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The Majority Report with Sam Seder
3543 - Trump-GOP's Department of Education Decimation and More IDF Atrocities w/ Brittany Coleman
00:56:10
Don't let Sam's soft collar fool you, it is a Tuesday News Day and unfortunately there is plenty of news to cover. We start with World Food Programme Chief Cindy McCain detailing the atrocities committed by IDF soldiers on Palestinians seeking Aid....
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Sam Cedar
Hello ladies and gentlemen. Today's show is sponsored by one of my favorite sponsors, sunsetlakesabade.com if you use the code left is best, you get 20% off. Sunset Lake is a mostly employee owned farm up in Vermont. And they don't use pesticides, they use integrated pest management, they use regenerative farming practices. And they have all of their Saba Day products are third party tested so you know exactly what's in there. It varies from product to product as to like concentrations of Saba Day and SEBA and, and they have all sorts of stuff. They have tinctures that help you sleep, they have tinctures that help you relax. They have tinctures for your pets to help them chill out. They got gummies, gummies that help you find focus. Gummies that help you relax. Gummies that help you sleep, gummies with a little bit of tahit say to make you have a little bit of fun or some Delta 9. They have seven day fudge, seven day coffee. They have salves that help you with sore muscles or if you use it off label like me with your summertime eczema. They have lotions to keep your, your calves from getting too dried out. I mean you can use things. They have all sorts of great products and they're a great company. Like I say, Mostly employee owned, $20 minimum wage when they need to hire folks to, you know, during the harvest time and whatnot. And they are movement partners. They have donated tens of thousands of dollars to things like Planned Parenthood, strike relief funds, carceral reform, refugee resettlement. I mean the list goes on and on. Check them out. Sunset Lake, sabade.com Let them know we sent you by using the coupon code left is best and you will get 20% off. And now time for the show the Majority Report with Sam Cedar. It is Tuesday, July 22, 2025. My name is Sam Cedar. This is the five time award winning Majority Report. We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, usa. On the program today, Brittany Coleman, American Federation of Government Employees Local 252. Chief Stewart, an attorney for the Office of Civil Rights in Dallas. But what it's going to mean on the ground when we have basically a shattered Department of Education. Also on the program today, the House of Representatives is at a standstill as Republicans look to protect Donald Trump from the Epstein revelations. They seem to think something's going on there. Meanwhile, Trump's former defense attorney who now happens to be the deputy Attorney general for the United States will just happen to be meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's co conspirator, to make some type of deal.
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Emma Vigland
What could it be, huh?
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Sam Cedar
Trump regime releases FBI surveillance records of MLK because apparently the Washington commander stuff didn't catch fire. Israel's military attacks the World Health Organization in central Gaza amidst what could be one of this century's worst famines caused by another country. Democrats strategize fall government budget fight, so be prepared for disappointment. We are three months away from the Republican sponsored massive health insurance cost increases for upwards of 25 million Americans. Texas starts their plan to gerrymander congressional districts hoping to pick up five new ones. U.S. fire Service is short about 15% of its staff as forest fires rage. And Trump's Labor Department looking to repeal and rewrite 60 separate protections for workers because of course, they are the party for workers. All this and more on today's Majority Report. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen.
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Emma Vigland
It is News Day Tuesday.
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Sam Cedar
We're going to start in a few moments with a representative from the union that represents workers for the Department of Education. Get a sense of what this is going to mean on the ground for both those workers and for the tens of millions of Americans who rely on the Department of Education some work that they do to protect their rights or their services. We'll get into some other stuff after that. But before we do, we're seeing increasing reports of children dying, of malnourishment, of widespread starvation in Gaza. This coming as we have seen, daily reports of tens of people every day. Some days it's 30 people, some days it's 50 people. A couple of days it's been a hundred people gunned down as they attempt to get food aid. And here is World Food Program Chief Cindy McCain on CNN again, widow of.
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Emma Vigland
John McCain, of John McCain, Republican.
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Sam Cedar
She has been attempting to provide food aid to Palestinians in Gaza. And here she is.
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Cindy McCain
This is one of the worst tragedies we've seen so far in this, in this particular war. What happened was, is we were, I had clearance to go through the Zakim gate and it was, we were through the gate. The Israelis had, as you know, they clear everything and they decide when and if you go in. And we began our trek down the road and what we saw were thousands of people running towards us. And they were hungry, they're starving. And all of a sudden the Israeli tanks, Israeli guns, Israeli weapons from all kinds started firing on the crowd. And it was, it's something that I hope never happens again. But More importantly, our group wfp, our people at Workforce were there too and they were put in grave danger as a result of that. No humanitarian aid workers should ever be a target of anything.
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Unknown
Well, this follows a trend over the last two months where over 800 Palestinians have been killed around aid workers distribution sites. The majority of those are at the controversial US backed and Israel supported Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Can you be very specific? Are you coordinating in any way or supporting in any way that operational model and what is your view on the ghf?
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Cindy McCain
Well, we are not coordinating and we do not work with ghf. As you know, we're a UN agency and so we have our un. The way, the way the UN operates is different from what GHF is doing. I don't really have any information about them at all because we don't even talk.
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Emma Vigland
I mean like they would have no coordination with the mercenary kind of operation by the United States that has also been reported to have been firing on.
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Sam Cedar
Like the host of the show said, 800. Over 800 people killed.
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Emma Vigland
But it's not. The point is it's not just the IDF now like this is linked to a US mercenary project and they are also implicated in reporting over the past month or so in firing on the Palestinians.
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Sam Cedar
Let's just play also clip number five. This is from over the weekend just to give you a sense of what's happening. This is a British surgeon in Gaza. And later in the program we will play some audio or I should say some video from the House of Commons in England. But here's a British surgeon in Gaza describing IDF soldiers killing Palestinian children just, just for sport.
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Unknown
But my colleagues in the emergency room describe a very clear pattern where on particular days they'll see different body parts targeted. So on one day there'll all be abdominal gunshot wounds. On another day there'll all be head gunshot wounds or neck gunshot wounds. On another day there'll be arm or leg gunshot wounds. And last Saturday there were four young teenage boys all brought in very, very rapid in succession with gunshot wounds to their testicles. So they're clearly being targeted to their testicles. And this is a pattern that we're seeing every day, that these young teenage boys are systematically being targeted and, and it's almost as if a game is being played that they're deciding to shoot the head today and the neck tomorrow and the testicles the day after.
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Sam Cedar
Just a horror show.
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Emma Vigland
I mean, if people, it's been now how long, 21 months of this genocide. If people want to look up the images of the children, there's at least four confirmed that have starved to death. You can it the. Or adults. I mean, they're unrecognizable.
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Unknown
Hundreds of thousands of people starving to death, being shot at as they flee between rubble.
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Emma Vigland
I mean if this was happening of course to like a group of people that the United States is aligned with, if this was happening in reverse to Israelis, to Jews, to. Well, we've seen it happen to Jews in things like the Holocaust, in the Holocaust, but we would know exactly what this is. They are bombing the crap. They're just for, you see, they're just bombing rubble now, right? Because there's nothing left. And there are countless people missing by calculations that are like likely under rubble having either been blown to pieces or suffocating to death. Because that's a part of why we don't know this true death tolls because they can't account for the missing people. They're just bombing rubble at this point. Video has been released of rapes of Palestinians in prisons being shielded by other.
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Unknown
IDF soldiers standing in front of the camera eyeline.
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Emma Vigland
They are systematically starving a group of people that cannot leave and an area and then they are concentrating them in a smaller area in the south as they militarily clear out the north of the Gaza Strip. So like we are in later stages of total extermination.
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Sam Cedar
We in the coming week or so hope to have on a refusenik young Israeli who has is part of a hopefully growing movement in that country to refuse to participate in this and people are going to jail. And it's encouraging to see at least some dissent. Maron Rapoport also had expressed at least that there was some growing dissent within Israel, at least to maintain this ethnic cleansing of Gaza, if only because it seems a waste to some Israelis, but there is increasing, I think, some awareness of what they're doing in that country. We'll have more to talk about that later. Like I say in the, you know, we mentioned yesterday there was, it was 25 European countries or some European countries and 25 total that were demanding a cessation. And we just had two IDF soldiers who I think were arrested in Belgium. And so there, there seems to be some rumblings in Europe and hopefully we will see more because the administration of this country is not inclined to do anything other than to continue to green light things as far as I can tell. But we will talk more about that later. Couple words from our sponsors. All that said, we also know that there have been massive cuts to foreign aid. Just last week, one of the rescission bills cut nearly $8 billion in foreign aid. The Lancet in Britain suggested that by 2030 you might have 14 million people die because of those cuts. One of our sponsors today is helpful in that area. GiveWell. This has been a really a charity, I guess portal that I've used for close to a decade, maybe eight years. GiveWell doesn't claim to have all the answers, but over the past 18 years, the nonprofit research organization has helped guide More than 130,000 donors and two and a half billion dollars to highly cost effective aid. GiveWell's researchers are analyzing the impact to cuts to U.S. aid in real time. They're sharing what they're learning with everyone for free through research updates, grant write ups and candid podcast conversations. GiveWell has already committed tens of millions of dollars in response to this year's cuts. Their researchers are working to forecast, find and fund other new cost effective needs. I found a bunch of charities over the years that I have donated to through GiveWell. They are very rigorous in their research. They post all of their research online. It's all for free. And they will. They even have a section where they go back and look at things that they got wrong. Whether it was anything ranging from a typo to data input that they did wrong or whatever, it's incredibly rigorous. For trusted evidence backed insights into this evolving situation and information about how you can help, you can follow along@givewell.org USAID that's givewell.org USAID we'll put that link in the podcast and YouTube descriptions. Also sponsoring the program today, another company that I used for many years before they became a sponsor, it's Delete Me. It is not hard to see headlines on a daily basis about data breaches, about regulatory rollbacks that protect your data. We are all vulnerable. Every other day I feel like I get an email, a letter I should say, from like some company, there's been a data breach. Oh my gosh, here, have a, you know, have a credit protection account for free for six months. Great. But there's something you could do about it proactively and Delete Me makes it easy and quick and safe to remove your personal data from online. 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Now obviously when I started using Delete Me, a big part of it was I don't want my, my information out there publicly because you know, I've had some issues with that in the past, having done this for the past 20 years or so. But it also is incredibly helpful, particularly at a time where like all the do not registry stuff, you know, all that stuff has been rolled back. So there's very little protection for you out there. You can get proactive, take control of your data, keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me now at a special discount for our listeners. Get 20% off your delete me plan. When you go to JoinDeleteMe.com majority use the promo code Majority at checkout. The only way to get 20% off is to go to JoinDeleteMe.com majority enter the code majority at checkout. That's JoinDeleteMe.com JoinDeleteMe1Word.com majority code is majority. Again, we'll put that in the podcast and YouTube descriptions. Quick break when we come back, Brittany Coleman, American Federation of Government Employees Local 252 Chief Steward, an attorney for the Office of Civil Rights in Dallas.
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Emma Vigland
Sam.
- [21:25]
Sam Cedar
Live we are back. Sam Cedar, Emma Vigland on the Majority Report. It is a pleasure to welcome to the program Brittany Coleman, American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, Chief Steward, an attorney for the Office of Civil Rights in Dallas under the auspices of the Department of Education. Brittany, welcome to the program.
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Brittany Coleman
Thank you for having me get you.
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Sam Cedar
We get a little bit of a lag there, but hopefully we'll take care of that in just a moment. So, Brittany, just walk us through. I'm looking at a. Well, before we get to the letter, walk us through what your position is in the Office of Civil Rights, you know, for the Department of Education and who your colleagues are not just in Dallas but across the country.
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Brittany Coleman
Absolutely. So I am an attorney investigator at the Office of Civil Rights There are. Well, there were at one point, 12 regional offices, including the regional office in Dallas where I work in. So I had roughly 60 colleagues at my office, and we had hundreds of colleagues across the country. And what we did is that we received complaints from the public, usually parents who are concerned about issues happening with their children, who thought that their children are being discriminated against. So they file a complaint with our office. From there, I would evaluate it to see is there a reason to think that this child may be discriminated. And if that's the case, that there may be a problem, I just do fact finding. I talk to the applicable parties. I could be teachers, principals, counselors, anybody that may have been involved in the matter. And from there, just determine whether there was a concern that there was a violation of a child's civil rights based on race, color, sex, national origin, or disability.
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Sam Cedar
And these are all statutory. I mean, these. These civil rights are statutory, and they're in statutory in terms of requirements on public schools to provide, in some instances, accommodation or to not discriminate in some fashion.
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Brittany Coleman
Absolutely, that's correct. Because in my office, we enforce Title 6, which covers discrimination based on race, color, national origin. We cover Title 9, which covers discrimination that's prohibited based on sex, in both Title 2 and Section 4 of the Rehabilitation Act. So all of those acts are what we enforce to make sure that any school district or institution that could be a trade school, too, that gets federal funding, that they follow federal law, and they don't treat different children differently because of their race or disability.
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Sam Cedar
And so what is the status of your. Of your job now?
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Brittany Coleman
The status of my job is that I am technically still employed at the Department of Education. We've been involved in a number of lawsuits my agency has concerning the reduction enforcer layoff that has happened, where we've lost. By now, roughly half of our staff and a number of people have been in limbo because of those lawsuits. Unfortunately, we got a decision from the Supreme Court that removed a preliminary injunction which stopped the rift. So because the Supreme Court decided to make the decision that it did, it's now allowing that layoff to go forward. And a lot of my colleagues are now facing a layoff throughout the Department of Education. My Office for Civil Rights is in a different category because we are under another lawsuit. We've had a number of them where we, the courts are now. Well, the agency is now prevented from carrying out that layoff with us. And so there's a decision on that case. So as of right now, what's Happening, long story short is that I don't have my laptop, I don't have access to agency systems, I can't work on any cases. My colleagues are in the same boat. So I'm technically still employed, but I'm not able to do the work that I was hired to do.
- [25:48]
Sam Cedar
And we should be clear, you know, a RIF is a reduction in force. And the argument that the administration is making is we don't need these people to fulfill the mission of the department. Now that's the official argument. I feel comfortable. I don't know if you do. Saying they just want to destroy the Department of Education. I think they've said that publicly, or at least some.
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Emma Vigland
Trump says he wants to eliminate it.
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Sam Cedar
I think it's been like literally articulated, but within the context of the legal arguments they're making. They are trying to argue that we don't need all these people. Aside from the fact that like, you know, what it's doing directly to people like yourself. They seem to have targeted specific departments in the Department of Education which they're either going to farm out or just, I guess, eliminate the functions totally. Do you have a sense of what the breakdown is of that?
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Brittany Coleman
You know, we're getting bits and pieces and luckily I'm still on my union capacity, so I'm able to sit in on meetings. So I can tell you that, you know, for instance, the Institute of Education Sciences, that is our data concordant. So what that unit does is that it collects education data from around the country and it just sees, you know, how well students are doing and just reports that data out. They don't have any, you know, skin in the game as far as one, you know, the outcomes looking one way or the other. Unfortunately, that unit has been almost completely decimated. There are very few people left. They might have had, you know, a couple hundred people and now they're down to, you know, in like maybe 20 to 30. So that was a huge reduction in that department for the Office for Civil Rights. I think we've lost over half of our investigators. You know, that that's another issue. I think we have maybe close to 560 people across the country in our 12 regional offices. They've went, they closed seven of those regional offices. So now we're down to maybe 200 and something investigators, which is a huge cut for our area as well, I can say within federal student aid, that is another big component at the Department of Education. That's our biggest area because they handle things like federal student aid and pay grants and you know, other financial areas and also auditing, you know, to make sure that those schools are compliant with the law as well. The component that usually enforces and make sure that for profit institutions, you know, are complying with the law. That area in particular, that accountability area, that oversight area, was almost completely gutted. They went from nine offices down to about two. So what we're seeing is that, you know, there are areas that have just been completely decimated that had very key roles and just really watching where the money went to schools, or, you know, seeing what happens when schools use that money and determining whether the schools were actually living up to what they needed to do to make sure our kids are prepared for their next steps.
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Sam Cedar
All right, I got a lot of questions about this, but the. In the wake of the Supreme Court case, my understanding is that the cases, the subsidiary cases can go forward, but in the meantime, the department can fire all these people. And I guess presumably if they lose the case, they'd have to rehire either these same people or other people. Right. I mean, is that the question on us in terms of the subsidiary cases? Is the question like, are you legitimately able to complete the function or fulfill the function of the department with these reductions in employees, or are you just pretending? I mean, that's sort of the broad strokes of it, isn't it?
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Brittany Coleman
Absolutely. And, you know, my union asserts, I assert in my union capacity and a lot of other stakeholders, which includes, you know, 21 attorneys generals, a number of nonprofits, we all assert that they cannot do the work that they are statutorily obligated to do, as I mentioned, with ies, the data component, they are statutorily required to provide that information. And now you don't have enough people to provide that. With the Office for Civil Rights, we're statutorily required to enforce the statutes that I mentioned and to do so and to remedy those cases within generally 180 days. We are not able to do so at our current staffing levels. So that's the long and short of it. And truthfully, they're just not able to do it. I know that there have been assertions made by people within the agency and the administration that that is what's happening, but that's not what we're seeing on the ground.
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Sam Cedar
And so what happens to those people now if they get fired? Like, I mean, we're talking about your colleagues are in your division. Is everybody just basically on paid leave, or have people been fired? And then said, I've got to go find a different job and would be, presumably they'd go and look to rehire these people. I mean, and it also, I don't mean to throw too much at one time, but it also seems to me that the people that you've talked about so far who are parties to this case are the employees and the states who require the services essentially of the federal Department of Education to fill their obligation on a school level. But it seems to me at one point there's going to be standing for specific students who feel their rights have been violated and that the Department of Education doesn't have the capacity to address that like they are statutorily obligated to. And then I would imagine just the general student population could argue, because you're not assessing how schools are doing by, by aggregating this data. I'm also not getting the statutorily required quality public education by the own definition that, that the US Government has set in that there was an obligation to get this data in the first place. So I don't mean to throw too many questions at you one time, but what's the status of the employees now and then do you anticipate there are going to be other cases brought by students at one point?
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Brittany Coleman
Okay, sure. So that's, you know, that you have to break it down in a couple of groups as far as where the employees are right now. So you have employees like me who are in the Office for Civil Rights because we have an injunction from another case that was actually brought by people who have complaints within our office. They actually were a party to a lawsuit. That case is currently under injunction. So we are technically still employed. We're just not able to do our work because we lost access to our laptops and equipment. So then you have other people who were impacted by this, you know, soon to be reduction in force and layoff, who are in federal student aid, ies, our Office of General Counsel and a number of other areas that were told by the agency as soon as the Supreme Court decision came down on, I think it was last Monday the 14th. By 4pm that day, they received an email saying that, oh, by the way, your last day is going to be August 1st. So now we have people who are under the pressure of realizing that, oh man, I'm about to lose my job. Like, even though I see that we're not providing these services to the American public and I'm about to lose my livelihood and ability to provide for my kids, that's happening on August 1st because the Supreme Court decision is allowing them to do so for all the other areas, and as I mentioned, for the case for the Office for Civil Rights, that was actually brought in part by people who have complaints with our office, who have seen the investigations just get completely stalled because of this reduction in force. It's like we're not able to work on their cases, and these people have severed legitimate harms. I mean, the facts that I read in the case are just horrific. Like, you have a child that was discriminated against and bullied because of their race, and you have another child that was bullied and harassed because of their disability. And, you know, if the facts that are alleged are true, then that's horrific. And that's something we would normally intervene to rectify and try to fix. And now those cases are at a standstill.
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Emma Vigland
Your colleagues what that the buck. Either the bucket that you're in or the bucket of folks that are affected by the Supreme Court decision. Can you just explain a little bit of the more about the character of their work, because the administration wants to talk about these people as career bureaucrats or political appointees, or they try to obfuscate what people actually are motivated by when they go into public service. I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit more about that.
- [35:20]
Brittany Coleman
Absolutely. So I can't say enough positive things about my colleagues. We're all dedicated to public service. And I think one thing that gets missed is that we're people, and we have backgrounds, too, that led us to where we are. And we realize how educated and help that. I can say that I personally benefited from receiving federal student aid and work study and loans that allowed me to go to law school and to go to college. We have a number of people at my job who are. Who are veterans who served our country in one capacity, put their bodies on the line and were prepared to give the ultimate sacrifice. And then when they came back, decided to continue to serve the public by helping with education. You have a number of people who are former teachers, including the local president of our union. We all believe in serving our communities. We all believe that we got something and we had opportunities because of the things that were long and hard fought for, that we were able to achieve, like having federal student aid and, you know, knocking down issues of discrimination so that we could all have the same chance to achieve. And we believe that other kids should have that same right. So honestly, it's been very disheartening to see that we've been painted with this broad stroke and by brush when, you know, we're people too. We're in your Communities. We're in your places of worship. We're volunteering at your schools. And a lot of us have kids, too, that we care about, and. And we want to make sure that everything is better for them in the future. So we're not motivated by who's in office. We're apolitical. We're motivated by making sure that our kids have better opportunities than what we had.
- [37:06]
Sam Cedar
What's your sense? I mean, you know, obviously, I would imagine the this sense would be informed by, you know, the city, the state that you live in, for anybody. But what's your sense about the public's perception of this, of what's happening, you know, specifically in terms of the Department of Education?
- [37:32]
Brittany Coleman
I think that really, I'm actually glad that you asked this, Sam, because I think this is giving a chance to correct, you know, quite a bit of misinformation. I think a lot of people think that the Department of Education is around to tell states and local school districts how they're supposed to teach and educate their children, which that is, you know, far from the case. That's not what's happening. What we are here to do is to provide financial assistance and guidance and accountability for making sure that students are not treated differently in schools. And unfortunately, I think a lot of that misinformation has been spread under this administration. And, you know, it's not just this administration. I have to say that, you know, there are members of Congress who have been impacted that, too. I can say, you know, living here in Texas, that I have been, you know, honestly disappointed in the fact that my senators and my congressional representative, you know, are aware of what's happening. Because they have a office in Dallas. Well, we have one. And they're not stepping up and speaking out on our behalf and making sure that people understand how we actually help fund, you know, after school programs and fund special education in our states to make our states better. So I think that we also have to look at the lens and that it kind of depends on where we live, too. And so I can say experiencing that living in Texas has been one thing as opposed to looking at the other states that actually joined in on the lawsuit to save our agency. I can tell you Texas was not one. So it's. I think that's, you know, getting the word out and just helping people to realize it's more than what you may be hearing on tv. You know, please listen to people who are actually doing the work and hearing what we're saying. It's like we're not here to Tell you what to do. But we are here to make sure that people are treated fairly and that you are not coming more out of pocket for services that you should get from the federal government. That's another thing, I think that's not getting talked about. Like these services that we're seeing getting cut, including, you know, $6 billion of funding that's being withheld arbitrarily by, you know, the education Secretary right now. This is less funding that schools in rural areas, in schools and low income areas and just across the country have to provide after school programs and to provide other things that your communities may need to help support your students. And what does that mean for their budgets this year for school districts? It means that things could get cut. And I think a lot of people aren't seeing that because all we're hearing is that we're taking things, sending stuff back to the states. Well, things were already at the state level. We never had it. But we are here to make sure that you can do more at the state level that which you would have just relying on state funding and this couldn't.
- [40:23]
Sam Cedar
This, I guess indecision or lack of clarity as to what's happening with those funding. You know, in the middle of July you got public schools that are basically trying to anticipate what are they gonna do with kids. All these afterschool programs are gonna get cut for so many kids across the country. I think it's going to be devastating. And I guess lastly, like what you have these multiple cases that are going on, right, about the various aspects of the doe and now the Supreme Court has not really addressed the case on the merits. It only basically said that there was an urge. They basically said there's an urgent need to fire these people. So go ahead, fire them and then we'll decide whether or not they were needed. It just seems completely ass backwards, for lack of a better term. But is it conceivable that you would have circuit courts in different parts of the country say no, to uphold these acts in the Civil Rights act and in the Education Acts, we need these lawyers. And you would have that in one circuit court, but a different circuit would say something differently. Is it conceivable that there would be DOE civil rights lawyers operating in one part of the country, but not the other part of the country?
- [42:19]
Brittany Coleman
I mean, based on the court cases, it's possible. But I would say based on what we're seeing under this administration, with the Secretary sending out an email to all of us saying that we're preparing for our Final mission. It really seems as though the whole point is to get rid of the whole agency. And I'll say that's currently what we're having right now. We have certain offices that are open across the country, but the intent is still there. From what we can tell, that the intent is to get rid of our agency. So right now, we technically do have people that are operating in different areas, you know, without a circuit split. But I, Based on what's happening with the Supreme Court now, I. And what we're seeing our agency do and seeing Congress really not intervene on, you know, it looks like they're aiming to just get rid of the whole agency. I'm not sure if it means that we'll have people going forward. I'm sorry, go ahead.
- [43:20]
Emma Vigland
No, no, I interrupted you. The, the. Is that the language you're hearing, final mission, like internally?
- [43:28]
Brittany Coleman
Yes, we actually. Yes, that is actually what we received. So. And I mean, and that's been documented in court cases, too. It's like that, you know, you know, the, you know, it's been documented in the news. It's like it was very set that, you know, the intent was to get rid of the agency, which has been our whole concern this whole time. And even though that is not within the agency's discretion or the secretary's discretion, that is only a power that's set aside by Congress. The concern is that because of doing things like this reduction in force, that that is what you're trying to carry out anyway. So as of right now, yes, we do have people that are handling cases across the country. They're not able to handle those cases because we keep getting, you know, tens of thousands of cases each year, and they increase each year. So we currently have people working on things now, but I can't tell you if that's going to continue to be the case, especially when you see those early reports in the media. And really, if you look at Project 2025, the whole point is to get rid of our agency.
- [44:33]
Sam Cedar
What can Folks. Listeners do?
- [44:39]
Brittany Coleman
I encourage everyone, especially if you live in an congressional district or a, you know, or state that's governed by Republicans, that's your House representatives and your senators. I encourage you to call your representatives. We, we as the union, we are doing what we can to fight back. You see that people are, you know, moving forward, lawsuits, including nonprofits. But it's going to take everybody getting involved and speaking out and saying, hey, I'm very concerned that children are not going to get the services they need if they have special needs. Or, hey, I'm concerned that, you know, student athletes who are, you know, women may not get the same opportunities as men because they are women. Or, hey, I'm concerned that a student may not have the same opportunities to get into gift and talented classes or AP classes because they're black. If you're concerned about all of these things or concerned about making sure you have access to federal aid and payout grants, please call your representatives and tell them these things and let them know that the Department of Education needs to be held as status quo, which means don't fire anybody and let these people get back to work. And I would say that's not just for, you know, congressional representatives, too, because I think that states are led by Republicans are just as complicit. That includes my state of Texas, that is led under Republicans that actually flew out to D.C. to see and witness the executive order being signed to dismantle our agency. So I think you also have to hold your state representatives accountable, too, because at the end of the day, education is led by the states, so you need to hold them accountable as well. And call them and let them know that you're very concerned about what's happening, that you need federal funding and that, you know, this is what makes our schools and our kids have a better future, is when we actually invest in them and that we don't turn down investments from the federal government over, you know, silly partisan ideologies. Ideologies. What matters is that we're investing in our kids. So they need to call all of these people and let them know and tell them that we need to keep the department as is. And really, we need more people hired. You know, we're trying to get rid of people now. We didn't have enough people to handle all the work we had in the first place. We need more people, too.
- [47:04]
Sam Cedar
Brittany Coleman, American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, Chief Steward and attorney at the Office for Civil Rights in Dallas. To the extent that that office is open. Thanks so much for your time today. Really appreciate it.
- [47:21]
Brittany Coleman
Thank you.
- [47:22]
Sam Cedar
Good luck.
- [47:22]
Emma Vigland
Thank you.
- [47:24]
Sam Cedar
All right, folks.
- [47:25]
Brittany Coleman
Thank you.
- [47:27]
Sam Cedar
Let's. Let's, let's do something crazy and go into the fun half, what, seven minutes early. Whoa. We've got a bunch of stuff pretty.
- [47:39]
Unknown
Much right on time.
- [47:39]
Sam Cedar
I mean, it's five minutes later than it should have been when we started this program 15 years ago. But mission creep. We won't rest, folks. It's your support that makes this show possible. When you become a member of the Majority report@jointhe majorityreport.com you not only get the free show, free of commercials, you get to join us in the fun half. And you can IM us and watch me ignore your IMs. We've got a lot to talk about in the fun half. Like the fun story of the Trump Labor Department looking to roll back over 60 protections for labor. I left my kazoo at home. Exactly. Also, we could talk about the a laugh riot story of the 15 to 20% increases you can anticipate in your insurance because of the Republican big beautiful bill and their failure to extend ACA subsidies. So that's going to be great.
- [48:46]
Unknown
It actually is going to be some fun. We're going to talk about Vinnie being gaslit by the PBD crew. So.
- [48:51]
Sam Cedar
Yes. And then we will get into. Oh, and what about those two guys from, what the guys from up north. What do they call it? The Nelk Boys. Yeah, but what was the name of those guys in the SCTV show? We could pull that clip. The Great White North. Yeah, the Great White north guys deciding to, you know, platform a 20th century Hitler or 21st century Hitler, I guess. And we got a lot more in store for you. It's going to be so much fun. And you can join us there. Maybe we'll also do the Hunter Biden stuff.
- [49:27]
Emma Vigland
Yeah, yeah, maybe. Hunter Biden went on channel. Channel five. Yeah, it was.
- [49:35]
Sam Cedar
He's my new hero.
- [49:36]
Emma Vigland
I know.
- [49:37]
Sam Cedar
Not because of the crack recipe. I didn't.
- [49:40]
Emma Vigland
I mean, 80% of what he said I like. But it's all in defense of his father's 2024 presidential run.
- [49:47]
Unknown
Yeah, that's the part where he, like, I can't, I can't with him.
- [49:51]
Emma Vigland
No, no, he was right to drop out. It would have been way worse if Kamala Harris hadn't come into the race. This is indisputable.
- [49:59]
Sam Cedar
But he does make some points about the positions that Democrats should be taking and the what, the advice that they're getting generically speaking from. I mean, he, he aggrandizes his father in the course of that. But I really do think if you listen carefully, what he's saying is like, Democrats need to separate themselves from Republicans and fight for it. Now, you know, well, the extent that Joe Biden did that, people can argue.
- [50:25]
Emma Vigland
But Biden's best trait arguably was his disgust for the, like, Obama, Harvard, Yale, intelligentsia that was stacked in the administration that, like, he felt was kind of anti populist, elitist and condescending. And I feel like, yeah, I mean, that's kind of how Things went. I mean, Rahm Emanuel was a part of that. Talking about how anybody who was advocating for single payer was the R word. That is the one thing Biden was super correct about.
- [50:57]
Sam Cedar
Also hack all things. Reminds me to stop ignoring Twitch and say poggers. So and we. I may even do more of that in the fun hack. I may say poggers three more times in the fun half.
- [51:12]
Emma Vigland
You might get on the poggers train.
- [51:13]
Sam Cedar
Exactly. You mean a hype train. Oh, sorry, Emma doesn't get it, folks. Also, just coffee. Just coffee co op fair trade coffee. Use the coupon code. Majority can buy the majority report blend. Check it out. I don't know if the WTF blend is going to go away when Marin show does. I bet it won't.
- [51:34]
Unknown
Maybe we could call it the majority report to blend.
- [51:36]
Sam Cedar
Yeah, I will bring that up with them.
- [51:39]
Unknown
The second beta blend and I would.
- [51:41]
Sam Cedar
Love to have exactly majority port data. We should have Marin on before his show's over and make the announcement on air. That would be fun.
- [51:54]
Unknown
We've bought the ip.
- [51:55]
Emma Vigland
Yeah. Yeah. We're a hostile takeover of his coffee.
- [52:00]
Sam Cedar
Matt, what's happening on Left Reckoning?
- [52:02]
Unknown
Yeah. Tonight, Alex Salmon of Salon on to talk about a piece he did about the Roosevelt Hotel, which had become basically a migrant processing and housing center and how, I mean people were calling it sort of the modern Ellis island before it got demonized by the right wing and abandoned by the liberals, especially Eric Adams. And it made me depressed because it made me think of despite even the trumpy members of my family still having this sort of oh, we came through Ellis island mythology sort of in family history latent there. If we did Ellis island now, the right wing would have even Crowder like, talk about, look at how gross these people are. Absolutely 100% patreon.com left direct nuts. Tonight, 7:00 Eastern on YouTube.
- [52:51]
Sam Cedar
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 from now. And I don't know if it's necessarily gonna be better six months from now than it is three months from now. But I think around 18 months out, we're gonna 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.
- [53:31]
Cindy McCain
Fun hack.
- [53:31]
Sam Cedar
What is up, everyone? Fun hack. No me key. You did it. Fun hack.
- [53:38]
Emma Vigland
Let's go. Brandon.
- [53:39]
Brittany Coleman
Let's Go Brandon.
- [53:40]
Sam Cedar
Fun hack. Bradley, you want to say hello? Sorry to disappoint everyone. I'm just a random guy. It's all the boys today.
- [53:49]
Brittany Coleman
Fundamentally false.
- [53:50]
Emma Vigland
No. I'm sorry.
- [53:51]
Brittany Coleman
Women.
- [53:52]
Sam Cedar
Stop talking for a second. Let me finish.
- [53:54]
Cindy McCain
Where is this coming from?
- [53:55]
Emma Vigland
Dude.
- [53:56]
Sam Cedar
But. Dude, you want to smoke this? 7A. Yes.
- [54:03]
Brittany Coleman
Hi, is this me?
- [54:06]
Sam Cedar
Yes. Is this me?
- [54:11]
Brittany Coleman
Is it me?
- [54:12]
Sam Cedar
It is you?
- [54:15]
Brittany Coleman
Is this me?
- [54:16]
Sam Cedar
Hello? It's me. I think it is you. Who is you? No sound. Every single freaking day. What's on your mind? We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism.
- [54:29]
Brittany Coleman
I'm going to go sky.
- [54:30]
Sam Cedar
Libertarians.
- [54:31]
Unknown
They're so stupid.
- [54:32]
Sam Cedar
Though common sense says of course.
- [54:34]
Emma Vigland
Gobbledygook.
- [54:35]
Sam Cedar
We nailed him.
- [54:37]
Emma Vigland
So what's 79? 21 challenge.
- [54:39]
Sam Cedar
Man. I'm positively quivering. I believe 96. I want to say 857-2108-3550-1123-8911 for a 35.
- [54:50]
Emma Vigland
$400. $1,900.
- [54:52]
Sam Cedar
Five, four. $3 trillion. Sold. It's a zero sum game.
- [54:56]
Emma Vigland
Actually. You're making me think less of wait.
- [54:58]
Sam Cedar
But let me say this.
- [55:01]
Brittany Coleman
You call it satire.
- [55:02]
Sam Cedar
Sam goes in satire. On top of it all.
- [55:05]
Brittany Coleman
My favorite part about you is just like every day, all day. Like everything you do.
- [55:10]
Sam Cedar
Without a doubt. Hey, buddy. We all right. Folks, Folks, folks.
- [55:20]
Emma Vigland
It's just the week being weeded out. Obviously.
- [55:23]
Sam Cedar
Yeah. Sun's out, guns out. I. I don't know. But you should know.
- [55:32]
Unknown
People just don't like to entertain ideas anymore.
- [55:35]
Sam Cedar
I have a question. Who cares?
- [55:38]
Unknown
More chat is enabled, folks.
- [55:41]
Sam Cedar
I love it.
- [55:42]
Emma Vigland
I do love that Mom.
- [55:44]
Sam Cedar
Gotta jump. Gotta be quick. I gotta jump. I'm losing it, bro. Two o'.
- [55:51]
Brittany Coleman
Clock.
- [55:51]
Sam Cedar
We're already late and the guy's being a dick. So screw him. Sent to a gulag.
- [55:57]
Emma Vigland
Outrageous.
- [55:58]
Sam Cedar
Like, what is wrong with you?
- [56:01]
Brittany Coleman
Love you.
- [56:02]
Sam Cedar
Bye. Love you.
- [56:05]
Brittany Coleman
Bye.
- [56:05]
Sam Cedar
Bye.