3553 - Republicans Rush to Redistrict as Their Base Turns on Them; Gaza Has Been Completely Destroyed

Summary

Summary of "The Majority Report with Sam Seder" – Episode 3553 Title: Republicans Rush to Redistrict as Their Base Turns on Them; Gaza Has Been Completely Destroyed
Release Date: August 5, 2025
Host: Sam Seder
Co-Host: Emma Vigeland

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1. Republican Redistricting Efforts in Texas

Overview:
The episode opens with a critical discussion on the Republican Party's aggressive attempts to redistrict in Texas. Governor Greg Abbott is depicted as rushing to implement redistricting measures to secure five additional Texas seats in Congress. This move is met with significant resistance from Texas Democrats, who have strategically left the state to deny Republicans the necessary quorum to pass these changes.

Notable Quotes:

• Sam Seder [05:25]: "Texas House Democrats are demonstrating what it means to fight, fight for the preservation of our constitutional republic."
• Emma Vigeland [09:02]: "This is her, like, greatest skill, is being in a room with a bunch of like, corporatist rich hacks and having the language to push back on in this way."

Key Points:

• Democratic Strategy: Over 51 out of 60 Texas state House Democrats have left the state to block quorum, effectively preventing the special session required for redistricting.
• Republican Gamble: Republicans are betting on past favorable demographics and Trump’s influence to maintain or gain seats, but this strategy is fraught with uncertainty, especially with Trump's fluctuating voter appeal.
• Impact on Political Landscape: The redistricting fight is not just limited to Texas; similar efforts are being observed in states like Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee, indicating a broader Republican strategy to capitalize on off-year elections.

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2. Netanyahu's Gaza Reoccupation Plan

Overview:
Benjamin Netanyahu has unveiled a controversial plan to fully reoccupy Gaza. This proposal has sparked intense debate both within Israeli politics and internationally, leading to the suspension of his cabinet meetings due to its contentious nature.

Notable Quotes:

• Sam Seder [05:25]: "Benjamin Netanyahu unveils full reoccupation of Gaza plan. Their cabinet meeting had to be suspended because it's apparently somewhat controversial there."

Key Points:

• Plan Details: While specifics are limited, the reoccupation plan entails a significant military and administrative overhaul of Gaza, aiming to assert full Israeli control.
• Political Fallout: The plan has caused divisions within Netanyahu’s own cabinet and has drawn criticism from various international bodies concerned about human rights and the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

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3. Economic Concerns and Trump's Job Data Criticisms

Overview:
President Donald Trump continues to express dissatisfaction with job data, claiming the economy is on the brink despite actual indicators showing vulnerabilities.

Notable Quotes:

• Sam Seder [05:25]: "Trump continues to whine about jobs data as the economy is on the brink."
• Emma Vigeland [16:34]: "You're going to force more Medicaid recipients into the private insurance pool and that's going to decrease costs. I thought that's what he was trying to say."

Key Points:

• Job Growth: The administration's claim of robust job creation is disputed, with reports indicating that fewer than 30,000 jobs were added over two months, a number much lower than expected.
• Economic Strategies: Discussions include Trump's proposal of issuing $15,000 bonds to attract international tourism, a move seen as indicative of the administration's struggles to bolster the economy.

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4. Department of Homeland Security's FEMA Fund Retraction

Overview:
The Department of Homeland Security has retracted a previous threat to withhold FEMA funds from cities, states, or towns that boycott Israel, easing some of the tension surrounding U.S. support for Israel.

Notable Quotes:

• Sam Seder [05:25]: "The Department of Homeland Security retracts a threat of withholding FEMA funds for cities or states or towns that dare to boycott Israel."

Key Points:

• Policy Shift: This retraction suggests a potential softening of the administration's stance on municipalities considering boycotts of Israel, which has been a contentious issue within U.S. politics.
• Implications for Local Governments: Cities and states may feel emboldened to reconsider their positions on the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement without fear of federal financial repercussions.

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5. Demographic Concerns and Taxation in New York City

Overview:
A significant portion of the episode delves into the debate over taxing millionaires in New York City to address affordability issues. The conversation highlights the conflicting perspectives on whether such taxes would drive wealthy residents away or alleviate the financial burdens on working-class families.

Notable Quotes:

• Sam Seder [09:38]: "This is your issue. It's a national issue, not a local issue."
• Emma Vigeland [16:01]: "Korrupting a relationship based on money to avoid accountability is one of the most corrupt things ever."

Key Points:

• Affordability Crisis: New York City faces a dire affordability crisis, with a report indicating that a quarter of residents are in poverty, nearly double the national average.
• Taxation Debate: Republican proposals to impose a 2% tax on income above one million dollars are criticized as insufficient and unlikely to significantly impact the behavior of millionaires who largely remain in the city.
• Economic Vibrancy vs. Wealth Concentration: The discussion emphasizes the need for policies that support working families without solely focusing on the financial behaviors of the wealthy, arguing for a balanced approach to economic sustainability.

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6. Health Care Policy and Republican Proposals

Overview:
The episode features an in-depth analysis of Republican health care proposals, particularly the introduction of work requirements for Medicaid recipients, and critiques of how these policies could lead to reduced health care access for vulnerable populations.

Notable Quotes:

• Emma Vigeland [35:19]: "But I can remember it either."
• Sam Seder [39:31]: "Yes, no, no. [...] There is no plan to provide any low cost or reasonable cost health insurance for Americans that the Republicans had."

Key Points:

• Work Requirements: Republicans advocate for requiring Medicaid recipients to work if they are able, aiming to reduce dependency on government assistance. However, studies show that such policies drive millions of eligible individuals off Medicaid, exacerbating health care disparities.
• Financial Implications: Discussions highlight how the decrease in Medicaid coverage could lead to increased costs in private insurance markets and emergency medical services, ultimately burdening taxpayers.
• Human Rights Argument: The co-host argues that health care should be considered a human right, critiquing Republican policies as punitive and ineffective in addressing the underlying issues of health care affordability and accessibility.

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7. Gaza Conflict: Testimonies and Humanitarian Crisis

Overview:
A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, featuring testimonies from former military personnel and firsthand accounts of the devastation caused by ongoing conflicts.

Notable Quotes:

• Former Green Beret Anthony Aguilar [62:01]: "We are living on a dangerous road and a day of reckoning is coming... We have no excuse."
• Emma Vigeland [63:22]: "It's historic in many ways."

Key Points:

• Testimonies of Destruction: Anthony Aguilar recounts witnessing severe war crimes and the collapse of humanitarian efforts in Gaza, emphasizing the moral and ethical obligations of the international community.
• Aerial Footage: The podcast shares disturbing aerial footage of Gaza, showing extensive destruction of civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and homes.
• Aid Blockades and Mismanagement: Discussions highlight Israel's blockade of aid to Gaza and the strategic use of aid organizations to manipulate perceptions, undermining genuine humanitarian efforts.
• Human Impact: Personal stories from families in Gaza illustrate the dire circumstances faced by civilians, including severe malnutrition, lack of medical care, and ongoing violence against non-combatants.

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8. Democratic Party's Stance on Israel and Gaza

Overview:
The episode critically examines the Democratic Party's handling of the Israel-Gaza conflict, suggesting that party leaders are undermining the interests of their base by aligning too closely with pro-Israel donors and policies that do not address the needs of their constituents.

Notable Quotes:

• Sam Seder [72:21]: "It is indicative of. And then the assumption is, oh, you need rich people so that other people can get money."
• Emma Vigeland [82:24]: "But the consultants have motivated reasoning to say that supporting Israel is not going to cost us elections because they're all making money together cool with it."

Key Points:

• Donor Influence: The podcast argues that Democratic politicians prioritize the interests of wealthy donors and pro-Israel lobbies over the needs and opinions of their broader voter base, leading to policies that exacerbate issues like poverty and housing shortages.
• Political Weakness: The co-host and host suggest that the Democratic Party's low approval ratings stem from perceived insincerity and failure to address critical issues facing their constituents, particularly in relation to the Gaza conflict.
• Future Implications: Discussions point to a potential realignment within the Democratic Party, where disillusioned voters may seek alternative candidates who genuinely represent their interests and address the humanitarian crises more effectively.

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9. Closing Remarks and Upcoming Segments

Overview:
The episode concludes with brief mentions of upcoming segments, including discussions on reproductive justice with guest Kylie Chung and ongoing reflections on the political climate.

Notable Quotes:

• Sam Seder [96:00]: "But you should know."
• Emma Vigeland [96:06]: "But you should know."

Key Points:

• Upcoming Topics: Listeners are teased with future discussions on reproductive justice, the response from Democrats, and the inherent violence involved in suppressing reproductive health care.
• Final Thoughts: The hosts express concerns about the rapidly changing political landscape and the potential for increased instability and conflict in the near future.

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Conclusion

Episode 3553 of "The Majority Report with Sam Seder" offers a comprehensive analysis of current political maneuvers surrounding redistricting in Texas, the escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and the Democratic Party's strategic missteps in addressing constituent needs. Through a series of informed discussions and firsthand accounts, the episode underscores the tension between political expediency and ethical governance, highlighting the urgent need for policies that prioritize the well-being of all citizens over partisan gains.

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Disclaimer: This summary is based on the provided transcript and aims to reflect the key discussions and viewpoints presented during the podcast episode. For a complete understanding, listening to the full episode is recommended.

Transcript

[Sam Cedar]

Hi folks. Today's episode brought to you by Our favorite sponsor, SunsetLakeSaba Day.com use the code left is best. You get 20% off. They have all sorts of great Saba Day products. They even have some with a little T. Say in a fact, I, well, I don't want to say it was a mistake but I, I had one of their new uplift tees yesterday after work. Oh yeah, it was very refreshing. And then I walked around the same block in New York City for about an hour and a half. Yeah, but nevertheless your mileage may differ but they have all sorts of great aceb a day products. They've got focus gummies, they've got sleep gummies, they've got relaxation gummies. They have tinctures, they have tinctures for sleeping for your pets if they're too uptight. They have coffee with seven a day. They have a fudge with seven a day. They have all sorts of great Sabade products and they are all third party tested and they give you the results of those tests for everything you buy. They have great farming practices. They use integrated pest management, there is no pesticides in their sabbath day. And they have other great farming, regenerative farming. They have great business practices and they are longtime movement partners. They're fans of the show. They approached us years ago to advertise. That's why Left is best is their coupon code. But aside from that, they have donated tens of thousands of dollars to strike relief funds, refugee resettlement, carceral reform, Planned Parenthood, they've involved in mutual aid up in Vermont where they grow this stuff. And they have a farm, $20 minimum wage, mostly employee owned business. You cannot do better than this. Gold standard folks. Sunset Lake sabade.com use the code. Left is best get 20% off. And I, I will recommend that tea incidentally, but I would also say maybe half a tea for folks. My girlfriend had seven over the weekend. So now time for the show. No comment. The Majority Report with Sam Cedar. It is Tuesday, August 5th, 2025. My name is Sam Cedar. This is the five time award winning Majority Report. We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, usa. On the program today, redistricting war erupts as Abbott issues very limp arrest warrants over the Texas state Democrats busting quorum and preventing Abbott from carrying out Donald Trump's orders to redistrict for five new Texas seats. Meanwhile, Benjamin Netanyahu unveils full reoccupation of Gaza plan. Their cabinet meeting had to be suspended because it's apparently somewhat controversial there. Trump continues to whine about jobs data as the economy is on the brink. The Department of Homeland Security retracts a threat of withholding FEMA funds for cities or states or towns that dare to boycott Israel. Dozens of Democratic law, I should say a dozen Democrat lawmakers call on Trump to recognize Palestinian statehood. And with tourism down dramatically in the country, international tourism. The Trump regime floats $15,000 bonds to people who want to visit the country.

[Emma Vigeland]

That's my love. Language bribes.

[Sam Cedar]

X Fox News host and desperately ineffective Secretary of Transportation orders NASA to expedite plans for a nuclear power plant on the moon.

[Emma Vigeland]

These are not serious people.

[Sam Cedar]

And Bolsonaro arrested for breaking a restraining order in his coup case. Apparently he was supposed to not encourage Donald Trump to interfere. All this and more on today's Majority Report. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen.

[Emma Vigeland]

It is News Day Tuesday.

[Sam Cedar]

You've been very excited to say that.

[Emma Vigeland]

I feel like, yeah, no, I'm in a good mood. I mean I'll just say I became a cat parent last night. I adopted two kids. Yeah, they're really cute. They're two brothers. I love it. So I'm in a bit of a better mood. Although that will be short.

[Sam Cedar]

I want you to be mamala of the country.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes. I think most my smalls ad reads are going to be much better now because I'll be able to not just speak to your guys experience but to mine. But it's very sweet. They're so cute and I can't wait for my good mood to dissipate in like five seconds once we talk about the news.

[Sam Cedar]

I'll tell you that's, that's basically how I track with my kids. So Kressing home said I thought it was 10,000 for the bonds. They're floating 15, 10 and 5. Four countries where people have a certain rate of, of people visiting overstaying their visas. Now of course, this is designed to eliminate people who are not extremely wealthy. It's going to keep a lot of people from being able to visit with their family. It's just more of the Trump administration's agenda. And if you start to think about like what theoretically was supposed to happen with all these deportations as we announce or as the it's announced that there may be net negative migration to this country over the past three months. We know at least two months ago we added something like less than 30,000 jobs over the course of two months. That is absurd. That is absurdly low number of jobs being added. And even the most recent month came in lower than expected. And I would be willing to bet that unless Trump simply just didn't put out the statistics, we're going to find that that number is revised down, too. We'll talk more about that in a bit. But first, the, the freak out that wealthy people, and I want to say wealthy people, because I don't even know if we know the most vociferous wealthy people, the people who cater to wealthy people, the business people, as marked by cnbc, are so terrified of Zoran Mamdani and the prospect of him winning. And part of this is because, you know, we saw what happened when Eric Adams won the mayoral race. It completely redefined the way that Democrats felt like they should run and position themselves. Now, that's a function of just how sort of weak they are in terms of having a particular agenda. And it certainly won't be as influential with Mamdani because there is an act of resistance to what Mamdani wants to do. But here it's articulated and it's fascinating. Elizabeth Warren does a very good job of pushing back on this.

[Emma Vigeland]

This is her, like, greatest skill, is being in a room with a bunch of like, corporatist rich hacks and having the language to push back on in this way. She has a lot of experience doing it.

[Sam Cedar]

And I will say, I think like the, the specific response to millionaires are going to leave, which all the data has shown that that's not the case. New York City has more millionaires after tax increases than it's ever had. But the idea of like, there are people leaving the city because of expense and it's not millionaires.

[Emma Vigeland]

Exactly.

[Sam Cedar]

This is your issue. It's a national issue, not a local issue.

[Emma Vigeland]

The issue is affordability. Do you know how many working families are chased out of New York City every day because they can't afford housing, they can't afford groceries, they can't afford child care. What Zoran is saying is, I want people to be able to afford to live in New York City. That's what keeps it a vibrant city. That's what, what makes people want to live.

[Sam Cedar]

Nobody disagrees with that, Senator. But raising taxes in order to do it, why is that the answer?

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh, dear. Are you worried that billionaires are going to go hungry?

[Sam Cedar]

No, I'm worried that they're going to leave and spend their money elsewhere.

[Emma Vigeland]

You know, they've threatened to do that over positive.

[Sam Cedar]

I just want to like, just contemplate this for a moment. The argument is that billionaires are. Millionaires are going to leave New York for, for Florida, let's say because of after every, after your first million dollars, you get an additional 2% tax on anything you make above that. So it could be up to like, you know, if you make only $2 million a year, that could cost you an extra $2,000. Yeah, but put that aside. No, Brian, we probably won't see you again. But the. Just contemplate this. If this was such a dramatic impulse to push wealthy people out of New York, why do any live here? You can go to Florida and pay no state income tax.

[Emma Vigeland]

And a lot of them do that. A lot of them live six months and a day in Florida and then they come back to New York during months that are a little bit less hot down there. And so they're already doing it.

[Sam Cedar]

That's what Rush Limbaugh did. But why are there any millionaires in New York City paying taxes here? Why are there any. If this theory is correct, there should be zero millionaires and zero billionaires who pay taxes in New York City.

[Emma Vigeland]

And I just can't believe that was a real question and real follow up. But the answer is taxing billionaires. Does he not understand how confiscatory taxation works? Yes, it's a method to redistribute wealth. And that's what this is an effort to do, except to help regular people.

[Sam Cedar]

And the solution has always been, I want to be clear, it's not confused, it's not confiscatory.

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh, sorry.

[Sam Cedar]

Unless it like is literally just to diminish their wealth. Now I would like to see, let's do 90 cents on every dollar after a million. But instead it's going to be 0.02 cents. Good.

[Emma Vigeland]

Out in areas are going to go hungry.

[Sam Cedar]

No, I'm worried that they're going to leave and spend their money elsewhere.

[Emma Vigeland]

You know, they've threatened to do that over and over and they have, they've left. But here's the thing.

[Sam Cedar]

And Goldman Sachs, when they create new jobs, they do it in Dallas. Blackstone won't build a new headquarters.

[Emma Vigeland]

On and on you want to have a workable positive.

[Sam Cedar]

Oh my God. Two financial outfits are not going to expand. They're doing like because it's so hard to find financiers in New York City. Gosh. And that's the jobs worried about. Do you realize that you'll be able to, you'll be walking around New York City and it's going to be so difficult to find some type of brokerage house that you want to go browse or something like that. You have a nice day. Take the kids, go, let's go look at the brokerage house windows. Go ahead.

[Emma Vigeland]

Have a city that's vibrant.

[Sam Cedar]

You want to have a city where.

[Emma Vigeland]

The streets are full, where there are things for sale 24 hours a day, then you need people who can live here and buy work.

[Sam Cedar]

We've got that right now. By the way, I would point out New York is. New York is thriving. So right now it's doing pretty well.

[Emma Vigeland]

I'm glad you think they're doing well, because a lot of people are struggling to pay for housing. A lot of people are struggling to pay for groceries. And I got to tell you, mommies and daddies who are facing $25,000 a year to pay for child care, those are no issues.

[Sam Cedar]

I mean, I know they are the local state, but you can't.

[Emma Vigeland]

New York City.

[Sam Cedar]

Yes, but if you. You deal with them in that way by what is always your backup, just tax them more, they will leave.

[Emma Vigeland]

No, the backup is make this city and make this country work for everyone. I get that the Republican point of view is make this country and make every city in this country work better and better for a handful of billionaires and let everybody else eat dirt. But what Mom Dummy won on in a Democratic primary is he said, I'm going to address affordability. And he didn't win by one.

[Sam Cedar]

No, he won by a lot. It's very much unclear he has the ability to actually do it, by the way, based on the laws and what the governor has to say and what he would actually have to do. You know, I love that as the.

[Emma Vigeland]

Fallback position, and that is he's fighting for the right thing. But maybe, maybe the billionaires.

[Sam Cedar]

I pause it for one second. I just want to say. I just want to say that this guy has absolutely no idea he could. He just went as deep as he could in explaining what the headwinds that Mamdani is going to face. He has no idea. 100%, not even a clue. If she had just stopped and said, what's going to be difficult, specifically, I mean, that's it. It would have been over. But yes, it is a complete retreat from like, okay, when you basically put it between billionaires getting what they want and people eating dirt, okay, but none of this is gonna happen. It's all pie in the sky. So what are you worried about?

[Emma Vigeland]

Right. That was his last refuge, basically. There. There was a article in the New York Times in, I think, February that showed that a quarter of New York City residents don't have enough money for hous.

[Sam Cedar]

That's a national issue, Emma.

[Emma Vigeland]

It was a report done by Columbia and Robin Hood and it found that the share of New Yorkers in poverty was nearly double the national average in 2023 and increased by 7 percentage points in the past two years. And you have the CNBC anchor arguing that we shouldn't be doing this 2% tax over income, over a million dollars in order to make it more affordable. Right.

[Sam Cedar]

Move CNBC to Florida.

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, isn't that an incredible statistic? It is double the national average and increased by 7 percentage points in just two years. And that is in part due to the crazy amount of wealth in this city and the fact that housing has been used, especially in like, expensive cities like this, as speculative assets for rich people, including, like international rich people and people that don't even live here that flip properties and there's no housing for everybody else and no protections.

[Sam Cedar]

I just to be clear, the 2%, the tax is 2%, not 0.02%. It is 2% of in that second million. So if you make $2 million, your taxes go up by $20,000. If you make $1 million, your taxes don't go up at all. It's that second million you get the 2% on, just to be clear.

[Emma Vigeland]

But I can remember it either.

[Sam Cedar]

Molotov Burrito writes, and it can't help but feel highly critical. Warren's comments after she sabotaged the working class in 2020 by splitting the Super Tuesday vote, she speaks out when it's safe. First off, I don't know if I agree with your characterization of splitting the working class vote. I think the issue was that people. Her critique of her, that she was the professional, managerial class, Regardless of whether or not she should have stayed in for Super Tuesday and whether that would have made a difference. The comments you should appreciate, like, you know, like, I think it's important to sort of like judge these politicians rather than what you think is in their heart or anything else, just upon either their, their actions or, you know, the, in this instance, they're pushing back on these narratives when necessary. There are things that Warren does well, there are things that she does poorly. Some of her political decisions I take issue with, but when she comes out strong for stuff like this, you should just appreciate that for what it is. It is pushing back on a narrative where there are very few other people who are doing that. She was one of the, I think she was the literally the first person to stop to support Occupy. But nevertheless, here is Zoran Mamdani writing in X. Working class New Yorkers are leaving New York City at significantly higher rates than wealthy residents. This is according to research by Fiscal Policy Institute. Affordability concerns, especially housing and the cost of raising a family are major drivers of population loss in New York State. The report notes that 90% of this loss comes from New York City with black and Hispanic residents, households with young children, low to middle income families most likely to live. In contrast, wealthy New Yorkers have left the state at much lower rates, with the exception of a temporary surge in their migration rates in 2020 and 2021, likely induced by COVID 19. In typical years, the average New Yorker has been four times more likely to leave the state than the top 1% of earners. Now the response that the CNBC guy would give if he wasn't embarrassed to do it is but yes, but they're poor, the millionaires, they're poor. They don't add anything. One Millionaire equals like 10,000. Exactly, exactly.

[Emma Vigeland]

More bang for your buck more.

[Sam Cedar]

And it is indicative of. And then the assumption is, oh, you need rich people so that other people can get money. Because if they're not in New York spending their money. Now to be clear, these rich people are not going to the deli and buying, you know, whatever it is they're not buying. They're buying high end stuff that is completely untethered to neighborhoods or other places. They're not buying their, you know, the. And they may be hiring a couple of people, but a, it exhibits what that person's perspective of is, is a definition of a good economy. And whether a good economy is having wealthy people or having just more people live without suffering or immiseration on some level. And the bottom line is all those wealthy people leave. I mean Warren and I think Mamdani are careful to say like fine, goodbye, go. I mean, go ahead and say if they did, if they did, you would see affordability increase. Exactly. And you would see a just as vibrant city. Maybe not with the high end stuff that you could get that like you know, $500 meal that you really desperately wanted, gold sirloin. It's not going to be there, but you'd get a much more vibrant city.

[Emma Vigeland]

But it would be there because New York City.

[Sam Cedar]

New York City.

[Emma Vigeland]

New York City, New York City.

[Sam Cedar]

If they all.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes, in theory. Right.

[Sam Cedar]

And they're here because works for them business wise. They're like Goldman Sachs. They're not here because they want to give back to the city. They're here because they're giant Hoovers of money and New York City makes it able for them to do that.

[Emma Vigeland]

Right.

[Sam Cedar]

Now here is Cory Booker, who dropped out of the 2020 race very quickly.

[Emma Vigeland]

I know we, when we covered him last Thursday, nobody even remembered this presidential run except, yeah, he dropped out of.

[Sam Cedar]

The presidential race very quickly. So he didn't split the working class vote there. But God, if you want to come at me that way, you're going to have to take it up with me. And here, I know, here he is asked whether he endorses Mamdani. And the question's fairly obvious one, because he is in New Jersey. It's a next door state. Much of New Jersey relies on New York for its sort of like economic vibrancy. With all due respect.

[Emma Vigeland]

And, and by the way, that tax rate over there in New Jersey is what Zoran wants to raise the corporate tax rate to, to fund free buses. So.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah, and it's a reasonable question because he came out two weeks after Eric Adams won his primary and congratulated him and endorsed him. And he's weighed in on, I think, governor's races in New York. I mean, he's done this before. It's completely understandable why someone would ask him this question and then he sort of comes up with a different answer about Mahmoud. Donnie, are you going to support him? I have learned a long time ago, let New York politics be New York politics. We got enough challenges in Jersey. I got a governor's race. I'm supporting Mikey Sherrill. I got legislative races. That's where my energy is going to go going into November. New York City. I love you. You're my neighbor. You're about 10 miles from where I live. You guys figure out your elections. I'm going to focus on mine.

[Emma Vigeland]

What happened to vote blue no matter.

[Sam Cedar]

Who that blue is?

[Emma Vigeland]

Israel. Yeah, right.

[Sam Cedar]

Exactly. Like there is a dollar figure associated with him not endorsing Mamdani.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes.

[Sam Cedar]

Like, it's just there was a check that came in just like, good job. Thank you.

[Emma Vigeland]

Same with Jeffries.

[Sam Cedar]

Thanks for holding the line.

[Emma Vigeland]

Same with Jeffries, same with Schumer. I mean, man, it is embarrassing that they spent so much time screaming at the left for their disloyalty because they were upset about Bernie Sanders losing the 2016 or 2020 primary or whatever it is. And they just show their ass like this. It's just as crazy. This is why Democrats have the lowest approval rating in 30 years. It's because people think they're craven liars.

[Sam Cedar]

Well, for good reason.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

All right, let's. We got more to talk about, but first, a couple words from our sponsors. I mentioned this the other day, but when we started this podcast, I was terrified at the idea of having a merch store. People would keep asking, we need merch, we need merch. And I would pretend that I. Well, I mean, I addressed it. I said, I don't want to deal with it. Huge pain, don't want to build a merch store, don't want. I won't be able to update it, won't be able to come up with ideas on the fly, won't be able to do max left hats at the drop of a hat, I guess. However, if you, if you run a business, you know, you don't want to add things to your to do list. However, there is one thing that I found that completely changed my perspective on our merch store and that is a tool called Shopify. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world, from household names like Magic Spoon or the Majority Report Merch Shop to brands that are just getting started. Shopify has hundreds of ready to use templates to help you build an online store to match your brand. It could be beautiful, it could be edgy, it could be minimalist, it could be sort of an afterthought like the Majority Report brand branding. And best yet, Shopify helps you manage inventory. You can sell stuff in real life at like a live show or in a store, or you can sell it on social media platforms. It covers your international shipping. It happens. It helps with your processing returns and beyond. If you're ready to sell, you're ready for Shopify. It is completely turnkey, super easy to use, and it's all scalable. So in the event that the merch store explodes in popularity, we'll have no problem. Turn your big business idea into a cha ching with Shopify on your side. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com majority. Go to shopify.com majority shopify.com/majority. We'll put the link in the podcast and YouTube descriptions and oh, one of my favorite products that advertises on this. You can prove skin longevity everywhere using a tushy bidet. It protects the barrier of your body's most delicate skin, reduce itching and discomfort for nine out of 10 people. And I don't know what's wrong with you. Number 10.

[Emma Vigeland]

Maybe need to go see a doctor.

[Sam Cedar]

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[Emma Vigeland]

I'm not looking at you.

[Sam Cedar]

All right, so look, this redistricting thing is, is, is, is fascinating. I mean both. It's not a surprise the Republicans are doing this. I would say the bigger surprise is that we're seeing the Democratic party. And again, this is just a pure partisan fight. There's no ideological issues associated with this. This is just. Are you going to participate in politics in the way that it comes at you or not? And the Democrats at this point have what appears to have done is step up. 51 out of 60. At least 51 out of 60 Democrats in the Texas state house have left the state denying Republicans quorum so they cannot go forward with this special session to do a mid census redistricting that would at least in the hopes of Republicans, give them an extra five seats out of their state. Now that bet that Republicans would be making, it's a little dicey because they're counting on the same numbers that they saw in 2024 will show up in 2026. And that is never a, a guarantee.

[Emma Vigeland]

But also it's not a guarantee, especially with Donald Trump at the top of the ticket because we've now seen three presidential election cycles where he is able to get many more voters out, non low propensity voters in the way that the Republican Party is unable to in off your elections. So even this is a gamble for the Republicans because they're make if they would be gerrymandering. Some of these districts are pinker as opposed to deep red because of how aggressively Texas is already gerrymandered. And this is Trump from the top making this decree as opposed to like the Texas Republicans even kind of coming to it themselves.

[Sam Cedar]

And, and the question is why are Republicans pushing this so hard? Well, because it's an off year election. The party out of power tends to win. But they're not just looking at Texas. J.D. vance has flown to Indiana hoping to get one seat there. They're looking at Ohio, I think maybe Tennessee. And here is a prime example of the problem that Republicans have with this off year election. It's not just the secular generic party out of power. We haven't seen much of this because Republicans are not going to town town halls. And if they were, we would be seeing a lot more of this. They are terrified. They are terrified quietly though, because there's not many examples. But Mike flood, elected in 2022 in Lincoln, Nebraska, he's not afraid. And he showed up at his town hall last night. This is Lincoln, Nebraska. There are 750 to 1,000 people in this theater where he's having a town hall. And I don't know my experience, if Lincoln, Nebraska is this well organized with Democrats, then I think Democrats are doing quite a good job because it's not the, it's not the first states that they would be doing this in. So it gives you a sense of the anger that exists out there towards Republican lawmakers. It's just that we don't see it because they don't expose themselves to their voters. We have a next question right here.

[Emma Vigeland]

My question is fiscal. With 450 million FEMA dollars being reallocated to open alligator Alcatraz and 600 million taxpayer FEMA dollars being used to now open more concentration camps and ice burning through $8.4 million a day to illegally detain people. How much does it cost for fascism? How much do the taxpayers have to.

[Sam Cedar]

Pay for a fascist country? Americans went to the polls in November and they had a choice between a Democratic candidate that had an open border, no enforcement, fentanyl drugs, human trafficking. And they had a choice between that and a candidate that said close the border, get illegal immigrants out of our country, stop the fentanyl, stop the human trafficking, stop the drugs, stop the crime, stop the violence. That's what Americans voted for. Americans voted for a, for a border that is secure. And I support the president enforcing our immigration laws, which, by the way, our immigration laws. Yeah, well, he's losing it. He's losing it a little bit.

[Emma Vigeland]

Did you also see the part about health care? We have that in there.

[Sam Cedar]

Now here's the thing.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

That's probably full of a bunch of like Brooklyn hipsters.

[Emma Vigeland]

Sure.

[Sam Cedar]

Going down to Lincoln, Nebraska and getting super. Brooklyn hipster. Yeah. Let's play the next one. This is regarding health care.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes. This was also incredible and also shows how much frankly Democrats are leaving on the table by not coalescing around a health care agenda. That isn't just what the Republicans are doing is bad because listen to this, Fur. Listen to this. This just fury in the crowd, but also how these old Republican talking points about health care being a privilege for the employed have just completely dissipated and also really engendered a lot of anger in the population Medicaid program.

[Sam Cedar]

One of those changes is that if you are able to work and you are able bodied, you have to work. If you choose not to work, you do not get free health care. You do not get free health care. Okay, okay, so here's a question. So here's a question. Do you think that people who are 28 years old. Pause it for one second. He's going to say, do you think the people who are 28 years old should get free health care? Now, let's be clear. This is a canard because we have seen two examples, Georgia and Arkansas, that have done work requirements. And all it does is it ends up driving people off of Medicaid who are perfectly eligible. However, the bureaucratic hurdles are designed to keep them off their ability to sort of like have to constantly update on how they work. I mean, have you ever been late for your insurance premium payment? Have you ever been late for the. Now, have you ever been exhausted by the amount of work you had to file with your insurance to get reimbursed? Now multiply that times five or ten for somebody who is, who is actually working and struggling to have time to do these type of things. So the scenario he's setting up is false. A And B, this R +10 district, not necessarily with their talking program, do not get free health care. Okay, okay, so here's a question. So here's a question. Do you think that people who are 28 years old that can work and refuse to work should get free health care? I don't think that a majority of Nebraskans agree with you.

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh, well, rephrase.

[Sam Cedar]

Do you think America should be the only country that uses the cudgel of you get health care or not to drive people to labor, which is what's what this is about? Well, and let's also be clear. The real question is, do you think that this 28 year old should be prevented from getting health care at the cost of five times that one person to lose their health care? Because that's what studies show happens. That it's maybe even higher than five times claims that that's what studies show happened in the real world. We have data on this and we'll have more data. There's a reason why 14 million people are going to lose their Medicaid. And it's not because they're not working. It's because of the requirements that are going to be imposed and the hurdles are going to be posed to getting the health care.

[Emma Vigeland]

But, but the only way people could not see the salience of an argument for free health care for people regardless of whether or not they're employed is if you' somebody that has never had to deal with an insurance company that you couldn't or a claim that you couldn't pay for before. I mean the amount of time that people spend on the phone with health insurance companies to try to get something paid for a procedure or health care paid for that they already have felt that they've been paying into on a monthly basis and that they have been with their insurance, let alone folks like the millions of people that are going to lose Medicaid coverage. I mean I think 80 million people, when you add Medicaid and CHIP together rely on this because we also don't force many of these employers to guarantee health care for their workers. So it's not just people who are these 28 year olds in the basement or anybody that's unemployed. Everybody that has experienced our healthcare system can empathize with that perspective.

[Sam Cedar]

Health care should be a human right. And then here is the question put in another way, like okay, do you Even have a plan for providing health care that people can afford this.

[Emma Vigeland]

Sorry, I know you've talked a little bit about this, but what plans does the Congress have for providing reasonable cost health insurance to Nebraska?

[Sam Cedar]

Well, one of the ways to, to bring down our commercial private payer insurance is to not have as many people on Medicaid. Because what happens, Medicaid pays a much lower reimbursement rate than a commercial payer does. And so when there's a difference between those two, the commercial commercial payer ends up paying more and more and more to make up for the difference. Money does not fall out of the sky. It does not grow on trees. It comes from all of you and you pay your health insurance. I wish there was a world we could live in where everything came from the government and it was free. All right, pause it. But that will never pause it. The increases to private insurance are going to be the biggest one time increases we have seen, I think probably in close to a decade. And it is because they are ramping up. A, because the subsidies were cut for the aca. In many respects they did their repeal of Obamacare in the big beautiful bill. And B, it's not like these people who are not getting Medicaid are going to somehow evaporate into thin air. They're going to get sick at the exact same rate as they got sick before, except for this time they're not going to have a doctor and this time they're not going to have any preventative care. And so they're going to go into the er. So everything he's talking about, in addition to it not being the case that insurance companies are, have that much elasticity, insurance companies go to state regulators, ask for a rate increase based upon their, their pool, hospital rates are all over the place. They just get whatever they can. It's completely opaque. But somebody's going to have to pay. When these people go to the emergency room, somebody's going to have to pay for the diabetes that could have been prevented had they been seeing a doctor on a regular basis. Somebody's going to have to pay for all of this and that's where the taxpayers pay. He's just, I don't know if it's an out and out lie, but even the, even the sort of the theory he has, what, that's not the case.

[Emma Vigeland]

They're going to force more Medicaid recipients into the private insurance pool and that's going to decrease costs. I thought that's what he was trying to say.

[Sam Cedar]

No, no. His argument is that because reimbursement rates for Medicaid are lower than private insurance, that private insurance has had to subsidize Medicaid patients in his whole theory is predicated that these people are just going to go away, that they're not going to exist anymore, that they're not going to get sick. They're doing not going to like it's just a denial of the existence of these people. It's absurd. It's absolutely absurd. There is no plan to provide any low cost or reasonable cost health insurance for Americans that the Republicans had. They've never had one. The closest was the ACA back, you know, 15 years ago. This is the system that they want that you pay your insurance, you pay your private insurance company thing and it doesn't work. It's not a system that works. So that's why you can't make a coherent defense of it. Let's go to what is this number? Oh, let's go to, no, let's go to 14 because this is ultimately about the redistricting. And here is the biggest threat that the Democrats have done at this point is they've said that they're going to actually let's go to Pritzker. Many of these Texas Democrats have gone to Illinois or to New York to essentially hide out. The Texas has no authority to arrest them there and bring them to the state house. And Pritzker has implied, I don't know if he's finding them housing or what. But remember these Texas state legislators, they only make 600 bucks a month.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

And like almost half the staff here makes more than that and 600 bucks a month. And they, so they all have day jobs, many of them have families. So they're going through this is a difficult time for these people. And here's Pritzker today. This morning, Ken Martin is there. They are talking about essentially what this fight is. We're here, of course, because Texas House Democrats are demonstrating what it means to fight, fight for the preservation of our constitutional republic. Donald Trump, Governor Abbott, Texas Republicans, well, they know that they're headed toward a loss of the Congress in 2026. They're afraid, and they should be. Because when you try to tear health care away from veterans and seniors, from children and people with disabilities, when you raise tariff taxes on groceries and beer and automobiles, when you let poor and working class families go hungry, when you allow smokestack industries to pollute the air and remove safety standards from food producers, well, all so that you can give a massive tax break to Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and Bill Ackman, well, frankly, you'd better watch out. You're going to lose your elections. So they've decided that the only way to save themselves is to cheat, to change the rules in the middle of the game. And what do MAGA Republicans in Texas do when Donald Trump ignores, well, his oath of office and theirs. And when they're taking it upon themselves to the thwart the will of the American people? Well, they say, when Donald Trump calls, they say, yes, sir, right away, sir. Happy to lick your boot, sir. When Donald Trump says jump, Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton say, how high? They don't care that they're violating the Voting Rights act and racially gerrymandering their state. Well, they're hoping they can rob the bank and get away before anyone notices. Texas Republicans are trying to diminish the voting power of their own constituents and in doing so, diminish the rights of Illinoisans and all Americans. Texas House Democrats are putting their lives on hold and their livelihoods at risk because they don't want to live in a country where the President rigs elections for his side. That's not democracy, that's not America.

[Emma Vigeland]

He's good. He's good at this. The partisanship element.

[Sam Cedar]

I am looking for him ultimately to say to cut taxes for Jeff Bezos, for Elon Musk, for Bill Ackman and for me. Because he's that wealthy, too.

[Emma Vigeland]

You mean cut taxes, raise taxes?

[Sam Cedar]

No, no. He said he was criticizing Trump to cut those taxes. Like he's got to start acknowledging, you know, because he's not going to be able to hide it when he, when he runs for president.

[Emma Vigeland]

Right. Well, but that's the angle. He could do it if he's smart about it. And if, if he does run in that way, it would be telling if he avoids that. And that means that this is another status quo guy. But if he wants to do the. Well, be the FDR guy that will no longer be a billionaire and be the class trader and I'll take on the bullies. I do think that's a salient political argument. For real.

[Sam Cedar]

Without a doubt.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

But it is good to see Democrats now. Gavin Newsom is out there. He has claimed that he will. If Texas does this, we don't need to see a clip of him. If Texas does this, he will call a special legislative session and they will redistrict five Republicans out of their office. And they have already studied whether it would be a violation of the Voting Rights Act. Remember, if you have a Majority, minority district. There are certain numbers based upon the percentage of, of minorities in a state that they must have a certain amount of representation as per the Voting Rights Act. In Texas, they're going to dispossess people of that and they feel like, well, we'll deal with the Supreme Court if it ever comes up later. In California, they've studied whether that would be in violation of the Voting Rights act and it won't be. So they've got five there in New York. Kathy Hochul is already talking about redistricting too. If they do this, that's three in New York. Here is the, the five or whoever, whatever the Fox show. This is outnumbered.

[Emma Vigeland]

Sorry, is it outnumbered because there's always four women flanking an old guy.

[Sam Cedar]

Exactly.

[Emma Vigeland]

And all of them, almost all have to show their legs.

[Sam Cedar]

Exactly. It's every man's fantasy. Exactly. Totally.

[Emma Vigeland]

Every, every 75 year old man watching this show gets to just like place himself in the middle of this couch.

[Sam Cedar]

Put four women in their place at the same time. It's good to be Kennedy. She's really sharp.

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh, tell me more about. Here is Sweeney being a Republican.

[Sam Cedar]

Here is. More pictures please of the young actress. Here is Kennedy seemingly does not understand what redistricting applies to. Right.

[Emma Vigeland]

It's like TDS off the chart. It's all about them versus Trump and why. Because they're so thirsty politically. Yeah, but this is, this is why.

[Sam Cedar]

California is a monoparty state.

[Emma Vigeland]

That's why Democrats have a super majority.

[Sam Cedar]

And you know, it's like that's why.

[Emma Vigeland]

They have two Democrat senators.

[Sam Cedar]

That's why I have a Democrat governor. And you know, it is such a.

[Emma Vigeland]

Massive majority because of this type of redistricting.

[Sam Cedar]

Positive person, incredibly insincere. Oh, apparently she's not aware that there are no districts that impact the Senate races. Whoopsie. It's the whole state. The governor like the only redistricting that could possibly happen is if you were to actually draw the redraw the lines of the state of California. Take parts of Nevada. Yeah. But take only the blue parts of Nevada. And that's how you know the reason why California is a mono party state is because Republicans shit the bed there years ago with Pete Wilson. Basically killed their, their chances in that state. It has nothing to do with redistricting. Otherwise you wouldn't see a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators.

[Emma Vigeland]

And also because part of why the Democratic Party is behind on this is because of states like California dropping the ball and not doing partisan gerrymandering in reaction to the Republicans. Doing so that's part of why California is such a central focus, because it would be doing away with the independent redistricting commissions that Democrats have said, we're so. You know, we're so much better than the Republicans in so many of these states that they've relied on. That's why California is centrally focused here is because. No, we could. This is like the threat gerrymandering it, actually.

[Sam Cedar]

Same with New York. Yes, same with New York. But it's just stunning amount of ignorance. And nobody seems to catch her on this because she's supposed to be like, the liberal. Oh, she's the.

[Emma Vigeland]

No, no, no, she's not. She looks like that. I've confused that liberal with her.

[Sam Cedar]

She's like. She's not a MAGA person. Oh, she's the reasonable, intellectual one. You can tell. She reads. She reads the news.

[Emma Vigeland]

Okay, gotcha.

[Sam Cedar]

She's like, the end. Mtv. Buckley. Yeah. Is a monoparty state.

[Emma Vigeland]

That's why Democrats have a super majority.

[Sam Cedar]

And, you know, it's like, that's why they have two Democrat senators.

[Emma Vigeland]

That's why I have a Democrat governor. And, you know, it is such a.

[Sam Cedar]

Massive majority because of this type of.

[Emma Vigeland]

Redistricting, which is incredibly insincere.

[Sam Cedar]

Whenever Republicans start to get a stronghold.

[Emma Vigeland]

In a certain part of the state, they just. They carve it apart. I'm not a huge fan of this.

[Sam Cedar]

And I think that, you know, you need to run better candidates if you're.

[Emma Vigeland]

Worried that your party is out of power and, you know, offer voters better ideas.

[Sam Cedar]

Because this is not a fight.

[Emma Vigeland]

This is cowardice. So if you are expecting your caucus to grow, you're doing it wrong. If you're running to another state where.

[Sam Cedar]

The obese governor might eat you. Wait, what is she even babbling about?

[Emma Vigeland]

Does she go by one name like she's Beyonce or something?

[Sam Cedar]

She was an MTV vj. She really was. I honestly. I couldn't even make sense of the last part of what she was saying. It was a shot at Pritzker. No, no, I get the part about the Pritzker thing, but she's seemingly criticizing Abbott for redistricting and not having better candidates to beat these, while blaming Pritzker for enabling the Democrats for stopping Abbott from doing what he's doing. Right. Exactly like they're do. They instigated this. And also Vance has taken trips to Indiana. Hogan's heart doctor says, if Democrats already have the power to redistrict and give themselves the edge, well, why aren't they already, already not doing it in California. And in New York, Democrats passed legislation to have an independent commission do it. Personally, I think it was naive. They are now starting to realize it was naive.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yep.

[Sam Cedar]

And so the threat is we're going to have the Democrats, we have the, we have the numbers in these states despite the fact that we have an independent commission that does the redistricting. We're going to redistrict. And I hope they don't just do it for congressional. I hope they do it for state legislatures. Oh, yeah, I am very much comfortable with no Republican state legislatures or Assembly. I'm very comfortable with that idea.

[Emma Vigeland]

Until there is a Supreme Court case in sometime in the future or a federal mandate and law that there is a all independent committee redistricting in all 50 states, every Democratic state should be responding with gerrymandering. That's it. That's if Republicans are going to do it. Democrats have to get on this. And it's just funny to me, not so funny that Democrats talk about when Bernie was running in 2020 and 2016. Are we unilaterally disarmed by just taking small dollar contributions? Are we going to unilaterally disarm and not take any more corporations, corporate money? But when it comes to things like, I don't know, taking political power and seizing it, we'll outsource it to the independent commission and functionally unilaterally disarm as the Republicans do. This like that speaks so much to the issues with the party that are hopefully, hopefully starting to change. But you know, I. We're behind on this. And it's the Democrats fault for being weak and Pollyannish, to put it mildly.

[Sam Cedar]

All right, let's change focus for a bit. We'll go to clip number one. You've probably seen, and I know we've played at least one clip of this guy. Or two, he is an ex GHF.

[Emma Vigeland]

Contractor, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

[Sam Cedar]

Foundation set up by Israel and America. Or CIA guys. Exactly. He was essentially a contractor mercenary. Former Green Beret, Anthony Aguilar. He was sent there apparently expecting that they were actually doing humanitarian aid. And he was protecting recipients of humanitarian aid and protecting the aid. And his experience there was very, very different. He's been on a bunch of shows. Here's a clip of him on the MSNBC Weekend primetime show. I'm not speaking because this is my story. I'm speaking because this is the story of a population of human beings that if we don't do something now, we are on a dangerous road and a day of reckoning. Is coming, that, that as a world, we're going to see it. And we have no excuse. We have no excuse when, when, when everything comes to bear and this box is opened and we see inside. We have no excuse as a nation, we have no excuse as a, as a, as a world to look at this and say we didn't know. We do know. And I'm not looking for anyone's approval. I'm not looking for the approval of paid spokespersons from the Gaza Humanitarian foundation or a paid contract lawyer who wants to talk about. I don't know how to, you know, I don't know what I'm seeing on a certain site when I've been there. So I'm here for, for consciousness and for doing what's right and American values. America needs to know what we are doing in Gaza, what we are complicit in. And America's voice needs to stand up and put an end to it, because a day of reckoning is coming. And right now, we are on the wrong side of history. Lieutenant Colonel, do you believe that you witnessed war crimes? Not just the fog of war, as the IDF has said, that this is not a policy.

[Emma Vigeland]

Where did these orders come from?

[Sam Cedar]

Is it a systemic policy?

[Emma Vigeland]

And how does it compare to when you served in Iraq and Afghanistan?

[Sam Cedar]

Complicated and complex environments require strong leadership and require strong morals. It's very easy in a situation like this where the population has been dehumanized, to see them running and scrounging for food. And to see them is. It's very easy to go down that path of dehumanization and then just looking the other way. War. The fog and friction of war is real. However, the azimuth, the line that keeps us straight through that fog and friction is our morals and our ethics. Humanitarian laws that we all abide by. These aren't questionable. These aren't things that have flexibility. These are our guideposts. The Israeli Defense Forces have put in a. Have been put in a very precarious situation in the south because the Gaza Humanitarian foundation put all three of the sites, the southern sites, in the middle of combat zones. The each of the distribution sites in the south are right in the middle of ongoing combat operations. It puts the IDF in a very bad position tactically and operationally, and it puts them in a dilemma to where they're in their area of trying to combat Hamas, which is their mission. They're also having to pretend with 8 to 9 to 15,000 hungry civilians in any given day. And when there's not strong leadership and There isn't a strong purpose then this type of situation where we see the war bear on people, where the dehumanization becomes almost organic, that this is what that becomes. And up in northern Gaza, they've been isolated for even longer. No one can go in and out of the Nesareem corridor, north in the Gaza City, in Jabalya. And when aid starts going in there, when the world has had enough and we start to go in to northern Gaza, we are going to see things that are going to bring the world to their knees. Mark my words. We are going to see human suffering like the world has not seen in a long time. And it's going to bring us to our knees. And we have an opportunity right now to stop this and to do the right thing. And if we don't, we are complicit in that and the world is going to see it and that day is coming.

[Emma Vigeland]

That would. Just hearing that just sends a chill down your spine, right? Because we know that we only know a fraction of both the death toll, the level of suffering, the level of destruction. And Aguilar, he had, I heard his interview with Breaking Points and he said something in that interview where I think it was like, you know, talking about Hamas and he had mentioned this is not to discredit him, this is just to do the opposite to anybody who's still like a Zionist watching this. He had said the thing about the microwaving babies in that interview or something in passing, which was a lie that Hamas was doing that, a propagandistic lie at the outset of the genocide to manufacture consent for it. I only point that out to say that this is somebody who isn't going, Wasn't. Wasn't approaching this with a bias. It was somebody who had like, he's.

[Sam Cedar]

Going as a mercenary. As a mercenary, you know, he served in Iraq and Afghanistan and is still going out there as a mercenary.

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean the, I mean the amount of credibility of his testimony is just important to underscore here. And what he is saying is, is that this, this genocide is from his own eyes, even worse than what we have seen and what we know.

[Sam Cedar]

Let's look at clip number four. This is a. ITV News somehow got a hold of aerial footage of Gaza. It has been just obliterated.

[Emma Vigeland]

And they're prohibited from filming. So this is the IDF is. Keeps building by building erased. Well, let's hear their. Their like broken skeletons laid waste by war.

[Sam Cedar]

Graveyards of life and lives.

[Emma Vigeland]

The streets, homes and coffee houses of old now cast to the ground. The Soul of this place along with the souls who lived here brought to ruin in the rubble and dust.

[Sam Cedar]

Israel bans for journalists from entering Gaza.

[Emma Vigeland]

15,000Ft above is the closest we get.

[Sam Cedar]

To seeing for ourselves the consequences of.

[Emma Vigeland]

The war it is waging here.

[Sam Cedar]

When we joined an airdrop last week, Israel also tried to restrict images from.

[Emma Vigeland]

Above being filmed or shown. Aid being dropped from this flight is to those who are trying to survive in this hell. This was Gaza before the bombs started falling.

[Sam Cedar]

A place of life where normal lives were lived. There is no sign of that normality now. This is one of the explosions which destroyed Gaza, targeting the Turkish Palestine Friendship Hospital, the only specialist cancer hospital in Gaza. This is what's left of it now. This was the Al Wafa old people's home.

[Emma Vigeland]

We can't say what's become of its residents.

[Sam Cedar]

This was a primary and secondary school.

[Emma Vigeland]

We can't say what became of the pupils. Many of the other ruins were homes.

[Sam Cedar]

We can't say whether those that lived here survived or are among the 60,000 now dead. Under international law, it is a war.

[Emma Vigeland]

Crime to target schools, hospitals and other civilian sites.

[Sam Cedar]

All right, we should say that the 60,000 person death toll is only the official count and there any reasonable estimates that are now coming out as people study this, anticipate that number to be anywhere from eight to 10 times. That should also say there's aerial drops of aid. Canada just did some. It is woefully inadequate. You need trucks to go in and Israel is still inhibiting trucks from getting in there. Just to give you a sense, over the past, I guess, year or so we've heard messages from a family in Gaza via their brother who lived in Europe. Part of the family was able to get out about a year ago, I guess now to Egypt. They have been sending money back to Gaza where they have essentially started a bakery. This is not the one. It's a different link and the. But we got another message from the family. This is. I just want to give you a sense of. Let's first do the rice the Gaza bakery is handing out. I don't think it's a bakery in the sense that we think of bakeries here, but they are handing out and cooking of rice apparently is one of the few things that gets in. And this is they're helping serve food to people. This is in. I believe it's in southern Gaza. I want to show you a picture of Muhammad who we've spoken to on the program, his brother. There are three pictures. We're going to start with it's basically before and after. This is a little disturbing. This was Muhammad's brother Kadar a couple years ago. And then the interim is a picture of him here. And then the most recently, this is the latest picture. You can see that he has lost an extraordinary amount of weight. It's just. This is what's happening in Gaza. We also have an audio message from another member of the family that they wanted us to play. It's upsetting just to hear the level of desperation, but it's important for them to know that people are at least aware of what's going on in Gaza. Let's play this audio. My name is Rina, I'm 21 years old, speaking from Gaza. This is a first hand account. My brother just returned from one of the Gaza air distribution sites, the ones backed by a US group. He saw people shot while reaching for flower. Children were lining in blood. We are terrified. Israel is turning food lines into war zones and they are targeting children. We are starving, but it is too dangerous to get food. This isn't humanitarian aid. It's a Desi tribe funded by the US and backed by Trump. Please, please don't stay silent. Share this. Speak out, demand and into U.S. support. We just want to leave. We have a link to the Gaza bakery. This is not it.

[Emma Vigeland]

I sent it in the chat.

[Sam Cedar]

Emma sent it in the chat we had and here it is. You can go and donate money that they're now essentially applying to try and provide food for people in Gaza. You know, I think the way this works is pretty complicated, I would imagine. I don't know how food gets in, where they're getting it from, but that's what they're doing there.

[Emma Vigeland]

It's important to note that this has been a story that's been kind of under the radar, but I want to give credit to the Washington Post for two days ago having an article on what Israel's been doing in terms of funding this gang. Essentially it's led by this guy, Yasser Abu Shabaab, who Hamas is basically accusing of being a traitor because he's clearly taking money from Israel and he has this little. He has a militia of around 100 people that have been stealing aid so that Israel can blame it on Hamas. And this was a tactic that Israel's used previously with Hamas where they propped up the government of Hamas. Netanyahu openly talked about allowing Qatar to fund Hamas so that they could use them as a scapegoat to further immiserate Palestinians because Hamas was not a leftist or, you know, pacifist organization in the way that, you know, some other Palestinians groups had been.

[Sam Cedar]

So they wanted to basically divide the Palestinian people and have a competitor to Fatah.

[Emma Vigeland]

Right.

[Sam Cedar]

So that there was no unified Palestinian body politic essentially.

[Emma Vigeland]

But just to give. They're not. Israel isn't just blocking almost all aid to try to starve Palestinians to death in this Final Solution territory. They are also funding groups that will steal aid so that they can justify it on the ground. And this level of depravity and evil is historic in many ways.

[Sam Cedar]

It starts with the whole smearing of the UN The GHF should not exist. There should be no use for a, quote, Gaza humanitarian foundation run by mercenaries. I talked with Jasper Nathaniel about this. Like humanitarian aid is actually a discipline. You can't just have some mercenary come in and do it. UNRA should be doing this. It isn't Israel let aid in. It's Israel let the UN In. But unfortunately, even Chuck Schumer was talking to the New York Times about how anti Semitic that organization is. So here we are. I should also say, got an email from a listener, Abby in Minneapolis. They. She's doing. She was doing a raffle. We missed the email. But for many lands, mutual aid, who provides as much food aid as he can in Gaza, will also include that link in. It's also a separate GoFundMe. I don't know. I'm not familiar with this listener Abby writes in and then says that she's been raising money for them. Do know the Gaza bakery stuff or at least we, you know, we've spoken to Muhammad on this program a couple times, I think over, over the past year or two. But we'll put both links in there. And again, you know, at the end of the day, there has to be a change in policy. There's. And it's obviously extremely difficult to be outside of the coalition that is dictating policy in this country and influence it. You know, I think to, to the extent that there's Republicans who have argued against the policy that this government has in, in supporting what Israel is doing, I don't know that they're ever going to have the numbers.

[Emma Vigeland]

You know, we saw the polling. Like right Now Gallup has 25% of independents support Israel's military action in Gaza. Eight percent of Democrats support it. Around 70% of Republicans do. I mean, this was our argument prior to the election. It was that it's not about the candidates in the sense, it's about who's in the coalition. And like, you've got Marjorie Taylor Greene or Thomas Massie speaking out, it's not making a difference. And no matter how many media figures are doing this because Trump wants to turn it into the Riviera of the Middle east, and he did a quid pro quo basically with the Israel lobby, including Miriam Adelson, to annex the west bank in exchange for helping him get elected. So this is, this is what we've had. We are not in the coalition in the same way. Like, this was part of what Slotkin was saying in that interview with Crystal, like, well, I don't see the same amount of protests against Trump. First of all, it was because Democratic voters had the gall to expect that their president would have a little bit more humanity than Donald Trump. And we were in the coalition, so we had the opportunity to influence them. Secondly, the Trump administration is repressing protest in a very aggressive way and criminalizing it. So people are afraid. And Slotkin is trying to, like, make a hypocrisy argument about that instead of acknowledging that very real reality. And thirdly, there have been protests. It just hasn't been at the same, I guess, level at the height of it, because the worst has already happened in many ways. Like, we are at past a point of no return. And that is why we are seeing these craven Democrats flip now, because they know what's coming and they know that we're going to see hundreds of thousands of dead and an entire, like, population be decimated.

[Sam Cedar]

I'm not even sure if we don't actually have a similar amount of protests. It's just that it's not a news story anymore. It's not campaign season. It's. Well, it's not just a question of campaign season and it's more of a news story when members of a coalition are protesting against their own sort of successful political leadership. She knows that everyone who is, you know, has any type of sort of mild association or awareness of what politics are, knows that. Jerry McLean says, I've been getting ads smearing the UN on YouTube. There has been. There is no doubt, and a couple of people have mentioned this, I think even Brian, you mentioned this, too, is that there is a tremendous amount of money that is being poured into, I mean, not just YouTube, I would imagine, but all sorts of, like, Internet advertising. Because Israel realizes it is losing this public relations battle in the U.S. is it, you know, an existential fight if they lose political support in the U.S. well, I mean, ultimately, but they are very, very nervous, I think, and rightfully so, because it's quite clear that at the very least the Democratic voter, the typical Democratic voter. They have lost just in terms of like the polling. They still have the leadership and they're paying for it. That's why, you know, Cory Booker won't endorse Zoran Mandani. I don't know that his endorsement would make a difference. But there's a reason why, you know, Chuck Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand, they're all staying away. It is because their donors want them to and their donors want them to probably as much if not far more because of Israel than anything else. And dear God, if you want to come at me that way, you're going to have to take it up with me.

[Emma Vigeland]

So good. So Cory Booker is up in 2026. It's really interesting because in New Jersey Josh Gottheimer just like soaked up Israel money. Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. You know the one of the most right wing Democrats in Congress and he got single digits like Ross Baraka beat outpaced him and Mikey Sheryl won the nomination. But I'd be interested if Ross Baraka would take on Cory Booker in a primary for 2026 because Cory Booker is still doing this dance here. And I want to chaotic leftists on Twitter actually gave tweeted this out gave me the idea. So credit to her. But I think that there could be some Democrats that are taken by surprise by how there is going to be a motivated voting population to come out for somebody that rejects AIPAC money and this level of support for genocide.

[Sam Cedar]

I know one Democrat who I think was taken by surprise about the depth and the importance of this issue to Democratic voters. And her name was Kamala Harris.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yep.

[Sam Cedar]

And it's sort of shocking because again I keep thinking about that poll that Harry Anton showed over the past eight years or ten years. How dramatically? Dramatically like tens I can't remember with dozens of points difference between that has shifted in terms of sympathy with Israel versus sympathy with the Palestinians. And surely the people on Harris's campaign must have known this and they made a calculation that the financial support that we're getting from a certain donor class is more important than these actual opinions of these Democrats. And you know, with these things you can never know for sure what is the one thing that depressed turnout out depressed activists cost you votes. But there is a lot of evidence that it had a far greater impact than they anticipated and may have been.

[Emma Vigeland]

Determinant then trans issues for example then trans issues because of what supporting Israel codes as for a voter it means you're an establishment person who can't be trusted. That's what people think when you take APAC money. They think bought not for me, for the, for the Israel lobby for corrupt interests. That is the line of demarcation. So even if you want to be all cynical about it, the consultants have motivated reasoning to say that supporting Israel is not going to cost us elections because they're all making money together cool with it. Like, like they're this whole like well funded class that is has successfully both like manufactured candidates that have this ideology but also insulate like Democrats from just craven political realities about what would benefit them electorally is one of the most corrupt things ever. We'll, we'll talk about that article in Data tomorrow.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah.

[Emma Vigeland]

About where all this money is going in the dnc. I mean this is a, a major problem and it's a deeply depressing reality that we squandered the organizing from 2008 and less than 20 years later we are in such a horrific position with the Democratic Party at least on a national level. Where this is what makes sense is like these Democrats in Texas or in Illinois or in, on the state level they are so much better equipped to deal with this than our APAC funded corruption career Democrats in Congress who, who are have. Are so out of touch that it's completely destroying the brand of the party and preventing us from mounting an opposition to fascism.

[Sam Cedar]

They're fatally corrupt in a way that's historically almost unprecedented.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yep.

[Sam Cedar]

Be Dan from San Diego. I bet Kamala was pro Palestine. She would have won had she been. I don't even think personally I think things would be better than they are now in terms of our Palestinian policy than Trump. And you know, it's impossible to prove a counterfactual. But I don't even think that she would have had to have been actively pro Palestinian. She needed to indicate that she was open or was interested in changing our policy from that time. And that could have been indicated by any number of things. Let a Palestinian speak at the DNC with the most sort of benign speech that you could possibly imagine from a Palestinian American lawmaker, which would have at least indicated that there is some recognition that Palestinians are human beings, which would have been a significant upgrade from what the Biden administration had done. Again, like I'm not being Pollyannish here. I don't think that. I don't know, I don't know where we would be in terms of this conflict but I do think that it would be. We would not be seeing this mass starvation at this point under a Harris administration and I. But they failed as in a completely, you know, just sort of like a crass political calculation. They failed to recognize this or they simply made a trade off that they thought they could get away with that was, I'm not going to alienate these donors, but I am okay to alienate these voters. That was the trade off they made. And she did not lose for lack of money. So that was a very bad trade off because at the end of the day, the money is there to get you votes. Well, also buy some nice cars with it. How much, how many, how many words you think she's going to spend on the Gaza decision in 107 days?

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh, my God.

[Sam Cedar]

She goes entirely. 107 days. Her book, her new book coming up. Jesus. I can't.

[Emma Vigeland]

I know. I literally, I think I had already.

[Sam Cedar]

Blocked that out of my mind.

[Emma Vigeland]

I might get into hard drugs.

[Sam Cedar]

Honestly. Honestly.

[Emma Vigeland]

The title itself, October 7 days.

[Sam Cedar]

No, no, it is a complaint. Oh, yeah. The title itself is a complaint. Let me cook. Just need more time to get to know her. How about the word unfair?

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, yeah, again, you know, I'm sympathetic to how like women, and especially women of color have to navigate things that are like politics. And there's things where, you know, I think in an ideal world, politicians like that could be freed to say more things if they weren't so afraid of how they'd be perceived or if they didn't have, have a consultant class that also has like certain assumptions about women and women of color that hamstring them. And I think she's in many ways part of that kind of lack of progress we have as a country. But it doesn't really matter because her politics, like, it's just evident in the fact that she hasn't said anything. Like, they're just like the Democrats that lost. I know it's like good decorum to after you lose, go into hibernation a little bit. But that's not what this moment meets right now. We're in a fascist moment and it show like the hollowness of that kind of liberalism or that lack of coalition or organizing is made clear right now because she's not like, if she were a true leader that could meet this moment or in 2028 that could meet that moment, she would have not gone away after her loss. She would have been a part of organizing and mounting an opposition to Donald Trump. But her, she, her apparatus and her politics is fundamentally incapable of doing that. And that's part of what it's not just a new generation of leadership in terms of age. That's part of it, though. It's both. It's age and also, of course, ideology.

[Sam Cedar]

All right.

[Emma Vigeland]

The shortest presidential campaign in modern history.

[Sam Cedar]

It's. Wow. Always lead with.

[Emma Vigeland]

You know, it doesn't even mean anything.

[Sam Cedar]

Well, I'll tell you the longest speech, too. I did a movie that I didn't release for a number of reasons, not the least of which that it was about a terrorist attack in New York City. And we were editing it over the summer of 2000. The left wanted to make comedy illegal. And, you know, some people would argue it's not funny. But having been a filmmaker and made things, I know that you cannot get up in front of the audience after they watch the movie or beforehand and go like, this was gonna be much better. But here's what happened. First off, I got. I got over by these people.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

They didn't deliver the thing. And this shot, like I told the dp, get the shot. And he didn't get the shot. And he said he had it. And then I get back to editing. I couldn't go back to the. You can't explain why you failed. The basic thing, like, there's no explaining after the fact. Like, this is why. Just imagine if this scene moved with a better pace right now. Watch the movie. That's what this book is, right? Like, not my fault.

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh, of course.

[Sam Cedar]

Why I lost to the Black Guy by Mitt Romney.

[Emma Vigeland]

This is a version of what all of the consultants were doing by going on podcast America, after the election. Hire me, hire me, hire me. And then for her, I want to keep my options open for 2028. And, like, she's a name recognition polling frontrunner. But I do not have any confidence that if. When she actually. If she actually tries to run, that that's going to work out well for her. Because I just don't think we're going to be in a place where people are going to want to go back. We're not going back.

[Sam Cedar]

At no point in her career, she ever excited a massive voters.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, she doesn't have that capacity. Exactly.

[Sam Cedar]

Majority report wardrobe coordinator. I saw a demographic coalition breakdown from Cornell Belcher that indicated Kamala got more white votes than Biden, but roughly 2 million fewer Latino votes and 3 million fewer Black votes. Doesn't this put forth a different theory of her loss than Gaza being the main cause? Was it a combination immigration? There's no doubt there was a combination of a bunch of different things. But if you focus on the swing states and you focus on Pennsylvania and Michigan and in what was the third state that was going to be the closest one, Nevada. If you, if you focus on, at the very least Michigan and Pennsylvania, you can look at the polling there. But also you're depressing the activist class, the people whose job it is to get people out to vote. You depress them. I know that for a fact. I had multiple conversations with multiple leaders of groups that were just like, it's tough because the people who go out, like the core of the activists who go out and, and organize and, and get people to the polls, they care about this issue. It's just, that just happens to be the case. I mean, I remember talking to somebody after Biden dropped out and the relief that he was gone and they had a somewhat blank slate to get people to go knock doors under, under Kamala was, you saw it in the polls. There was a huge like rise in total enthusiasm and then it was squandered. I'm not saying it's the only issue. I'm not saying it's the only issue, but I think like it's. But. And again, who knows if it was determinate, but certainly that and the pivot they made basically starting with the convention, you know, just was one thing on top of another. She had a four point lead, pressed her own people.

[Emma Vigeland]

She had a four point lead leading up to the convention and that, but that's when she dropped. We're not going back. And the weird stuff what you don't want to talk about anymore?

[Sam Cedar]

No, let's go, let's go to the fun half. I'm, I'm already on the brink. It's 135 already. It's not like a freebie. Friday, become a member already. Although you apparently don't need to to get the whole show practically for free. Who's going to listen to an hour and a half podcast on Tuesday when we get another one on Wednesday? Folks, it's your support that makes the show possible. You can become a member@jointhe MajorityReport.com when you do, you know, we get the free show, but the free show ends up being the whole show half the time.

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh my God. Ezra Klein had Mahmood Khalil on also.

[Sam Cedar]

Also just coffee, co op, fair trade coffee, hot chocolate, use the coupon code. Majority get 10% off. Matt. Left reckoning. Left reckoning. Tonight, Kylie Chung talking about reproductive justice, the response from Democrats, the inherent violence involved and basically how suppressing ability to get, say reproductive health care plays into the hands of abusers. So Kylie's a great writer on this. Looking forward to talking about her new book, Coercion tonight, seven o' clock Eastern time. See you in the fun half. Three months from now, six months from now, nine months from now. And I don't think it's going to be the same as it looks like in six months from now. And I don't know if it's necessarily going to be better six months from now than it is three, three months from now. But I think around 18 months out, we're gonna look back and go like, wow. What? What is that going on? It's nuts. Wait a second. Hold on for, hold on for a second. Emma, welcome to the program. What is up, everyone? Fun Pat. No M. You did it. Fun hat.

[Emma Vigeland]

Let's go, Brandon.

[Sam Cedar]

Let's go, Brandon. Bradley, you want to say hello? Sorry to disappoint everyone. I'm just a random guy. It's all the boys today.

[Emma Vigeland]

Fundamentally false. No, I'm sorry.

[Sam Cedar]

Women. Stop talking for a second and let me finish.

[Emma Vigeland]

Where is this coming from, dude?

[Sam Cedar]

But dude, you want to smoke this? 7A.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes.

[Sam Cedar]

Hi. Me. You see? Yes. Is this me? Is it me? It is you? Is this me? Oh, is it me? I think it is you. Who is you? No sound. Every single freaking day. What's on your mind? We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism. I'm gonna go Skyline Libertarians. They're so stupid. Though common sense says, of course.

[Emma Vigeland]

Gobbledygook.

[Sam Cedar]

We nailed him.

[Emma Vigeland]

So what's 79 plus 21?

[Sam Cedar]

Challenge, man. Positively quivering. I believe 96. I want to say. 8, 5, 7, 2, 1 0, 35, 500. One, one half. 3, 8, 9, 11. For instance.

[Emma Vigeland]

$3,400. $1900.

[Sam Cedar]

5, 4, $3 trillion. Sold. It's a zero sum game, actually.

[Emma Vigeland]

You're making me think less.

[Sam Cedar]

But let me say this. You can call it satire. Sam goes to satire.

[Emma Vigeland]

On top of it all, my favorite.

[Sam Cedar]

Part about you is just like every.

[Emma Vigeland]

Day, all day, like, everything you do.

[Sam Cedar]

Without a doubt. Hey, buddy. We see you. All right, folks, folks, folks.

[Emma Vigeland]

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

[Sam Cedar]

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

[Emma Vigeland]

But you should know.

[Sam Cedar]

People just don't like to entertain ideas anymore. I have a question. Who cares? Our chat is enabled. Folks. I love it.

[Emma Vigeland]

I do love that.

[Sam Cedar]

Gotta jump. Gotta be quick. I gotta jump. I'm losing it, bro. Two o', clock, we're already late, and the guy's being a dick, so screw him. Sent to a gulag.

[Emma Vigeland]

Outrageous.

[Sam Cedar]

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