that's being paid to Leonard Leo and his firm on a for profit basis.

It's basically like sort of a nice laundering apparatus, right? You donate this money to these not for profits, they pay your business to provide services. That money comes back to you and it can just sort of like it just keeps going around in a circle on some level.

Well, you know, I understand the concept of, you know, keeping money aligned within, you know, your network, you know, so that you're strengthening the people who are fighting for the issues that you believe in. But we're talking about self enrichment on a scale of like, you know, the D.C. attorney General opened a probe into it and they actually moved the head, ostensibly moved the headquarters from D.C. to Texas to avoid that probe.

Wow.

Broken. The story actually was that we have the documentation showing that the 85 Fund, it was the 85 Fund, not Marvel Freedom Trust, but the 85 Fund is one of the entities that disperses a lot of this money. So it's one of the conduits. It was the one that moved from D.C. to Texas.

All right, well, so walk us through this. Now you went to, where is it that you went to get this tape?

Well, so I was at the Sea Island Resort where the conference was happening. I was not inside the conference because it was, you know, an invite only type of affair. It was not something you could just register and go. But I had a source who was there and so I got audio from the source and voila.

And tell us a little bit more about the Sea Island Conference, like who's there?

I mean, you know, it's a smaller affair but, you know, very insular, very exclusive, very tied in, in highest levels of Republican politics. So you have alec, the CEO of alec, Lisa Nelson was there.

ALEC is the American Legislative Exchange Council, which set up model legislation where Republican state lawmakers go. And that's how we see from state to state similar laws being introduced into these state legislatures through alec. And ALEC was funded largely by the Koch Network. And so just, you know, to keep people up to speed on this stuff.

Yeah, they've long been affiliated with the Kochs, but, you know, they are very allied with Leonard Leo and get money from his entities as well, significant amounts of money from those entities. So alec, the State Financial Officers foundation, which is like ALEC but for treasurers. So when you're talking about esg. They've been leading the charge in trying to implement esg, like enforcement actions. So the theory being in Texas, for example, that, you know, BlackRock, by using ESG, is discriminating against the energy industry. And so they passed a law called SB 13, which would allow Texas to block financial firms from the bond market if they found them to be discriminating against the energy industry. And so like the comptroller, Glenn Hagar can then say, oh, I find that you are discriminating against the fossil fuel industry. And so I will put you on a list that now means that the state of Texas will not do business with you and we can block you from the bond market.

I mean, this is nuts, the idea that you're going to inhibit, I guess, investing in any alternative energy sources and basically force people to support and to invest in oil companies. All right, so to describe for us what this tape is.

Well, so this particular conversation, it was a fireside chat between. The name of the conference was a Consumers Research Summit. And so Consumers Research is run by Lieutenant Mentee of Leonard Leo's, Will Hild, who came out of the Federalist Society and that whole group. He's talking to Brent Webster, who's the first Assistant Attorney General to Ken Paxton. And they've just come out of having a lot of wins against the banks, I should say. There's two separate sets here of financial firms. There's the banks and then the asset managers, asset managers being BlackRock, Vanguard, State street, these are the guys that are running your retirement funds, running your retirement accounts. Anyway, they're like, okay, we've had success with getting them to drop out of the net zero alliances. And so the net zero alliances are basically global voluntary associations where people who are the financial firms that are members are saying in our investment decisions, the companies that we invest in, we're going to be working towards getting everybody on board with reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050, which a lot of people I would say on the left would criticize these net zero alliances as being like greenwashing for corporate America. Like, hey, we're doing something without really putting anything into motion that's going to structurally really have the power to mitigate climate change. So.

But the right clearly sees it as some type of threat.

Well, the right, I think they know better, but they want to. It's a cudgel to say, like anybody who's taking any action whatsoever against climate change. And you should also remember it's not just climate change, it's dei. So this Is anything that's a diversity initiative. Like, if you're seen to be inclusive of, you know, trans people, then, you know, you could be facing a campaign, a pressure campaign from Consumers Research or any of the groups in this network. But anyway, so Webster, he says, he's like, you know, you had this. You dropped this lawsuit against BlackRock, and then all these banks, you know, dropped out of the Net zero alliances. Tell us about your role in that. And so he talks about it, and then Will isn't satisfied with that explanation. He's like. But, you know, really, though, to the outside trained eye, it looked like these were separate things. But tell us, like, the backstory. And so Webster's like, more than happy. Like, we're not recording this, right?

Yeah. Let's play this clip.

[Unknown]

Tell them about what was going on behind the scenes with Texas and events. You had a different conversation related to HSD, but also included some Texas laws, and you got something beautiful. We're not recording this.

Aren't we?

No. Okay, well, I'll.

[Sam Seder]

I'll speak freely.

[Unknown]

Please don't quote me because I'll tell an inside story on this. So when we approached this case, we decided we're going to bring a holistic problem solving approach. I like to bring to all of our. What are all the tools in our toolbox? And we literally went to, through our list. We have our consumer laws, we have our antitrust laws, we have criminal laws right there, maybe some criminal location here. We have some banking laws. And then we have this nice tool that the Texas legislature is giving us. Giving us. I think you voted on these and your wife may have represented as well. Thank you, guys, by the way, for what you've done for Texas. So they gave us this really nice tool that allows the attorney general's office to block banks from the bond market. Okay? So the bond market in every state is massive because bonds, that's how your ISDs, your counties, your cities, that's how they largely fund a lot of their building projects. And in Texas, we have a good bond rating. So banks want to invest building billions of dollars in Texas. And so the legislature gave us this tool that said if you're going to discriminate against the energy industry or against guns, we're going to kick you out of that bond market.

Okay.

And before I got there, for those who don't know, I'm kind of aggressive. I was a prosecutor for years. I fired a lot of people that were anti me. I paid a lot of prices for firing people. But I believe in staying on mission and focused on winning. And so I came in and I was like, I think we need to kick these people out of the bond market because they're discriminating against the oil industry and against guns. And you would believe how these government lawyers, like, oh, the whole bond market will shut down. I mean, they will all be. We'll have no one funding our bonds. I was like, there is no way they're going to turn down all the money they're making on the bond market here.

[Sam Seder]

Stop it there. So just to catch up, this guy's coming in, he says, you know, he wants to brag about how what a brilliant guy he was and is, and he wants to also make sure that nobody's recording this. And so he talks about how the Texas legislature, which apparently his wife is part of and some of his friends there, I mean, they're all there in the room, created this law that said, like you mentioned earlier, Lauren, that if, if, if investors discriminate against fossil fuels or guns, which is what they would also call the free market, Right. Like you're supposed to be allowed to decide what you want to invest in. You can be kept from this multibillion dollar bond market in Texas. And when he brings this up, all the pinheads in his office were like, oh, you can't do that. It's going to crash the bond market. Let's jump ahead to where he tells the story of being in the office with Governor Paxton when who comes in here into the office that he is essentially strong arming.

Well, he's not in the office. It's in the governor's mansion.

In the governor's mansion, sorry. Yes.

He's having dinner with Governor Abbott and Governor Abbott's chief counsel, all these Wells Fargo executives and Ken Paxton. And so he tells the story of shaking down Wells Fargo.

All right, let's start it from a little bit later. Do you have that, Brian? Yep.

[Unknown]

Everyone provided a response to us. One of the banks, though, went to the governor's office and that bank, Wells Fargo, operates in Texas. And look, they have a lot, a lot of employees. They have a lot of business in Texas. We like having their business. So they went to the governor. The governor doesn't know as much at this time about him. He's a great guy, but he didn't know much about our strategy with the bonds. So he sits down in his dining room in his house with me and Ken Paxton and his general counsel and all of Wells Fargo, and they do this big pitch of, hey, can you guys just let us get in the bond market. Again, we're so determined for Texas. I let it play out, and I'm the smallest guy in the room. I mean, we got. We got Ken Paxton, we got Greg Abbott. They're doing most of the talking. Greg Abbott's like, they wouldn't get it back in the bottom market, Kent. And so I just wait for my mom to jump in and really appropriately jump in too, because, you know, I'm a lower ranking. Well, hey, one more idea. I mean, this is one way to solve it, Governor, but another way to solve it, I think, could be that Wells Fargo can just leave the Net Zero a banking alliance, and then we can reinstate the bond market. Well, at that point, Governor Abbott was like, well, maybe that is the solution. What do y' all think? So all of a sudden, well, tobargo went from winning to massively losing. They all turned bright red. And they said, well, that seems to be an antitrust violation if we were to leave. And I go, that's. I go, that's not how that works. I go, you guys know how close. Do you know how close you are to H2 right now for this beat an antitrust violation? Which they weren't ready for that comment to be made because they thought this was like a. Just a GR meeting. And so they're still turning red. And then we need to talk to our lawyers about this. And I go, great. Just about the idea, Governor. I was like, yeah, let's talk about this more. So great conversation. Love the plot list. Fast forward. We supply property and I've been waiting for this day. I have the phone number for the. For the guy from Wellsmart. I call him, you start filing, he goes, no. And I go, hey, pull it up. And I send him the link. And I go, you need to read this because you guys might be next. They left. They left a week later. They left the Net Zero Banking alliance, and then all the banks followed. So they're all definitely afraid of being sued, because my underlying theory stands. None of them wants to be subject to depositions. None of them wants to be subject to discovery. So you're going to see interesting trends on these things. And I would encourage you guys, anybody who has power over state enforcers or influence over state subpoena power, they do not want to respond to your subpoenas. They know that what's in there is not good for them. So just keep that in mind if you have any influence over that. States should be ramping up right now their enforcement actions, both at the legislative level and also at the, like, executive level.

[Sam Seder]

Okay. I mean, there it is. They. He outlines using lawsuits and essentially blackmail to get these people to leave. An alliance to invest in alternative energy sources or just investment groups that won't invest in fossil fuels, and encourages everybody in the room who are all similarly situated in different states around the country to essentially do the same. I mean, talk about weaponizing government. This is pretty stunning.

I should note one thing that we wanted to include in the story, but it became something that read a bit confusing. But just so your readers know, or readers, your audience, your listeners know, when you said his wife was involved with it. So Webster was thanking a Texas state representative named Jason Isaac. Jason Isaac's wife is currently a state representative. Jason was working for the Texas Public Policy foundation and introduced the law, SB 13, that allowed Texas to be able to force these financial institutions out of the bond market. And, you know, Jason tells a story in a different panel where he talks about how he passed that law in the first place. And what he says is, you know, I was talking with Dan Patrick's office and who's a lieutenant governor, I was talking to their staffers, and we kept going back and forth on, you know, boycott fossil fuel companies or boycott oil and gas.

And.

I, to me, when I first heard it, I'm like, why wouldn't they be on the same page? There's actually a reason that there would be a fight over that language. But anyway, Jason Isaac prevailed for it to say fossil fuels because he. It was a bit of subterfuge with the staffers, but he prevails on the language and he says what they didn't know that I knew. It's by saying fossil fuels to include coal, it meant that we could capture more banks on the list because they had specific goals against. Against the coal industry. So.

So even if it wasn't coal industry in Texas, it was coal industry nationwide.

Exactly. So, like, for them to come out and say that we're passing these laws because we're. We're protecting our state industries is total bs because he's saying right there, like, you know, we don't really. You know, the only reason I included coal in the law in the first place is because I knew I could use it to go after banks. Like. And I talked to a reporter in Texas, Chris Tomlinson for the Chronicle, who reports extensively on climate and business, and he was like, well, the reason that Patrick wouldn't be on the same page as Isaac is because he's a big supporter of the natural gas industry. And he personally is responsible for getting billions of dollars of government funding in line for new natural gas plants. And he was like, why would Dan Patrick want to give coal a foothold in the industry in Texas when it's like one of the most competitive energy markets in the country? And right now there are natural gas companies that are pulling out of this fund because the price of natural gas is not high enough to warrant building the plants. So they're actually actively trying to the government, or I should say, you know, people who are allies of natural gas, trying to suppress coal, the market in Texas, to make natural gas more expensive so that it makes these investments feasible.

So tell me, what the fallout do you anticipate? I mean, this is like one of those things where we're just sort of on the sidelines watching these two entities fight. On some level, you know, I don't know how much people are, you know, at least on the right, are going to get exercised about the idea of government being weaponized to help fossil fuels and the gun industry. But what happens now? Like, I mean, would Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, or with the people at Wells Fargo, are there, I mean, are they going to have stockholder issues? What happens next?

Well, I mean, I think that they have stockholder issues either way. So basically, the folks in the Leonard Leo network group are responding to the trend on the left of waging proxy battles. So they're getting more and more involved in waging these proxy battles to counter the left's influence. But they're in all of their rhetoric, like calling, you know, big banks, like leftist, like lumping them in with the left in a way that to me, as someone who came out of, like, Occupy Wall street, it's just mind boggling that these people who fought against Dodd Frank are now saying that, like, Larry Fink is a Marxist, like, it's insane.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, they're like just weaponizing the kind of hatred of the base towards, whether it be minorities or leftists, what have you, in order to circle the wagons for the people that fund their campaigns. Like, when they talk about how this is discriminating against the corporate persons, the oil and gas industry, what they're actually doing is discriminating against sustainable energy by trying to fortify these companies that are failing.

[Sam Seder]

Well, if it were actually free market, like, I could understand passing the law to protect your own industries in the state. Right. Like, you know, if Texas, if all the elected leaders are like, we're going to protect the oil and gas industry because it's vital to our economy from a free market basis. You know, BlackRock and all these banks have every right to make investment decisions how they see fit. Texas has that right too. I wouldn't have a problem. What I have a problem with is the they don't stop there. It never stops at we, we're just going to make the decision not to do business with you now. We are going to use different tools in order to, you know, just beat you into something submission, which is what Webster is describing here because it wasn't good enough to just like block them from the bond market. Then it's hey, now we're also going to, you know, drop these antitrust lawsuits against you, which is currently something that BlackRock is going through and they're not going to drop that suit. This is something that they are intent on getting a scalp.

So how does like some of the other bankers react to this? I mean do they, are they aware of how concerned this effort is or is this going to be a revelation to people who are in that world? Are they going to have a better sense of like exactly how coordinated all of this is?

Definitely. They've been under attack for several years now. So I'm sure they know that it's very well funded and that it's the, you know, a movement that the movement, the network that Leonard has built, that the conservative movement has built around this campaign is substantial. I don't know that they know that it's as substantial as it is. And I do think it will be illuminating for people how devoted they are in the ways that they talk about really destroying any entity that has any inclination whatsoever that they describe as leftist. They're all about defunding the left and anything that has any association with it.

Lastly, let me ask you this. The talk that we did here from right wing media personalities in demonizing BlackRock, how, how much do you think that was core? I mean you were, you run in these circles many times unbeknownst to them. How, how much do you think that that was, you know, how incentivized were they to get into that fight, you know, by these networks?

Well, I mean I've been working on, you know, like some relationship maps that I think will be more illuminating to this, but to your point, but these groups are all funded in some way like they're part of this ecosystem. And so you know, Chris Rufo and Manhattan Institute and Heritage Action and you know, the various spokespeople associated like Robbie Starbuck who talks about this a lot, consumers research with Will Hill then going out and talking about Larry Fink you know, they have an entire website. It's like, who is Larry Fink? Different people from different organizations. I mean, there all the funding is like slushing around to all the different parts of the ecosystem.

It's fascinating. Folks, can go to rollingstone.com we're going to put up a link to Rolling Stone, the piece in Rolling Stone, and of course to the undercurrent, Lauren Windsor, some great reporting on something that I think has really been obviously extremely active on the right. And I don't know that people outside of that those circles had been aware of what was going on. Really appreciate you coming on and telling us about it.

Thanks, Sam.

[Emma Vigeland]

Thank you.

[Sam Seder]

All right, folks, we get to take a break, head into the fun half of the program, as it were. We'll be able to talk about, I don't know, carrot cake and Epstein in the fun half. Still talking about Jeffrey Epstein.

[Emma Vigeland]

I'm enjoying this. I'm enjoying this very much.

[Sam Seder]

Emma loves the Epstein stuff.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, I do, I do. I do. I like seeing them freak out and panic. And I actually think it's having an impact. I think at the very least is creating a credibility problem for Donald Trump with some fraction of his base. And that is something I enjoy.

[Richie Torres]

Well, it's causing the freaks that we have to pay attention to to absolutely, like, you know, their hair is absolutely on fire right now.

[Sam Seder]

Yeah, there, there's one other aspect of it before we go to break that I just want to talk about because I think there could be other reasons why we're not hearing about this information that don't necessarily have to do with the child trafficking that Epstein was involved with. Pop up this link. This is from the Democratic. From Ron Wyden on the. The Democratic leader of the Senate Finance Committee. And Wyden is looking for the Epstein files, but more on the basis of the finances. Right. And Scott Bessant is the one who is actually inhibiting this stuff. They're, they're curious as to why Conrad Black, who, you know, was apparently associated with, I think the Mossad was it. Right. The why Conrad Black was giving Epstein $170 million for tax advice, which, you know, this is well after Epstein was convicted. And it's not like there's any indication that Epstein was some type of genius when it came to tax advantage. I mean, there's a lot of people out there, if you are a billionaire that you can get tax advice in. So I mean, there, I think there's probably like a, a web of finance stuff that is.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

That may be in those reports that may have more to do with, you know, Pam Bondi or President or Trump's reluctance here. Stuff that maybe, you know, Bongino and Cash Patel never saw because there is obviously like, you know, Lara Trump came out and said release the files. One wonders why they would do that if, if they thought that, you know, there was a pee tape in there or something.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes. And right. I mean, I think it's a mix of both financial and like sexual blackmail. Like the how did Epstein sometimes sexual.

[Richie Torres]

Blackmail of, say, bank executives.

[Emma Vigeland]

How no one has been able to answer to this day. How Epstein made his fortune. He was a high school teacher, pays.

[Richie Torres]

Billions, hired at Dalton by Barr's father who was in the oss, which is the forerunner to see the CIA.

[Emma Vigeland]

And then I think I said Conrad.

[Sam Seder]

Black, I'm sorry, I meant Leon Black, not Conrad Black.

[Emma Vigeland]

And went on to kind of skyrocket to be the financial manager for the Victoria's Secret CEO Les Wexner, who did have some pretty deep ties to Israel and became somehow a multi, multi, multi billionaire overnight. And all of these connections to powerful people as well. So the problem is, is that the right. Well, we can talk about this. But we'll talk about this.

[Sam Seder]

Let's get into, we'll get into it in the.

[Emma Vigeland]

They have no systemic critique except Jewish cabal. But there is a systemic critique here.

[Sam Seder]

All right, folks, we're going to head into the fun half. Just a reminder, you can support this show by becoming a member. Go to join the MajorityReport.com when you do, you now only get the free show free of commercials. We also get the fun half and you can IM us in the fun half and you can support this show. Help us keep us alive and thriving. Join themjorityreport.com Also don't forget just coffee, Fair trade coffee and hot chocolate. Use the coupon code. Majority get 10 off. They get all sorts of blends there. They get all sorts of single source coffee. You can get the majority or port blend. It's really people are talking about it these days. Also don't forget blend in the country. My gals and sometimes my girls. What's going on? Also don't forget the AM Quickie. AM quickie.com we've got Whitney Wimbish and Corey Pine riding over there. Whitney's been tearing it up over at the American Prospect writing some amazing stories and she writes for us. Halftime on the AM Quickie so you can check it out. AM quickie.com get all the, all the news you need in about five minutes every morning in your email box at 9:00am a.m. quickie.com Matt left reckoning. Yeah.

[Richie Torres]

Tonight at 7:00 clock Eastern Time on Twitch YouTube. And that's mainly it. Brian Goldstone talking about his book There is no Place for Us on working homelessness in America. It's an instant classic. Sort of in the Barbara Ehrenreich Nickel and Dime and George Orwell down and out in Paris and London. The aggravating Kafkaesque sort of limbo that people facing housing precarity face in this country that's massively undertold and should be a huge scandal. And. And it isn't. So check that out tonight, 7:00 o'clock eastern.

[Sam Seder]

All right, folks, see you in the fun half. Three months from now, six months from now, nine 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. Hold on for a second. Emma. Welcome to the program. Matt. Fun. Ha. What is up everyone? Fun hack.

[Unknown]

No.

[Sam Seder]

McKee, you did it. Fun hack.

[Emma Vigeland]

Let's go, Brandon.

[Sam Seder]

Go Brandon. On crack. Bradley, you want to say hello?

[Unknown]

Sorry to disappoint everyone.

[Sam Seder]

I'm just a random guy. It's all the boys today.

[Emma Vigeland]

Fundamentally false. No. I'm sorry.

[Unknown]

Women.

[Sam Seder]

Stop talking for a second. Let me finish.

[Emma Vigeland]

Where is this coming from?

[Sam Seder]

Dude? But. Dude. You want to smoke this? 7A.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes.

[Sam Seder]

Size meat. Yes. Is this me?

Is it me?

It is you. Is this me? Hello? Is this me? I think it is you. Who is you? No sound every single freaking day. What's on your mind?

[Emma Vigeland]

Sports.

[Unknown]

We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism.

[Sam Seder]

I'm gonna go snow white. Libertarians. They're so stupid. Though common sense says of course.

[Emma Vigeland]

Gobbledygook.

[Sam Seder]

We nailed him.

[Emma Vigeland]

So what's 79 plus 21 challenge?

[Sam Seder]

Man. I'm positively quivering. I believe. 96. I want to say. 8572-1035-5011-2389. 11. For instance.

[Emma Vigeland]

$3,400. $1900. 5 4.

[Sam Seder]

$3 trillion. Sold. It's a zero. Some game.

[Emma Vigeland]

Actually. You're making me think less of.

[Sam Seder]

Wait. But let me say this. You 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 see you. All right, folks, folks, folks.

[Emma Vigeland]

It's just the weak being weeded out, obviously.

[Sam Seder]

Yeah. Sun's out, guns out. I. I don't know, but you should.

Know.

[Richie Torres]

People just don't like to entertain ideas anymore.

[Sam Seder]

I have a question. Who cares?

[Richie Torres]

Our chat is enabled, folks.

[Sam Seder]

I love it.

[Emma Vigeland]

I do love that.

[Sam Seder]

Gotta jump. Gotta be quick. I gotta jump.

[Unknown]

I'm losing it, bro.

[Sam Seder]

Two o', clock, we're already late, and the guy's being a dick. So screw him. Sent to a gulag.

[Emma Vigeland]

Outrageous.

[Sam Seder]

Like, what is wrong with you?

Love you.

Bye. Love you. Bye. Bye.