3542 - Bernie Sanders on Oligarchy; Trump Sponsored Wage Theft w/ Bernie Sanders, Kalena Thomhave

Summary

The Majority Report with Sam Seder

Episode 3542 | Bernie Sanders on Oligarchy; Trump Sponsored Wage Theft

Guests: Senator Bernie Sanders, Kalena Thomhave
Date: December 10, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into two major topics: the erosion of labor protections for home care workers under the Trump administration, and Senator Bernie Sanders’ ongoing fight against oligarchy in the United States. Pittsburgh-based journalist Kalena Thomhave discusses the insidious rollback of worker protections, and Sanders joins to examine runaway military spending, the deepening oligarchy, and urgent calls for systemic reform. Throughout, Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland offer their signature incisive, irreverent commentary on pressing political developments.

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Key Segments

• [24:48] - [37:59]: Interview with Kalena Thomhave on home care worker wage theft
• [38:51] - [63:45]: Senator Bernie Sanders on oligarchy, military spending, and the stakes for working Americans

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1. Current Political Landscape Recap

Sam Seder kicks off the main content with a rundown of notable political stories:

• Third federal judge approves the unsealing of Epstein documents ([04:34])
• Democrat wins Miami mayoral race for the first time in 30 years ([04:44])
• Special election in Georgia flips a state house district previously won by Trump, despite “dummy mandered” redistricting ([04:54])
• Trump’s so-called “affordability tour,” including racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric at his Pennsylvania rally ([05:06]–[15:27])
• Republican efforts to end probes and roll back Obamacare subsidies ([05:15])
• The Trump administration’s proposed social media vetting for foreign tourists and the shutdown of student loan forgiveness ([05:42])
• Illinois law protecting immigrants from courthouse arrests ([06:04])
• Monsanto-authored glyphosate “safety” study retracted ([06:19])

Quote:
“There is, so there you have it. That’s Donald Trump’s response to the affordability crisis in the country.”
— Sam Seder ([14:54])

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2. Home Care Workers Face Wage Theft: Interview with Kalena Thomhave

[24:48] – [37:59]

Context & Historical Background

• Home care workers, historically excluded from key labor protections, faced systematic exploitation.
• The original New Deal excluded roles primarily filled by Black women (e.g., domestic workers, porters), denying them Social Security and wage protections.
• In the 1970s, the “companionship exemption” was created, reclassifying home care workers as mere “companions” and stripping them of labor rights.

Quote:
“Domestic workers were one of the groups of workers that were excluded from federal labor protections...in the original New Deal, domestic workers being, of course, mostly Black women in those roles.”
— Kalena Thomhave ([25:33])

Obama-Era Protection and Recent Rollbacks

• The Obama administration in 2015 tightened definitions, closing loopholes exploited by agencies.
• Under Trump, the Department of Labor reversed these protections, telling investigators to stop enforcement—putting 3 million workers at risk.
• Now, about half the states will maintain some wage/OT protection; in the other half, virtually all federal guarantees will disappear.

Quote:
“Essentially, what’s going to happen is that these 3 million people are going to lose their federal protections...half [the states] don’t [protect workers].”
— Kalena Thomhave ([29:10])

State Vulnerabilities and Corporate Influence

• Even progressive states like Oregon risk losing protections because their laws piggybacked federal standards.
• The rollback is part of a massive deregulatory blitz—63 Labor Dept. actions in a single day—targeting everything from overtime to workplace safety.

Quote:
“In Oregon, they’re also going to lose protections even though they passed a [domestic worker] bill of rights.”
— Kalena Thomhave ([30:07])

Immigrant Labor and Wage Suppression

• Many home care workers are immigrants, already vulnerable to exploitation.
• Industry lobby pushed for these rollbacks explicitly to suppress wages and sidestep a tightening labor market—foreclosing upward wage pressure.

Enforcement Gutted

• Although changes are technically proposals, the Dept. of Labor has ordered cessation of enforcement, leaving workers with no federal recourse.
• Workers can try state-based claims or private lawsuits, now expected to overwhelm state labor agencies.

Quote:
“It’s not official, but there’s no enforcement mechanism.”
— Kalena Thomhave ([34:53])

Union Responses and Outlook

• Unions like SEIU and United Domestic Workers succeeded in protecting California workers, but national outlook is grim.
• The National Domestic Workers Alliance has been campaigning for years, but federal change is hostage to executive priorities.

Conclusion

Kalena underscores the precarious situation for home care workers and the critical role of state and union organizing to resist wage theft.

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3. Interview with Senator Bernie Sanders:

[38:51] – [63:45]

A. Out-of-Control Military Spending

• Sanders points to the “insane” scale of U.S. military budgets—over $1 trillion a year, more than the next nine nations combined.
• Congress regularly gives the Pentagon more than even the president requests, a “bipartisan effort to give huge amounts of money to the military industrial complex.”
• Sanders calls for a “national conversation” about priorities, referencing past legislative successes like dramatically reducing child poverty with a single provision.

Quote:
“We don’t need to be spending more than the next nine nations combined. What we need to be doing is investing in our people—in childcare, in education, in infrastructure, not just more money for the military.”
— Bernie Sanders ([41:10])

B. Connecting Militarism, Oligarchy, and Domestic Policy

• Sanders notes structural connections between militarism abroad and inequality at home.
• Democrats, fearful of seeming “soft on defense,” have abandoned their antiwar legacy.
• U.S. complicity in Gaza and domestic militarization are two sides of the same coin.

Quote:
“There was once a time...where a significant percentage of Democratic elected officials stood strongly against unnecessary military spending. And I fear that is not quite the case.”
— Bernie Sanders ([42:51])

C. Oligarchy: The Central Crisis

• Sanders identifies oligarchy as America’s central crisis: a handful of billionaires amassing grotesque wealth and power.
• Elon Musk, for example, now has more wealth than the bottom 52% of Americans combined.
• These super-rich use political spending (e.g., $270 million supporting Trump) to further concentrate power, often working globally with like-minded oligarchs.

Quote:
“Elon Musk now owns more wealth than the bottom 52% of American households...Meanwhile, Musk again spends $270 million to help Trump get elected.”
— Bernie Sanders ([44:54])

D. Breaking the Cycle: Campaign Finance & Political Reform

• Citizens United is called out as the most destructive Supreme Court decision for democracy, opening the floodgates for billionaire electoral dominance.
• Sanders highlights small-donor and matching-funds systems (e.g., NYC) as positive counterexamples.
• Ultimate solution: a broad, grassroots movement against corporate/oligarchic rule and for working people.

Quote:
“We cannot allow billionaires and their super PACs to buy elections. And it is getting worse.”
— Bernie Sanders ([50:26])

E. Policy: Affordability, Medicare for All, Housing

• “Affordability” is critiqued as a poll-driven buzzword with no teeth unless linked to structural issues like health care profiteering and housing costs.
• Democrats’ lack of ambitious vision lets Trump pose as an agent of change, while party leadership merely “defends the system that’s immiserating people.”

Quote:
“You cannot go around defending the Affordable Care Act when rates have soared...so we need to move in an aggressively different way. I believe Medicare for All is the way to provide cost-effective universal health care.”
— Bernie Sanders ([52:01])

F. The Need for Systemic Change

• Sanders catalogs systemic failures: inequality, broken health care and education systems, lack of affordable housing, crumbling infrastructure, monopolization, and exploitative food industries.
• Calls for “a radical and fundamental transformation of American society.”

Quote:
“If you look at the basic necessities of life—health, education, nutrition, housing—we’re not doing well. We are doing rather poorly. So we need a radical and fundamental transformation of American society.”
— Bernie Sanders ([56:10])

G. Authoritarianism and Scapegoating

• Sanders eviscerates Trump-era nativism and the tendency of autocrats to blame powerless minorities for societal failures.
• Points out the destructive impact on American institutions, public trust, and democratic norms.

Quote:
“What demagogues always do is...say, ‘You know who the cause of that problem is? It’s the undocumented people, or those people from Somalia.’”
— Bernie Sanders ([57:09])

H. Real-World Stakes: NYC and the Mamdani Mayoralty

• The importance of real, deliverable success for progressive movements is stressed, especially for new NYC Mayor Mamdani.
• Establishment actors will move aggressively to subvert left reformers; failure risks being catastrophic for broader movements.

Quote:
“The point is, what the establishment, what the oligarchs, what the Republicans want him [Mamdani] to do is to fail...[but] his agenda is not terribly radical...if he can deliver...what a disaster for the Trumps of the world.”
— Bernie Sanders ([62:14])

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4. Memorable Quotes & Exchanges

• Sam Seder: “The Department of Labor...change a couple of sentences in their regulations and completely change the fate of millions of people.” ([28:11])
• Kalena Thomhave: “This is clearly like...a change that came about directly because of lobbying by home care associations. Essentially, they were lobbying the Department of Labor directly.” ([37:06])
• Bernie Sanders: “I don’t want to proselytize here, but am I missing something in suggesting this is an issue of enormous importance?” ([46:39])
• Emma Vigeland: “You sound like you are defending the system that’s immiserating people. And Trump sounds like he’s changing things.” ([53:36])
• Bernie Sanders: “If you create a democratic form of government with a small d...you improve the schools, you improve health care, you improve transportation, you improve nutrition, you stabilize the cost of housing...what a disaster for the Trumps of the world.” ([62:40])

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5. Takeaways

• Regulatory Sabotage: The episode spotlights active sabotaging of worker protections as part of an intentional realignment of power toward employers and away from labor, particularly affecting the most vulnerable workers (women, people of color, immigrants).
• Oligarchy as Existential Threat: Sanders situates everything—from war to health care to city government—in the context of a rising, global oligarchic system threatening democracy itself.
• Progressive Policy and Movement-Building: The show urges listeners not to settle for empty slogans (“affordability”) but to pursue real, radical, broad-based change. Electoral victories must be matched by tangible results for working people.

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[Key Timestamps]

• [24:48] – Introduction of Kalena Thomhave, history of domestic worker exclusions
• [29:10] – Implications of lost protections for 3 million home care workers
• [33:06] – 63 deregulatory DOL actions revealed
• [36:05] – SEIU and union responses, state-level fights
• [38:51] – Begin interview with Bernie Sanders
• [39:49] – The “absurd priority” of military budgets
• [44:54] – America’s oligarchy: statistics, political implications
• [50:26] – Campaign finance reform and the fight against billionaire influence
• [52:01] – Medicare for All and the fight for affordable health care
• [56:10] – Systemic failures: country “doing poorly” on all essential metrics
• [57:09] – Authoritarian scapegoating and democratic backsliding
• [62:14] – The stakes for Mamdani and the progressive movement

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Tone:
Critical, urgent, occasionally wry, rooted in deep concern for social justice and democracy.

For Listeners:
This episode provides a granular breakdown of how both policy and politics continue to shape the fight for workers’ rights and against oligarchic rule in America. Accessible but substantive—essential listening for anyone invested in progressive change.

Transcript

[Sam Cedar]

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[Matt]

On the wet food and makes it not wet anymore.

[Sam Cedar]

And on the dry.

[Matt]

On the dry food.

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

Yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

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It is Wednesday.

December 10, 2020 25. My name is Sam Ceder. 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.

Kalena Tom have Pittsburgh based independent journalist on inequality.

On.

Home care workers losing their minimum wage protections under the Trump administration. Then Senator Bernie Sanders, senator of Vermont, author of Fight Oligarchy on the oligarchy and more.

Also on the program today, a third federal judge approves unsealing of the Epstein documents. We'll see if Trump's DOJ will actually do it.

Democrat wins Miami mayoral race for the first time in 30 years.

In a special election in Georgia, a Democrat flips a state house district that had been dummy mandered one that Trump won by 13 points.

Trump on an affordability tour plays the very very tired hits.

Republicans in the House to end its boat strike probe because they never really cared. In the Senate, Republicans will offer a bill to replace Obamacare subsidies with a one time payment that goes into health savings accounts that will cover maybe a tenth of what those Obamacare subsidies covered.

Us to subject foreign tourists to social media history review.

Trump regime to shut down a Biden era student loan cancellation for about 7 million people. The EPA is wiping mention of human caused climate change from its website.

In Illinois. Pritzker signs a law banning immigration arrests at courthouse limits. Info given to ICE makes it easier to sue those federal agents.

Lastly, 25 year old Glyphate safety study retracted after it was discovered that the study was written by Monsanto. All this and more on today's Majority Report. Welcome ladies and gentlemen. Thanks so much for joining us. Emma Vigeland out today, although she will join us for the Bernie Sanders interview.

We interviewed him yesterday afternoon and.

We will be playing that after we speak to Colon. Kalena Tom have.

So Donald Trump is on an affordability tour because.

Which is sort of fascinating. Did they bill it as the affordability tour? That's what I read on Fox. And you'll recall that he got sick of the word affordability.

No, I'm sorry. Day one, after Mom Donnie wins, we've got to talk more about affordability then day two, I'm sick of affordability. We're not talking about affordability. Then yesterday, Donald Trump heads to Pennsylvania out near the Poconos.

At the Mount Airy Casino Resort.

Because he's a man of the people.

[Matt]

Cost of living is so bad at these casinos.

[Sam Cedar]

And so he had to. A casino, it was a venue of about 600, 700 people.

And he's out there, you know, wanting to talk to the economy because, you know, here is. News Nation is interviewing some Pennsylvanians, and this is what they say about the economy.

We're still struggling even when we have.

[Kalena Tomhav]

Our money coming through.

[Emma Vigeland]

We had a suffer going up.

[Kalena Tomhav]

So we put no food.

[Sam Cedar]

I mean, food prices are up, but I think gas is down, coming down. I think things are getting a lot better. The economy's down the tubes.

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

Health care is awful. Prescriptions are terrible. Groceries are off the charts.

[Sam Cedar]

And I think the only way we're going to do better is if he gets out and somebody else gets in.

Now, the second guy definitely was like a hardcore Trumper and was just had to admit, incidentally, gas prices are not down. But nevertheless, here's Donald Trump. He hears these people, he knows what, you know, what they want, and.

He addressed it very much. We're gonna play number three. Good.

And we had a meeting.

[Donald Trump Supporter]

And I say, why is it we only take people from shithole countries, right?

[Sam Cedar]

Why can't we have some people from.

[Donald Trump Supporter]

Norway, Sweden, Just a few. Let us have a few from, from Denmark. Do you mind sending us a few people? Send us some nice people.

[Sam Cedar]

Do you mind?

[Donald Trump Supporter]

But we always take people from Somalia, places that are a disaster, right? Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime. The only thing they're good at is going after ships.

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

Okay.

[Sam Cedar]

How many people in that audience, I think, even know what Somalia is? I don't think they had a clip.

[Matt]

Could find it on a map.

[Sam Cedar]

No. And so he. In the Tom Hanks movie, incidentally, only 700 people.

In that venue.

700 people. There were more people at the Momdani satellite election parties in any given one of them then we're in that place. And so he doesn't get the, he doesn't get the, the, the rush that he wants from saying Somalia because they're all like, wait, none of those people have met anybody from Somalia they don't know. I mean, with all due respect, I suspect, like, you could put one person from Somalia and one person from Norway and a significant portion of those people would not be able to tell which country they came from. So he's got to get a little more explicit. And here he does. With number four.

[Donald Trump Supporter]

Please raise your hand. That's for Minnesota, you know, that's called the great big Minnesota scam with one of the dumbest governors ever in history.

I love this. Elon Omar, whatever the hell her name is. With a little shin. The little turban Shing. I love her. She comes in, does nothing, but she's always complaining.

She comes for one second.

[Sam Cedar]

Can we just look at this?

[Matt]

I'm sorry, this feels racist against white people.

[Sam Cedar]

Come on, just go back a little bit. I want you to look at the guy in the back there with the white hat when he's, when, when, when Trump says all she does is bitch. Okay? This guy has finally been heard. He has been dealing with this for his full. Whatever it is. 25, 25 years. Go back just a little bit. Watch his reaction. Go ahead, bitch.

[Donald Trump Supporter]

She's always complaining.

She comes from a country where, I mean, it's considered about the worst country in the world, right? They have no military. They have no nothing. They have no parliament. They don't know what the hell the word parliament means. They have nothing. They have no police.

[Sam Cedar]

Pause it for a second. With all due respect to everybody in the audience.

How many of them know the word parliament? Can you explain to me.

Can you explain to me a parliamentary form of government? Go ahead.

[Donald Trump Supporter]

Police themselves. They kill each other all the time. I love it. She comes to our country and she's always complaining about the constitution allows me to do this, the concert. We ought to get her to hell out. She married her brother in order to get in, right? She married her brother.

[Matt]

Easy there.

[Donald Trump Supporter]

Can you imagine if Donald Trump married his sister? Beautiful. She's a beautiful person. If I married my sister to get my citizenship, do you think I'd last for about two hours? Or would it be something less than that? She married her brother to get it.

[Sam Cedar]

Can you imagine if, for instance, I married my hooker and that's the way she got. That's the way she got citizenship. Or if I dated my daughter just for a moment. Imagine if I dated my daughter. Think about that. I'm going to think about that for a second. Give me, Give me an hour or two and think about me. Like dating my daughter of we probably get. So think about how hot she is and I'll think about that. Think about that for a minute. Imagine if Rudy Giuliani married his second cousin.

[Donald Trump Supporter]

Oh, yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

Can you imagine if he had multiple affairs? Can you imagine that? That would be. Oh, God.

[Donald Trump Supporter]

Do you think I'd last for about two hours? How long could I last? Something less than that. She married her brother to get in, therefore she's here illegally. She should get the hell out, throw the hell out. She does nothing but complain.

[Sam Cedar]

Nasty.

Whoa, whoa, wait, wait. Put that back up.

Does that shirt, does that shirt say Persians for Trump?

[Matt]

I think it does say that, yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

Do you know how many Iranians have been rolled up by the Trump administration on this immigration thing? Like the guy standing right there. Go get him.

[Matt]

Yeah, well, I'm not talking about Iran or Persia. I'm talking. That's Iran.

[Sam Cedar]

Unbelievable.

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

PBD's fault.

[Sam Cedar]

Right there. There is. So there you have it. That's Donald Trump's response to the affordability crisis in the country.

Brian was saying that's like, like watching Andrew Dice Clay still doing his routine sometime in the late 90s, maybe early aughts. It's like a half filled club. He's in against some. He said at the vfw. Oh, what's going. Oh, why is everybody so old? I used to play Madison Square. God.

[Emma Vigeland]

And.

[Sam Cedar]

Oh.

We'll. We'll play a couple more clips of Donald Trump. He seems very energetic. Two days after the day that I have it down that he gets juiced. I don't know.

[Matt]

Let's go do some racism for the yoke.

[Sam Cedar]

Okay. Come on. I'm feeling it. It's going through my veins. We get out there, play the hits again.

[Matt]

I don't think the guys behind him holding bigger paycheck signs. Like, no one sees that, you idiots.

[Sam Cedar]

Have you seen videos of Frankie Valli lip syncing in his 90s?

That really is what it's like. That would be amazing. This is. I mean, it's out there.

In a moment, we're going to be talking to Kaleina Tony Tom have. She's a Pittsburgh based independent journalist. On her piece on the home care workers losing their.

Potentially losing their wage protections.

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Quick break when we come back. K. We'll be right back after this.

Sa.

Sam.

We are back. Sam Cedar on the Majority Report. Emma Viglin out today. Want to welcome to the program. Kalina Tom hav have sorry, I just asked you that. She's a Pittsburgh based independent journalist writing for Capital in Maine about the prospect of home care workers losing their minimum wage protections.

Kalina, let's just start with like what historically just give us some history on home care workers because this has come up over the years. There was an attempt to unionize them, I think five, six years ago, maybe more. I can't remember. Time has escaped me. But give us a little bit of background and welcome to the show.

[Kalena Tomhav]

Thanks. Yeah, thanks for having me. Sure. So domestic workers have struggled a lot to win worker protections over the past century, essentially. So domestic workers were one of the groups of workers that were excluded from federal labor protections, as many people know, in the original New Deal, domestic workers being, of course, mostly black women in those roles. And then fast forward.

Decades, a few decades. And in the 70s, when care workers were brought into the Fair Labor Standards act, there was an exemption put forth for companions. The idea that a companion is someone who just provides fellowship and.

You know, like a relationship protects someone and that they kind of like watch them. A babysitter, essentially there was an exemption for care workers if they were considered companions. And so essentially there's a theory behind that.

[Sam Cedar]

I mean, and we should say I just, you know, want to just sort of fill some of this back in. You know, part of the, the, the, the sort of trade off to get the New Deal passed was essentially to exclude profession professions or jobs that were mostly filled by African Americans, you know, like porters on trains also were left out. And that means no Social Security.

Pay into wage protections in that respect. So what was like, what was the theory by having like companions at that time?

[Kalena Tomhav]

Yeah. So I think the idea, at least if we're looking at it kind of graciously, is that.

A companion is someone who is just like giving social time. Right. Like maybe they live with you and they keep you from being isolated. You might also think of like one off babysitters. A babysitter could, wouldn't be protected under federal labor labor laws. But the problem is that the companionship exemption was notoriously exploited by care worker agencies who classified care workers as companions and they continued continued to do that for decades until 2015 when the Obama administration made the definition much more strict and, and made a rule that third party agencies couldn't claim it.

[Sam Cedar]

This is like, I mean, I think like this type of stuff operates almost, I don't want to say subterranean, but people don't really are not aware of just sort of the ability of the Department of Labor to change a couple of sentences in their regulations and completely change the fate of millions of people who are working. This is, these are 3 million, we're talking about 3 million people across the country. Right. Go into, you mentioned in the piece that.

The Department of Labor is reversing this and basically tell us what the actual implications are going to be for and what percentage of these 3 million people are basically now going to be swindled. It's essentially being swindled out of their wages.

[Kalena Tomhav]

Yeah. So I should say it is a proposal. It's expected to be enacted. But and actually as of July, the department is actually acting as if it's already been enacted, even though it hasn't officially been put on the rules. They have completely thrown out the original definition that I was talking about that the Obama administration put back in. But essentially, essentially what's going to happen is that these 3 million people are going to lose their federal protections and the protections will fall to their state. And so fortunately, about half of the states do have some form of state overtime or minimum wage protection for home care workers, but half don't.

[Sam Cedar]

So give me a sense of like, I just want to take a wild guess here are those states that retain the protections who have higher standards. Are those mostly blue states?

[Kalena Tomhav]

They are. They are. But you'd also be surprised like you, like you were talking about with just a few sentences. So Oregon actually instituted a domestic worker bill of rights recently, put in all these rights for workers. But in the Bill of Rights it says that overtime and minimum wage protections will match the federal rate. So in Oregon, they're also going to lose protections even though they passed a federal bill of rights. They passed, not a federal, it's Oregon. They passed a state bill of rights for the workers there. So it would have to, it would have to go back to the legislature.

[Sam Cedar]

And I guess they, my guess would be they just assumed that the feds would not reverse themselves in the way they did.

[Kalena Tomhav]

Right, exactly.

[Sam Cedar]

And so these folks, what I also find. Well, let's also just talk about this. There's these changes are you write part of a suite of 63 deregulatory actions by the Department of Labor. Give us a sense of like what some of those others are.

But I would imagine, and I, well, before you get to that, let me just. I also imagine that these people.

This is.

There'S sort of like, I want to say a shell game going on here because the story that the Trump administration will tell us is that you have immigrants taking Americans jobs and bringing down wages. A lot of these home care workers.

Are immigrants and many, you know, at least a significant portion of whom now, I mean, like there's a lot of pressure on this, on this group of people.

And it almost feels like the, they're being lobbied by these associations, these agencies that provide the home care workers. They know that there's wages are going to go, there's, there's going to be pressure on their wages to go up. Right. Because there's going to be less home care workers available.

And they are basically foreclosing the opportunity for those wages for their upward pressure on wages to happen.

[Kalena Tomhav]

I think that you could make that conclusion. Sure.

[Sam Cedar]

It really. Go ahead.

[Kalena Tomhav]

I was just going to say that it just kind of seems like a ticking time bomb too with all of the changes happening in care work. With Medicaid being cut, with more and more people needing care work, this rule gonna lead to more turnover. It seems like a real, like a real problem.

[Sam Cedar]

Tell us a little bit more about the suite of 63 deregulatory actions.

[Kalena Tomhav]

Yeah, so I imagine that there's many more than that. But that was in one day in July, they dropped 63 deregulatory actions, the Department of Labor and they really run the gamut. There were some Covid emergency resolutions that were reversed, some respiratory protections for that were loosened. OSHA restrictions for certain industries like construction were loosened, things like that. Basically just a bunch of deregulation in favor of big business. And that's kind of the MO of a lot of the executive branch. Right. I know.

When this suite came out, they talked about how for every rule put forth, they want to, they want to roll back 10.

[Sam Cedar]

Right? What, so if they have changed the language on the federal level, like are these, these.

Corporate providers of home care workers, are they now like paying like the state level minimum wage or no minimum wage and providing no overtime pay. Is that basically what's happening, or.

Are they waiting for it to become more official?

[Kalena Tomhav]

Right. So it's not official right now, but what the Department of Labor did tell.

Their investigators to do is to stop investigating.

Any instances of wage theft based on the companionship exemption, based on violations of it. So it's not official, but there's no enforcement mechanism.

[Sam Cedar]

And if you and I know there's no enforcement mechanism, certainly these corporations know there's no enforcement mechanism. How do. If I'm in a state and I'm getting underpaid here, is there like a. Is there a. I mean, I still imagine, like, I have a legal. I could still sue, right. I mean, theoretically, even if the federal government is not enforcing it privately.

[Kalena Tomhav]

And you could also go to your state, and especially there are a lot of states that are actually really concerned about this because they're concerned about the level of wage theft complaints that they are now going to get since state. Since workers won't be able to go through the federal government.

Pennsylvania. Yeah, like the vast, like the vast plurality of.

Wage theft investigations that they do are in care work.

[Sam Cedar]

And what about unions? Are unions moving into this area? I mean, I don't know if they have the. It's very difficult to unionize under what's going on, obviously, with this Trump administration. But is there any attempt to organize these people?

[Kalena Tomhav]

Yeah, it's also really difficult to organize care workers in the first place since they're all in. In separate private homes. But there are a lot of unions doing good work. SEIU has unionized a lot of care workers. United Domestic Workers in California. They've actually already pushed back against the proposed rule, and they got the state legislature to put overtime protections in place. Wage protections were already in place, but they were able to solidify those state protections, those protections at the state level. So California workers will be protected thanks to. Thanks to the unionized workers there.

[Sam Cedar]

Are they. Are the unions. Do they anticipate this lasting? Like, I mean, If Donald, if J.B. pritzker is the president.

In 2028, do they expect it to go back?

[Kalena Tomhav]

I mean, it's hard to say, and I don't really want to speculate, but.

I think that it would be likely because this is clearly like, this is a change that came about directly because of lobbying by home care associations. Essentially, they were lobbying the Department of Labor directly. And it's something that domestic workers have worked on for decades, even those who aren't unionized. National Domestic Workers alliance has done so much work to organize workers. One of the workers I talked with is not unionized, but she's an organizer with the National Domestic Workers alliance and they've put pressure on state governments and the federal government for decades. And so I want to say that I think it would go back if.

The executive changes.

[Sam Cedar]

Well, we'll see. Kalana, Tom Hav we will link to your piece in Capitol Maine. Thank you so much for joining us.

[Kalena Tomhav]

Yeah, thanks for having me.

[Sam Cedar]

All right, folks, we're going to take a quick break and we're going to be interviewing a Senator Bernie Sanders, who is.

We interviewed him yesterday afternoon. Emma and I both participated in that interview. And we're going to take a quick break. We'll come back with that.

It.

We are back. Sam Cedar, Emma Vigland on the Majority Report. It is a pleasure to welcome, I think back to the program. It's been quite a while, Senator.

[Emma Vigeland]

Prior to my time, I think so.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah, maybe even as the podcast. Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator from Vermont.

Thanks so much for being here.

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

My pleasure.

[Sam Cedar]

Let's start with we are recording this on Tuesday, but on Wednesday in the House, they're gonna be voting on the ndaa.

Wanted to get your sense of what is going on with our military spending. The House is actually pushing for $8 billion more than Donald Trump is asking. It feels like that's been going on for years now where Congress is sort of outstripping the president's request for more money for the military.

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

This is it has been going on for years. And thank you for raising the issue. It is not talked about enough. So when we talk about the defense bill, we talk about this aspect of it, we talk about that aspect of it, but we don't look at the bill in its totality, which is to say that when you add everything up, what's in the defense authorization bill plus other military spending, we are spending over a trillion dollars a year on the military. This is something like nine times more than all of it's more than the next nine nations combined, including many of our allies. And it takes place when we have the highest rate of childhood poverty and senior poverty of almost any major country on earth. So it's an absurd priority prime and primarily it's a gift to the military industrial complex who make all kinds of money.

[Sam Cedar]

You know, we just had we just interviewed somebody who wrote a book called the Trillion Dollar War Machine. From your perspective, how where is there a weak link in terms of like beginning to move this budget in the opposite direction? I'm old enough to remember the peace dividend that we never really saw.

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

Well, Sam, what is said, I mean, not shocking, you know, if people know my views, is that Democratic leadership cooperates with the Republicans. This truly is a bipartisan effort to give huge amounts of money to the military industrial complex. I think the antidote. The antidote is to have a national conversation. Any movement which is determined to change our national priorities. Several years ago, and I helped write the American rescue plan in one bill, with one provision, we cut childhood poverty in America by 40%. One bill, one provision. All right, so it's a question of getting our priorities right. We don't need to be spending more than the next nine nations combined. What we need to be doing is investing in our people in childcare, in education, in, in infrastructure, not just more money for the military.

[Emma Vigeland]

And you can see how these are connected. Not to bring it back to the election, but I do think it's important when we're reflecting and speaking about how the issue of, say, the genocide in Gaza, for example, and the way that young people were completely disaffected by that. When I got into politics, it was in part because Obama was in opposition to the Iraq war. And that galvanized me as a young person in terms of reorienting our national priorities. Where do you see the Democrats going in both connecting the income inequality piece to this, but also in terms of repairing broken trust about the anti war energy that's so important in bringing young people on board?

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

Well, Amber, thanks for that question. I mean, there was once a time, and I'm old enough to remember it, where a significant percentage of Democratic elected officials stood strongly against unnecessary military spending. And I fear that that is not quite the case. Many of the Democratic establishments are worried that they're going to be soft on defense, et cetera, et cetera. And of course, it ties in not only to the horrific support that we have given Netanyahu and the Israeli military tens of billions of dollars over a period of years to destroy the people in Gaza. But it speaks to the military literally out on the streets in American cities today. One might think that when you have the President of the United States for the first time sending US Troops into cities in America, somebody might say, wait a second, why are we putting more money into the military? That's a little bit too radical a concept for many of my colleagues.

[Sam Cedar]

Senator, I want to just reference your book. You spent the summer into the fall on an anti oligarchy tour. You wrote a book on more or less the same topic.

From your perspective. And I know in 2016, you entered the race and much of it was getting money out of politics. The Supreme Court, you know, as far as I can tell, shut the door on that prospect and very well may be opening it up to even more money going forward.

What do you see? Again, this is another sort of like, broader question about breaking this cycle. What do you see?

Is there a sequence like, how do you tackle the oligarchy? Is there anything needs to come first?

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

I think, Sam.

Ordinary Americans, and not just people who are inclined to be Democrats, understand that this country faces fundamental systemic crises. Okay, not small stuff. What does that mean? I mean, it's what my book was about, by the way, if I may say so. It's a good book. And what it talks about, what we do not as a nation talk about, but people want to hear more about, is the fact that you have a handful, a small number of extraordinarily wealthy people. Elon Musk now owns more wealth than the bottom 52% of American households. Now just deal with that one guy. More wealth in the bottom 52% of American households. Don't you think that might be a subject of enormous discussion and debate? The outrageous nation, the inequality of that, the power that goes to that. Meanwhile, Musk again spends $270 million to help Trump get elected. And then you have these guys, the autocrats doing business in Saudi Arabia, cut up. So what you are seeing is a global oligarchic movement where a handful of the wealthiest people all over the world, in a sense, are dividing up the planet. You cannot run away from that issue. It is insane that the top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 93%. Billionaires are flourishing, never done better. And 60% of Americans in the richest country on earth are living paycheck to paycheck. All right, so I don't want to proselytize here, but am I missing something? In suggesting that this is an issue of enormous importance, I don't think you're missing anything.

[Emma Vigeland]

You're preaching to the choir here. But.

Back to just a little bit about where we go in the future with the Democratic Party. I'm encouraged to see there be this coalescing behind the buzzword of affordability. It's the step in the right direction. But oligarchy versus affordability feels like kind.

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

Of the fault lines here on me here. I mean, that's just a poll driven word. What do you mean?

[Emma Vigeland]

Fair enough.

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

What does the establishment. Oh, yes, Trump is driving up prices. Terrible vote amount. All right, that's fine. But what do we mean, it's affordability is not just the fact.

That Republicans are resisting extending the ACA tax credits, which means that premiums are going to on average double for 20 plus million Americans. That's a disaster. But when you talk about affordability, you tell me how many establishment Democrats are asking the simplest of all questions. What's the first question you asked about health care? Duh. Why are we spending twice as much per person on health care as the people of any other major nation? And yet we have 85 million uninsured or underinsured. Is that not the first question you might ask? That's affordability. All right, but that's not quite a question we are happy to ask. Because you know what? You're going to start tangling with the insurance companies and the hospitals and the drug companies. So let's stay away from that issue. We'll stay with the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, which is a disaster, frankly. So you got prescription drug prices and we've worked very hard on it with some success. In some cases we pay 10 times more than other countries do for the same exact drug. That's an affordable issue. Affordability issue. You're going to have to take on the pharmaceutical industry big time. So my suggestion is we got to make it more than just a, a slogan, a poll driven slogan. We got to go further. Housing. All right, what do you do about housing? Wages. I got to tell you, I underestimated this problem. I got to admit that in my state, it is unbelievable. But it's all over this country. You are seeing working people paying 50% of their incomes in housing for housing. That's insane. All right, so if you're going to talk about affordability, what do you do? How do you build millions of units of low income and affordable housing? Those are the issues we've got to be tackling.

[Sam Cedar]

Is there? I mean, it seems to me that the, the problem with oligarchy is that the money that they have, these.

Differences in this wealth disparity translates into political disparity. So how do you, how do you break that cycle? It's one thing to say we're going to fight the insurance companies, but it's also, it's tricky to fight the insurance.

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

Companies or AI artificial intelligence as well. Okay, so what do you got to do? First of all, I mean, I think as you indicated earlier, this Supreme Court decision on Citizens United has done more to undermine American democracy than any decision, I think in American history. So one way or another, we gotta get rid of it. And you're Seeing states moving in the right direction. New York City, for example, matching funds. We gotta get around this issue. We cannot allow billionaires and their super PACs to buy elections. And it is getting worse. All right. One of the issues that I have been talking about, very concerned about, is the impact of AI and robotics on the economy and many other things. All right. I think what you're asking is how in fact, do you take on a group like.

Ellison and Musk and Bezos and these guys combined, worth hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars, and they start their super PACs, et cetera, et cetera. So I think that has got to be a major political issue. If I'm running for office, I say not only am I not going to take corporate PACs, we got to address the fact that we have a corrupt, and that's the word, campaign finance system. And you want to get my vote. You're running for office, you want to get my vote. You got to have way up on your list of priorities, ending this corrupt campaign finance system. But ultimately, Sam, all of these issues, the economy, campaign finance, AI, health care, require a grassroots political movement that is prepared to take on the big money interest to fight for working people. And I'm happy to say that in bits and pieces and here and there, we are making progress. Mamdani's victory in New York, Katie Wilson's victory in Seattle. Those are not small things.

[Sam Cedar]

And do you think, you know.

In the. I'm going to assume that you're not running for President in 2028, but please correct me if I'm wrong. And I. But be that as it may, do you feel that we are at the point now where advocating for a Medicare for all is.

What it's going to take for a candidate to win the Democratic primary this year?

28 this cycle?

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

Look, it is no secret, you know, I. Sam, you know, I get all over the country. And when the crowd is not at 30,000 and it's a small crowd, I ask people, I say, you tell me, is the American health care system broken? Yeah, it is. Everybody knows that it is broken. Okay? You cannot go around defending the Affordable Care act when rates have soared. And in many ways it's just a subsidy for the insurance companies. All right? So we need to move in an aggressively different way. I believe Medicare for All is the way to provide cost effective universal health care to every man, woman and child in this country. I think more and more people understand that. And just in the last few weeks, we have two new co sponsors in the Senate cup Chris Van Hollen and Tina Smith came on board. We're up to, I think, 18 or 19. They got 100 or more CO sponsors in the House. So we are making some progress. But we need to do is make sure that in any serious campaign, and I do that if I endorse somebody, almost always that person is going to be supporting Medicare for all.

[Emma Vigeland]

And there is, it speaks, I think, to a broader problem here where so much of what the Democrats are offering or are not is defensive. It's about defending the Affordable Care Act. It's about saying we're gonna maintain a certain system. And when the system is as what we say, when we're at Gilded Age levels of incoming wealth inequality, you sound like you are defending the system. That's immiserating people. And Trump sounds like he's changing things.

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

You got it. I mean that, Emma. That's exactly right. Look, Trump, in essence, when he runs for president, says the system is broken and I will fix it. Right now, you and I know that everything he's doing, virtually everything he's doing, is making a bad situation worse. But what Democrats try to do is can't go around the edges, you know, if Your income is $43,927, you will be eligible for something. It's enormously complicated. You have to fill out 18 pages, but we'll get you that. All right. What we need to say is the system, what I would call uber capitalism, is an incredibly broken system. Let's just go through it. Bear with me for one second. All right. Richest country in the history of the world. More income and wealth inequality than we have ever had. Richest people doing phenomenally well. 60% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck. Health care system, broken educational system, Childcare, dysfunctional, widely expensive workers, underpaid kids can't afford to go to college. You know, we once used to have a higher percentage of college graduates than any other country on earth. We were the best educated country on earth. That ain't the case right now. Kids coming out deeply in debt. Okay. Other countries say we want a well educated workforce. We will guarantee you quality higher education. Don't worry about the money. Our public school system in deep trouble. We are not attracting the best and the brightest teachers. Teachers are asked to deal with disasters in their classroom. Kids who are have troubles disrupting the class. Bottom line is, last international exams we saw, the United States of America was something like 37th place. Got it. Terms of math, science, writing, and so forth and so on. Housing a disaster. Transportation. Try getting on a plane and seeing if you're gonna get any place on time, it ain't gonna happen. So if you look at the food, you got the food industry and essentially, you know, giving our kids crap, which causes obesity, which causes diabetes, a number of other illnesses. So if you look at the basic necessities of life, health, education, nutrition, housing, we're not doing well. We are doing rather poorly. So we need a radical and fundamental transformation of American society. A government that works for Everybody, not just Mr. Musk and his friends.

[Sam Cedar]

When you look at what has taken place over the past 10, 11 months, the. I mean, I don't think we have seen a more destructive force in terms of just the apparatus of our government, whether it's like, you know, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the nlrb, the irs, the. I mean, the Department of Education, I mean, on and on and on. The institutions themselves, the flow of people through it, the institutional memory, all of this destroyed in a way that I feel like we've never experienced in modern.

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

Times, we have never experienced before. Sam, we are dealing. Let's see who we are dealing with. We're dealing with a president who really does not believe in the Constitution.

When he has a lavish dinner.

And wonderful events for mbs, the dictator of Saudi Arabia, that's not an accident, and then he disparages Europe. What is that about? This is his idea of what government should be about. Mbs, as you know, in Saudi Arabia, is a trillion dollar family, the wealthiest family in the world. They imprison, torture their political opponents, they do whatever they want to do, building cities and so forth and so on. That is Trump's vision of what government should be about. So in the process, you're going to act illegally and the other thing, and unconstitutionally, you're going to destroy every agency of government that works for working families. And the other thing you do, and this is really disgusting, it goes a step deeper than destroying this or that agency, whether it's the FDA or the center for Disease Control. What demagogues always do is they say, you know what? Our country has a lot of problems. I've got a lot of problems. And you know who the cause of that problem is? It is in Europe, it is the Jews, it's gypsies, it's this group in the United States. It's blacks, it's gays, and now it is the undocumented people, or it is those people from Somalia. That is the problem that we are having. You get rid of those people, man. You're going to get a really wonderful Country. That is what demagogues. And that is the disgusting aspect of demagoguery, rather than saying, all right, look, we got problems. How do you deal with the housing crisis? How do you deal with the health care crisis? You know, I have my views. You may have your views, Trump may have his views, but we don't even deal with those things. What we do is blame powerless minorities and the rally of the American people around vitriol and hatred. Really, a president of the United States calling a country garbage. People of a country, really, that's what we're trying to educate our kids to do. So it is a deep issue. And what is the antidote? The antidote to that, in my view, is the need to rally the American people around a, an understanding the system is broken and here is how we fix it. And if we get divided up because you're gay and I'm straight, or you're from Somalia and I'm from New York or Vermont or wherever I'm from, they are going to win. So the message is that you have a movement of people in Mamandani, in a very effective way, did that in New York. Massive numbers of volunteers, black, white, Latino, gay, straight, the whole works. That's what we need to do. And you can't do that, though, you know, Democratic establishment, how did he do it? Well, you can only do it if you have an agenda that excites people, that moves people. And if the establishment doesn't, which it doesn't, you're not going to do that. So we are trying to build. We're supporting really great candidates in the Senate, in the House, who understand those realities.

[Sam Cedar]

Last question you mentioned, Mamdani, how important is it that he deliver on those explicit campaign promises that he made around affordability, around the buses, about general improvement in life in New York City? How important is it to the movement that you're talking about?

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

Enormously important. I do not envy this 36 year old guy. I was just with him last week and we spent a lot of time together running New York City, man. I mean, people talk about it, I think correctly, is the second most difficult job in the world, in the country. I mean, among many other things, he has a million kids in his school system. How's that? That's just an aside on top of all the other problems that he faces. So the point is, what the establishment, what the Democratic establishment, what the oligarchs, what the Republicans want him to do is to fail. All right? Enormous pressure on this young man's shoulders. They want him to Fail so they can go around saying, see democratic socialism. He talked a good game. He wasn't able to do anything. Vote for the establishment. That's your only hope. Vote for the Cuomos of the world. So there is enormous pressure. Everybody in the world. I mean, you got the entire establishment going to be on him, trying to see that he fails. But if he can deliver, if he can. And by the way, between you and me, don't tell anybody. His agenda is not terribly radical.

[Sam Cedar]

No.

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

In a city where nobody can afford to live, to say that you stabilize rents. Not exactly a radical idea. When everybody knows how important child care is to a human being's development, making it universal, high quality and free. Not a radical idea. It exists many other countries. Improving public transportation, Not a radical idea. Making sure that kids in underserved areas can get decent, quality food with government intervention. Really not a radical idea. So.

I will do everything I can, and I hope, you know, everybody in this country will, to try to make sure that he succeeds. And there's just a lot of responsibility on his shoulders.

[Sam Cedar]

I imagine those who stand against Mamdani are less concerned about his policies actually working and more concerned about the broader sense of, like, what is possible and what can be done if he succeeds.

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

What a disaster for the establishment if he succeeds. If you create a democratic form of government with a small D where large numbers of people involved, you improve the schools, you improve health care, you improve transportation, you improve getting nutrition out to kids, you stabilize the cost of housing and build affordable housing. What a disaster for the Trumps of the world and the Republican establishment and the Democratic establishment.

And all of those folks are going to be working as hard as they can to make sure that he does not succeed. So your point is, for better or worse, Mamdani's success and failures will not only impact New York City, they will be felt, by the way, not only nationally, but I think internationally. The whole world was watching this campaign. So, again, I wish this young man all the very best, and we will do what we can to support him.

[Sam Cedar]

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, thank you so much for your time today. Really, really appreciate it.

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

Thank you, guys. Take care.

[Emma Vigeland]

Thank you.

[Sam Cedar]

Okay, folks.

That was Senator Bernie Sanders on this program just now. We recorded that interview yesterday. Just a reminder, it is your support that helps this show keep on keeping on when you become a member of the majority [e-mail] jointhemajorityreport.com you know, I get the free show, free of commercials, but you also get to imus during the fun half you get the fun half. But most importantly, you keep this show independent of any.

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The ones that we advertise that we allow to sponsor the program. And we have no I guess big Seba day is has a lot of its talons in us.

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[Matt]

Yeah, two things to plug today. First, selfishly, my Instagram I'm trying to.

[Sam Cedar]

It'S the wrong season for that type of selfishness.

[Matt]

It's like the right season for that. I can think about what kind of presents I'm gonna get. All that sort of stuff.

Gift basket. My parents gonna send me.

[Sam Cedar]

Your parents send you gift baskets?

[Matt]

Yeah, send me like monster cookies and fudge and all that stuff for Christmas. Delicious. I get I put on like £5 in like two days.

[Sam Cedar]

All right.

[Matt]

So my Instagram, because I'm trying to get off of Twitter because I basically just like provoke Nazis. I don't know if it's, you know, I don't know how much I need to do that more than I already am. And also Jacobin show, which I produce. David Griscom had Jasper Nathaniel on that. We had 16,000 views on the second show. And then we had Jasper on to talk about the West Bank. And YouTube absolutely buried it. We got 1.5 thousand. So go subscribe because you probably didn't see this recommended to you in your algorithm, but go subscribe to Jackman on YouTube and make sure you get the Jackman show, which airs at 10:00 clock every Friday morning.

[Sam Cedar]

Something weird is going on with YouTube. Yeah, like our. Something weird is definitely going on the past month because.

We have lost new viewers. We have like, we can tell like there's, there's, there's data that says new and casual and.

Regular. Yeah, not subscribers, but new, casual, regular. I think like the definition is like casual is like.

Under five times viewed in a month and then I think over five times or something like that is regular and usually. And then new and usually we're like 1/3. 1/3, 1/3 in terms of, makes up our whole audience. Our numbers are not down. It's just that the.

Recommendations, I don't know what it is usually is what it is.

[Matt]

It's not serving up the recommendations.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah, it's weird, but usually your numbers will drop overall if it's not serving up. But I have a feeling, I don't know, something's going on. They're always doing something over there. And you know, people have also complained that in their year round YouTube raps, which I'm not even familiar familiar with, but I guess that's like the who you've been watching most. We don't show up in it even for people who watch the show every day.

[Matt]

Yeah, people are suggesting that might be the unlisted fun half thing isn't counting toward that. Which is plausible, I guess.

[Sam Cedar]

Who knows?

[Matt]

I mean, stupid AI if that's what's happening.

[Sam Cedar]

Let's, we got to burn this whole thing down. Go to Mr. Brian Vokey on Instagram and yeah, yeah, go to Brian and Matt on Instagram. Let me see what my Instagram is.

I'm gonna, I'm, that's, I'm, I'm definitely. Oh, it's Sam Cedar. Yeah, getting busy on there. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm, I'm, I'm gonna take off. I've done two posts.

[Matt]

Is this the one you want to.

[Sam Cedar]

Be plugging I didn't know how to do that.

No, that's my. That's my main channel.

[Matt]

You've done two posts on it.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah. Okay. And I think I did that by mistake. I think people sent it to me.

[Matt]

That's why I'm asking.

[Sam Cedar]

Well, I'm gonna just listen. I. I'm gonna. I will start posting stuff there. If I get to. Right Now, I have 5,400 followers. If I get to.

[Matt]

I think I got that much.

[Sam Cedar]

If I get to 10,000 followers, I'm gonna do at least a post. You'll do then also a story. Those two different things. I will also do a post if there's story. Or is it like a story? Yep, there's stories. Okay. Brian's gonna show me how to do it. Sam will do. We will, actually. We will. That will be our first post.

[Matt]

Sam will do the.

[Donald Trump Supporter]

You.

[Sam Cedar]

You teaching me how to do Instagram and me, you know, being all a boomer about it, but I'm not technically a boomer.

[Matt]

Sam will do the Tyler Chanel dance.

[Sam Cedar]

I don't know what that is.

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

Six.

[Sam Cedar]

Seven.

All right. Fun half. See you 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 from now, but I think around 18 months out, we're gonna look back and go like, wow.

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

What?

[Sam Cedar]

What is that going on?

[Donald Trump Supporter]

It's nuts.

[Sam Cedar]

Wait a second. Hold on for. Hold on for a second.

Emma, welcome to the program.

What is up, everyone? Fun fun path. No, McKee, you did it. Fun Pat.

[Emma Vigeland]

Let's go, Brandon.

[Sam Cedar]

Let's go, Brandon.

Bradley, you want to say hello?

[Donald Trump Supporter]

Sorry to disappoint everyone.

[Sam Cedar]

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

[Kalena Tomhav]

Fundamentally false.

[Emma Vigeland]

No. I'm sorry.

[Sam Cedar]

Women. Stop talking for a second.

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

Let me finish.

[Kalena Tomhav]

Where is this coming from, Dude?

[Sam Cedar]

But. Dude, you want to smoke this? Seven, eight. Yes.

Hi, Mickey.

[Donald Trump Supporter]

You're safe.

[Sam Cedar]

Yes.

[Donald Trump Supporter]

Is this me?

[Sam Cedar]

Is it me? It is you.

Is this me? Oh, is this me? I think it is you. Who is you?

No sound. Every single freaking day. What's on your mind?

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism.

[Sam Cedar]

I'm gonna go Skyline Libertarians.

[Matt]

They're so stupid, though.

[Sam Cedar]

Common sense says of course.

[Emma Vigeland]

Gobbledygook.

[Sam Cedar]

We nailed him.

[Emma Vigeland]

So what's 79 plus 21?

[Sam Cedar]

Challenge. Man. I'm positively quivering. I believe.

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

96.

[Sam Cedar]

I want to say. 8, 5, 7, 2, 1, 0, 3, 5, 5, 0, 11 half. 3, 8, 9, 11. For instance.

[Emma Vigeland]

$3,400. 1900. 5, 4.

[Sam Cedar]

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

[Emma Vigeland]

Actually. You're making me think less.

[Sam Cedar]

But let me say this.

You can call satire.

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

Sam goes satire on top of it all.

[Sam Cedar]

My favorite part about you is just.

[Emma Vigeland]

Like every day, all day, like everything you do.

[Sam Cedar]

Without a doubt. Hey, buddy, we see you.

All right, folks, folks, folks.

[Emma Vigeland]

It's just the week being weeded out. Obviously.

[Senator Bernie Sanders]

Yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

Sun's out, guns out.

I. I don't know.

[Kalena Tomhav]

But you should know.

[Donald Trump Supporter]

People just don't.

[Matt]

Like to entertain ideas anymore.

[Sam Cedar]

I have a question. Who cares?

[Matt]

Our chat is enabled.

[Sam Cedar]

I love it. I do love that.

Gotta jump. Gotta be quick. I gotta jump.

[Donald Trump Supporter]

I'm losing it, bro.

[Sam Cedar]

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 Cedar]

Like, what is wrong with you? Love you. Bye. Love you. Bye. Bye.