3549 - DOJ Epstein Files Cover up Continues and more w/ Heather 'Digby' Parton

Summary

The Majority Report with Sam Seder: Episode 3549

DOJ Epstein Files Cover-up Continues and More (with Heather 'Digby' Parton)
Date: December 19, 2025
Host: Sam Seder
Guests & Contributors: Emma Vigland, Heather "Digby" Parton

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Sam Seder is joined by political blogger and columnist Heather “Digby” Parton for an end-of-year discussion on urgent developments in US politics. The show’s central focus is the ongoing Department of Justice (DOJ) foot-dragging and alleged cover-up around the mandated release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. The hosts and guest also analyze Trump administration policies, the disarray in the Republican House, Democratic Party strategy failures, surging vaccine-preventable diseases, legislative attacks on trans rights, and much more — all with the signature Majority Report blend of irreverence, analysis, and left-progressive urgency.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Epstein Files Release: DOJ Delays and Stonewalling

• Context: Under a recently passed law, the DOJ was required to fully release the Epstein files by today (30 days post-enactment), but only partial, heavily redacted, or delayed releases are forthcoming.
• The DOJ claims "resource constraints" and cites redaction work as reasons for failing to meet the legal deadline. Notably, Trump-aligned Deputy AG Todd Blanch is leading the delay process ([09:11]).
• Political Ramifications: Both Dem. Rep. Ro Khanna and the hosts express outrage—Khanna publicly warned DOJ officials could be prosecuted for obstruction ([11:01], 13:04).
• Heather Parton points out the now-standard playbook of “partial, drip-drip releases” to minimize scandal—likening it to Bill Barr’s handling of the Mueller Report ([26:53], [29:08]).
• Discussion speculates that the cover-up is likely to protect not just Trump, but high-profile figures across industries; new names like NYT columnist David Brooks have already surfaced ([36:22]).

Memorable Quote:

“This is the way you do it, right? When you’re trying to stonewall, you release just enough to let a little air out of the tires to make it seem like we have good faith. … When the statute is abundantly clear.”
— Emma Vigland ([13:04])

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2. Trump and Epstein: Media, Modeling, and Misogyny

• Recent NYT coverage details Trump’s close 1990s association with Epstein, including their “young playboy” reputation and running a modeling agency filled with underage girls ([30:37]).
• Stories include Marla Maples warning mothers to keep their daughters away from Trump at Mar-a-Lago parties ([33:16]).
• Digby notes: These stories were never secret—Trump’s record of sexual misconduct was “baked into” his public persona and electorate support ([33:25]).
• There is a chilling assessment that women victimized in the Epstein orbit are unlikely to come forward while Trump wields power:

  “If you were some young girl ... I totally understand why they are terrified to come forward and just say he was one of them.”
  — Heather Parton ([35:44])

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3. Trump’s Latest Speech: Whining, Lies, and Policy Drift

• Trump’s abrupt national address is dissected as a manic, angry, grievance-fueled “wine fest” ([39:34], [41:16]).
• The hosts play a Fox News clip ([44:00]) fact-checking Trump’s bizarre, mathematically impossible claims about slashing drug prices by “400%, 500%, or even 600%” ([45:31]).
• Discussion characterizes Trump’s approach as gaslighting and outright falsehoods, especially regarding his “accomplishments” on drug prices—most credited policies are in fact Biden-era ([47:38]).

Quote:

“When you are called out on Fox News for essentially lying and trying to gaslight... you know you’ve got a problem.”
— Sam Seder ([44:00])

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4. Erosion of Government Competence and Escalating Authoritarianism

• The episode paints a bleak portrait of government dysfunction: DOJ incompetence, Republican House chaos, and Trump’s deepening culture war agenda ([51:22], [58:10]).
• DOJ case dismissals have skyrocketed due to talent drain; federal agencies are losing experienced personnel leading to institutional decay ([54:17]).
• Trump’s administration is advancing an executive order labeling leftist groups as “domestic terrorists,” criminalizing broad swathes of civil society activism ([48:08]).

Quote:

"Has anybody actually compiled a list of the absurdities that we are dealing with right now? ... overwhelming the number of absolutely ridiculous policies, announcements, pronouncements..."
— Heather Parton ([48:13])

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5. House Republican Chaos & ACA/Obamacare Sabotage

• Mike Johnson is described as the weakest Speaker yet, a “marionette” for Trump, unable to control fractious moderates or extremists ([59:38]).
• The use of discharge petitions—a rare maneuver—signals unprecedented Republican dysfunction; Nancy Pelosi previously passed major legislation with comparably slim margins ([58:10]).
• The show highlights the high stakes of ACA subsidy expirations, disproportionately hurting rural/Red state Americans ([63:55]).
• Republican nihilism (sabotaging government, letting voters suffer) is dissected as a deliberate tactic, as is their ongoing rollback of healthcare for vulnerable populations ([65:59]).

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6. Democratic Party Strategic Failures & the DNC Autopsy Suppression

• The DNC’s formal post-2024 election “autopsy” was completed and then buried—not released publicly, purportedly because Democratic leaders believe anti-Trump sentiment alone will suffice for victory ([67:20]).
• The thread from Christine Pelosi reveals surface-level “best practices” (e.g., media tactics) but omits sorely lacking policy or voter sentiment analysis—especially on Gaza ([69:00]).
• Field organizers were specifically told to stop reporting negative feedback from voters about Gaza policy ([70:52]).
• The hosts and Digby call this institutional “circling the wagons” and “closing the castle gates,” arguing it imperils the party and democracy itself ([72:26], [74:25]).
• CNN data is cited showing Congressional Democrats at historic net disapproval with their own voters ([75:27]).
• Hakeem Jeffries’ recent messaging is cited as a possible pivot finally acknowledging foreign policy as an electoral liability ([78:06]).

Quote:

“This is not about the health of the party... This is a group prioritizing their own internal power over actual democracy.”
— Emma Vigland ([72:26])

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7. War Policy, Venezuela, and Lost Democratic Credibility

• Comparison of Democrats' muddled messaging on Venezuela (Trump threatening regime change) and past hawkish consensus, highlighting unwillingness to stake out clear antiwar positions ([80:25]).
• Schumer's evasive answers on both Iran and Venezuela are lampooned; reciprocity shown to the dangers of US imperialism and the hollowing out of antiwar credibility ([81:37], [83:25]).
• Hosts argue the party is “following" voters rather than leading, as grassroots activism is credited for pushing reluctant Democrats leftward ([84:00], [87:20]).

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8. Trans Rights Under Siege: Federal and Legislative Attacks

• RFK Jr.’s (as Trump HHS secretary) announced policy to cut off federal funds to hospitals providing gender-affirming care—including under-20s—using Medicaid/Medicare leverage ([127:35]).
• The House passed Marjorie Taylor Greene's "Protect Children's Innocence Act", criminalizing trans youth care for anyone under 18, also targeting parents and providers ([129:25]).
• The panel exposes rampant misinformation: cherry-picking rare genital surgeries while ignoring that the vast majority of care is puberty blockers or hormones, which are also used in cis youth medical scenarios ([135:35]).
• The hosts frame these attacks as a broad, reactionary move against bodily autonomy, with chilling implications for healthcare justice and civil rights ([132:58], [133:02]).

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9. Anti-vax Movement, COVID, and Surging Epidemics

• Soaring cases of whooping cough and measles are directly linked to anti-vax misinformation, crediting RFK Jr. and right-wing extremism ([125:14]).
• Joe Rogan’s platforming of vaccine disinformation is called out, juxtaposed with new French data showing mRNA vaccines reduced all-cause mortality by 25% ([139:58], [142:39]).
• Calls for greater public anger and accountability toward the anti-vax movement ([147:19]).

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10. Rising Antisemitism & the Corruption of Critique

• A critical segment on how mechanisms for combating antisemitism have been "hijacked" to shield Israel from criticism, eroding trust and making real antisemitism harder to challenge ([153:12]).
• Recent online trends and right-wing “comedian” discourse are dissected as fueling and normalizing antisemitism, especially among younger online audiences ([148:43], [153:35]).

Quote:

“The mechanisms... to inhibit antisemitism have been hijacked in defense of what Israel has been doing.”
— Sam Seder ([153:34])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Heather Parton's Husband Wakes Her:

  "My husband came in and woke me up... 'You're not going to believe it, they released all the Epstein files, and it's nothing but porn.' I just sat up straight in bed and went, oh my God, what's happening?”
  ([26:53])

• On DOJ Excuses:

  “Now, apparently there’s only three people working at the DOJ…”
  — Sam Seder ([09:11])

• On Democratic Strategy:

  "This is the sort of structural advantage that a nihilist party has..."
  — Sam Seder ([65:59])

• On Drip-Drip Scandal Management:

  "If you were trying to minimize this story... you would just release it all.”
  — Heather Parton ([26:53])

• Fox News on Trump’s Lies:

  “If you cut something by 100%, the cost goes down to zero... how much of last night's speech was hyperbole and how much was saying you bring it..."
  — John Roberts, Fox News ([45:31])

• On Grassroots Voter Leadership:

  “People are coming out and they’re voting. ... That’s the one thing we have going for us, is people are coming out in the streets... Doing something. I guess, is what I'm saying.”
  — Heather Parton ([84:00])

• Vaccine Misinformation—Rogan:

  "I think everyone knows anecdotally somebody who was fucked up by the vaccine..."
  — Joe Rogan ([139:58])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Topic | Speakers/Segment | Timestamp | |-------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------|--------------| | Show Start and Headlines | Sam, Emma, Heather | 00:00–08:18 | | Epstein Files: DOJ Delay, Legal Threats | Sam, Emma, Heather; Rep. Ro Khanna | 08:18–13:45 | | The Drip Drip and Political Calculus | Heather Parton, Sam | 26:53–33:16 | | Trump & Epstein Media Ties | Heather, Emma, Sam | 30:37–35:44 | | Republican House Dysfunction, ACA Crisis | Sam, Heather, Emma | 58:10–67:20 | | DNC Autopsy Suppression | Sam, Emma, Heather | 67:20–75:27 | | Democratic Approval Plummets | Sam, Emma | 75:27–77:32 | | Venezuela & Dem Strategic Messaging | Sam, Emma, Heather | 78:06–84:00 | | Trans Healthcare Attacks Escalate | Sam, Emma, Heather |127:35–138:02 | | Vaccine Disinfo & Real World Impact | Sam, Emma |139:58–147:19 | | Antisemitism, Israel Critique | Sam, Emma, Heather |148:43–157:46 |

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Tone & Style

The episode weaves caustic humor, exasperation, and solidarity — embracing The Majority Report’s signature:

• Irreverence: Running jokes about technical problems, handmade gifts, Trump’s cognitive decline, and cat litter.
• Righteous Anger: Directed at institutional cowardice, anti-vaxers, right-wing culture war tactics, and DNC missteps.
• Hopeful Realism: Despite cynicism toward party leadership, a running motif is the resilience and activism of ordinary people.

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Final Thoughts

The panel closes with guarded optimism that the inertia and cowardice among Democratic leaders will, to some extent, be overridden by mass mobilization and a leftward-shifting voter base. However, they warn the work to dismantle Trumpism, restore rights, and rebuild both government and party credibility will be hefty—no matter who wins in 2026.

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For full details, insightful analysis, and the hosts’ inimitable humor, listen to the complete episode at Majority.FM

Transcript

[Sam Seder]

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[Emma Vigland]

Whoopee.

[Sam Seder]

And that's along with the measles as RFK's anti vax crusade gains ground. DNC 2024 autopsy to be buried along with the body before it ever saw the light of day. Trump's Kennedy center board votes to rename it the Trump Kennedy Center. And Trump orders federal agencies to eat weed restrictions. All this and more on today's Majority Report. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks so much for joining us. Apologies for the technical issues that we had up front. It is always tricky to go live on multiple platforms every day.

[Emma Vigland]

Yes.

[Sam Seder]

But fortunately we're all here and we're fine.

[Emma Vigland]

And it's raining. Maybe we can blame the rain here in New York.

[Sam Seder]

Yes. Emma Viglin is here.

[Emma Vigland]

I will show up on screen any second now. But that's okay. Everyone's.

[Sam Seder]

Everybody's all in a panic because we.

[Emma Vigland]

Had some tech difficulties.

[Sam Seder]

Want to apologize to our Twitch people because we. I mean, everywhere else. We're only live on YouTube right now. I'm going to work on getting us live everywhere else in a second. But for some reason, our forwarding service doesn't work before Christmas, I think.

[Emma Vigland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

Yeah. If you have any other suggestions for a, like a stream service that would restream, if you will, but without. Without having problems, please let us. Because we have been experiencing. Did we ever. Do we email them? Oh, you were on the phone with them. No.

[Heather Parton]

Oh, yeah.

[Sam Seder]

Okay. Oh, okay. Well, you found no evidence of any issues. Except for the evidence that we had issues. Right. Anyways, we don't need to harp on this. I mean, I did, but not anymore. This is the final Friday. It is of 2025 for us. Because of the way that Christmas and New Year's Fall. This year.

[Emma Vigland]

Yes.

[Sam Seder]

We're actually getting like an extra day of vacation.

[Emma Vigland]

I know.

[Sam Seder]

And we can't help that. That's a calendar thing.

[Emma Vigland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

We're not allowed to tamper with that.

[Emma Vigland]

Yeah. You're not allowed to tamper with the days of Christmas. Yes. As much as you might like to with your Grinch, like, ways.

[Sam Seder]

I've tried.

[Emma Vigland]

I know.

[Sam Seder]

I'd like to really bunch it really close to, like, New Year's. I'd like Christmas to be on New Year's Day.

[Heather Parton]

Right.

[Emma Vigland]

You should just. Oh, no, we're down again.

[Sam Seder]

Where? It's back. We're back. We had a dip.

[Emma Vigland]

Okay. It actually might be the rain. I mean.

[Sam Seder]

Well, no, but this has been going off and going all day.

[Emma Vigland]

Okay.

[Sam Seder]

We need to get an Internet guy, I think. Okay, well, be that as it may, we're hardwired there. Right. Okay. All right, well, so let's go to. We'll deal with this after the show. Assuming that we're able to do this. Able to do the show. I am recording it locally, so. Okay. It's not like. I mean, listen, every show has to be live. Come on. Today is the day when the DOJ is statutorily responsible under the Epstein Files Transparency act that was passed by the House three weeks ago. Four weeks ago. I can't remember.

[Emma Vigland]

It was around.

[Sam Seder]

Actually, it was 30 days ago exactly to this day, because they had 30 days since the bill was signed into law to. For the Department of Justice to release all of its files.

[Emma Vigland]

I mean, this is what it says in the act Public law. Not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this act, the Attorney General shall, subject to Section B, made publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format, all unclassified records, documents, etc.

[Sam Seder]

Now, I have to say my prediction was the DOJ was not going to release any of the files today, and they would just keep punting with legal issues. But it appears they're going to release some of the files. But they have to hold some of the files back because there's only three people working at the DOJ now, apparently.

[Emma Vigland]

Right.

[Sam Seder]

And they couldn't get the. Their copier was broken and so they couldn't release it. But that seems to be whatever the excuse they're using. But Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch, who, funnily enough, and I think you're going to find this to be a very funny coincidence. Guess what, Todd Blanche's job was as of January, like 10th of this year.

[Emma Vigland]

Oh, Trump's personal attorney.

[Sam Seder]

Yes. Isn't that. It's. So that it's such a coincidence. And this is also the guy who met with Ghislaine Maxwell and questioned Ghislaine Maxwell, grilled her and got her to reveal that Trump's name wasn't in this stuff at all. He had nothing to do with any of it. Choir boy and was the one who, contrary to the prison, the Bureau of Prison Rules, got her moved to a such a low security prison that she actually was allowed to have a puppy there.

[Heather Parton]

Wow.

[Sam Seder]

You know, it's like an emotional support dog for people who go to prison unjustly. And so she's there. And Todd Blanch is the guy who said that the DOJ intends to release, quote, hundreds of thousands of documents by the deadline, and it's going to release the rest of the files in the coming weeks as redactions are made. Which, incidentally is not allowed under federal law.

[Emma Vigland]

No, it's not allowed. And you have Ro Khanna basically saying publicly that if you're involved in concealing or these redactions that are unnecessary, that you could be prosecuted later on. Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

I mean, and that's where we're at. And I have to say, this is also, to be fair, this is also the exact excuses that Saul gives me when I ask him to clean his room. I'll do. Let me just pick up one pair of underwear and put it in the hamper and I'll do the rest later.

[Heather Parton]

Right.

[Sam Seder]

And like, that's not exactly the point. But here is Ro Khanna with what his intentions are in the event. And this was what, from like a week ago or a couple days ago this week, where he was basically saying, I mean, who could have predicted that the Trump administration wouldn't release these files on time? But here he is. Tomorrow at midnight is the deadline for Pam Bondi to release the Epstein files. That is what Thomas Massie and my bill calls for. It passed this body 427 to 1, passed the Senate 100 to 0, and the president signed it. Now, three federal judges have ordered the release of all of these files in Maxwell and Epstein's grand jury. Here is the reality. Any Justice Department official who does not comply with this law will be subject to prosecution for obstruction of justice. If Pam Bondi does not comply with the law, she will be held either in inherent contempt of Congress or subject to impeachment. We will not rest until the law is complied with and justice is served. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And now I guess we will see how, How people, you know, how people in Congress react to this partial release. I mean, this is the way you do it, right? When you're trying to stonewall, you release just enough to let a little air out of the tires to make it seem like we have good faith. It's just that, like, yeah, but how.

[Emma Vigland]

Can you get away with it when the statute is Abundantly clear. They're gonna try to use these illegal or their legal technicalities in court and try to claim certain redactions are necessary when they're not. But they're gonna tie this up in court and. And eventually there could be a Democratic president again who says, like, if you were improperly directed to do this kind of thing, we could prosecute you. That's what Khan has been threatening. Rightly so. We should be seeing more of this. Like, Pritzker has been doing this with ICE and Tish James here in New York trying to, like, set up this database for all of these abuses so that there's some accountability in the future. But the line from the Democratic Party should be that uniformly.

[Sam Seder]

Yep. All right. We'll talk more about this with Heather Parton. We got a. Who will be joining us in just a moment. We got a couple of words from our sponsors. First is from Boxy Cat.

[Emma Vigland]

Yes.

[Sam Seder]

And you've been using this product?

[Emma Vigland]

I have. As you people may know, listeners of this program, I have two new. Ish. Well, they're not that new, but there will be one. There'll be one in January. Cats and I kind of grow to love them more and more every day. They're brothers, so I've got to worry about, you know, their, Their. Their waist. And they don't know their poop. Yes, yes. Thank you. They don't. They haven't trained them quite yet to go on the toilet. You know, they don't have plumbing, and then they don't know how to flush. It's just very difficult for them.

[Sam Seder]

You can actually do that.

[Emma Vigland]

I know, but I had dreams of.

[Sam Seder]

Doing that with my cat. I was like, I'm not going to do.

[Emma Vigland]

I don't have the time or the patience to something like this. They also just don't have any thumbs. I'm not sure if you know this, but that might be difficult for them to.

[Sam Seder]

Is that where they poop out of?

[Emma Vigland]

That's not my understanding. But we can dream about those things. And we know that probiotics are good because they eat bad bacteria. So why hasn't anyone thought of putting probiotics near the stinky waste in my cat's litter box? The Pro. And BoxyPro stands for probiotics, which stops the bacteria that causes odors. So you never smell your litter box ever again. And when I have these two cats, you got to worry about it doubly. And Boxypro continuously keeps the box odor free. You just gotta remember to scoop, and then all you do is top off the litter, you don't have to dump the whole box. And better yet, no more hoping that your guests have an awful sense of smell. It's got that clumping power. It makes scooping easier when you're trying to clean it out. And yeah, it's just excellent. Especially in a small apartment, you can smell some of these things. And with double the cats, you've got double the fun. And so that's why I have Boxy Cat. It makes it a lot easier for us to handle these two cats. And they're young too, so they like to eat and run around our cats. People who visit us, and you know, me, my husband, we all want to thank Boxy Cat for sponsoring the Majority report because it's helped our apartment smell better. If you're tired of switching litters, look for this one. If you're tired of switching litters, looking for one, get [e-mail] b o x I e c a t.com it's the last litter you'll switch to. Enjoy 30% off with code [e-mail] tmr that's b o x I e c a T.com tmr and we'll put a link down below in the video and episode descriptions and at majority.fm enjoy 30% off with code [e-mail] tmr I gotta.

[Sam Seder]

See if I can get, you know, my cat goes back and forth. So any, any change that I do with the cat, I have to make sure that we agree on it. Otherwise you get screwed up.

[Emma Vigland]

Our change was pretty seamless.

[Sam Seder]

Well, yeah, because your cats just stay at your place. My cat goes back and forth.

[Emma Vigland]

That's true.

[Sam Seder]

I mean, that's a. That's a lot to ask out of a cat. Yes, but this looks good because I. There's nothing I can't stand more than the smell.

[Emma Vigland]

Oh, it's rough.

[Sam Seder]

It's very rough. But also sponsoring the program today, such a key, key thing to have for the holidays, but really, anytime. And I'm talking about ZBiotics. Pre alcohol probiotic. What is a pre alcohol probiotic? Well, it is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. And here's how it works. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in your gut. It's this. I always thought it was dehydration that makes you feel miserable the next day, but it is this byproduct that Makes you feel rough days after drinking. And, and what zbiotics pre Alcohol does is it produces an enzyme that breaks down this byproduct in your gut. So just remember to make pre alcohol your first drink of the night. Obviously drink responsibly and you'll feel your best tomorrow. And I have to say that like, you know, we, I have run this thing through the wringer for the past, I don't know, two or I don't know, four years.

[Emma Vigland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

Whether it's like the night that mom Donnie won, we were covering things and the first thing I did, drink that little shot of pre alcohol. Next morning I was able to do the show. Just all I had was joy. None of the, none of the, like, I feel miserable from drinking last night. I went to even a holiday party this year. Same experience, same.

[Emma Vigland]

Very nice.

[Sam Seder]

You can make the most of every toast this holiday season. Just don't forget to bring the pre alcohol along for the ride. Go to ZBiotics.com Majority to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use Majority at checkout. ZBiotics is backed with 100% money back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Check it out. We'll put the link in the podcast and YouTube descriptions. And lastly, there is still time, ladies and gentlemen. You haven't gotten a present for your parents, your grandparents, your cousins, your relatives who live across the country or just across town. The Aura Frames is the answer to every holiday gifting moment. You need not struggle or worry about. What have you gotten your loved ones for a gift? And why is Aura Frame so great? It's a digital frame that you can literally preload and personalize without ever seeing the box. You can order it, you can send it to their homes for Christmas or for Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, or just Happy New Year or just I love you. And you can put your your photos and videos onto the frame before it even gets there. So when they plug it in and hook it up to the Internet, which is super easy to do, I can assure you it'll load up and there'll be pictures of you, your kids, or whomever it is. And it makes it super easy for you. And the app is really easy to use. I've mentioned before, I gave this gift last year to my girlfriend's parents and they ended up, they loved it so much they got four more and then they gave it to gifts of all their kids because they got A bunch of kids and a bunch of grandkids. So they want to see pictures of them all over the place. All you got to do, just download the Aura app, connect to WI Fi and every frame comes packaged in a premium gift box with of course, no price tag. Win the holidays now with Aura Frames for a limited time. Save on the perfect gift by visiting auraframes.com and get $35 off of Aura's best selling Carver Mat frames. Name number one by wirecutter by using the promo code Majority at checkout. That's a U R A frames.com promo code majority. This deal is exclusive to listeners and frames sell out fast, so order yours now. To get in time for the holidays, support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. Look in our podcast or YouTube descriptions for the links and the codes. We're going to take quick break and we'll be talking to Digby. And just one note, we're having a little technical problems. Can't tell if it's our Internet or what's going on, but if for some reason you're on YouTube, just try refreshing. If you're having trouble with us in the future. Obviously if you're having trouble hearing us now, you're not listening to me. We don't have a Twitch stream today because we have a problem. So Poggers to our Twitch people, we apologize. Pogger Jaisal, quick break on the three people. Yeah, and to rumble too. But there you go. We are back. Sam Cedar, Emma Vigland on the Majority report. It's a pleasure to welcome to the program the proprietor of the Uber blog Hullabaloo and [e-mail]. thank you. Yeah, there it is. Heather, welcome back to the program. It is. You are on. This is the final Friday of 2025.

[Heather Parton]

Wow. Well, it's a privilege to be here. Thank you for having me.

[Emma Vigland]

I can't believe we made it.

[Heather Parton]

We made it.

[Sam Seder]

Yeah.

[Heather Parton]

It feels like it's been four years already. Ten years. I mean, I just, I. And I can't afford to, you know, be doing that. I need every minute now, you know, in my life.

[Emma Vigland]

I just remember like after the we found out the results and we found out super quickly on election night, I just was like four years. How are we going to do it? How am I going to do one day?

[Heather Parton]

One down, one down, three to almost.

[Emma Vigland]

Almost one fourth of the way through.

[Sam Seder]

And I just want to say, just to be hopeful at this time of year that it's also possible that like nature takes its and we don't wait four years at least for, for Trump's administration to end. I mean, it still will be a Republican one, but I mean, who knows?

[Heather Parton]

Well, JD VANCE one and I think we all need to stop and think hard about what that might be like.

[Sam Seder]

I think that's a good point, and maybe that's something we should be, like, focusing on come the new year. But let's, let's, let's talk about where we are today. Today was the day that the Department of Justice and they've had 30 days at a minimum to prepare for this day. And certainly we've had reports that there were, like, dozens of FBI agents who were combing through this material prior to even the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. So it's not like, you know, they didn't have time to redact this stuff if they wanted, but they're claiming today that they, they need more time, they'll release some stuff. But my guess would be that stuff does not have the name Trump in it. But give me your perspective on this.

[Heather Parton]

First of all, let me just say this morning my husband came in and woke me up. He gets up early, he woke me up, and he goes, you're not going to believe it. They released all the, all the Epstein files, and it's nothing but porn. It's porn from beginning to end. And I just kind of sat up straight in bed and went, oh, my God, what's happening? Of course, you know. Yeah, you awake now? I'm going, yeah, yeah, I am. Obviously nothing is going to come out here of any import, porn or otherwise. I don't think in the early going, I mean, they're doing, they're pulling a bill bar right where before the Mueller report came out, he did his little, you know, his little what? Analysis of what it was going to say. And it, in it, you know, it tainted the perception of what the Mueller report said. And that's what this is about. They're putting, they're going to put out some stuff that, I don't know what they'll go after some Democrats or there'll be some stuff in there that people can talk about. Then we're going to have the, you know, the Christmas season and we're going to, everybody's going to be off work and doing their, you know, family thing, and they're going to hope that this thing dies down. And it won't, because it just won't. I mean, the problem they have is that there are a bunch of women out there who are saying this happened to Me, and I'm. They are not going to let go of it. And there are plenty of people on all sides of the political spectrum who want to see what, what is in there. So, you know, this is the idea of them kind of, you know, I mean, I think they'd be better off just releasing it all. I thought that from the very beginning, you know, put it out, yes, you'll take a hit, yes, there'll be some problems. But you know, Trump at the height of his popularity, such as it was in the 40s, in the high 40s or whatever, would have been better off than he is now that he's sinking like a stone. And, you know, even some of the MAGA people are kind of going, you know, this is. I'm still paying, you know, huge amounts at the grocery store. It's stupid, but, you know, good, you know, let it happen. I mean, let it happen and let the chips fall where they may. I don't care who's in those things. I don't care who it hurts. It's fine. Let it, you know, let it all come out. And I think most people are at that point just, you know, let's see it. No, not the porn, by the way, but you know what I mean?

[Sam Seder]

I mean, obviously I would like to see this stuff released, but I agree with you, as a political matter, the fact that they keep drip dripping like that, it's been such a sort of like slow leak, seems to be the complete opposite of what you would do if you were trying to minimize this story in any way. And I mean, the only thing I can imagine, but this is like 12 dimensional chess is that they're creating this sense that there's something really horrific in there and then it turns out to be not so horrific.

[Heather Parton]

Believe it though, you know, they'll believe that they hit it. Right?

[Sam Seder]

Yeah, I mean, but it makes me believe that it must be pretty bad for him in there.

[Heather Parton]

Now.

[Sam Seder]

I don't know what the nature of it is. Like, I mean, we all just assume that it's going to be clear that he, that there's indication that he has, you know, molested or raped underage women or something to that effect. It also seems conceivable to me that there's maybe other stuff about his business dealings or about his relationship to other stuff that Epstein was involved in that could be it. I mean, who knows? We're just, you know, it's all speculation at this point, but it's also good. Go ahead.

[Heather Parton]

I'm sorry, I was just gonna say, did you see the, the article in the New York Times yesterday about Trump and you know, in the 90s when he was a young playboy, as you know, he was 48 years old in 1995. So that's a young playboy.

[Sam Seder]

I mean, I mean, speaking as someone who's almost 60 myself, like I'm saying, like, you know, the numbers are just an age. Yeah, it's age, just a number.

[Emma Vigland]

They're using the J.D. vance curve of the, the Young Republicans, the 35 year old children.

[Heather Parton]

Right, right, exactly. So he and Epstein were just young playboys in the 90s, as Susie Wilde said. But that story, and I think we all sort of have pieced together that story before about what they were up to during that period. And Trump was running a modeling agency with a lot of very young girls. There's pictures of him with those young girls that are, to me, they've always been one of the most startling things because he's clearly just leering at these young, and they are like 14 years old. They're, they're very young, you know, models, you know, they, they were, especially in the 90s, there were a lot of very young models that were, that were out there, Eastern European mostly, you know, and very beautiful young girls. And he's standing there with them all surrounding him and leering at them. It's clear to me and has been, I think, to most people who've been following him all these years. And he didn't used to hide it. I mean, this was just part of his Persona that he was that guy. And he and Epstein, according to this story in the New York Times, were competing with each other for how, Taunting each other with their exploits and they were, and he, apparently Trump would call up Epstein and just regale him in detail with, with, you know, events with, with women and what he was doing. And he'd put, and Epstein put him on the speakerphone and make his assistant listen to it, which she would, I'm sure she really enjoyed. I mean, this is the kind of grotesque thing that was going on and I think, I think, I don't know what's in the files. I don't know if any of that sort of thing is there openly, obviously with his name attached to it and you can see it. But it just, the whole, the whole atmosphere around Epstein and Trump is the same. They were the same guy back in the 1990s and early 2000s. They were both doing this stuff. And in one of the, one of the things in the article yesterday, this was something I hadn't heard before they were busing in models into Mar A Lago, young girls plying them with alcohol. And in fact, Marla Maples took some young girl and her mother aside and don't, you know, said, protect her. Yes, don't let my husband near her.

[Emma Vigland]

Especially my husband. I wrote. Yeah, not let, don't let her, the daughter around any of these men. Especially.

[Sam Seder]

This is at, what do you call it, a pageant. Right.

[Heather Parton]

I think there was a party at Mar A Lago and I think they had, they had brought in these girls. This was a 14 year old and her mother went with her, which was unusual. Most of these 14 year old girls, 14 and 15 year old girls that were in that orbit were, you know, kind of living, you know, kind of unfortunate lives with abusive homes and various things. They were targeted for that reason. So most of them were on their own dealing with this stuff. This girl happened to be with her mother and Marla Maples, of all people, I mean, this was Trump's wife saying this. It wasn't just, you know, some bystander. I mean, of course he was part of this. And anybody under, anybody with a brain and who's been following this knows this. The guy has been accused by what, dozens of women of unwanted sexual assault. I mean, this is absolutely. These women have come forward, they've been out there for years, and we're putting up with this. I mean, you know, it's just one of the things that we're putting up with with Donald Trump. But it's a fundamental thing about him and his character and what kind of person he is, and also what kind of people voted for him. They knew this, this was not a secret. This is not something that just turned up in the second term. And oh, my goodness, you know, how did we know that he was like this? No, this has been there from the very beginning. They voted for him anyway. And in fact, a good number of our fellow Americans worship this guy. So, you know, this is a thing that is going to be out there for him. And I was just thinking about this last night, thinking maybe they think they can just put this off and Trump's not going to be around that much longer. He's old and he's aging fast and he is decrepit and frankly, demented. It's not going to be that long. If he lasts to the end of the term, you know, okay, whatever. But this stuff, the minute that he, that he is gone, I just think these women are going to just burst out onto the scene because they are, they would want to Tell the story. But they're terrified. You see that guy, he is a man who believes in vengeance. He says it out loud and he's doing it in front of the whole country. If you were some young girl or some now some woman sort of on your own who was caught up in that thing, I totally understand why they are terrified to come over and just, you know, say he was one of them.

[Sam Seder]

It's their only protection. I mean, you see, he's gone after Letitia James. He's gone after a, you know, a Fed commissioner by drumming, drumming up charges with mortgage they have now sanctioned to people two prosecutors from the ICC and have cut off their ability to use like credit cards or stuff like that, you know, via our banking system. And so, yeah, people, they are legitimately afraid of what would happen in this.

[Emma Vigland]

Instance, let alone the other people that I think are, you know, in some of these files that we may not know about. I mean, some of what was released yesterday by, by the House Democrats included some new faces at least in terms of associations with Epstein. One being David Brooks, the conservative columnist for the New York Times who just a few some weeks ago, months ago wrote about how why should we care about the Epstein files? It's not that big of a deal. And then in I think that same dinner there was, there were photographs of Sergey Brin, the Google or Alphabet executive whose ex wife was RFK Jr. S running mate, if people remember that. But also one of the wealthiest people on the planet too. I mean, just to give people a sense of like there's going to be more people implicated than we even know publicly.

[Heather Parton]

Yeah, no doubt.

[Sam Seder]

I also, I also think, you know, I think your theory, well, the theory of just punt, punt, punt in any way you can, delay, delay, delay that operates regardless of what you anticipate, how long Trump is going to be around. But, but I, but I think that they probably think that like look, you always delay, you always delay in any way you can because you just don't know if things are going to turn better for you in some fashion. I think that's like, you know, getting to why they haven't released it at this point. But it's going to be interesting to see if in the event that Trump has like a reason to step down or you know, departs this earth probably long after he should, the how much blame folks like J.D. vance and the Republican Party will get. I mean, because we see the like the sort of, the backlash are on Democrats now. I don't know how much of it is sincere, but like you hid the fact that Joe Biden was, you know, demented and old and blah, blah, blah. Well, I mean, there is a, like, you know, there may have been people around Joe Biden's circle who are hiding this. I have no doubt about it. And there were, you know, some people had more or less access to Biden. Some may have known. But, but the fact of the matter is, like, this is a, the, the systems and the apparatus of the US Government is being deployed to, to hide whatever it is that they're trying to hide here. But let's go. I want to just also turn because we got a lot to get to today. Trump gave a speech two nights ago and right before, like, it was a last minute speech. They didn't seem to know about it on Tuesday, but on Wednesday afternoon they're announcing it and to the point where I think I texted everybody on our group chat like, hey guys, we should maybe look for somebody who can talk about this invasion of Venezuela that he's bound to announce tonight.

[Heather Parton]

Right.

[Sam Seder]

And instead he goes on and just, I don't know, gives like the world's quickest and loudest and lamest State of the Union.

[Emma Vigland]

I mean, address out the gate, out the gate just starts whining. Like as soon as, after he says, you know, hello or whatever the introduction was. I mean, Joe Biden got us.

[Sam Seder]

I would have said hello, yes. But Joe Biden made it impossible for me to start this. Right.

[Emma Vigland]

It was that it was just complete.

[Heather Parton]

Is the first thing he said.

[Emma Vigland]

Yeah. And I inherited a mess whining, per usual. And I, it's, I don't think anyone is, is buying that if people are, the people he needs to win over are not going to be satiated by the reheated complaint grievance fest that he engages in every single day on Twitter and like, or on Truth Social. I really do think that this is part of what, like why this Reiner thing earlier this week, the horrific comments that he made about that horrible, horrible killing of Rob Reiner and his wife, that, that maybe is having more salience than people realize. Like what's going to break through, what horrible thing he says or does will break through. It's because this, this fixation on himself, the narcissism is grading on people and people have no patience for it, especially when the economy's this bad.

[Heather Parton]

Absolutely. And you know, the speech. Well, first of all, just the delivery of the speech, I mean, I guess they told him he had a particular, you know, short period of time, so they told him to Race through it. But he was just manic. And he wasn't just manic, he was angry. I mean, this was. He seemed like, I mean, if I didn't know better, I think this is the last thing he wanted to do. He was like mad and he was, you know, spitting fire in this thing. Very strange thing to do. It's Christmas.

[Sam Seder]

I'm not angry. Like, he was blowing out his mic.

[Heather Parton]

Yeah, yeah, it was, it was just strange. It was just very. But you know, what isn't with this guy, but. But what he was saying, you know, you're absolutely right, Emma. The whining course. To me, that is the most grating thing about Donald Trump and always has been. He's the greatest whiner the world has ever known. And, you know, I'll use his, his, you know, branding there and say nobody's ever seen anything like it. And it's because it's true. No one's ever seen. And that's why it's so rich for him to say, you know, this Somalians, they, they do nothing but complain. I'm going, yeah, dude, yeah, it takes one to know one. I mean, you know, this is ridiculous, but it was a wine fest and essentially just trying to cast blame and to then try and convince people that somehow or another, you know, you can believe me or you can believe your lion eyes, things are really great and you just don't know it yet. And it's going to, it's going to be obvious and all these great things are going to happen. And I just don't think that. I mean, well, we know it's not working. The polling is showing that people are blaming him, not Biden. I mean, there's maybe a 30% of people, it's really that low of people who are saying this is, you know, Biden's fault. That's the hardcore MAGA people. Nobody else is buying that. Independents are, you know, fleeing in droves. They're not buying it. And I don't think he has any other play. I mean, this is it for him. He doesn't have anything else he can do. The economy is in, you know, obviously the tariffs are, you know, a problem and he's not going to do anything with that. This is, this is his big, you know, this is his great big legacy policy. Tariffs. He loves my favorite word, you know, I mean, he says this, so he's not going to change that. I mean, they're going to try and whittle away at it. They're going to try and find ways for him to get out of it. But this is. The damage he's done with terrorists is pretty extensive and it's not going to go away and he doesn't have anything. What's he going to do here now? You know, it's always possible. What do I know? You know, things will just really look up. It'll be morning in America and everything will be great. But it really doesn't look that way because these are long standing economic problems that we're dealing with. The income inequality is becoming manifest to average Americans as they're watching the White House filled with a bunch of billionaires who were putting gold shit all over the place and you know, putting his name on everything. And, you know, this is becoming pretty obvious to the American people that something has gone wrong and that there's, and that this, this economic situation that we're in, this stagnant economy is not going to get that much better. And he can't do anything about that. Not that. Not he's incapable of it.

[Sam Seder]

Here is a clip. I mean, just to, you know, back up your point that people aren't buying it. When you are called out on Fox News for essentially lying and trying to gaslight and you're a Republican president, never mind Donald Trump, you know, you've got a problem. Here is John Roberts on with Howard Lutnick. Now, this is. I don't think we've seen Howard Lutnick in public since he basically said like, oh, I knew Epstein was a horrible person the moment I met him. Oh, yeah, he was blackmailing everybody. Oh, wait a second. But here is John Roberts and you know, you got to hand it to Lutnick. You know, even when he wants to cry inside, he's able to sort of smile and lie because some of them were just mathematically impossible. Listen to what he said about bringing down the price of prescription drugs. Isn't it? I negotiated directly with the drug companies and foreign nations to which we're taking. Hold on, pause it. Can we just, like, I just want to. Just like this is what I was talking about. Like there were moments where the only thing I can imagine that maybe like they, they all capped certain words. It's written like it's true. Social. Yeah, exactly. Because he, he just. Yeah, like the drug companies and they wanted. We dropped it 500%. Like he's, it's, it's amazing though. That's what he does. I said go back.

[Emma Vigland]

No, I know. Matt was just like, you're blowing out the sound.

[Sam Seder]

Let's not go crazy. Sorry, go back. Go back, go back. Prescription drugs. Listen here. I negotiated directly with the drug companies, foreign nations which were taking advantage of our country for many decades to slash prices on drugs and pharmaceuticals by as much as 400, 500 and even 600%. Well, if you cut something by 100%, the cost goes down to zero. If you cut it by 4 or 5 or 600%, the drug companies are actually paying you to take their products. So it raises the question how much of last night's speech was hyperbole and how much was saying is you bring it if, if a drug was $100 and you bring the drug down to $13. Right. If you're looking at, from $13, it's, it's not seven times, not a 600%. Well, but it's 100% higher price before. It's down 700% now. Right. So $13 would have to go up 700% to get back to the old. So it all depends on when you look at it. You could say it's down 87% or you could say it's, it would have to go up 700% to be the same one. So it just depends on what you look at it. But basically what he's saying, and we all know what he, he's saying is we are hammering the price of drugs down. That's okay. Now the reason why I appreciate this clip is because John Roberts almost basically says, like, can we believe anything he says? Like he seems to be lying about everything. And even Lutnick, to the extent that he can work it out, like it's 87%. First of all, it's not 87%. But also what they're citing is a Biden era program of negotiation with drugs through Medicare, which of course they started way late in their administration. And so, you know, as like classic Democratic, you know, politics. But I mean, all of this stuff was just, it was just, he was just up there lying about stuff.

[Heather Parton]

Well, an apropos of nothing. But just, you know, remember that when they made the announcement with the drug prices, I think it was for the Ozempic drug crisis, that's the one where Trump completely fell asleep in the meeting. Then some guy faints and he stands up and sort of stares off into space. I mean, I don't know, the whole drug negotiating with the drug companies thing, I don't really think that that's working out great for him in so many ways. It's just, it's absurd. It's just, I mean, we got a.

[Sam Seder]

Really good deal on amphetamines but it hasn't showed up at the White House yet.

[Heather Parton]

I mean, has, you know, has anybody actually compiled a list of the absurdities that we are dealing with right now? I mean, just in every department, every agency, every aspect of the Trump administration. And then, you know, we can go to Republicans in the Congress as well. It is overwhelming the number of just absolutely ridiculous policies, announcements, pronouncements. And of course, we follow the worst of them, you know, right up there. I mean, just immigration policy alone, I mean, just that alone would be the most. It's the most horrific one I can think of in my lifetime in terms of domestic policy. I've never seen anything like this. I mean, this is absolutely horrific. And now they're embarking. I don't know if you. I'm sure you have heard about this, but, you know, on this new level, they've put together an executive order, and I think it's a national security memo of some sort where they're calling antifa, the domestic terrorist organization, which is going. They're going to seize upon this completely unconstitutional, you know, basis or rationale for actually going after liberal groups. They've named what groups like Act Blue, Indivisible, and they're going to use every, you know, bit. Then they're going to call it material support for terrorism. Now, that's illegal. Of course it's unconstitutional. We have free speech in this country, supposedly, but it will wind its way through the courts. But this is what they're going to do, and they're going to actually do it. At which point the Supreme Court will no doubt do what they've been doing the whole way along and say, well, it would be, you know, it would be, you know, terrible for Donald Trump if we were to stop him from doing this. You can go ahead and then we'll take it up later, which is what they've been doing with the shadow docket from the, from the beginning. This is, you know, that alone is, you know, I just wrote a piece on this. It's going to come out over the weekend on Salon about, you know, this is Quantel Pro, right, the Hoover program, where they were surveilling people and going after them with the irs. There was even assassinations done against the Black Panthers. It's going back to McCarthy, you know, the McCarthy period. It's going back to the original Red scare. And this is the kind of stuff that they're doing. And it's just another one of the things that we're talking about. You know, I mean, there's just so much. And I just, I don't know how I, you know, I hate to sound cynical, but I'm feeling that way. And maybe it's just the end of a long year and I need a break and maybe I'll feel better. And I do feel better in a lot of ways about certain things that are happening on the positive end. But this is terrible. I mean, this is just I thought it was going to be bad. I knew it would be bad. And it's worse. It's worse in, you know, dozens of different ways and ways that are truly terrifying. I mean, this is scary stuff that they're, that they're pulling. And I don't see any great, you know, there's no real resistance within the government. And the only places you're finding it is in the lower courts and you're finding it on the streets. And that's about it. And a little bit among the Democrats, but not much.

[Sam Seder]

There's a couple of things. And one, we should say Ken Klippenstein has done really some of the best reporting on this, and we're hoping to have him on Monday if it works out. He's out of town at the moment, but should also say the only other thing that I think is a it's really just their general incompetence that is slowing this role. And we should say that they're far more competent at this stuff this go round than they were the first term. I mean, that is like without a doubt the impetus and the catalyst and the impulse to do all the things they're doing now Trump had in the first term and the people around him did. But they have managed this time to go in with a much deeper bench of loyalists than they had last time. And so none of this stuff is being thwarted. The flip side of that, though, is there was a report out, I think it was today or yesterday. The Department of Justice has had something like 22% of its cases dismissed on motion, which is like 21% more than the average in any given year. And it's because they have lost a huge amount of talent. And the, you know, you can what happens when you lose 50% of the EPA, let's say, is that they don't, they don't go after polluters that you, you know, our air, our water gets, you know, more toxic, etc. This happens at all these agencies. But when you lose this within the Department of Justice, their ability to both prosecute crimes, broadly speaking, and to maneuver through the courts gets seriously undermined. Both because they don't have the personnel and because they don't have the expertise. Because more often than not, like the really quality attorneys in the doj, they realize this is a crap show and they're going to leave. Almost like, definitionally, if you're a good attorney, more often than not. More often than not, you are much more sort of like married to the law than the outcome. It's the. These are process people. I mean, that's sort of like the nature of, of these people. And so they leave regardless what their politics are, because they're seeing process doesn't mean anything. All of a sudden, all the rules about the game that they have dedicated their lives to is like, they're saying, like, we don't need to do this. And of course, the courts aren't necessarily responding that way. That's why they're losing a fifth of their cases before they get. Actually move any further.

[Emma Vigland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

Like a motion to, you know, to get your case dismissed as a, in a motion before the case actually even starts on some level is like, just indication that you, you have no idea what you're doing. You know, you could literally pull somebody off the street and get close to that type of average. But speaking of other lies, the. And again, this speaks to your sort of broader point about that speech that he gave two nights ago saying that it's all Biden's fault and everything's actually great. They put out inflation numbers and let's pull this graphic. They put out inflation numbers and for like, if you feel like three hours, people like, this is crazy. Inflation has basically just screeched to a halt in the, in the slack. Inflation has screeched to a halt. Like they've, they figured it out, they've solved it. And it turns out, if you look on this chart. Put it up, the way that they solved inflation was. Was much like Trump's idea on how to get rid of COVID Yep. You just don't track it anymore. And so if you look at October in November, there's no data on food or energy. There's like, there's only gasoline. And on cars, new vehicles and used cars and trucks are the only ones. Everything else, all. All other commodities, all the electricity. Electricity, which of course is not, you know.

[Emma Vigland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

Has gone off the charts.

[Heather Parton]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

Largely because of two things. One, we have taken offline. All of these renewable energy projects, massive wind farms and solar farms have been taken offline. Either they were producing stuff or they were about to be produced stuff. And then simultaneously, they are building all of These data centers for AI maintain the inflation of this bubble, which is just, I think, like, they're starting to realize, like, well, people just aren't using AI in the way that they thought they were going to.

[Emma Vigland]

I think they're also trying to outrace, like, certain local pushback and regulation. Right. They're trying to build this to, to the point where there's, like, there's, I mean, and you see the electricity prices going up. Electricity usage for residential has been, like, flat for 20 years. It's all this, like, commercial stuff from, from AI.

[Sam Seder]

And, and that's why Trump wants to have this national ban on local AI regulation, because they're going to define AI regulation as the energy centers that provide power for air.

[Heather Parton]

Right.

[Sam Seder]

And so you can even Ron DeSantis.

[Heather Parton]

Is saying, Whoa, wait a minute. You know, I mean, that's, that's how, you know, bad it is. States really are not happy with this at all, but.

[Sam Seder]

Exactly, yeah. All right, let's talk just briefly about what's happening in the House. I mean, it's pretty easy to sum up what's going on there. Mike Johnson has completely lost control over the his of the House. And it's, it's largely because there are a lot, a lot, a handful of Republican moderates who realize they are screwed right now because Donald Trump does not care. The only way that he's trying to win the election or the midterms seems to be through, essentially through cheating. And he's like, right, this is what's going to carry us through. And so now, I mean, we have more discharge petitions in the past four weeks. I think then there was in, like, the past 20 years or something.

[Heather Parton]

Yeah, I mean, you remember discharge petitions were always some, you know, you'd be in this situation where the Democrats are in the minority or whatever or progressives were trying to push something, and everybody go, well, okay, we needed a discharge petition, and everybody just would roll their eyes, okay, give it a try. But they never work. So whatever. You know, it was just one of those things that was just, it's in there, but it, it just wasn't. It's like impeachment. Right. It was one of those things. Just, it can't possibly work. Nothing will allow that to work. Well, suddenly it's happening, and I, I, no one's more surprised than me because, you know, I was caught in that, too. I'm just going to go, well, good luck, guys. But these things, you know, they don't work. And here they are, and it's working, and it's Very, very interesting to see that happening. Now Johnson's out there saying, you know, well, this is the smallest minority in history and this is the way things happen and blah, blah, blah. I hate to tell him Nancy Pelosi had a very, very narrow margin and they passed massive legislation without a peep like this. There was no. No push. But, you know, she managed to get it done. It's. Mike Johnson is the problem, and the Republican House, you know, caucus is the problem, and they have been for years. I mean, let's. I'll take you back to the 1990s, when Newt Gingrich was kicked out of office, when he made a bad call in the election in 1990, in 1998, and said that they were going to win a bunch of seats and they didn't, and they got rid of him. They. We went through Tom Delay, you went through John Boehner, you went through Paul Ryan, you went, you know, I mean.

[Sam Seder]

Denny Hastert, the guys who. The alumni who are in jail or. Yeah, so.

[Heather Parton]

Yeah. So forgettable. Right? I mean, he was just. He's just another file.

[Sam Seder]

You know, he was one of the OG Republican pedophiles.

[Emma Vigland]

And I think of that group, was he the longest serving?

[Sam Seder]

No, he was.

[Heather Parton]

He was. Oh, yeah, he served for quite a while. I mean, he was long. Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

I thought Boehner was there for longer than Hastert, but maybe mistaken.

[Heather Parton]

Whatever. The point is, is that. Is that they. The Republican Party is. Has been and continues to be a mess when it comes to trying to legislate anything. They have a group of fanatical extremists who will not take yes for an answer. They have no interest in compromising. They're there for other reasons. I don't know. Nowadays it's to be able to go on X and, you know, say, insult people or whatever it is that they do, trolling. But they just. They're not legislators. They're just. They're just people screaming into the void. And. And this has been going on for a very long time. I mean, John Boehner was a very skilled legislator. He'd been there for a long time. He'd been there all through, you know, late 80s and 90s. He knew what he was doing and he couldn't get it done. He would make deals and they would just spit in his face. And that's happening to Mike Johnson now in slightly different way because it's the moderates in his party, the few, the handful of little. Of moderates who are about to lose their seats, who are rebelling. But he has no control. And you know, I think in his case it's particularly vivid about how he's lost control because basically he's just nothing more than a of puppet for Donald Trump. I mean, this is all he is. He is following the Donald Trump playbook. But you know, down to, I mean, John Thune, if you look at him in the Senate, he's a much more skilled kind of guy about this. He is, you know, he's doing what Trump wants. He's trying to keep his, his group together. And that's not easy in the Senate anymore either because they got a bunch of nuts over there too, you know, Tommy Tuberville and Ron Johnson, you know, a whole bunch of them. But, you know, he's much more skilled in the way that he sort of presents himself as a sort of a mediating neutral party who's trying to keep it all together. Johnson is just flat out Trump's boy and everybody knows it. He even looks a bit like a marionette. I mean, don't you think he looks a little like Charlie McCarthy? I don't know who Charlie McCarthy. You know, I mean, he kind of looks like that. So, you know, that is what he is. And he is, he is, you know, I guess not a marionette. It's a ventriloquist. Yeah. So you know this, he has completely lost control. And the problem is in that here saw Mike Lawler, the guy from New York, you know, he's in a swing district, he's probably going to lose his feet. And he was one of the ones who signed on to the discharge petition and he had said before that he wanted, he had, and he'd pulled together some Democrats to do it with him, that they were going to do some quote, reforms to Obamacare. I don't know what, I can't remember what it was they were trying to do. I mean, I think it was some kind of means testing or something along with the extension of the, of the subsidy. And they couldn't get enough Democrats to do it or Republicans. So that, you know, went by the wayside. So he signed onto the discharge petition with the Democrats, which is just straight up, three, three year extension, no arguments, clean. He signed onto it and he said, though, I'm hoping that in the Senate they will, you know, they will not refuse to do that and they'll have to come up with a compromise which will then sign on to. So that's his, that's his game. But for the most part, I think most Republicans know they're going to lose Next November. They can see the writing on the wall and they see this as a way to destroy Obamacare. I think that's, that's what they want to do. I think they want the subsidies to expire. I think they want people to suffer. They want to be able to blame it, you know, blame the health care price. Just listen to Trump. I mean, that's what he says. And I don't think, you know, and Trump will come up, well, we're just going to send them, you know, send people money so they can buy the good insurance that they can't buy now or some crazy nonsense that makes no sense whatsoever. It's going to be cheaper and better. I'm going, where is this fantastic insurance that they're unable to buy right now? But he doesn't understand health care, obviously he doesn't understand much of anything. So I think they just want to let it go. Just, you know, go ahead, let people suffer and they're going to lose anyway. So, you know, so what Mike Lawler, who cares about you, who cares about your people who are.

[Emma Vigland]

Well, it may be the case too, that the, for a majority of the Republican caucus who are in increasingly kind of gerrymandered districts, as those states that we're talking about have manipulated their maps, Republican led states to make that the case that the frontline Republicans like Mike Lawler, they can't get their voices heard in the same way because Mike Johnson just does what Trump wants him to do. And the, you know, the Century foundation looked at the ACA subsidies and found that rural Americans are going to be hurt disproportionately. That costs will be 28% higher than for urban Americans. And you see where there's the highest rates of ACA enrollees in rural areas in the country. It's Alabama, it's Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Wyoming. And those are all states that didn't. Well, there's a few other ones that did expand Medicaid. But in terms of being these are all also the states that didn't expand Medicaid. Point being, so, like, what's so devastating or just, I think maybe revealing is the better word about the Republican Party is that they know that there is a desert of health insurance and health care coverage for those, those constituents. But they are concentrated in deep red rural districts that are represented by these Republicans. And they don't think, it doesn't seem like they think they're gonna, the majority of the caucus will pay the price. And so it's, it's, it's more beneficial for them to take away healthcare from their constituents than it is for them to go against Donald Trump for a majority of the caucus.

[Heather Parton]

Right, right. And, and they, and they just, they, they, they are adamantly opposed to Obamacare just on a, you know, this has just gone, goes back to the very beginning. I mean, they're still opposed to Medicare for crying out loud. You know, I mean, they're cutting health care across the board and they're happy to see it go. This is, they will consider that an accomplishment to make their own constituents suffer.

[Sam Seder]

And this is, this is the sort of structural advantage that the a, like a nihilist party has. Right. Because if they do believe that they're going to lose, and I don't. It's not just, I mean, to be fair, it's not just gerrymandering, some of it's self sorting. But the, the point remains. There's a lot of these districts where it's like it's blood red. They're never going to lose. The more to the right they are, the better chance they have to keep it in avoiding a primary, which is really their only threat for, you know, I don't know, let's just say 75. It's probably closer to 80% of, of Republicans. And so from their perspective, if they trash the place, as it were, and leave the government in shambles, it just means that the Democrats when they come in, are going to have a theoretically harder time fixing it. There's going to be more things. Right. I mean, and so it makes complete sense for them to do this. But here's the thing, and this is just a moment to pivot to the last topic I want to talk to you about. Look, we're going a little late and I appreciate your, your, your hanging with us. The democratic autopsy from 2024, I want to say, came out. But it didn't come out.

[Emma Vigland]

No, it didn't.

[Sam Seder]

It was finished and apparently it was then buried. And there is, I did see a thread from Christine Pelosi, although it turns out she had blocked me on Twitter. But I, that I saw it anyways. I don't know why she blocked me. I've been nothing but a. Well, I can, I could probably guess why she blocked me. But be that as it may, they put out a thread which, you know, had some helpful stuff insofar as like it talked about, wait, I don't have it here. I have it somewhere. But it's a lot of, it was like best practices stuff like the way that they were going to do Sort of like ground game stuff and, but none of it was, none of it was based upon any type of like positions or any type of like things that you would run on. It was really more about like what they put out was like when we do our field work, we should be doing X, Y and Z. And yes, that's, I mean that's helpful and that's good. Best practices should be honed and whatnot. But there has, there was a, a very like explicit oh yeah, you can put this up here. The DNC here said that they're not going to put it out and the, the reason why is because they've been winning in special elections. So in other words, like the anti Trump fervor is enough. We don't need to course correct on anything thing. Go to the next one.

[Emma Vigland]

By the way, they promised they were going to release it and then they're backtracking.

[Sam Seder]

So and then what they did, results driven organizing, you know, and it's a lot of, I'm sure some of this is very helpful. Talks about the youth swing vote and, and again, you know, more or less like you need to do more podcasts or they say like, you know, we need, we, we lost the game in terms of the media. But it was all, all what did.

[Emma Vigland]

Young people care about in this election that was not represented by the candidate at the top of the ticket? Just, just, just thinking about it for one second. Perhaps the genocide.

[Sam Seder]

Look, we saw a bunch of polling that came out since we know that one of the things, you know, the results driven organizing, one of the things that the Harris campaign did is when they sent out their field people. And this is amazing to me too because this was the problem with the Clinton campaign. The Clinton campaign, in lieu of having volunteers to go out and canvas, you know, prior to the get out the vote, they did modeling from like it was like Eric Schmidt and this and that. And so they had no sense that there's a problem with the models because they didn't have people out there. And you know, we heard a lot of stories on the get out the vote and the week or 2 before, 25% of the doors we're knocking on are going to vote for Trump. And that's a problem with your get out the vote. You don't want to be doing your, you know, the people you run against their job. Well, Harris Field people kept getting back. We got a problem with Gaza and to the point where at one point they said, okay, we're no longer, we don't want that feedback anymore. So they told canvassers, they told canvassers like, we don't report that to us anymore. We don't even want that data.

[Heather Parton]

We don't even want to know about it.

[Sam Seder]

We don't even want to know about it because they were so determined not to move from it. And who knows if that was in the audit? We will never know.

[Emma Vigland]

We may. Hopefully a Good Samaritan leaks with what happened in the autopsy. Honestly, I mean, to the press.

[Heather Parton]

So ridiculous to me, when I read that yesterday, I'm going, okay, so you're. There's a big story now that you're refusing to release it. So it looks again, this is like the Trump thing, right? Looks like you're trying to hide something. Yeah. What could you possibly be hiding that we are unaware of? That the last year we have spent going over and over this stuff, people have been talking about it. It's been out there, there's been polling, there's been definitely discussions. We know, but the report would have said. Would have. All it would have said was that it was codifying what we already know as a problem and that the party is aware of it and that the party understands that they needed to do something about it. That's all it would have done. And instead it's going to be this big thing. I don't understand.

[Sam Seder]

Because they need plausible deniability. They need to be able to allow whomever it is, the abundance people or the, the, you know, the, the people who are using anti Semitism as a way of shutting down, you know, anti Israel perspective, whatever it is, they need the plausible deniability if they have the data themselves. It moves from like sort of an objective conversation or subjective conversation into an objective one.

[Emma Vigland]

And, and yeah, and Axios had an article today, and it's in the second line that several Democrats are. They basically say the Axios, that burying the report. Report unfairly helps former Vice President Harris if she runs again and shields top party consultants by hiding potentially damaging information about their efforts. This is, this is a group of people, institutionalists, circling the wagons, closing the castle gates and basically fortifying and staying inside and trying to maintain their own power. This is not about the health of the party. This is not about changing course even. And maybe behind the scenes they'll say like, okay, we don't want to acknowledge this publicly, but we will change course. And I have a theory about that. But this is mostly about the people within the institution trying to maintain their own power. And it's literally leading us to fascism. It's a major problem. And one other point too is like when the, the, the, this hurts their case on democracy when they show such little transparency, whether it's even the shutting out of the idea of someone primarying Biden and just saying like we're, we are maintaining this like current power structure and we're going to charge ahead regardless of outside input and not having the respect for Democratic voters for them to be able to look at this kind of thing. Like, it, it makes it seem, and it seems clear to me that these are people prioritizing their own internal power within the party over actual democracy. And you perform democracy not just on election day. You do it by showing responsiveness to your own voters, including on the issue of the genocide, but including on people wanting desperate changes in leadership and transparency on what the hell happened. That's just a way to regain trust that you've lost.

[Heather Parton]

Yeah, absolutely. I totally, I couldn't agree with you more. And I think that, I actually think it's not going to work. I don't think, I mean, if you look at things like the no Kings protest, you look at the voters in all these off year elections, they're not buying it and they're not following the Democratic line, whatever it is, because I don't even know what it is. I mean, I think the loss was so profound last November and the loss in the, in, you know, in the Congress and the way that the Congress has unfolded. I mean, you look at the, look at the approval ratings of the Democratic Party.

[Sam Seder]

Let's, we have that actually number 28. This is number 28. This is Harry Emden of CNN. And you know, Trump's approval is in the toilet and, and Democrats have racked up big wins in these special elections. But it is, and it may be sustainable in November, let's hope, but it is not sustainable when you've got numbers like this.

[Emma Vigland]

That's right now.

[Sam Seder]

Yeah. I mean, Democrats in the minds of the American public are lower than the Dead Sea. What are we talking about here? Well, let's take a look. The net approval rating for Democrats in Congress. You said it, Kate Baldwin, the lowest ever. Look at this. Overall, they are 55 points underwater. Their approval rating is south of 20%. It's even worse when you look at independents. Look at this negative 61 points. That means that their approval rating is 61 points lower than their disapproval rating. Quinnipiac has been polling this question for the better part of the 21st century. They have never found Democrats, at least those in Congress, in worse shape than they are right now, that's independents and overall.

[Emma Vigland]

But what about Democrats on Democrats?

[Sam Seder]

Yeah, what about Democrats on Democrats? So part of the reason overall is so low is independents are driving it low. But that's not the only reason it's so low. What about Democrats on Democrats? Democrats net approval rating of congressional Democrats. I want you to keep in mind they had never rated Democrats negatively until this year. And right now, what are we talking about? We're talking about a net approval rating from Democrats. This is Democrats and Democrats. Their approval rating is actually lower, lower than the disapproval rating. And that is quite the drop from October. I think during the shutdown, there was a bit of a boost for Democrats. Right. There was a rallying around the flag effect going on. But Democrats did not like how that shutdown turned out. They have reached turned against Democrats in Congress. And you mentioned Dan Goldman in that intro. One of the reasons that Dan Goldman is in trouble right now in a potential primary against Brad Ladner is because at this point, the Democratic base, that's first of all, that the, the, the numbers are the numbers. But the, Dan, Dan Goldman has a problem because if it wasn't for four progressives splitting the vote last time, Dan Goldman would have come in fifth. And so, you know, that's. But be that as it may, but that is stunning. And Emma, Emma has a theory that they are looking at this autopsy, but they're, they want to be able to interpret it.

[Emma Vigland]

Well, then, okay, that's a good way to maybe just show this quick clip. This is my theory. We were texted this last night in our little group of this answer from Hakeem Jeffries. This is really quick here. He was on Macro dosing the Barstool podcast, interestingly. But this is how they do outreach to the youths. And this answer from him is pretty good on the substance, but it's interesting that he's making this case now. And my theory is that this coincides with what the DNC found internally.

[Sam Seder]

I was wondering, what is your view on the Trump brinkmanship towards Venezuela? Yeah, well, I'm not supportive of it at all. I think that this effort potentially to try to trigger regime change is very dangerous. We've seen this happen in other parts of the world, particularly in Iraq. It never works out. And the last thing that we need is another failed war. As a matter of fact, President Trump promised as candidate Trump Maduro, no more foreign wars. And he's doing the exact opposite by potentially triggering one. As it relates to Venezuela, I don't support the Maduro regime, but there are bad actors all across the world. And we've got a lot of problems here in this country that we need to resolve in order to make sure that people have the ability to provide for themselves and their families. Far too many people, like literally middle class people, are struggling to live paycheck to paycheck, cannot thrive and can barely survive. Let's work on that problem.

[Emma Vigland]

Sounds like the majority report a little bit. Sounds like we've been. What we've been saying, was we. The most salient argument.

[Sam Seder]

What is your view?

[Emma Vigland]

This is what we've been saying. And you know, this is a straightforward political case. Why are our resources being going, going to funding a genocide when they could be here helping you materially at home? That's a very easy case that the Democrats can make if they are not captured on that front. And the fact that he's making this point now when you. We just had Chuck Schumer, we played a clip of him last week where he refused to answer Jake Tapper's question. Do we have that one? No, I don't think we have that one. I'll just explain it briefly. He refused to answer Jake Tapper's question about whether or not he supports the goal of regime change. Then you have a week later, Hakeem Jeffries drawing a distinction on that front. And my guess is they heard in these, like in this autopsy, that the Democrats being supportive of the genocide or war or being perceived as such was a major problem for them. And it made people feel like this is what they care about and not my kitchen table issues and not my material needs. This is what we've been saying all along.

[Sam Seder]

Here is, let's play that clip of Chuck Schumer. And I would also remind people that when Trump brought, I can't remember his name now, the guy who was the, the extant of Venezuela. Venezuela. Guaido. Guaido. When he brought Juan Guaido to the State of the Union, the Democrats couldn't get out of their seats fast enough to give him a standing ovation.

[Emma Vigland]

Biden just hosted him as rival.

[Sam Seder]

Yeah, the rival. Sort of like shadow press. I don't know where he's gone now. I imagine he's working for some investment firm. But. But here is Chuck Schumer. This is just seven days ago. Do you disagree with President Trump's ultimate goal of regime change in Venezuela? Look, the bottom line is President Trump throws out so many different things in so many different ways, you don't even know what the heck he's talking about. You know, obviously, if Maduro would Just flee on his own. Everyone would like that. But we don't know what the heck he's up to when he talks about that. So it's very, very. You cannot say, I endorse this, I endorse that. When Trump is all over the lot. Not very specific and very worrisome.

[Emma Vigland]

Not specific.

[Sam Seder]

Okay, okay. That is, like, definitionally not the bottom line. Do you agree with regime change in Venezuela? And you start with the bottom line is. And then start talking about stuff that is clearly, like, almost close to the top line, you know, like, do I agree with regime change in Venezuela? Where the heck is Donald Trump? One day it's blue, one day it's red. We don't know who, what he's talking about. Like, I'm very confused. I have no idea.

[Emma Vigland]

Right.

[Sam Seder]

And here he is speaking about regime change. Here he is going after Donald Trump. Was this. This is prior to bombing Iran, right?

[Heather Parton]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

This is what it looked like. Trump might not. This is how you say supposedly. This is how you get against regime change. Here it is. Chuck Schumer. When it comes to negotiating with the terrorist government of Iran, Trump's all over the lot. One day he sounds tough, the next day he's backing off. And now all of a sudden, we find out that Witkoff and Rubio are negotiating a secret side deal with Iran. No bull is this. They're going to sound tough in public and then have a side deal that lets Iran get away with everything. That's outrageous. We need to make that side deal public. Any side deal should be before Congress and most importantly, the American. Look, here's the thing. Here's the thing. You ask me, should we blow up the world? I want it. Here's the bottom line. Donald Trump's all over the place. I can't tell if he's excited to blow up the world or if he's mad about blowing up the world. Does he want to blow up the world on a Tuesday or does he want to do it on a Thursday? Or is this something we should do on the weekend? I can't get my arms around it. It's too confusing.

[Emma Vigland]

He did it through the wrong procedure. He wants to blow up the world, but he didn't file the regulation. Yeah, it's a process.

[Heather Parton]

It's the right way.

[Sam Seder]

Wait, he's saying one day he wants to blow up the world, the next day he wants to blow up seven, eight of the world. I'm confused. I can't follow any of it. Oh, my side deal.

[Heather Parton]

Well, look, I mean, this is the thing. I mean, he's probably the worst example of all by far.

[Sam Seder]

And unfortunately, he's the highest elected leader.

[Heather Parton]

In the Democratic Party party, and he's the worst example. And I mean, you know, he's not alone by any means, but this is what's driving people crazy. I just want to say, though, that, you know, we look at those numbers of, you know, people being upset with the Democratic Party, you know, in, I mean, really upset with the Democratic Party and Democrats themselves feeling that way. I mean, those are terrible numbers. But I think that what people are doing is saying, I'm not listening to those people. I don't care about that. You know, that's not what I'm doing. You know, I think that they are becoming irrelevant to voters, that they're no longer something that you take into consideration, and they're coming out. I mean, if you look at the, at the, I mean, people are voting for Democrats in deep red districts where they haven't voted for a Democrat in, you know, in decades. They're voting for Democrats in places like Miami. I mean, this is a protest vote. It's obviously just, you know, an absolute reaction against Donald Trump. The way I'm choosing to look at this is, I think, you know, people like us who talk about the Democratic Party and who, you know, care about policy and who are trying to work their way, you know, or trying to, you know, force the Democratic Party to change direction. I think what Emma says is absolutely true. I think on some level, if you listen to Hakeem Jeffries, that's working, that that is actually pushing them. They know that they're in trouble and they're listening to people, voters, they're listening to people like you. They're reading things that they're, you know, they're kind of going, look. And maybe that autopsy said it right out, said, look, you've got to change here. And they just don't want to say it publicly. I'm hopeful that's it. But whatever it is, the people themselves are the ones who are. Who are going to make the difference here. They're not listening to these people. They're doing their own thing. They're coming out and they're voting against Donald Trump. They're voting for their own. You know, there's certain, you know, candidates and people that they like. You know, Mamdani being a perfect example of it in the biggest city in the country. They're coming out and, you know, they're supporting that kind of thing. And I, you know, it's my. The only thing I feel hopeful about, and I'm feeling very cynical about this country and the horrifying job that's going to be left for us if perchance we actually defeat this, this, you know, horrible MAGA movement and move on to something else. It's not going to be easy. It's going to be really tough. But I am hopeful about this idea that I think that it's the people who are leading, the Democrats are not leading. They're following. And that's what they need to do. They need to shut up. We need to get Chuck Schumer. Just don't stop talking, stop helping. You're not doing anything. But I don't think people are listening to him. I think they're coming out and they're voting. They're coming out to these big protest. They're doing that stuff. And that's the one thing we have going for, is people are coming out in the streets in places like Minneapolis, they're coming out in Chicago and in Charlotte, North Carolina, and blowing whistles to try and help their, their immigrant neighbors when ICE comes to town. I mean, this is, you know, that's kind of inspiring to me. I mean, they're taking their own safety into, you know, I mean, they're doing something. They're doing something, I guess, is what I'm saying. And so, you know, I don't want to sound like a Pollyanna, because I don't feel that way at all. But I do think that there's some hope in that, that the party itself, let's just put it this way, they better be listening. They better be listening because this is the future.

[Sam Seder]

I have. I have given up on the concept of the party listening and more like just, you know, people who align with our issue set winning, like, you know.

[Heather Parton]

Like, you know, just get out of the way. Yeah, get out of the way party. Yeah, whatever.

[Sam Seder]

And I will say this. If you look at the Senate, if the Democrats are in a position to take the Senate back, it is going to be a function of people who are decidedly to the left on a lot of issues from the Democratic, like from the center of the Democratic Party. Like, I'm thinking, you know, I think the best chance that Democrats have to take the main, you know, beat Susan Collins is going to come from Platner, who is decidedly to the left of, you know, Mills, not just Mills, but I'm saying, like the most of the Democratic Senate caucus this and, you know, in Nebraska, Osborne wouldn't be a Democrat, but to the extent that he would be engaging a Lot of these issues in maybe 8 out of 10, 7 out of 10, he's going to be the. To the left of your, you know, mainstream Democrat. You can look like in Iowa and Alaska, there could be pickups. There will be slightly to the left, certainly, of where we are now, maybe, you know, Texas, Florida, even North Carolina.

[Heather Parton]

Roy Cooper is not a. It's not a, you know, right wing guy, even though he's from the South.

[Sam Seder]

Yeah. He's not like, you know, Sam Nunn or somebody like, you know, like that.

[Emma Vigland]

It wouldn't be a flip. But Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota is a supporter of Medicare for all, for example.

[Sam Seder]

I mean, so in almost every indication, like, if they take back the Senate, it's going to be decidedly to the left of where it was when they held the Senate just a couple of years ago. And. And so that is an indication that this stuff is working. And I don't think Chuck Schumer is going to be Senate Majority leader or even Senate Minority leader in, you know, come this time. Well, I guess January of 2027.

[Heather Parton]

So I totally agree either way, whether they take the Senate or not. I think Schumer is. Schumer is. This is going to be his last year.

[Emma Vigland]

But it would be a nice to not have the standard be ignoring leadership and having grassroots energy, like having the grassroots energy that you're talking about be in spite of it. If we could have someone like a Van Hollen come in and be a vocal voice for what the party stands for as the top Democrat in the Senate. Yeah.

[Heather Parton]

Stands for. What is that? What are you talking about?

[Emma Vigland]

I know Chuck Schumer talking about principles or something.

[Heather Parton]

I mean, that's values.

[Sam Seder]

I'm fall over the lot. Oh, come on. Yeah, she's all over the. She's crazy. Listen, here's what we're gonna do in 2026 that's going to make everything different. Two words. Social media. We're gonna do the social media.

[Heather Parton]

The social media.

[Sam Seder]

We're gonna do the social media. Everything is. You'll see.

[Emma Vigland]

Everything's social. You'll see.

[Sam Seder]

God, I got the bellies. I get. The Baileys have now. Fiber. Fiber Internet. Wow.

[Emma Vigland]

Yes, wow.

[Sam Seder]

Fiber Internet.

[Heather Parton]

And do they get tick tock on the Bailey?

[Emma Vigland]

No more dial up for that.

[Sam Seder]

So the fiber.

[Emma Vigland]

You'll see.

[Sam Seder]

You'll see. Don't count me out.

[Heather Parton]

Heather.

[Sam Seder]

Oh, God. Well, we made it through another year.

[Heather Parton]

We did. Barely. But we're here.

[Sam Seder]

We are. We are here. And I look forward to talking to you many more times in 2026 and may 2026 be better than 2025. Well, that was ridiculous to say that, but I know. Well, I suspect.

[Heather Parton]

Want it to be worse.

[Sam Seder]

I mean, I suspect it's going to be a little bit. Well, I will say, just as an end to this year, because this is the final Friday of the year, that my fears about the ease in which we could slide into an authoritarian regime have been slightly assuaged, but largely in part because of the way slightly largely in part because of the way that people have come out on the streets and have fought against ice. That in part because of what we're seeing, like, with the DOJ falling apart and judges pushing back in a way that I think is healthy and the inability of the Republicans to maintain their caucus in many respects. So. So I think there's going to be elections in 2026. I think Trump is going to do his best to sort of, like, undermine what comes out of that, but I only think there's only so much he can do, particularly when we have these, These type of, you know, what we're seeing in terms of, like, the redistricting, just where people are.

[Heather Parton]

So, Heather, there's war. So, you know, but I was always war. Yeah. And I don't think there'll be a rally around the flag for, for the Venezuela thing. I don't think so. I don't think the right's going to go along with it, and I think the left is going to completely explode.

[Sam Seder]

I mean, they, they did their best with making Hugo Chavez a, like, a demon. And like nobody, like 98 out of 100Americans have no. Have never heard the word maduro. And, you know, to the extent that they never registered, there's just, it's very, very difficult and think Venezuela is an island. I would bet you that 25%, a healthy 25% of the American public, think Venezuela is in the Middle East.

[Heather Parton]

And by the way, I think that includes Donald Trump. I think he's among that 25%.

[Emma Vigland]

I mean.

[Heather Parton]

Yeah, it's an oil place. Yeah. Anyway, it's just that's, you know, the next time I. Come on, we have to make a point of talking about the new Trump national security strategy. Yeah.

[Emma Vigland]

Monroe Doctrine again.

[Heather Parton]

Crazy, crazy stuff.

[Sam Seder]

Anyway, but, Heather, have a great holiday and a wonderful new Year, and we will see you in 2026.

[Heather Parton]

I'll be here. Happy New Year, everybody.

[Emma Vigland]

Thanks, Heather.

[Heather Parton]

Thanks a lot.

[Sam Seder]

All right, folks, we're gonna have a freebie Friday. Whoa. Yes.

[Emma Vigland]

Can I take a quick break for.

[Sam Seder]

A sec while you and I'll just Do this.

[Emma Vigland]

Have your fun.

[Sam Seder]

We're gonna have some social media time. They're gonna sound tough in public, and then have a side deal that lets Iran get away with everything. What is this bullshit? I can't tell if he wants to bomb Venezuela or invade Venezuela, so I can't answer your question, Jake. Like, that's. It's crazy. It's all over the place. He's all over the place.

[Heather Parton]

Go Bills.

[Sam Seder]

The way we never. Do we ever play that? No, honestly, I think, like. Like, I am convinced. I know this is diluted, but I am convinced that 10% of that is because, you know, knows I'm a Patriots fan. Go Bills. Because he does say they beat the Patriots right after that. Oh. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, he. He. Like, I want to talk about the horrible killings and everything that's going on, but I just want to say the Bills beat the Patriots. Sam. I'm not making up any of that. Except for the Sam part, Right? Yeah. That was the unspoken part of that, though. Let's read some IMs. We. We have very few IMs. Is that because we were down or what's going on? I'm not sure. We've been pretty solid for hour and a half now. June Oliver. Here we go again. Yes. We. We cannot figure out what's going on. We don't know if it's, like, an internal Internet, I think. Here we go again. Elsa's Melania, right? No, that is. Oh, yeah. The. The Melania. The new documentary. Oh, yeah. Here we go again. Yes, she's. They wrote Here we go again. Here we go again. Nefarious bread. My Max left beanie Arrived. Arrived today. Love it. Dizzle McFizzle. Disappointed. The stream went down. Sam is my new favorite version of Sam. The deep state is attacking my favorite show. It's okay, Sam. We're still here. I mean, Ken Martin's little note did mention DDoS attacks. Yeah. Didn't mention gossip. Yep. NASA county spokesperson DOJ not meeting deadline to release Epstein files. Amy from the uk. Hi, guys. I feel confident enough to try and find a girl. And where better to find a progressive girl than in the Mr. Discord server? Yes, you. I am just. That in person would be a better place. Though I have to say, in person is better. But. But listen, I.

[Heather Parton]

It's.

[Sam Seder]

I got nothing. Good luck out there. But no, I. I honestly, like, listen, when I got divorced at age, like, 53 or whatever, it was 52. I think back, like, what would have been if I was a divorce guy in, like, 1987. Like it would have been difficult to go meet people unless you're willing to like go hang out at bars. You think it was. Was harder back then making those VHS dating interesting. The prevailing wisdom is that it's like everyone's more alien, I think. Listen, I think there are problems without a doubt with socialization with like the, the dating apps. There's no doubt and I don't know that it's necessarily better for people in their 20s and their 30s. I'm just talking like a 52 year old, 53 year old who's like half a shut in, who's not. You know, it's like I'm not. I don't go to. You know. The reason why I keep referencing the same party over and over again with the zbiotics at is because that's the party I went to this year. So it's not like. And it was a party that like the opportunity like to meet, you know, like there was no single people at that party. And so. But if you're 20 or you're 30 or this and that, you know, hopefully you're going out and you're building your social network because drops off once you have kids and this and that. Unless you really set up in a. You're really not interested in raising your children. Well, no, no, I know people. You know, like I've met people who like, they're, they're, you know, they all had kids around the same time. There are couples who live like within like a couple of neighborhoods of each other. And I'm like, oh, that's great. You know, the, the closest. Like, like there was like a 15 year difference between my kids and like my friend's kids and it's like they don't play together. So scary. Carrie, who is trying to take Mr. Down. Oh, there. Emma, you're back.

[Emma Vigland]

Yeah, I've been here for a minute.

[Sam Seder]

Okay, well, Matt got me set off on a. Oh, crawling into the new year. Well, yes. I'm getting scared by Emma's presence.

[Emma Vigland]

We made eye contact.

[Heather Parton]

What?

[Sam Seder]

Oh, God, let's sneak up on me like that. Hold on, I need to. We need to bring this thing back with.

[Emma Vigland]

Oh my God.

[Sam Seder]

Shower curtain, though, but not clear, I should say. Oh, I got to tell this story. I meant to do this and I'll be quick about it. So I was supposed to. I'm going to, you know, a different state. I'm not gonna say which one.

[Emma Vigland]

Okay.

[Sam Seder]

But I'm going to my girlfriend's family for Christmas. And Wyoming, it's the Chaney's and no.

[Emma Vigland]

Your girlfriend, Liz Lynn.

[Sam Seder]

It's a track.

[Emma Vigland]

Sam doesn't know the difference.

[Sam Seder]

Listen, but the Dick Cheney's passed away, Right? So she's a widower.

[Emma Vigland]

Oh, right, right.

[Heather Parton]

Prime.

[Sam Seder]

Similar. More room for some masculine energy over there.

[Emma Vigland]

Prime room for you to swoop in. I mean, you'd be like, I have a full head of hair. Your ex husband lost it really early on.

[Sam Seder]

New Alpha comes to Cheyenne.

[Emma Vigland]

Want to try something new?

[Sam Seder]

I'll let people speculate on that, but one of the things that my girlfriend's family does is that instead of just like getting prep, you know, the. There's so many kids that you get assigned somebody that you give a gift to and it's supposed to be handmade.

[Emma Vigland]

Oh my gosh.

[Sam Seder]

That's a lot of pressure. It's a lot of pressure. Particularly like I have very little skills in hand making anything.

[Emma Vigland]

Sure. You love woodworking. That's like one of the only things you like to do.

[Heather Parton]

True.

[Sam Seder]

Okay, so I wanted to make a little tray, like I love, like trays where you put your keys in. Right. Because it keeps you organized.

[Emma Vigland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

And it reminds you, like, I gotta leave it here because I think I have a little bit of scattered brain. And so I thought this would be a great gift to give to Tristan, who is the guy I got, who's my. My. My girlfriend's brother in law. Law.

[Emma Vigland]

Okay.

[Sam Seder]

And so I ordered, but I wanted to make it in walnut. And so I ordered some walnut planks, like tiny ones like this. And the idea is I got a small jigsaw and I watched on Instagram how to make it. And I'm prepared to do it. And I was going to do it, sand it. I, you know, I bought a clamp to put it on my table and I was going to cut it, you know, and then you glue it and I had the whole thing and I bought all the ingredients for it, but I had to order the walnut wood because there's nowhere I can find where you can buy small planks of walnut wood. I'm not going to, you know, put it on a big table saw.

[Emma Vigland]

And.

[Sam Seder]

And then I'm like, it may not come. And so I bought one on Etsy that was handmade, but not by me.

[Emma Vigland]

Why are you revealing this?

[Sam Seder]

Well, because I felt bad about it. And so, so you're.

[Emma Vigland]

So you're cleaning yourself?

[Sam Seder]

I'm cleansing myself by admitting things. But the reason why I'm saying this story is because this is what I'm hand making the story on a Show that I make.

[Heather Parton]

Oh.

[Sam Seder]

And so Tristan's going to. I'm going to send him a link to this segment, and he's going to watch it. And there you go.

[Emma Vigland]

That's clever.

[Sam Seder]

And so for the audience of the other 70,000 people who will see this. I'm sorry, I just took two and a half minutes to do that. But, like, that's one of. This is my Woodshot.

[Emma Vigland]

It's your show. Your name's on the. On those IKEA panels. You get to do what you want.

[Sam Seder]

The show is also a present to my nieces and my sisters and their husbands and my father. Yes.

[Emma Vigland]

I wish I could do this.

[Sam Seder]

Merry Christmas to everyone and Happy Hanukkah and Happy New Year's.

[Emma Vigland]

Yes.

[Sam Seder]

If anybody else wants to give this a show, every American will soon receive their own med bed card. There you go.

[Emma Vigland]

What do we have here?

[Sam Seder]

Okay, what's your. Huh?

[Heather Parton]

Oh.

[Sam Seder]

Oh, no, here's one. Here's number 21. Let's go through this. This is. Oh, you know what? Let's hold on to this. Okay. We'll talk about this later. This whole, like, white guys are getting discriminated against story that has come out. Oh, tell me about it.

[Emma Vigland]

The only. Do you want to do this James Tallarico thing? It's kind of.

[Sam Seder]

Yes.

[Emma Vigland]

Yeah, let's do 13. The Senate primary in Texas is really an important one. I've found Jasmine Crockett to be a very useful partisan in many contexts. I think she's talented and has star power and can do the attacking Republicans thing within, like, the context of committees really, really well. But I think that there are major concerns about her as a statewide candidate in Texas. And additionally, she's made some comments that are, I just think, really poorly conceived. Like the one that was going viral the other day where she said something about like, we're done picking cotton, kind of referring to immigrants. It's just not like if there is. If blue Texas is anything, you know, but a mirage that we've spoken about every other election cycle or whatever. It could be this year.

[Sam Seder]

Mirage that makes consultants rich.

[Emma Vigland]

It could be this year because, one, you have a primary in the Republican Senate. Right. With Cornyn and the crazy criminal Ken Paxton. Right, Matt. And then on the Democratic side, you have Talarico and Jasmine Crockett, and neither of these candidates are, like, really left wing or somebody like a Bernie Sanders or an AOC that we can feel like, okay, this is more representative of our ideology. But I just. Talarico is doing this kind of, you know, kindness Christian thing that I think could be really potent because Trump is so obviously sadistic and he's more principled than I think you might think. This was a question at a town hall he had where he was asked about Gaza, and I thought his answer was pretty good. What would you say to people who.

[Heather Parton]

Would say that you are not as.

[Emma Vigland]

Cultivated in foreign policy and Gaza? That maybe some of your.

[Sam Seder]

And what do you plan to do once you're in the Senate to come up to speed, or what policies would you focus on? Yeah, it's a great question. I. I don't bring a lot of DC Experience to this race, I'll be honest with you. But I think that the experience I bring as a public school teacher, as a fighter for working with people in the halls of the state Capitol, is exactly the kind of experience we need in Washington, D.C. i'm. I'm the outsider, and I think we need more outsider energy in our nation's capital. But I'll be honest with you. I haven't legislated on foreign policy as a state lawmaker, but I do have strong opinions, I do have strong views, and I have already started to articulate those positions on the campaign trail. I want to talk about one in particular that I think is weighs on my part as an educator, as someone who works with kids, and that's what's happening in Gaza. The theologian who said, I screamed at God for the starving children until I realized the starving children was God screaming at me. God is screaming at all of us in Gaza as we speak. I will use every bit of financial and diplomatic leverage that this country has to end the atrocities in Palestine. I will not use your tax dollars to fund these war crimes. I will. I will ban offensive weapons to Israel. And I have never taken a dime from apac, and I have already committed to. I refuse to be complicit in the death and destruction in Gaza, and I will never use your tax dollars to support the killing in that part of the world. And it makes me sick to my stomach to see what's happening. And I hope in this campaign here in Texas, we can send a crystal clear message to the rest of the country that we are done being complicit.

[Emma Vigland]

So, again, not a perfect answer. He said offensive weapons. He doesn't say the word genocide there, but I think one, that there's a significantly large Muslim population in Texas. It's, I think, a top five state just in terms of raw total numbers. But you don't have to be Muslim or Arab to be motivated to Vote for somebody or not vote for somebody based on the genocide in Gaza. And Crockett has taken AIPAC money, and I think she's softened her stance a little bit. She has, yeah. Maybe not in this race, but definitely in the House. And so it's just something to note there, because that is going to be, you know, the fault lines will be drawn on this. And I found that to be a more encouraging answer than you would expect in a state like Texas, which, you know, infamously. Remember, they were at the heart of those BDS laws. Remember that case about that woman who was.

[Sam Seder]

They're still. I mean, those laws still in effect. But, yes, she was a speech therapist and had a contract to work for public schools, and she lost her job because they had found that she had supported boycotting Israel.

[Emma Vigland]

Yep. So it's, again, not a perfect answer, of course, but this is, this primary is immensely important because to bring it back to what I was saying a little bit earlier, like, we're seeing numbers about the Latino vote with Donald Trump, and he made significant gains with the Latino vote in the last election because of the economy in many ways. And his. He said he was going to go after criminals. And the Democrats didn't do a good job of articulating that. He was lying with these immigration raids. But pairing the way the economy is going with these immigration raids, you're going to have depressed turnout. Those numbers that turned out for Trump in 2024 guarantee you it's going to be very different in 2026 when he's not at the top of the ticket and when people are feeling the implications of what he's done.

[Sam Seder]

And so he's cratering with the Latino voters.

[Emma Vigland]

So, like, we don't know what the electorate in Texas, given the high percentage of Latino voters in that state, is going to even look like who's going to turn out in 2026, who's not going to turn out in 2026. And I just, I think Talarico has maybe a shot here. And that's all the point.

[Sam Seder]

Just know on the APAC thing, she has not taken money from AIPAC for campaigns. She has taken a trip to Israel paid for by the American Israel Education foundation, which is associated with aipac. But she. There's not like a track AIPAC graphic for her. No.

[Emma Vigland]

Oh, I'm really sorry. That.

[Sam Seder]

I mean, she's still, I think, probably significantly pro Israel. She's. This picture of her on one of those trips.

[Emma Vigland]

I'm so sorry. I don't know why I thought that.

[Sam Seder]

So because of her rhetoric. But.

[Emma Vigland]

Yeah, but thank you for the correction.

[Sam Seder]

But the thing is, and this is going to be a thing to watch going forward is that a lot of people will say, I don't take APAC money, and then they'll take money from the DMFI or something like that, like Jasmine Crockett did or dmf. Yeah. So, like, this is, this is a broader thing. And when the one thing I'll say about Talario and Crockett is Crockett, the. I believe the state with the largest black population is Texas. I think Crockett's going to do very well with that. If Talarico can crack into that, I think he has a better chance with the Latinos in Texas. And I think it's. That's how Talarico wins. But I, it's too early for me to bet on who I think is going to win out of this. Let's take a moment to acknowledge that 2026 is going to be an uphill climb for Donald Trump. I'm talking just in terms of energy. We watched his speech the other night that he had to race through. And for some reason, like, I think they, I honestly do think that they capitalize certain words. And that's why he sort of yelled into the mic at different times. And I think it was a way to keep him awake because I think there is an increasing problem with Donald Trump falling asleep now. Here, now put this image up. I don't want you to play it yet. They are so concerned with Donald Trump passing away and falling asleep in office that they have him surrounded by doctors now at all times. Times in the White House. They, they bring in the, the. And I think Halloween party. I think there's a pastor there, too, ready to issue last rights. But no, this is obviously a, a signing of him reclassifying cannabis and marijuana as a Schedule 3. Is it?

[Emma Vigland]

Three was what it was.

[Sam Seder]

Maybe it's a one where it's basically now like the equivalent of a prescription drug. And what it does is it's going to allow research to go forward. It is going to make federal offenses much less. It's going to also probably, I would imagine, open up things, loosen up things in terms of banking.

[Heather Parton]

Yeah.

[Emma Vigland]

Now rescheduling it. I'm sorry, from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3, which puts it like with Tylenol and code.

[Sam Seder]

Well, Tylenol.

[Emma Vigland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

So it's, it's, it is, it's going from a 1 to 3, and it's basically prescription drug level.

[Heather Parton]

Right.

[Sam Seder]

But not like opioid prescription drug. It's like codeine. And so this is going to make for a big difference. Now this process again started by Joe Biden. He slow walked it. I imagine he would have done this in his second term to the extent that he would have been around for it. But here's the thing. Trump is so excited by this. It's unclear like if he. It's quite possible. I just want to be generous with this and charitable. He could have basically eaten some brownies beforehand to celebrate. Just I want to show everybody before I sign this I want to make sure that this is safe. Soothing gummy. Make sure this is safe and take one of these. Sleep gummiesta number three who is a.

[Emma Vigland]

Danger and it is knowledge that will allow us to optimally benefit take the.

[Sam Seder]

Benefits that may be behind t as.

[Emma Vigland]

Research shows but on the other hand.

[Sam Seder]

Also enable us better to do prevention.

[Emma Vigland]

Interventions to protect those that are most. Are you sure he's not just playing games on his phone?

[Sam Seder]

I'm awake. I'm awake. I'm awake.

[Heather Parton]

That's really.

[Sam Seder]

I'm awake. Quick, somebody say my name.

[Emma Vigland]

God, the way his eyes are slow clothes like that reminds me of my cats right as they're about to fall.

[Sam Seder]

Asle some kind of cold blooded animal that like can't move when the sun is. Lizard on a hot rock. Oh my God. On a cold rock. I mean to be fair the guy's probably like awake until 4 in the morning. Yeah. Just thinking like Epstein files. Epstein files. God damn it. God damn it. Was it worth it? Yes, it was worth it. Show me the. Leave it. What can we do? What can we do? Where's my rake? Where's my Roy cone? Oh, I have it and they still can't stop it. I have my Roy Cone.

[Emma Vigland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

Still can't stop it, right? Still can't stop it.

[Emma Vigland]

He, he needs marijuana to be declassified now because he needs his anxiety to go down with all the Epstein stuff coming out. So it's, it's, it's, it's medicinal for him now.

[Sam Seder]

Scary carrier. My lunch break is ruined without Mr. Who's this app dad. Yes. Okay. Go real estate Sam, are you a nail biter? Let me see your hands. Another thing. Come. By the way, you're having connection issues. You too. I, I do bite my nails.

[Emma Vigland]

Yeah, you do too. I do too.

[Sam Seder]

Anybody associated with the show Pretty much. If you have one to one to one.

[Emma Vigland]

When I do like those like a media appearance sometimes I'll. I pick at my fingernails so badly when I did Tim pool. I came out and I went to the bathroom and my finger was just like, like I'd ripped off part of my skin and cnn so you can.

[Sam Seder]

Stay like still up top.

[Emma Vigland]

I know, but like, I don't even feel it at the time. It's, it's, it's crazy. Adrenaline.

[Sam Seder]

Six to nine area code Pediatric. Schedule one means high risk of a abuse addiction with no medicinal benefits. Schedule 2 is a high risk with some medicinal benefit. Schedule 3 is moderate abuse potential and has medicinal benefit. Nailed it. And Kowalski, Nebraska howdy. Majority report in some good personal news, my YouTube channel, Prairie Fire, Nebraska got to 10,000 subs last night and I had a video get 100. That's awesome. Binder says the algorithm likes farm content, so he's not too surprised to see the success. Personally, I feel like I'm breaking the glass ceiling for opinionated, heteronormative CIS white men expressing their thoughts on the Internet, which has never been done before. But regardless, I want to thank Mr. Bar and Left Reckoning and the associated communities for their support. Should have a new video out this weekend. Left his best if you are a white man and have like a truck or something and you can take a video that looks aesthetically like a right wing one, now is your time to tap in and propagandize with that aesthetic. Yeah, that's helpful. Let's see what else we got here.

[Emma Vigland]

You want to do some CPAC stuff? Well or not. CPAC TP usa.

[Sam Seder]

Let's do that in a second. The the board that is in charge of the Kennedy center had a vote to change the name of the Kennedy center to. Can anybody guess? This is the board of the trustees. John F. Kennedy center for Performing Arts voted Thursday to rename the facility the Robert E. Lee center after both closer the former president. That would be Kennedy and of course a huge patron of the arts, Donald Trump. The Kennedy center board voted voted unanimously today to name the institution the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial center for the Performing Arts.

[Emma Vigland]

Now we're showing Phantom of the Opera every night.

[Sam Seder]

Here's the question. Why would it be the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial.

[Emma Vigland]

Center?

[Sam Seder]

Is it possible that Donald Trump has already passed away? And that's a. There is a two all over again. Is there a two Trump? They wear different tie colors. Which Trump there is slightly less red. The problem is that the person they got to impersonate Trump is 98 years old and that's why he keeps falling asleep so much. At an Oval Office event later that day Trump said he was honored and surprised by the vote. This was brought up by one of the very distinguished board members, and they voted on it. There's a lot of board members, and they voted unanimously. So surprised by this.

[Emma Vigland]

Well.

[Sam Seder]

It may not come to a surprise to the rest of you that the vote was, in fact, not unanimous. One of the ways to get to a unanimous vote is to keep people who are going to vote against it from actually voting. This is Representative Joyce Beatty, who sits on that very board. I'm Congresswoman Joyce Beatty. I'm sitting here in my congressional office in Washington, D.C. just ending a call with the Kennedy center where I serve.

[Heather Parton]

As an ex officio member.

[Sam Seder]

I am bringing this to you live.

[Heather Parton]

Today because what you may hear is.

[Sam Seder]

That there was a unanimous vote to rename the Kennedy center the Trump Center. Be clear, I was on that call.

[Heather Parton]

And as I tried to push my.

[Sam Seder]

Button to voice my concern to ask questions, and certainly not to vote in support of this, I was muted. Each time I tried to speak, I was muted. Participants were not allowed to voice their concerns who were online, yet it was said at the end it was a unanimous vote. Clearly, the Congress has a say in this. This center, the Kennedy center, was created by the Congress. I think it's important for us to know that this is just another attempt to evade the law and not let the people have a say.

[Heather Parton]

As a strong supporter of the arts, as someone.

[Sam Seder]

During my entire time here in Congress, I have participated in the Kennedy Center's programs, and I salute all the artists.

[Heather Parton]

Who have performed there.

[Sam Seder]

Okay. I hope RFK Jr. Is very, very proud, and I would like to see Donald Trump rename the. Well, I guess the RFK Bridge is now.

[Emma Vigland]

The.

[Sam Seder]

Is used to be the Triborough Bridge. RFK junior Bridge, Maybe. Maybe. No, I think it should be the Trump Bridge. Let's just do it. I was gonna say you call the, like, the Trump Kennedy Jr. Center instead of the Trump Kennedy. Senator.

[Emma Vigland]

This.

[Sam Seder]

This could be a great way. This could be a great way to get the Kennedy legacy completely erased from our body politic. Everything that is named Kennedy should be replaced with Trump. And then we just go back and we get it back to the Triborough Bridge and et cetera, et cetera, call it the Melania Trump Reservoir in Central Park. Yes. Let's just go through the whole thing.

[Emma Vigland]

Andy Kim, senator from New Jersey, tweeted out these photos showing that they were already physically changing the sign on the Kennedy center prior to this.

[Sam Seder]

What a surprise, though. I'm so surprised. It's like we didn't know what. We didn't know. We didn't know what it was. Let's see those pictures. Put those.

[Emma Vigland]

Oh, I just search Kennedy center and you can find it, but I can.

[Sam Seder]

Also send it in the bag. I'm so surprised, though. How did they. The one of the things that's great about the Kennedy center workers, they're all clairvoyance. We only hire people who can see into the future. Oh, look at that. I'm so surprised. Also, you got my notes on the fonts, right?

[Emma Vigland]

Now go to the next one. Maybe they show the. Yeah, there was another photo that I saw too that showed that the font is very similar that they're using, but it's just extremely, extremely pathetic.

[Sam Seder]

Well, I love symbolic manipulation. It's really great when the prices are really high. Too high to buy a computer. Look for a new apartment. Names of things change. It's expensive. But keep in mind, I changed the name of the Kennedy Center. I'd like to see Lutnick go out and say that. Yes, they're calling it Gilbert and Sullivan and Trump. Should we hear from the medical experts in the country, incidentally, should we start with Mehmet Oz, or should we start with. Let's start with Kennedy. We should tell you that not only have we broken a record with measles cases which. Which in this country was all but done with 20 years ago, we now have just chicken soup in a day. 2000 cases of measles in the country. It is burning through South Carolina, apparently. And here is. And we also have a new problem, whooping cough, which is of course really dangerous for children. Is there a vaccine for that? There is a vaccine for that, but because I am. I had that as a kid.

[Emma Vigland]

But is there, is there a needle involved? That's scary.

[Sam Seder]

We now have. Congratulations to Robert Kennedy. His anti vax program now has increased the spread of whooping cough because no longer they've created enough. Enough vaccine hesitancy that people are no longer getting vaccine. It's not just anti vax people too who are doing this. It's all the, you know, the babies from like Covid who are like, I'm not gonna. I'm not a sheeple. I'm gonna subject my child to perhaps the whooping cough, but perhaps more disgusting. Well, more disgusting. Here is RFK Jr going out and basically using the power. And we should say the Biden administration tried to do this with Medicaid and Medicare in terms of like abortion rights and the Supreme Court rejected it. I imagine this is Illegal. This would be found illegal if you didn't have a Supreme Court where they are just anti trans as a matter of. That's just their perspective. But here is Kennedy announcing that they're going to revoke funding from hospitals that get any type of Medicare or Medicaid, which is basically every hospital in the country if they are offering any type of gender affirming care. The fda, oh go ahead, let's just play this and then we'll just add to it. Additionally, CMS is proposing two new rules. The first rule are hospitals that participate in Medicare and Medicaid, which is almost every hospital from performing these dangerous and harmful procedures. The second rule prohibits the federal Medicaid dollars from funding the sex rejecting procedures on minors. The FDA is issuing warning letters to 12 manufacturers of breast binders which are medical devices used for purposes such as assistance in recovery from cancer related mastectomies. The FDA is telling these companies that the illegal marketing of breast binders to children for the purpose of treating gender dysphoria commits significant regulatory violations and requires swift congressional or corrective action. If the manufacturers don't comply, they could face enforcement actions including product seizures. Okay, that last part are binders which used to flattened breast tissue. Now no word. If we're also going to impose these restrictions on girls who want to have breast reduction surgery which, which happens just because that's illegal now you got, you got to go check it with me.

[Emma Vigland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

We should also say they say minors but it's anybody under the age of 20. So now you're a minor if you are 18 or 19 in this instance according to the Trump administration. So this is, they're just you know, building their case.

[Emma Vigland]

Well it's not even just the surgeries. What's amazing like they've kept. They use the image, the graphic imagery of surgeries to use it to ban basically all, all gender affirming care broadly for minors. If you're going to be using the government, you know which is the largest payer for health care in this country.

[Sam Seder]

Not even if you're using the government. If the hospital any gets any funding for anybody, anybody else on Medicaid or Medicare, which is of course every hospital.

[Emma Vigland]

And this is. Comes on the heels of the House yesterday I headlined this passing Marjorie Taylor Greene's just, you know, the new right wing populace that we should all be working with the Protect Children's Innocence act which passed mostly along party lines. But the bill, if it becomes law would open healthcare providers to felony charges up to 10 years in prison if they treat young people under the age of 18 with puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries. The legislation would also punish anyone, including parents, who consent to or transports a minor to care. So it's never been about one the surgeries which they use because yes, surgery has graphic imagery, creates anxiety in people. That's what they try to deploy. It's never been about that because they're also going after puberty blockers and hormones. Now puberty blockers are used on cisgender children quite frequently. We'll be curious to see if that applies to them as well because sometimes puberty starts too early and medically it's appropriate for a pediatrician to use that on somebody. Hormones as well are necessary for cisgender children as well, in addition to trans kids. What does that mean for that? I don't know. But how are they going to make a differentiation with this directive too by HHS if it's legal? I don't know.

[Sam Seder]

Anybody who participated in the fear mongering about trans people's health care. Also help the right wing not only go after abortion because those two issues are the same thing, which is that we can't trust y' all to be empowered over your health care. We need to step into in and have the government get into it. But it's also the same thing about Medicare for all generally. Robert Kennedy, whenever he's asked about this sort of stuff, talks about how unhealthy the, you know, the hoi polloi are and how it'd be too expensive to insure them. That's the exact same argument. It's a right wing.

[Emma Vigland]

Well, I mean, and it's too expensive.

[Sam Seder]

To insure them under the most efficient system possible. He's basically saying sol.

[Emma Vigland]

Yeah, and Kamala Harris, when she weed out we ones, the ad that they say tested so well for the Republicans is the Kamalas for they them we're for you. And they also use the clips of her saying that in that trans care should be covered in prisons. Her answer to that should have been, yeah, because it's health care. I want to give you all health care. I believe in health care for everybody, regardless of if you're trans. If you, your family has cancer, I want to make sure that you have health care. That's why I support Medicare for all. Now, of course, she was not that kind of candidate, but that's how you actually nullify that argument. And I also think that's completely overstated because the subtext of that ad was you're the establishment and right now the economy is not working for you and she's going to continue be a continuation of that. They tried these ads in Virginia and the Republican got walloped because of the affordability arguments being made by the Democrats. So like yeah, this issue may poll people may be transphobic when you're asked generically in a poll, but it is not motivating people to vote. So the Democrats should stop running from this, embrace trans people, take them under their wing and not throw them under the bus because this doesn't have the political ramifications that they say that it does. And it's really important because these kids are on the front lines right now. And oh, and the other part is like the parental rights thing, they never cared about that this, this bill goes after parents for providing gender affirming care for their children. So they.

[Sam Seder]

Parental rights. Just to be clear, what that is is that teachers have an obligation to out their kids.

[Emma Vigland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

Even if their parent, those parents are bigots. If their kids come out as trans or gay or something in school. And it's disgusting that anybody is arguing that that's constitutes parents rights. Well the irony is of course you have parents rights to know and abuse your child to find out that they're not the they don't identify sexually as you want them to, but you don't have parental rights when it comes to. This is what I need to do to help my child deal with their being trans. It's rather selective when it becomes a parent's rights. Or not not. Here is Dr. Oz who has priced out the hundreds of thousands. Millions. Billions of dollars maybe. Of course not. But on, on what we spend in constructing penises. Oh, this is real vaginal plasty. A vaginoplasty, a procedure a child does not need cost $60,000. Shockingly, a phalloplasty, the creation of a penis costs on average in America according to this data, high quality $150,000 per child. I do believe with doing some work that these, these prices have continued to increase with increasing manufactured demand. And I must point out that the, the creation of a vagina in that case of a phalloplasty or a scrotoplasty where you add testicles, that's extra vaginoplasty.

[Emma Vigland]

It is not as common as they describe for trans people to even get top and bottom surgeries. I'm going to try to find the numbers here exactly. But yeah, it is incredibly expensive. Health care is outrageously expensive in this country and most trans people don't have the luxury of being able to have all that money lying around for surgeries that they. That could benefit them. And the basic, like, minimum care that we're talking about, whether it's puberty blockers for kids or just hormones, which is necessary trans affirming care baseline. It's under assault right now by the same HHS and the Republican Party. Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

The. The T.H. chan School of Public Health teamed up with doctors from Harvard Medical School, Boston Children's Hospital, and Brown University of Public Health to find out how many kids get gender affirming surgery that includes creation of a penis and vagina, scrotoplasty, clitoroplasty, vaginoplasty, urethra, all the plast, there's a whole jaw surgery, et cetera, et cetera. Zero. First, they scan for the number of gender affirming provided to people with a transgender diagnosis. Of the 266, four gender affirming surgeries they found in 2019, zero were performed on children under the age of 12. Surgeons gave up to three procedures to children between 13 and 14. That can include, like, face surgery. You know, surgeons gave up to three procedures to children 13 to 143 and 80 to 15 to 17 year olds. In 2019, only 85 transgender children received gender affirming procedures. The vast majority of those children would have been aged 15 to 17 years old. And what are the surgeries FOR? Of the 85 gender affirming surgery cases, 82 were chest related.

[Emma Vigland]

Yep.

[Sam Seder]

So top surgery lie about all. It's all about, you know, making penises for. In 2019, doctors performed 787 breast reduction surgeries on cisgender males and trans identifying people in their sample. 636. So, incidentally, you can have gender affirming care if you're a male who's afraid that their breasts are too big.

[Emma Vigland]

Yep.

[Sam Seder]

Which is weird. Which is like. I mean, it's weird in the sense that you would allow that you can have gender affirming care if it is to affirm the construction of your gender that aligns with your biology at birth.

[Heather Parton]

Yep.

[Emma Vigland]

Yep.

[Sam Seder]

And granting that you need to do that suggests that misalignment can happen. Exactly.

[Emma Vigland]

It's hard to find exact stats on this, but most of the consensus really is, is that a majority of trans people don't undergo genital surgery. They'll pursue gender affirming care and chest surgery, as Sam was delineating, and is very different than the genital surgeries he's talking about there. Because, like, what is. Because of the cost of it. They're trying to say that there's this like cottage industry of doctors that are doing this for money. What about the whole Trump fricking cabinet that has had their face reconstructed over and over again, has had filler up the wazoo? Is that gender affirming care? How about all the hair transplants that Elon Musk Musk has gotten? Let's ban that.

[Sam Seder]

If it's 150, it's surgery involved. And we know that there is probably like maybe one or two minors who are having this surgery annually. We're talking a couple hundred thousand dollars. And here's the thing. I don't care about how much anything costs in medicine. If a person needs it, the government should provide it. We shouldn't be like, like this whole thing. These are miserly rich people that just don't want to pay taxes.

[Emma Vigland]

Exactly. Dr. Oz knows nothing about expensive medical procedures. I'd like to go through a list of like what his show covered and advocated for. That was total bunk garbage that probably took. Remove people from their money. Because these libertarian health care people are just about their Griff, not about general public health.

[Sam Seder]

I mean, Maha is one of the largest frauds perpetuated on the American people in like recent history.

[Emma Vigland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

Let'S, let's save 21 and 22 for Monday, but let's check in with Joe Rogan, who on a.

[Heather Parton]

On a.

[Sam Seder]

Week where we have seen a rise in measles. And when we. Here, let's pop these up just like. Well, we'll do this right after. Let's listen to Joe Rogan. I think everyone knows anecdotally somebody who was fucked up by the vaccine. Almost everyone that I've ever talked to, other than Sam Harris, almost everyone that I've ever about talked talk to claims they know someone who was irrevocably harmed by the vaccine. Oh yeah. If not killed. Yes. And this is such a gigantic population of people, not to mention all the people who don't know, who have some sort of new pathology that they've not connected to the vaccine. Right. And whose doctors have gaslit them and said they're totally unrelated. This is just something genetic. You were going to get this no matter what. Right. So we see all of this in actuarial data. Actuarial data.

[Emma Vigland]

That's what a doctor says. You were always gonna get this.

[Sam Seder]

What we see is they're stuck to anecdotal data. And everybody that talks to Rogan, which I'm sure that's a full sampling of fucking great thinkers. What we're seeing in terms of health episodes. Covid is that Covid itself had a detrimental effect on your tissues and stuff like that and it was bad to force people into it without as much protections as possible. Yeah, here is. Let's hear here. I'll put this up first. This is a. This is getting some. Put this, this one I just sent you first. This is getting a lot of attention. This is a study and to be fair it only involved a national cohort of 28 million individuals. Go down to the conclusion in relevance. This is in France, 28 million individuals. The results found no increased risk of a 4 year all cause mortality in individuals age 18 to 59 vaccinated against COVID 19 further supporting the safety of MRNA vaccines that are widely used worldwide. I would add that this same study actually showed a all cause mortality went up for unvaccinated people. That this actually, in that the vaccines actually like not only helped in terms of COVID deaths, but all cause mortality.

[Emma Vigland]

Actually helped severe and severity with severity of.

[Sam Seder]

Of infection. Of infection. Yeah, but specifically like the, the, the helped people live. I mean that's the point. You have CIDRAP reporting MRNA Covid vaccines tied to a drop in the death rate for four years. So it not only did not increase your ability to get. In other words, it wasn't dangerous, but it also. It was the opposite and what they were suggesting is actually dangerous. So they get all this energy up to accuse everyone of killing, of spreading misinformation that hurt people. Bret Weinstein, Joe Rogan killed people. If you know people that died because they didn't get vaccine and died from COVID and they were listening to these folks, you have a complaint to make about them. Hold on, pop up the CID rap thing because there were multiple. Obviously you have this cohort of, of 28 million people in France and so you investigate a bunch of things. Not only did it not increase all cause mortality in adults four years after receipt of the COVID MRNA vaccine, the vaccination was linked to a 74% lower risk of death from severe Covid and a 25% risk of death from any cause. So in other words, like regardless of how you measure the implications of COVID whether it's you got a severe case of COVID and you died, or it led to secondary infections or whatnot that caused your death, regardless, not only did the vaccine not increase your chances of dying, so in other words the vaccine was safe, but it literally created a 25% lower risk of death from any cause. So to the extent, and there's still a Lot of data that's being collected and there's a lot of, like, early theories on this, that Covid is causing, like, greater arterial disease, that it is causing, like, like breaking down the immunity on a whole host of things that it's causing brain problems, etcetera, etcetera. That stuff we're going to see if COVID infections does. But what we do know, at least from the largest study ever done in terms of MRNA in France, and perhaps maybe the one that's going to be the best, because of the nature of their health care system and tracking this stuff, we know that there is a 25% diminishment in risk of death of any cause relative to the unvaccinated. So that it's more than likely not just inhibiting severe Covid, it's inhibiting the things that you can get from either long Covid or, and I put that in quotes only because that is a, you know, sort of a specific thing or sort of like subsidiary tangential implications of how Covid has impacted our immunity system. And these mofos are still out there either believing they're validated or just unwilling to realize that they're not because there's so much there and on top of it. Now put up the whooping stuff. The whooping cough rates have soared. Oh, of whooping cough. Because people are. Because of shit like this. Basically where they. NBC News, Stanford University has found that dtap D tap. What is it? Dtap, I think it's called. Vaccination rates are plummeting across the country because of growing vaccine hesitancy because of morons like these two criminal. These guys. 35 states, Washington, D.C. provided data, including 31 that provided specific data on how many kindergartners got the first four doses of the vaccine. 70% of the counties and jurisdictions were below the 95% target rate. We need to organize more anger directed at this anti vax movement that is killing people. Aaron Rodgers was on ESPN like yesterday saying, I'm glad I'm on the right side of history with the. These people are insane.

[Emma Vigland]

It's painful for us both. I know.

[Sam Seder]

I still have 2010 with him. All right, we got one more clip and then we'll start to wrap things up.

[Emma Vigland]

All right.

[Sam Seder]

This is important because a lot of times we see Jim Brewer on the Jim Brewer show and he comes off as a little wacky because he's doing like a Rupert Pupkin type of thing where he's speaking into a microphone in front of like, what seems to be like three or four People, maybe his crew, and they don't laugh. And he's doing a standup routine, and it just seems weird.

[Heather Parton]

Yeah.

[Emma Vigland]

For younger audiences. This is the movie that was ripped off in the movie the Joker, right?

[Sam Seder]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. Rupert Pupkin was a king of comedy.

[Emma Vigland]

I just hate Joker, so I just.

[Sam Seder]

Want ripped off that Todd Phillips had to come out and say, no, it was an homage. Yeah, it was.

[Emma Vigland]

It was despicable anyway.

[Sam Seder]

And. But nevertheless, when Jim Brewer sits down with. Who's this guy sitting down with? Seems. Lenny Moreno. I don't. I went on his Instagram. He's a conspiracy theorist with a fashion line. Line. Okay. So when he sits down with a conspiracy theorist who has a fashion line, he sounds a lot more reasonable. And here he is when he's calm. He's not doing his goat boy bit or whatnot. He's just.

[Emma Vigland]

He's raw and real.

[Sam Seder]

He's just talking like a regular guy. So I'm not gonna push you down. No, no, no, I agree. I agree. I want to get into. Speaking of. This is very important. One of the kid. One of these guys put this in front of my face today. And you brought up something today, too. We got to be very careful of where the hatred's being pushed. Mm. I truly believe, like, the Jews. Correct. Yes. There's a big. There's a big push. Hating Jews and just Israel in general. But I always say don't. There's no hate for people or Jews. I think this is pretty generous of him to, you know, not hate people or Jews or Jews. Yes, there's people and then there's Jews, and neither shall be hated. I think that's. I applaud that. I think both people are not deserving of hatred and nor are Jews. Just Israel in general. But I always say don't. There's no hate for people or Jews.

[Heather Parton]

However.

[Sam Seder]

However, the ones that make decisions for what we call Israel, I find sometimes an issue. So the kids put this in front of my. Put this up on the screen. Now you're telling me. Now, listen. Don't listen to me. I'm just a knucklehead comedian that looks like he's half lit half the time, even though I'm not. When Twitter for a second account started, I. I think that, like, if you say don't listen to me. Like, if I. Like, this is called building in the critique. Right. And. But it's used. And it was used by Rush Limbaugh. I'm just an entertainer. That's what he would say when he was, incidentally, he was an entertainer who was awarded the Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump because he espoused so much political propaganda. Lies.

[Emma Vigland]

Lies.

[Sam Seder]

Not just propaganda lies to run, to use this. And this is like a favorite of, like, conspiracy theorist comedians. You're not a comedian at that moment. What you are is a conspiracy theorist online or a racist or an anti Semite or whatever you are. Maybe you're a health care advocate or like, or Jew or, you know, you could also be. But that. The point is, that's what you're doing there.

[Emma Vigland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

Okay. You don't get to just sort of like, wear a badge and say, okay, this is my excuse for not doing it. Like, if you're like, it doesn't matter what you are, you gotta own up to what you're doing.

[Emma Vigland]

But he sounds exactly like Tucker Carlson. He sounds exactly. And a lot of people are starting to speak this way. And it's just. It's really scary and concerning, like the normalization right now of anti Semitism. I know I said this on the show yesterday, but, like, this Puka Nakua story out of. Out of the NFL is like, Is horrifying. I mean, he did an anti Semitic hand gesture on stream with Aiden Ross and they called it the Jewish dance or something like that. And then you have people doing basically race science about that girl from I Love LA because she's Jewish on Twitter. It's just. It's really crazy. And it's in part, I would say, due to, like, the rise of Nick Fuentes, who's increasingly normalized within the party, and a lot of these other creators wanting his audience and being so cynical and depraved and also anti Semitic, genuinely, and having like an excuse to do this now. But they are escalating the rhetoric. And the younger you get, the more streamy and online and like, Nelk boys, Aiden Ross guys that you get, the more willing they are to traffic in, like, deeply anti Jewish tropes right now.

[Sam Seder]

But the problem is, in my estimation, the reason why this is like, growing exponentially is because the mechanisms that we have used in the past to inhibit antisemitism have been hijacked in defense of what Israel has been doing.

[Emma Vigland]

Yep.

[Sam Seder]

And they have been hijacked. And so it has made it impossible for organizations years and years ago, when the ADL was actually a real organization that was actually out to fight anti Semitism and every other apparatus and every other trusted individual or whatnot, because they deployed anti Semitism as a way to protect Israel from criticism from what Israel is doing and what the, you know, what they're doing in terms of, like, what they doing in Gaza, what they are doing in the west bank, what they are doing on a daily basis in maintaining an apartheid regime because anti Semitism was used as a shield there. You have broken it and you have made it impossible, not impossible, but very difficult to look at this and say, like, wait a second, this dude is, is using, he is hiding behind Israel now as a way of saying, like, well, this is what the problem I have with Jews. Like, it's the Jews running Israel.

[Emma Vigland]

Right. And it's not. And that's why it's so important to point out that Israel is a function of US Empire and imperialism. It's not the other way around. And I think we're beginning to see how you can. I just want people to have media literacy about when they're consuming different creators. Canis Owens, Tucker Carlson. A guy like Jim Brewer will say, you know, it's not every Jewish, but. And they'll usually say Jews when they're talking about Israel. And they'll not speak about like, what they actually advocate for. They'll attack Israelis or Jews.

[Sam Seder]

They won't qualification. No, no, there are Jews who are against Israel.

[Emma Vigland]

No. Right.

[Sam Seder]

Anti Zionist. They'll never make that qualification. You know, they won't say, like, well, it's the Jews who are running Israel. I don't like. As opposed to the Jews who are anti Zionist. No, they, they will, they will, they will drop that second part so that they can really make the construction that it's used. And so this is what's going on there. And then they find like this, There is like, this is really dubious. Are you talking about the. This is dubious. Like, like this came up on Twitter. But let's assume for a moment there's no check there. Well, but let's just know I heard this story when it first came off that shirt off when he was head of the, of, of, of the Department of Homeland Security. I just want you to contemplate, like, if Israel was in charge of our Department of Homeland Security, they are incredibly nefarious, but they don't have the ability to in any way, like, darn it, we started the account when Israel, like, I am quite sure what happened in 2008 when Twitter was like, like just barely a thing. You can still tweet your text, your tweets into it. Exactly. That somebody when they were on a trip said, you should, you guys should get Twitter.

[Emma Vigland]

But.

[Heather Parton]

But even.

[Sam Seder]

That's what I assume.

[Emma Vigland]

Even if it's true. Even if it's true, and we have a social media account, the Department of Homeland Security is based out of Israel. It still backs up what I'm trying to say, which is that Israel functions as our military outposts in the Middle east, our intelligence outposts in the Middle East. It is a function of US Imperialism and empire and our attempt to be the global hegemon that is slipping through our grasp. And so much of our Middle east policy, Venezuela policy, is about making sure that China is boxed out. That is what it's about. Not the secret group, not having it in the secret group of Jews and it being the reverse, controlling all of us. Because at the end of the day, what they are fomenting actively is anti Semitism for that very purpose. But they're letting us all off the hook as the world empire to be more tribalist and nativist and make it about one group versus the other. They don't want us to all live in harmony. When they talk about anti war, they're just picking a faction that they like and then abandoning everybody else altogether or demonizing them.

[Sam Seder]

I just love the fact that this is. They're going to hang their hat on where the Twitter account even. True or not true.

[Heather Parton]

Right.

[Sam Seder]

They're going to hang like this is indication. How sloppy would it be for the, you know, and this as opposed to like all the conservative Twitter handles that turned out to be. But keep playing. Let's see what I mean. Candace Owens also saying that the JFK thing was Israel too. They're really doing it okay for Homeland Security. Its base is Tel Aviv, Israel. Now think about that. That is the U.S. homeland Security in 2008, when it decided to go on Twitter, wasn't based out of Milwaukee, wasn't based out of Long island or San Francisco. It was based out of Tel Aviv, Israel. Now, if it was in Morocco or, or, or if it was in Mexico City or if it was in Iran, we would question it. We would question it. But because it's in Tel Aviv, Israel. Let's not talk about that now. Who's saying not talk about it? Tell me what happened today, Kyle. Or a couple days when people, when this went over the Internet, supposedly they took it down for a couple hours, right? Yes. Then X dropped the update for seven.

[Emma Vigland]

Hours, then came back and was back in the state.

[Sam Seder]

So they dropped it and then came back like, no, we made a mistake again. Like this is all. They dropped it in part because there were all these conservative accounts that they found out were based in other India Yeah those are all these Indian guys posing as MAGA were getting found out but.

[Emma Vigland]

Milwaukee all he wasn't doing is.

[Sam Seder]

These crazy guys that control our Twitter account tight. It's Homeland Security. Don't worry about folks, we got Homeland. It's all good. It's all good. Like I got no problem with DHS saying that they're going to round up brown people in this country. Right? Let's. Yeah, we're the ones who've been saying get rid of DHS this whole time, you big dummy. So it is. It's. But it also does show you the power like if you are somebody who does not follow the news and the the only story that you know about the DHS is that the account was started in 2011.

[Emma Vigland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

Everything else is completely irrelevant.

[Emma Vigland]

I would love to ask the way the propaganda do you support abolishing ice? You know you're very anti dhs. No idea of course that ICE is a part of Department of Homeland Security and that these were create. These were created after 911 but we really Customs Enforcement. Yeah nice.

[Sam Seder]

Tired of morons folks. I'm gonna read some IMs. We'll get out of here Tomo Blink. Happy casual Friday, folks. The groups for the 2027 Men's Rugby World cup have been confirmed. USA are in a group with France Samoa. Japan and Wales are in a group with England, Tonga and Zimbabwe. US actually stand a reasonable chance of advancing for the first time ever. But you will be getting demolished by France. Lol. Emma, I know you correctly predicted South Africa would win in 2023, but please do not gamble on 2027 because I don't want to deal with an angry bookie with ties to the mafia. I want Carly Chirk. Well, I can't watch you stream YouTube stream. I have to work. Unlike the show left is best prippery YouTube ads, video, no audio. That was from a long time ago. Gerald from Norwin. Sorry Matt, but anecdotal data is an oxymoron usually mocked within the the neologism anecdote. I know this won't get read, but I have to let the pedantry out somewhere before I can make it. Before I can make a tumor.

[Emma Vigland]

Put it in the notes app, write it out and delete it.

[Sam Seder]

Good for you. I'm glad you got out of your system. Kyle and Brandon Truss. As a live rumble user, I am tired of the abuse. Susie Wiles, can we take a moment to appreciate how insane it is that people voted for this man to be president? Kowalski from Nebraska. I read anina fork. Did you all not give Hegseth his tribute of a handle of Jack for your Internet protection? Nick from Atlanta discovered you guys over a little of a year ago the election when I was freaking out looking for some sane voices to listen to. Have scarcely missed a show since. Thank you guys. Thank you. Anonymous Donald Trump in an uphill climb in 2026. There's one thing we know from the UN escalator scandal showed us he can climb upstairs with massive effort. However, that was probably what triggered a stroke in the middle of the summer that has led to these monthly Alzheimer's treatments. Six to nine area code. These dumb grifting mofos have me screaming. I think you should leave. I'm convinced Kennedy is the horseman of pestilence. Wrong Christmas adventure. Wishing the entire crew happy holidays. I'll be running the MAGA family holiday gauntlet but hope all of you have a nice holiday. We will be back Monday and Tuesday of next week. Eric from Montana. My mom died from COVID in the Billings icu. I'm sorry to hear that. She worked in health care and told me prior to contracting Covid that she was afraid of it. She was taking an immuno immunopressant suppressant for arthritis and had just finished chemo for breast cancer. She developed iron lung from COVID which is the same as how pneumonia progresses when deadly. We had to deal not only with her unexpected death, but also with guys like Rogan joking that it only kills old fat people. Haha. So funny that our trauma is their political grandstand. They're psychopaths. Sorry for your loss. Max left final IM of the week. Oh, it's the same thing as before. Donald Trump in an uphill climb in 2026. Well, whatever folks. We'll be back on Monday. Brian is off to the hinterlands. Ryan, I think I know what that Merry Christmas, Matt. Brian, Great job this week, Emma. Great job this week folks. Bye bye. It might take all the strength I got to get to where I want But I know somehow I'm gonna get there I wasn't looking when I just got caught between the truth and the light fall refined I won't make mistakes Feel any better yeah I know the clock is ticking but the meds are gonna kick in and my piling light shining bright I get somewhere the choice was made for the option where you don't get paid for the run that bends before it finally breaks you I guess somehow I lost my drive between the 101 and the 5 do you know how far the teacher takes you. Yeah, I know the clock is ticking, but the men's are gonna kick in and the pilot.