3562 - Trump Pines for Greenland; Minnesota Fights Back

Summary

The Majority Report with Sam Seder

Episode 3562 — “Trump Pines for Greenland; Minnesota Fights Back”
Date: January 20, 2026
Cast: Sam Seder (host), Emma Vigeland (co-host), Matt Lech (co-host)

Overview

This episode of The Majority Report dives into the ongoing and escalating political crises under the Trump administration, with particular focus on Trump’s renewed push to seize Greenland, the intensifying government crackdown on dissent in Minnesota, and the federal targeting of protestors and vulnerable immigrant communities. Sharp, irreverent analysis from Sam, Emma, and Matt highlights the surreal developments in U.S. foreign and domestic policy, the lack of meaningful Democratic opposition, and the various forms of grassroots resistance rising up in response.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Trump’s Greenland Mania and the Nobel Peace Prize Snub

• Trump’s obsession with acquiring Greenland resurfaces, now linked to his resentment over not receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.
• Reports surface about an awkward letter/email exchange between Trump and the Prime Ministers of Norway and Finland, where Trump blames his invasion threats on being snubbed for the prize. (08:07–15:10)
• BBC coverage and analysis on-air reveal the absurd justifications and international alarm surrounding the Greenland situation.

Notable Quotes

• BBC explanation of Trump’s logic:
  “[Trump] is reported to have replied: ‘Considering your country... decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped the wars, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace...’” (10:22)
• Sam: "The world is not secure unless we have complete and total control—ALL CAPS—of Greenland. That’s the name of my new book!” (14:49)
• Emma: “He’s confusing white people. This is anti-white racism!” (12:32, jokingly ridiculing Trump’s geographic ignorance)

Context & Stakes

• The U.S. military postures toward Greenland.
• Denmark and Canada send troops in response, signaling the collapse of NATO-era alliances.
• Canada’s deepening economic ties with China highlighted as evidence that U.S. partners are decoupling (06:53–07:41).

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2. Collapse of Allied Trust and Rise of Global Instability

• European nations prepare for a post-NATO world, moving data off U.S. servers out of security fears. (07:41)
• Canada’s pivot toward China is painted as a rational response to U.S. unreliability.
• EU officials warn of “permanent break,” and market volatility grows with Trump’s tariff threats.

Notable Quotes

• Emma: “If I were a member of a European country right now, I would be screaming to kind of cut bait at this point. The United States is not a reliable partner in any capacity.” (15:43)
• Sam: “The Europeans would have to be clinically insane to trust this country ever again.” (19:25)

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3. Minnesota: General Strike and Escalating State Violence

• Minnesota teeters on the brink as unions and labor federations call for a statewide general strike (January 23) in protest of federal violence and mass detentions. (33:09–34:18)
• Large list of unions, including nurses, educators, and transit workers, sign on.
• Political leaders are either silent or weak in opposition; the absence of an assertive Democratic response is broadly condemned.

Notable Quotes

• Sam: “We have no opposition party. Any type of messaging is going to sound like they're committing to doing something, and in that case that would be problematic.” (28:01)
• Emma: “What are your tax dollars going to? They’re going to the genocide in Gaza, they’re going towards annexing Greenland when you can’t afford health care, you can’t afford child care.” (30:33)

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4. Targeted Repression: ICE, DOJ, and Religious Hypocrisy

• Trump’s DOJ, led by former Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche, refuses to investigate high-profile ICE shootings, brushing aside demands for even the pretense of review. (34:18–39:20)
• ICE field director doubles as a pastor; protests inside his church spark threats of criminal charges and a new wave of anti-protest measures.
• Broadening of “terrorism” definitions to target protestors, especially those acting in or near religious settings.

Clips & Quotes

• DOJ’s Blanche: “We don’t just go out and investigate every time an officer is forced to defend himself... We never do. That has nothing to do with what happened in Minneapolis.” (35:14)
• Emma: “But what is immensely concerning is the fact that they don’t want to set a precedent for an investigation whatsoever.” (38:28)
• Protester in church: “How dare you claim to be a pastor of God and you are involved in evil in our community.” (43:03)
• Rep. Keith Self (R-TX): “When you live stream something, you want it to cause terror in the population. That’s the definition of terror.” (47:55)
• Sam (mocking): “We do not mean for this to cause terror.” (48:19)

Key Timestamps

• DOJ refuses investigation: 34:18–39:20
• Church protest and 'anti-Christian' framing: 41:28–47:55

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5. Grassroots Responses and Everyday Resistance

• Highlights of “mutual aid” networks at ICE facilities: volunteers help released detainees, immigrants given support after facing deprivation by ICE. (53:03–56:08)
• Community actions: key fobs to trigger car alarms near ICE, public shaming, even hotel workers denying ICE agents accommodations.
• Creative protest: reports of water balloons used to harass ICE agents in freezing weather.
• Peer-to-peer legal advice: Know-your-rights campaigns, notably in Maine, as ICE escalates operations. (73:42–75:29)

Quotes & Notable Moments

• Jack, a volunteer: “We just, at this point, it’s not the police. We need the people.” (54:03)
• Sam: “So much of what we’re going to be dealing with this year is going to be thwarting ICE in any way that we can… it’s going to be attrition.” (70:07)
• Graham Platner’s script for Mainers: “You do not have to speak to federal agents. You do not have to show them any form of ID. You do not have to sign anything. And most importantly, you do not have to open your door.” (73:42)
• Emma: “They are doing ethnic cleansing with ICE as the Gestapo.” (72:51)

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6. Lack of Opposition and Democratic Paralysis

• Dem leaders routinely fail to offer alternative visions or vigorous opposition.
• Frustration at inability/unwillingness to push for stronger policies on labor, health, or anti-fascist priorities.

Quotes

• Emma: “Most national Democrats don’t want to have to do anything, so they’re not gonna go through the effort of messaging.” (29:59)
• Matt: “Democratic Party is not set up to say we’re going to nationalize Tyson… The vast majority of the party is brainless.” (32:02)
• Sam: "There's a million different ways of providing support for that and messaging it, but they cannot bring themselves to doing it." (32:21)

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Memorable / Humorous Moments

• On Trump’s Greenland logic:
  Emma (sarcastic): “He’s confusing white people. This is anti-white racism!” (12:32)
• On livestreaming as ‘terrorism’:
  Sam: “We do not mean for this to cause terror… The idea that we are occupied and have people like him who are literally the lawmakers in this country, it’s terrifying. But that is not the purpose of this live stream.” (48:19)
• On volunteer resistance:
  Jack: “I just learned of this group that’s kind of doing some meaningful stuff and do my part… I don’t see us staying a beautiful city unless people stand up.” (54:03)
• Sam (on creative protest): “There are people now using their key fobs… You see ICE coming down the neighborhood, you just hit that key fob and all the horns go off.” (62:28)
• Sam (deadpan on water balloons): “You’re not supposed to do that, and anybody who comes up with some innovative way in which to get ICE officials wet in that cold, obviously would be doing something that was wrong, but also innovative.” (61:15)
• ICE & DoubleTree anecdote: Hotel quietly cancels ICE reservations out of concern for community safety (68:45).

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Resistance & Action Info

• Know Your Rights: “If ICE does not have a signed judicial warrant, you have the right to say ‘I do not consent to entry’ and keep your door closed.” (73:42)
• ICEWatch Info: Visit icerrt.com for information on local ICE watch and how to report suspicious activity (66:49).

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Major Segments by Timestamp

• Trump, Greenland, Nobel Peace Prize: 00:12–15:10
• Europe/Canada Alliance Crisis: 05:49–16:24
• Minnesota General Strike, Union Solidarity: 33:09–34:18
• DOJ, ICE, and Lack of Oversight: 34:18–39:20
• Church Protest, ‘Anti-Christian’ Charges, Livestream = ‘Terrorism’: 41:28–52:29
• On-the-Ground Resistance, Mutual Aid to Detainees: 53:03–56:08
• Legal Rights and Protections: 73:42–75:29

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Conclusion

This episode features deep dives into the machinery of American authoritarianism, with sharp, caustic, and very human commentary from the Majority Report crew. The hour captures a moment of national and international instability, with the panel highlighting the hollowness of establishment opposition, the creativity and determination of grassroots movements, and the surreal spectacle of Trump-era governance at its most unhinged. Mutual aid, protest, and labor solidarity are foregrounded as critical responses in dark times.

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For more: Visit Majority.FM for show notes, archives, and to become a member.

Transcript

[Emma Vigeland]

You are listening to a free version.

[Sam Seder]

Of the Majority Report.

[Emma Vigeland]

Support this [e-mail] and get an extra hour of content daily.

[Sam Seder]

The Majority Report with Sam Cedar. It is Tuesday, January 20th, 2026. My name is Sam Seder. This is the five time award winning Majority Report. We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, usa. On the program today, Trump links Greenland takeover bid to his Nobel Peace Prize snub.

[Emma Vigeland]

America first.

[Sam Seder]

Don't know what to tell you. Minnesota a tinderbox as more groups announce their support for general strike this Friday. Trump's doj meanwhile seeks to press charges against Don Lemon and church protesters of a pastor who is an ICE manager. Third immigrant detainee death at a Texas ICE facility. EU EU chief warns Trump Greenland threats are causing a permanent break this as Canada mulls sending troops to Greenland. Market drops on Trump's 10% across the board European tariff threat, including a 200% tariff threat on French wine if Macron doesn't join his peace board. Senate strikes a deal on health care legislation involving PBMs and community health centers. ACA subsidies still languish. Some good news for China. Their economy grew by 5% in 2025, buoyed by, if you can believe it, exports. ISIS stopped payments for detainee medical treatment. A federal judge, however, limits ICE's crowd tactics. We'll see how long that sticks. It is day eight of the largest nurse strike in New York City history and Virginia Dems pave way for a gerrymander that may give Democrats a four seat pickup in the House of Representatives. All this and more on today's Majority report. What's it is news day.

[Emma Vigeland]

What it is news day Tuesday.

[Sam Seder]

Thrown off by the music going away.

[Emma Vigeland]

Hello.

[Sam Seder]

It's been a couple of days.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes, it's news day Tuesday. Hello to you, Sam.

[Sam Seder]

Hello, Emma. Nice to see you.

[Emma Vigeland]

Nice to see you.

[Sam Seder]

Okay, a little thrown off. I just saw an IM saying I miss you guys. Talking about me. You haven't said my name. This is from Graham Platner on the ims. I don't think it's actually Graham Platner since my wife and I announced that we were taking my great sperm to Norway. He took a spent it, but only for a couple days. As far as I can tell, he.

[Emma Vigeland]

Made at least a week or so right for the IVF cycle.

[Matt Lech]

It's crazy how affordable it is over there. I compared to here. Right?

[Sam Seder]

Like it is the price.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

Yes.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Matt Lech]

America, baby. But hey, best apprentices come to America for their health care.

[Emma Vigeland]

So best in the world, baby.

[Sam Seder]

Is there like an anchor sperm type of situation in Norway or something like that or. No, it doesn't work that way.

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, maybe the Trump administration is going to look into that birthright citizenship point of conception or going to do reverse it from there. Unclear.

[Sam Seder]

We got a lot to get to. Obviously things in Minnesota are still on the brink or I don't really know how to articulate it. The Trump administration seems like they are stuck between wanting to get out of there, but also not looking weak, it appears to me. But we shall see. But we will get to that in a bit. In the meantime, there have been reports that the 11th Airborne Division up in it's the Arctic. What is it? The Arctic Airborne? I believe it's the 11th infantry in Alaska. 11th infantry up in, stationed in Alaska was prepping to come to Minnesota. But there's also speculation that that was sort of a head fake, that in fact they would probably be one of the, if not the lead in an invasion of Greenland.

[Matt Lech]

Multi threat war between Minneapolis and Greenland.

[Sam Seder]

And Denmark, meanwhile, has sent 100 troops there, I guess ostensibly just to make it sort of, you know, uncomfortable if the United States were to invade. Canada is considering sending troops there. As you know, Trump is really essentially mauling the end of NATO and really a decent relationship with the eu. We reported over the past couple of days like Canada signed a big deal with China to essentially establish not only the sales of their cars EVs in Canada, but what looks like the paving of the way of a Chinese plant in Canada or maybe more building EVs as we watch the beginning of the end of the US Car manufacturing business, I guess.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, I mean, I think like people in Europe have to be looking over at Canada and saying, why not us? To a certain degree. A lot of European leftists have long held that this relationship with the United States based in NATO, but the overreliance on US for their security and their economic relationship puts them in peril. I mean, we have kind of folded in for many years, decades, Europe into our imperial aggression in Iraq and in the Middle east and also in our sanctions regime, which has limited Europe's capacity to do business with who they want to do business with. Right. And Canada has kind of done a clean break. And Carney doesn't share all my politics. But this deal with China is going to benefit Canadians, there's no doubt about it.

[Sam Seder]

Kermit Favag, far fat hog, says, I work in International Institute in Germany. And we were advised this week to transfer all of our data into European servers from any American ones like Dropbox or Google Drives, in case the US Decides to cut off European access to those services, which, you know, seems like a rather prudent, reasonable step to take. I would have done it.

[Matt Lech]

Yeah, Last year.

[Sam Seder]

Here is a clip from the BBC trying to explain the most recent development in Trump's desire to take over Greenland. There was reporting last week that Ron Lauder, the billionaire, had put the idea into Trump's head to buy it some time ago. And then it just sort of. Things have steamrolled maybe. I mean, I guess anybody's guess, but here they are explaining in BBC the latest what appears to be impetus. You'll recall Donald Trump was not the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize this past year.

[Emma Vigeland]

A national heartbreak.

[Matt Lech]

They fixed that. I am the winner.

[Sam Seder]

But that doesn't mean he didn't end up with the medal. When the winner of the Nobel Peace.

[Emma Vigeland]

Prize, Maria Karina Machado, who was the.

[Sam Seder]

Would be beneficiary of the Trump coup in Venezuela, she turned out to be more. Would be than she had anticipated because he felt like, well, she doesn't have the support. And frankly, I don't really care what's going on in Venezuela as long as we get a taste. And we got a taste. And so that's it. When he met with her the other day, he demanded the Peace Prize. She brought it to give it to him. Of course, the Nobel Institute was like, it doesn't work that way. I mean, you can get the prize. I have it now. But, you know, it's like. It's like a prize fighter. No thanks to you selling the belt.

[Emma Vigeland]

Right.

[Sam Seder]

Somebody buying it at a pawn shop. Pawn shop. And then going like, I'm the world champion.

[Emma Vigeland]

No, it's like.

[Sam Seder]

It's like, no, you're not. But you got the belt.

[Matt Lech]

Like a ganglord taking your bowling trophy.

[Emma Vigeland]

Or people that purchase super bowl rings and then acting like you scored the winning touchdown.

[Sam Seder]

Didn't Trump steal, like, one? That was Rob Kraft.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, yeah. That was Putin. Wasn't that Putin?

[Sam Seder]

Putin. Putin. You know, I could do it. I learned from the best. All right, so here's the BBC explaining the latest reason why Trump is giving that he may invade Greenland. It's because everybody else made me do it in Davos this morning. Morning, Faisal. So the World Economic Forum gets underway a little later on, and of course, I imagine a lot of the chat will be about tariffs. What impact could they have on the UK And Indeed, the rest of Europe. Now, Sally, John, I hope you're sitting comfortably. I know that normally you talk to me about economics and numbers, but this is also the place where all these people will meet. Donald Trump is coming here on Wednesday. We think Keir Starmer might do. He might want to get his skates on because of something that's just happened. We have both the Norwegian Prime Minister and Finnish Prime Minister accounts of an exchange of letters which is truly extraordinary. It is absurd and funny in a way, but it's also incredibly serious. Overnight, an email or exchange between those two and Donald Trump, and Donald Trump is reported to have replied. Considering your country, this is a message to Norway decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped the walls. I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace. And then goes on to make an argument for why America should own Greenland. An astonishing note, really, to think that that would be sent by the President of the United. And it shows the sort of. It's astonishing if it was sent by anybody, not just the President of the United States, if anybody said, you know, I didn't get the Peace Prize, so.

[Emma Vigeland]

Now I'm the war guy.

[Sam Seder]

Might as well just do the wars.

[Emma Vigeland]

Because I thought you were bragging about saving. He was this the other day. Saving tens of thousands of lives is what he said. What happened to your principle of being anti war? All it took was you not getting the Nobel Peace Prize, which, by the way, the government of Norway doesn't. There's so many layers of insanity here. The government of Norway doesn't give you the prize. Secondly, Norway does not control Greenland. That's Denmark, buddy. I mean, he's being so close enough. He's. He's confusing white people. This is anti white racism.

[Sam Seder]

No, they're all live in cold places.

[Emma Vigeland]

I'm offended. As a Norwegian, I'm offended.

[Sam Seder]

Is this a real letter?

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes.

[Sam Seder]

Is this a real letter? Pop this up here. This is. This appears to be real. Dear Jonas.

[Emma Vigeland]

Not referring to him as his. As Dear Mr. President, like trying to be a jerk.

[Sam Seder]

This is the thing that I find stunning. There's no way Trump typed this out right, but it's got like his. Like Trumpisms, like the numeral 8, like the capital C. I think this is dictated probably considering your country.

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh, this is for Norway.

[Sam Seder]

Put a capital. Decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped eight wars. Plus. Okay, so we can't count any higher than numeral, numeral 8, so it's easy to read. And then plus all in caps. Thank you. Okay. I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace. Although it would always be prominent. What I. Oh, wait, no, not dominant.

[Matt Lech]

Predominant.

[Sam Seder]

Although Predominant.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

You know, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. See, before, I was always like, peace this, peace that. No, Mr. President, that's not America. First, I don't care. I care about peace. But then you just. You just shoved it all in my face. I'm cutting my hair. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China. And why do they have a right of ownership anyway? What's that about? There are no written documents. It's only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago.

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh, my God.

[Sam Seder]

But we had boats landing there also.

[Emma Vigeland]

Is he 12?

[Sam Seder]

I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding. And not. I have done more than NATO. He personally has done more than NATO. Okay.

[Emma Vigeland]

Okay.

[Sam Seder]

And now NATO should do something for the United States. The world is not secure unless we have complete and total control. All caps of Greenland. That's the name of my new book, Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you, President ctcjt. I mean, he is.

[Emma Vigeland]

He's a lunatic. He has, like. He has lost his mind. He has lost his mind.

[Sam Seder]

The thing is, is that if they were to land, I don't know, those 1500 troops from the 11th Airborne infant would probably just have it. And we'll work out the details later. You guys just keep doing everything like you're doing, and just, we own you now. And that's it.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, as I said, it's just incredible. I mean, this is that Europe is completely neutered by this right now. And there have been a lot of people sounding the alarm saying Europe needs to be a little bit more, you know, take control of their defense packs, and they need to be less reliant on the United States for defense and relying on the United States for its economic ties and its trade relationships. Canada is out ahead of this right now. They understand that China is the future. And if I were a member of a European country right now, I would be screaming to kind of cut bait at this point. The United States is not a reliable partner in any capacity.

[Sam Seder]

To be fair, if I am some of these European countries, rightly or wrongly, I would have concern about Russia.

[Emma Vigeland]

That's true.

[Sam Seder]

We saw two countries join NATO, countries that would never have contemplated joining NATO until Russia invaded Ukraine. And for the past 60, 70 years, they have relied on, on the U.S. the existence of the U.S. and the commitment from the U.S. for at least the bulwark of their security.

[Emma Vigeland]

But that's what Trump know. Or maybe I think some of the neocons that are okay with how Trump is operating here understand is that because of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, NATO is essential for a lot of these countries that border Russia right now in the immediate. And so we have them by the balls, figuratively.

[Sam Seder]

Donald Trump, when did he truth out this? Last night, I guess. We have subsidized Denmark and all the countries in the European Union and others for many years by not charging them tariffs or any other forms of renumeration. Now, after centuries. Centuries.

[Matt Lech]

I mean, it was a different century. 19th was.

[Sam Seder]

I figured out what Trump derangement Syndrome is.

[Emma Vigeland]

Just his.

[Sam Seder]

Trump's derangement.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Matt Lech]

The last fucking 12 years of this country.

[Sam Seder]

World peace is at stake. China and Russia want Greenland, and there is not a thing that Denmark can do about it. They currently have two dog sleds as protection. One added recently. Good stuff. Only the United States of America under President Donald J. Trump can play in this game. And very successful. I mean, this is all just. I can't even. This is just the ranting of a lunatic. We'll play this clip after the break. Also, we should just say it's one thing for Europe to be sort of stunned and unclear on what they should do here, cut bait. I mean, they clearly are, you know, this is sort of the classic metaphor of turning an aircraft carrier. They clearly are starting to move away in certain ways. But it's, you know, it's a process. But if they look too like you would anticipate that if there was an opposition party in this country, that the opposition party would be saying, you know, don't worry, Denmark or, hey, Europe, we are. We're going to come back and we are going to salvage this. And we are making a commitment here now as a shadow, whatever, that if we get back into power, we're going to attempt to, you know, fix our alliances. I mean, the Europeans would have to be clinically insane.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

To trust this country ever again. Like, you know, well, sorry, we're busy.

[Matt Lech]

Learning Mandarin right now.

[Emma Vigeland]

Right. I mean, and also, you know, it's an overwhelming majority of the population of Greenland is indigenous. And I just like, you know, when we're seeing these reports, too, out of Minneapolis or in Minnesota of how ICE is targeting indigenous Americans here, we see the Trump administration's support for basically conquest in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing and genocide there. This, like the Donro Doctrine or whatever he's returning to is just Really a retreat into the more naked forms of imperialism and conquest that this country already engaged in. And so it's just important to point out that this hasn't ended. And even if Greenland is like, you know, a less populous part of the world, it is still very much the same through line of like, Western powers and capitalists taking land that isn't theirs for profit.

[Sam Seder]

We'll have more to talk about this in just a moment. Couple words from our sponsors. I've mentioned over the past, I don't know, month or two, I have a new relationship with my cat.

[Emma Vigeland]

A good one.

[Sam Seder]

I mean the big change. And I don't know, I cannot necessarily attribute this change to Smalls, but at one point it was sometime in the fall, he stopped peeing wherever he wanted to.

[Emma Vigeland]

Wow. Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

And went into the, to the kitty litter box and we started like, like now he'll crawl all over me when I'm sitting on the couch watching TV or something like that. Like we have a better relationship. I don't know for a fact that it's a function of Smalls, but. But it could be. It lines up. It definitely lines up. It is 2026, I should say. This podcast is sponsored by Smalls. For a limited time, get 60% off your first order plus free shipping when you head to smalls.com Majority Smalls Cat Food is protein packed recipes made with preservative free ingredients you'd find in your fridge and it's delivered right to your door. That's why cats.com named Smalls their best overall cat food. The copy they said have it say it's 2026. Do you still feed your cat like it's 1926? I actually feel like Smalls is more like feeding your cat. Like probably what people fed them in 1926, where it's like, no, you know, no preservatives.

[Emma Vigeland]

Right.

[Sam Seder]

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[Emma Vigeland]

Because keeps them hydrated.

[Sam Seder]

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[Emma Vigeland]

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[Sam Seder]

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[Emma Vigeland]

He teases you.

[Sam Seder]

But not everybody has a kid with that kind of attitude. Just in time for the new year, Prolon's offering majority listeners 15% off their five day nutrition program for your post holiday. Glow up when you go to prolonlife.com Majority that's prolon P R O L O N life.com Majority for 15% off prolon life.com Majority check out the podcast and YouTube description for more. Just one or two notes I want to speak in terms of what's going on with are what feels like imminent invasion, takeover, theft of Greenland. Faschiko, who is the head of what is it more Perfect Union, former campaign manager for Bernie Sanders, was on Fox News. And this is really important because think about what we've heard from Democratic leaders regarding Greenland. Exactly.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yep.

[Sam Seder]

Yeah, that's exactly. I mean Dick Durbin apparently was like said something to the fact of like, I hope they can hang in there. And like we have no opposition party.

[Emma Vigeland]

Not even hang in there. I hope you can hang in there.

[Sam Seder]

Seems like it's going to be tough.

[Emma Vigeland]

You might not be able to.

[Sam Seder]

We have no opposition party and there's in addition to the fact that like this stuff seems important. Seems like an opposition party would be out in front of like saying this is madness. There's some pretty obvious messaging that's available to them. But the problem is is that they don't want to have to sign up to do anything. And so invariably any type of messaging is going to sound like they're committing to doing something. And in that case that would be problematic. This is a great example you have heard of. It's the Tyson plant, right, that is closing and in where is it? Lexington, Nebraska. And this is a plant that has been profitable. They are closing essentially because they just want to make sure they can maintain the profit margins on beef processing.

[Matt Lech]

And so in a town of 11,000, 5,000 jobs are going to be lost.

[Sam Seder]

And here is Fascher's point on this is right, that the greatest problem of our time is that in the richest country in the world we have great wealth and income inequality and the poor are getting poorer. We've got Medicaid from them. We've got housing Assistance from them, We've cut the ACA subsidies from them, We've made AI come for their jobs. The question is, can we offer put solutions on the table that improve the lives of these working class people? And every day I think there's opportunities. You see a Tyson plant closure and in Lexington, Nebraska right now, 5% of American beef production going away. Instead of going after Greenland and running Greenland, how about you go and run a Tyson's plan and save? Okay, well we can put that on.

[Matt Lech]

The list as well again.

[Sam Seder]

But, but I mean there's the messaging.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. And AOC sort of, sort of previewed this, we played it last week where she's going out. She's almost doing these like pseudo fireside chat things, which is by the way what Zoran Mamdani did. To great effect of not treating the voters like idiots and explaining exactly what you're gonna do for them. But to your point, Sam, most national Democrats don't wanna have to do anything. So they're not gonna go through the effort of messaging. But like it's about what are the priorities of the federal government. Your tax dollars are taken out of your paycheck. There's a pool of money, what is that spent on? And I know of course it's not necessarily how the government works with MMT and all that, but just from a political messaging perspective, what are the priorities? What are your tax dollars going to? They're going to the genocide in Gaza, they're going to rounding up people on your streets and harassing your communities. They're going towards annexing Greenland when you can't afford health care, you can't afford child care.

[Matt Lech]

That gives like a Greenlanders a stipend for joining us, for floating that right.

[Sam Seder]

Something like, was it like 100,000 per person or something?

[Matt Lech]

Maybe 10,000. Yeah.

[Emma Vigeland]

And even the messaging I'm describing, more than that is defensive messaging. And it doesn't and it's very good for this period. But what it leads, it creates oxygen for is then we tax billionaires to fund those services. Plus like it's a question of priorities with our current, current, the current way that we're taxing and spending this money. But then we can do more. We can tax billionaires out of existence and guarantee you health care. So it's simple. And Trump, they don't want to acknowledge the fact that the genocide in Gaza had an impact on this election. But Trump being the default anti war guy, all of that is completely abandoned by his actions here. And the opposition party should be pointing that out.

[Matt Lech]

I Mean, that's the real reason we need an entire, like, people. What is a revolution. It's an entire changeover of the people making decisions. Democratic Party is not set up to say we're going to nationalize Tyson like Chuck Schumer or Murray Gluson Perez. You need people like Sayed and Platner and Bernie Sanders and the squad type folks. But the vast majority of the party is brainless.

[Sam Seder]

Well, the amazing thing is, is that we've already watched the Trump administration buy 10% of a bunch of different American companies. God knows where the money's gonna end up. But the idea that Chuck Schumer could come out and suggest we should provide a bridge loan to the employees of that, the 5,000 employees of that Tyson factory and sell them the company and provide the bridge loan essentially to them. There's a million different ways of providing support for that and messaging it, but they cannot bring themselves to doing it. It is shocking. All right, let's start here as we go and look in. Remember, on Friday, There's a very long list of Minnesota unions and labor federations endorsing a total shutdown on January 23rd in Minnesota. No work, no school, no shopping is what the banner they are pushing. The amalgamated transit union, 1005 CWA local, the St. Paul Federation of Educators, Minneapolis Federation of Educators, Minnesota Nurse association, seiu, Unite Here, op, eiu, IATSI Graduate Labor Unions, UAW Local. I mean, there's a bunch of different local unions that have joined in, in the call for this. Meanwhile, and this is in the wake of the killing that we saw of Renee Good two weeks ago. Here is. This is Blanche, right?

[Emma Vigeland]

Yep. Deputy Attorney General Todd. Blanche.

[Sam Seder]

Todd. Blanche who? Again, reminder, this time Last year, well, January 20th, I guess it's been a year. This time, 54 weeks ago, this man was Donald Trump's defense attorney. And then he joined the doj. And here he is explaining why the feds are not going to look into any aspect of this killing of Renee Good. Well, the governor's response referenced a number of things.

[Emma Vigeland]

You know, going after Mark Kelly. He says Alyssa Slotkin, Jerome Powell. But he also mentioned what Matt Finn.

[Sam Seder]

Mentioned in his reporting there. He says the only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good.

[Emma Vigeland]

Is the federal agent who shot her.

[Sam Seder]

So is the FBI conveyor conducting investigation into that agent, into the shooting? What can you tell us about that?

[Emma Vigeland]

Will it be made public?

[Sam Seder]

Look, what happened on that day has been reviewed by millions and millions of Americans because it was recorded on phones, at least when it happened. The civil rights, the Department of Justice, our civil rights unit, we don't just go out and investigate every time an officer is forced to defend himself against somebody or putting his life in danger. We never do. That has nothing to do with what happened in Minneapolis. There are over a thousand shootings every year where law enforcement are put in danger by individuals and they have to protect themselves and they have a lawful right to do so. The Department of Justice just doesn't just stand up and investigate because some congressman thinks we should, because some governor thinks that we should. We investigate when it's appropriate to investigate. And that is not the case here. It wasn't the case when it happened and it's not the case today. If circumstances change and there's something that we do need to investigate around that shooting or any other shooting, we will, but, but we are not going to bow to pressure from the media, bout of pressure from politicians and do something that we never do, not under this administration, not under the last administration. And so no, we are not investigating. And if there comes a time when we need to, we will, but it's not now.

[Emma Vigeland]

Is there some type of a fatal shooting that they're basically saying we're not going to conduct any internal investigation over of fatal shooting of an American citizen. I know how this country feels about people who are not American citizens. We see how they've summarily executed dozens of folks on boats. But is that, is there any precedent for this?

[Sam Seder]

Well, on one hand he says it the, that Ross was acting in self defense. But I don't know if I'm part of the review of that. I saw the New York Times frame by frame thing. It was quite clear that he was not acting in self defense. It is, it doesn't even seem to be a question as to whether or not the second and third shot were fired where he was in any threat whatsoever. But here's another question the investigation could ask. Why was he circling the car, videotaping it on his phone? What was the purpose of that? What was why did he take the actions he did that were completely contrary to ICE policy about not putting yourself in front of a car at any point? Was she impeding the, any of the ICE work the cars were able to wave by? I mean, there's a lot of obviously questions. It's obviously, you know, a total snow job. But I mean the, the amount of just absolute destruction wreaked upon our government that we're sitting here going like completely unsurprising that Donald Trump's former defense attorney has decided not to investigate this. But this all represents a fundamental sort of like tear down of the basic structures of our government.

[Emma Vigeland]

But they're basically, I mean, what is if oftentimes say there is a police related involved, you know, shooting usually of a person of color in a community, they'll go through some sort of at least pretense and fake investigation and they will exonerate the officer more often than not in some of those circumstances. And that is what people were protesting over in the Black Lives Matter movement. But what is immensely concerning to me about this is the fact that they don't want to set a precedent for an investigation whatsoever. That's the. They, they don't even want to go through some sort of kangaroo court process which we've seen they have the ability to do across a variety of different issues that might impact Trump negatively. They're just not even gonna do an investigation at all.

[Sam Seder]

To be fair, half of the DOJ has probably left the agency anyways. They literally may not have the.

[Matt Lech]

And they don' a great record in court on some of these charges. So like they can't.

[Sam Seder]

But they also but want to get.

[Emma Vigeland]

Exactly. If you're in court, even if you're going through some sort of kangaroo court process, you would have to bring up certain documentation. There would be a paper trail and there would be records of communications between this ICE officer, between the superiors. There would be some sort of probe into the way ICE is conducting itself. So that one, there's like the. We don't want to show any weakness so that we can incentivize our officers to brutalize people at will. That's like, I think the more political reason, but just the structural reason. The structural challenge to ICE's operations would include some sort of like discovery into their internal communications. And that's what freaks them out. We have no idea who these people are. And that's what they did. That's what they're afraid of.

[Matt Lech]

They need every cent that was given to them by Congress last year because the morale is down despite all of this support. And if Trump, if they waver on that and these guys think that they're going to have court waiting at the end of this supposed opportunity, it becomes a big drag on morale.

[Sam Seder]

Let's go catch up with some of the other moments that have taken place over the past weekend. Don Lemon, formerly of CNN now Don Lemon show on YouTube has been doing some great. I saw some. He's been on the road quite a bit. I feel like in 2025 and I've seen some really good interviews. He's done with folks. He's gone out to Minnesota and it has created some controversy. He interviewed protesters who were about to go into a church and disrupt the services there because the pastor. Do we have that clip? Do we?

[Emma Vigeland]

We do.

[Sam Seder]

The pastors. I, I can't tell where it would be.

[Emma Vigeland]

21 21.

[Sam Seder]

The pastor David Easterwood leads an ice field office in St. Paul.

[Matt Lech]

Despicable.

[Sam Seder]

And so the church protesters decided to protest and maybe let his congregation know that this dude also on one hand he's talking about. I mean I don't, I'm not Christian. I don't know what happens in churches like this. But I assumed it was a lot of love thy neighbor, be good to people, be nice, not let's round up the brown people.

[Matt Lech]

But disgraceful.

[Sam Seder]

Here, play this clip number 21.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. And you won't see the guy. David Easterwood is the pastor who is the ICE field operator is not in this video. But this is the disruption that is causing the Trump administration to, to launch a probe.

[Sam Seder]

They want to bring charge now. This is all on video. I don't know why they need a probe for this.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, they're saying that they good anti religious, anti Christian discrimination.

[Sam Seder]

Remember the SPM7MS. Specifically. What is it? The memo?

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. NSPM7. Yes.

[Sam Seder]

And that's PM7. I can't remember what it is but specifically outlined anything that was anti Christian or perceived as anti Christian. One of these protesters is a pastor herself. So I know it gets, it gets self hating Christian. It's confused. Self hating Christian. Go ahead. David Easterwood is a pastor here. He is also the director of the field office for ice and St. Paul. So someone who claims to worship God teaching people in this church about God is out there overseeing ICE agents. Think about what we've experienced. The murder of Renee Good at the hands of ice. A Venezuelan national shot by ice. A six month old baby who almost died as a result of ICE unleashing military grade weapons on our community. How dare you claim to be a pastor of God and you are involved in evil in our community. I think Jesus would be understanding.

[Matt Lech]

We're about worship these folks.

[Sam Seder]

We're about spreading the love of Jesus. But did you try to talk to them? No church had gathered for worship. We which we do every Sunday and we were interrupted by this group of protesters. We asked them to leave and they obviously have not left. Which one is his main gig is being a pastor. The main gig and the ICE field director is his side gig.

[Emma Vigeland]

That's not the guy. Just FYI, he wasn't there.

[Sam Seder]

Oh, the pastor wasn't there.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, that's what I said. Yeah. Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

That's a different guy.

[Emma Vigeland]

Different pastor. Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

In that church.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, yeah. That guy, the field director is bald. You can look him up. David Easter, Eastwood.

[Matt Lech]

What does he have to say about David Easterwood, though? Are we gonna hide behind. Don't criticize houses of worship because I'm not here for that in 2026. There's a lot of that. And it's despicable to have. If it's true that this David Easterwood is an ICE field director and is like, defending the crowd control violence being inflicted on the community and then also saying, so just, we're just trying to worship here. Go fuck yourself.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, I mean, it's exactly right.

[Matt Lech]

Also, the Christians in there need to wake the fuck up too.

[Emma Vigeland]

We also, we've played video last week of ICE agents stationed outside of churches rounding people up, trying to target anybody that might look Latino or black going into churches. So which one is it? Is it like all of these spaces are off limits and churches can be sanctuaries as the real Christians are saying that they will protect people within their halls of worship? Or is it, you know, a place for political ICE kidnappings? Pick one.

[Matt Lech]

We got to stop giving tax breaks to these places. Like, that's not anything any politician that we're gonna have on is gonna run on. That's just Matt. It's despicable. And this type of stuff that's getting away from in religious organizations.

[Sam Seder]

Understand too, this is gonna end up being potentially a test case as they start to sort of attempt to label people who protest outside of any type of religious place based upon. Obviously, like, people aren't there protesting Christians for being Christian. They're there protesting a would be minister for his involvement in ice. However, there's going to be an attempt increasingly by this government. They've already outlined it in this presidential directive that to do this, you are engaging in some form of terrorism.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yep.

[Sam Seder]

Here is Representative Keith Self.

[Emma Vigeland]

Republican.

[Sam Seder]

Republican from Texas. From Texas. Trying to make that argument. He's here. He is like, I'm gonna. This is gonna be an assist from me to the doj. Look, when you live stream something, you want it to be. You want it to cause terror in the population.

[Matt Lech]

That's the definition of terror.

[Sam Seder]

To cause terror to population. Pause it for one second. I just want to make it clear we're live streaming right now. We do not mean for this to cause terror.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes, I know.

[Sam Seder]

Keith Self Is scary guy. The idea that we are occupied and have people like him who are literally the lawmakers in this country, it's terrifying. But that is not the. That is not the purpose of this live stream. Very often when you live stream, the idea is very similar to when you just stream. Even if it's not live. Like, even if we were to premiere this as opposed to live, it's not a question of creating terror. It is a. It is a form of. What? What's it. Oh, protest. When you live stream a protest, you're doing it to educate and show that you are protesting, not terrorizing.

[Emma Vigeland]

But he didn't just say the protest part. He said live streaming in and of itself is an act of terrorism. I'm wondering if Keith Self pre recorded this interview, because if not, he might be toeing the line in terms of engaging with domestic terrorism.

[Sam Seder]

One could argue that live streaming, this actually makes the.

[Emma Vigeland]

The.

[Sam Seder]

The population feel more secure because they see that, like, oh, those people are just protesting in the church. We're fine. Particularly right now since I'm not at that church and it's live.

[Emma Vigeland]

But the terror people might feel is like, this is happening in real time and I'm not there, but I'm. It's like the train that came at people when they first saw one of the first films. They thought the train might hit them. They might think that they're actually in the place where they're experiencing the livestream. It's the terror.

[Sam Seder]

When Lorne Michaels first pitched Saturday Night Live, he thought. He said, this is going to be terrorizing. Yes. All right, let's go back and just listen to Keith Self trying to sort of sell this. Turtle, work this out.

[Matt Lech]

Skeleton.

[Sam Seder]

Look, when you live stream something, you want it to be. You want it to cause terror in the population. That's the definition of terror, to cause fear amongst the population. So when they live streamed it, I compare them to Hamas, who livestreamed the attack in Israel that killed thousands of hundreds of people, especially in that one festival. So that's what they want to do. They want to instill terror.

[Matt Lech]

American frame of reference, for Christ's sake. Like, we're in America.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, he's auditioning.

[Matt Lech]

Get the campaign money out.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes, yes. How can I shoehorn Hamas?

[Matt Lech]

Jesus.

[Emma Vigeland]

So, you know, for me, I thought the problem and why people were critical.

[Sam Seder]

Foreign affairs.

[Emma Vigeland]

I know.

[Sam Seder]

Like, you can't even.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, I mean. And I thought that the problem with what hamas did in October 7th was the killing. Apparently it was the live streaming.

[Sam Seder]

It took up so much Bandwidth? Yeah. You couldn't get any cell phone coverage.

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, honestly, you know, like when people watch things on tv, like the ball dropping on New Year's Eve and that's live. It's a mass terror event.

[Sam Seder]

Well, you're afraid that that ball is going to drop on people?

[Emma Vigeland]

I do.

[Matt Lech]

It's like a Hamas attack.

[Sam Seder]

Do we need to hear.

[Matt Lech]

No, I don't know. We got this here or whatever.

[Sam Seder]

They live streamed it. I compare them to Hamas who livestreamed the attack in Israel. They killed thousands, thousands of hundreds of people, especially in that one. That's what they want to do. They want to instill terror. I think the federal authorities ought to go after them, at least in the face act. Look, you heard elderly ladies were given prison sentences for praying outside on a public sidewalk outside an abortion clinic. Let's use it. They've abused it. Let's use it. Look, we should also say Hamas did not live stream it. I think they recorded stuff, but they did not live stream it. But regardless, I remember a mosque getting shot up in New Zealand live streamed by Christian.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

I don't know why he didn't use that one.

[Emma Vigeland]

Unclear, unclear, unclear.

[Sam Seder]

Let's go back to Don Lemon, who has been on the ground out there Again, you can find Don Lemon. We'll put a link to his YouTube channel. Good work out there. Here he is interviewing a. In addition to interviewing those folks who are going in to protest the church, you know, without any weapons, just like a terror group would the church again.

[Matt Lech]

With an ICE director as a pastor. I mean, keep it of context there.

[Sam Seder]

Here's Don Lemon interviewing a man. We just know him as Jack on the ground out in front of an ICE facility.

[Matt Lech]

What's your name?

[Sam Seder]

My name's Jack. We're just trying to help pick up some release day 10 ease. You know, they're left out in the cold and get up some supplies, get them home, whatever they need. Cool.

[Emma Vigeland]

Thank you.

[Sam Seder]

It was nice to meet you. Down. Do they come out here? Yeah. When they release them? Yeah, we got, you know, a little system. We're kind of. Whatever you call these. No one, they're gonna let them out. We don't know when.

[Matt Lech]

And they just.

[Sam Seder]

They just walk out. Just drop them out. I'm looking for somebody with a jail bag, and then we go and help out. Do they even have the clothes? Like, it's freezing today. What I'm told is they've been taken yet known they don't have the right clothes. So in some ways, I should be thanking us because that's like another type of murder, you know, Throw them out in this weather, you don't last very long. So. But basically I'm told they've been taking IDs if they're brown, and then also phones, no matter what. So we, you know, we try to get them burner phones, things like that. Get them a ride, whatever they need. What do you think of these tactics? It's just. It doesn't feel right, man. I don't. How do you. I don't even want to entertain an argument, you know, it's just like.

[Emma Vigeland]

You.

[Sam Seder]

Think about these kind of two way fetish people. Here's your moment. This isn't small government. I know that. So. It's just hard to stomach, that's all. Thank you for the work you're doing. How many people do you have you helped so far? So this is my first day. I just started a new job. I get two days off a week, 2:30 to 11pm so when I'm off, I'm gonna be here. I just, I just learned of this, this group that's kind of doing some meaningful stuff and do my part a little bit, you know, why get involved? Beautiful city, beautiful country in a lot of ways. And we want. I just don't see us staying that way unless people stand up. Yeah, it's a cold day, you could be on your couch watching a football game, your feet up. That's exactly what I'd be doing, to be honest. But it's, it's. Who else is gonna do it? We just. At this point, it's not the police. We need the people. What's your name again? Jack. Jack, yes.

[Matt Lech]

Come here, brother.

[Sam Seder]

Yes. Appreciate you. That's what people need to do. Man, you're amazing. That's what people do. This really upsets you.

[Matt Lech]

Why? It's, you know, it's.

[Sam Seder]

You don't want people to die. You don't want. I don't know, that's a tough one for me. But it's, it just seems so clear. It's not right. It used to be like, oh, you're going too far with these Nazi references now it's like, how do you not make those comparisons, you know, I don't know. I. I used to try to stay away from that. It's. It escalates things. But it's just a trip looking out here. I don't know, I don't know how to, to take it in, you know, stomach it, the whole deal. So well you're doing. But you have to be willing to sacrifice something. And you are. Your reporting has a lot of meaning, too. Thank you, brother. Thank you. Impressive.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. I mean, those Nazi references aren't. Obviously, they're becoming more and more, I think, easier for people to accurately describe ICE as a Gestapo. Draw those comparisons.

[Matt Lech]

Also, don't Orientalize it. The Klan, the Japanese internment. This is America 100%.

[Emma Vigeland]

And I mean, slave catchers, they've also been described to. But can we just put this up for a sec? Because this is the reason that I'm not. The reason you say Nazis is because they're. This is. Look at how Bovino is dressing like this. Is there. This is. He's. He's trying to look like a Nazi. This outfit that he wore the other day, we have this up. Yeah. I mean, look at this. This is Nazi iconography. The jacket that he's wearing, he looks like an SS officer. And that's on purpose.

[Matt Lech]

Policies, is it?

[Emma Vigeland]

Already they're tweeting out Nazi iconography.

[Matt Lech]

I got quoted in media. I got quoted in Mediate earlier last. Last year for saying, hey, this is. This codes very clearly to hail Hitler and 1488 stuff. That. The night I got quoted in Mediate, I got a mo. A bunch of attempts to log into my shit.

[Sam Seder]

Really?

[Matt Lech]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

Well, I mean, to be fair, you know, my understanding is that the. Some of these Nazi uniforms were modeled on, like, Massachusetts state troopers with the big boots is actually where that came from. I mean. So.

[Emma Vigeland]

Okay.

[Sam Seder]

But obviously, maybe he's just being sentimental for another time in this country. I mean, look, fascists are never going to be the exact same fascist that they were in the past. Everybody has some new innovative twists. Back in the 1920s, you had to take a pillowcase and cut holes in it, but now you can just have a mask and pull it up and then wear some Oakleys or something like that. There's innovations to the fascism that we have to account for.

[Matt Lech]

Fascism is basically a murderous elite impulse against democracy. And it plays out in different ways. Like the sort of dissimilar. Like, the Nazis and Italians were more regimented in a military sense than we are now, but the impulse is the same. Like, why are we talking about immigration at all right now? It's because, A, capitalism can't provide rising wages. It's all going to the top. And B, there is this. My train of thought. Sorry, I looked at Brian and put me up on screen, but. Beautiful. Thank you.

[Sam Seder]

Yeah. I mean, it's just their mission is an ultra nationalist one, to create purity. They're not just going after Immigrants, they're going after refugees. They're going and they're going after. They are. Just look at the way in which they're defining what an undocumented immigrant is. A search for undocumented immigrants. It's walking up to people of color with an accent or without an accent and assuming from there, like, that's not the way that you're going to find all the undocumented people in Minnesota. Like, you're not going to find, yeah, Irish people who've overstayed their visas, or Polish people have overstayed their visas, or, you know, Ukrainians who have overstayed their visas. But this is. This is about a. Sort of, like a rational racial and. And national purity, ethnic cleansing.

[Matt Lech]

And the thing about. To finish the democracy point, the Republicans have to find a story of why they keep losing every. Besides the Kamala one popular vote. And the big lie. The big lie in this country is that it's illegals doing that. And everybody, even I know that votes Republican still in North Dakota believes that shit, believes that they're being replaced. Joe Rogan, he keeps talking about it.

[Sam Seder]

He literally said three days ago that that's the plan we gotta do.

[Matt Lech]

What are you gonna do about it? That right there is the mur impulse that gives us fascism now because they can't win at democracy.

[Sam Seder]

All right, before we go into the fun half, there's a couple of notes of pushback that are worth celebrating. Also, let me just say this. There were reports of people throwing water balloons at ice officials in Minnesota.

[Emma Vigeland]

In that weather?

[Sam Seder]

In that weather, it's freezing cold. And the idea, I guess, is that, you know, if someone get a lot of water on their coat or on their. It's going to freeze up in that thing, get icy and get icy. And just, you know, I gotta say, obviously, if an ice person saw you throw a water balloon at them, they would be upset.

[Matt Lech]

They could shoot you in the face.

[Sam Seder]

Yes. And, like, you know, obviously, if you were, let's say, up in a. Like a third floor of a building or something like that, like, you were in a different locale and they were to come into your town, you could drop those water balloons down, it would be harder for them to find you. But I'm saying you're not supposed to do that. And in. Anybody who comes up with some type of, like, innovative way in which to find a way in which to get ice officials wet in that cold, obviously would be doing something that was wrong, but also innovative.

[Matt Lech]

But what if you meant to, like, help them hydrate too because you know.

[Sam Seder]

There'S a lot of times, like there's a lot of times, look, you get freaked out. You squeeze the bottle of water and you get nervous. Who knows? All I'm saying is just reporting the news. Also when it's cold out, you forget that you also dehydrate.

[Emma Vigeland]

Exactly right. And you know how in like hockey players they have the squeezy bottles and they just squirt, you know, you squirting water for them to drink.

[Matt Lech]

It's hydration innovation.

[Sam Seder]

Also saw a video of this which I thought was great too. There are people now using their key fobs and when they see ice, they're just like setting off the alarms on their cars. And so you could ice coming down the neighborhood whistles is good, but you just hit that key fob and all of a sudden all the, the horns go off. And then there's this guy who I don't know in Minnesota what the laws are in terms of cat.

[Matt Lech]

Pretty lenient, I think. Maybe not quite.

[Sam Seder]

But here's a guy who's going out and decided to protect his neighborhood in the way that ice apparently is, you know, pretends that they're protecting us. You live in the neighborhood?

[Matt Lech]

Yep, this is my boss, this is my area.

[Sam Seder]

I don't, I don't go into other.

[Matt Lech]

People'S neighborhoods and try and intimidate them.

[Sam Seder]

I protect my people.

[Emma Vigeland]

Are you giving out your name?

[Sam Seder]

No, I'm okay with that. Our neighborhood showing up. You guys had about a lot of people out here, right?

[Matt Lech]

At least 30 or more? Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

40 or 50. That's pretty good for a quick turnout. So it's got his, you know, that's.

[Matt Lech]

Another thing from the Don Lemon piece where that guy said the two way fetishist, like this isn't small government. I think that that's under. Under remarked on development is how sort of discredited the libertarian like anti war, anti government thing is. Who gives a shit?

[Sam Seder]

This is supposedly like, this is like how, what was it two years ago? Maybe less. Where we had a US state, we had federal, we had senators saying that the second amendment is not there because of, you know, Rand Paul said it's.

[Matt Lech]

Not, it's not there to hunt. He tweeted out it's still up. It's not there for deer hunting. It's there to shoot at the government when it becomes tyrannical. He tweeted that.

[Sam Seder]

What would a tyrannical government look like if it didn't involve sending in 2 to 3,000 up armored troops.

[Matt Lech]

Yep.

[Sam Seder]

Into a City, Medicare for all.

[Matt Lech]

It's very clear that all second amendment sort of conservatives, their fear isn't the tyrannical government. It is sort of non white teenagers in their neighborhood that's making them nervous.

[Sam Seder]

Could be dental coverage.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well that's the thing, right? I mean yeah, there is an overrepresentation of a libertarian perspective in media because of the dynamics that Matt was just laying out that the conservative projecting Republicans have haven't won a popular vote or over 50% in quite some time of the country on the presidential level because it is deeply unpopular what they advocate for. So you have people on the Internet that maybe are like right wing media figures. Sorry, there's a dog in the hallway. Media figures that will water down what the Republican Party really stands for. Whether it's that Trump's actually anti war or that it's the conservative movement or libertarianism that's against the boot of the government and that we're going to stand up for personal liberty because that's a much more palatable brand than what the Republican Party actually stands for because their ideas are not popular.

[Matt Lech]

Yeah, the second Amendment and I'm somebody who does for the reason here like I'm open to certain limited rights to bear arms arguments but the second Amendment has been very clearly just about scared men and the right the freedom to be able to lynch somebody if you want to and not the freedom to or power to protect yourself from the government.

[Sam Seder]

We'll see what how that goes. We got some Black Panthers in Philadelphia walking around with a lot of weapons. See how long that lasts. The Second Amendment has said, I mean there are. So it has to have some restrictions.

[Emma Vigeland]

Isn't that what happened in California because of the Black Panthers?

[Sam Seder]

Ronald Reagan was the first push for gun control was because some Black Panthers went to. I think it was an Oakland City Council meeting with some weapons.

[Matt Lech]

Impeccable muzzle restraint by those folks.

[Sam Seder]

All right, just one more community note. You can go to icerrt.com to find a ice watch near you and here's a way that you can help. Let's say you work at a hotel. Let's say you work at a motel and you don't like ice. But you notice that there's a lot of guys from out of state coming and staying at your hotel or motel. You know there's ways of leaving anonymous tips to some of these immigrant defense projects or I don't know, just. This is a letter from Doubletree. Dear Blank in room number blank, please know that your safety and well being will always be our Top priority. Due to heightened public safety concerns in St. Paul, we have made the difficult decision to temporarily close our hotel and your reservation will be canceled effective Sunday, January 18, 2026 by 12:00pm we're taking this step out of care for you, our team members and the surrounding community due to your unexpected departure. Our team can assist you with alternate accommodations if needed to support you during this difficult transition. And as a great gesture of goodwill, you can, we can either refund your last night's stay or pay your first night's stay at your new hotel at the same rate as your canceled reservations with us. Thank you for understanding during this challenging time. Apparently multiple ICE agents were booked at the St. Paul Downtown DoubleTree and they received this notice. They are not taking. According to Bill Malugan on Twitter. They're not taking, they have not been taking any reservations at that Doubletree. But that's probably because somebody who worked at the Doubletree realized that they had ICE agents there. And look, Sometimes maybe if you worked at a, at a hotel or motel, you would tell a friend to tell people or maybe.

[Matt Lech]

Yeah, don't put it from your own phone. Maybe.

[Sam Seder]

Yeah.

[Matt Lech]

The way they have surveillance. Maybe do it by a mouth.

[Sam Seder]

Yeah. Or, you know, maybe write a note and send it to one of these ICE rrts or send it to the press or send it to, I don't know, local group. And you know, if, if somebody has to drive 45 minutes to work or an hour to work or an hour and a half to work, I mean, it's less time for them to put in at work. And in this instance, that would be great.

[Matt Lech]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

The. So much of what we're going to be dealing with this year is going to be thwarting ICE in any way.

[Matt Lech]

That we can attrition.

[Sam Seder]

And there's not going to be a situation where you're going to be able to thwart ICE directly. You're going to have to just make their job more and more difficult. Makes it difficult when people blow whistles. Makes it difficult when people set off car alarms. Makes it difficult when people know their rights. Makes it difficult if you, you can't get a good night's sleep. Makes it difficult if it's really, really cold, your gear gets wet.

[Matt Lech]

The folks sitting up, drums and instruments outside of hotels to bang on up to 3am is so awesome.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yep.

[Sam Seder]

Also, you know, it is. There's nothing that is more difficult than when somebody cuts the nipple off of your attire, your inner tube. That has happened to me. And it is so frustrating because you Know, like, obviously, like, to pierce a tire is difficult, but it's not that difficult to just sort of, like, flick off that. That pressure gauge on the. On your inner tube, which you can see right there with the little. I mean, that. I don't know why they don't make those better. And it's always. That has been one of my greatest limits. But, I mean, God forbid something like that would ever happen. Now, of course, you don't want to ever be seen doing anything like that, you know, at night in the parking lot of someone's car or something like that. You wouldn't want to be seen doing that. You shouldn't do it. It's dangerous and wrong. But just as a community service, it's wrong. Here is Graham Platner. There were reports that there were 200 ice up in Lewiston, Maine. And Brian tells me that there's not necessarily a huge immigrant population per se, but there is a significant refugee population up in Maine. And understand, they don't care. This is not. It's never been about undocumented immigrants. It's never been about dangerous criminals. It has been about a uber nationalism, ethno uber nationalism to purify the country from. And get rid of people that are from shithole countries, as Donald Trump called them.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, they're rounding up people at their ICE hearings. They are trying to strip people of temporary protected status, meaning they came to the country legally. So it's never been about people's immigration status. It's about their ethnic character. They're doing an ethnic cleansing with ICE as the Gestapo.

[Matt Lech]

It's not even like the political element of it. Like, there was a older Hmong guy who was a lot of Hmong in Minneapolis because they sided with us during, or we used them in Vietnam War. No, don't care. Throw him out. Bring him out in his Crocs, drive him around for three hours until you find out that actually. Oh, he's a citizen.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

Here is Graham Platner outlining again. We've heard this from other politicians. I think this very similar script, but worth hearing again so that people remember it.

[Matt Lech]

ICE has been operating in Maine for a while, but now they're threatening to step up their brutality and bring what we saw in Minneapolis to our state. It is time for Mainers to step up and protect our communities. The following are things that you can do to protect yourself and your neighbors. One, you do not have to speak to federal agents. Two, you do not have to show them any form of id. Three, you do not have to sign Anything. And four, most importantly, you do not have to open your door. ICE cannot enter your home or private areas of your business without a signed judicial warrant that looks like this. If ICE does not have a signed judicial warrant, you have the right to say, I do not consent to entry and keep your door closed. ICE is legally allowed and trained to lie to you. They try to trick people into opening their doors with fake warrants that look like this. If you are asking to see a warrant, ask them to slide in out of the door or hold it up to a window. But in public spaces, all ICE needs to make an abduction is what they call reasonable suspicion. We know what this looks like. Racial profiling. Asking people for their papers, ripping people out of their cars and tackling people in the streets. If ICE approaches you in a public space, don't speak, don't show, don't sign. You have the right to ask, am I being detained? Am I free to go? Repeatedly until you get an answer. There is no law against informing fellow Mainers and ICE is in the neighborhood. There is no law against using the tools at our disposal to keep our families and our communities safe. We will not let masked agents come to Maine and terrorize our communities. We will not be intimidated. This is our home.

[Emma Vigeland]

Boom.

[Matt Lech]

We had a Graham on Left Reckoning last year and it was right after he went to a rally with Somali refugees. And yeah, I'm not surprised that he's good on this.

[Sam Seder]

All right, we're going to take a break. Head into the fun half. Just a reminder, it's your support that makes this show possible. You can become a member. Join themjorityreport.com when you do, you not only get the free show free of commercials, but you also get the fun half. And you get to, I am the fun half. And sometimes it's fun, sometimes I make any massive promises. It's not just up to us. Other things have to be fun. We will play some hard hitting. We're going to. We're going to. We're going to watch some bare knuckle politics done by Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democrats.

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh, yeah.

[Sam Seder]

It doesn't matter what your politics are, ladies and gentlemen, watching a maestro like Chuck Schumer work his political magic. Whoa, wait till you see this. And that is not Kentucky fried French fries. No, it is not. Also just coffee.co op, fair trade coffee, hot chocolate. Use the coupon code. Majority get 10% off. Matt, what's happening in the Matlec media universe?

[Matt Lech]

Yeah, Left Reckoning coming up right after the fun half today over on YouTube where we've been going pretty hard at Jasmine Crockett. And today we turn our attention to James Tallarico, who had an extremely disappointing statement about his position on Israel that basically admits that he's like not going to be a leader on that issue. Which is sad because he's proven that he can be a smart communicator on some of this stuff. So we'll get into that. Folks who have been hoping we would go after him a little bit harder are going to be happy about it.

[Sam Seder]

Folks, I'm getting a reminder that we should ask you to follow us on Instagram. By the way, I do a little more on it. Was that you?

[Matt Lech]

But they followed me back on Instagram.

[Sam Seder]

Yeah, I did. Okay. I couldn't.

[Matt Lech]

It's not verified. So I'm like, is this.

[Sam Seder]

I don't know how to do any of this stuff on there. How do I get verified?

[Matt Lech]

Like, I probably should have waited.

[Sam Seder]

Do I get a pay. Is it like. That's a paid service. I get a pay.

[Emma Vigeland]

Really? I got verified, like, you know. No, not on Instagram. Right?

[Sam Seder]

Yeah.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, they just gave me a check.

[Sam Seder]

You probably got verified before.

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh, probably, yeah.

[Sam Seder]

It became a paid service.

[Matt Lech]

It's funny that Elon. Elon gets all the crap for the paid for verification for Twitter, but everyone does.

[Emma Vigeland]

No, they copied him.

[Sam Seder]

I would. The worst thing, I would pay on Instagram, but.

[Emma Vigeland]

Okay, well, I don't know. Either way.

[Sam Seder]

I don't know. I just, I. You're the first person I think I follow. I mean, I think there's a couple other people I followed.

[Matt Lech]

So suspicious. I'm like, this is some hacker track. Because there's like three. There was three, like crystal ball tick Tock accounts. I'm like, these aren't all real. Those people pretending to be crystal. So it's good that you're on there now.

[Sam Seder]

I mean, if someone wants to pretend to me be me on Instagram, what they do is post nothing.

[Matt Lech]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

But you should follow us on Instagram. It is Majority FM on Instagram.

[Emma Vigeland]

MajorityReport FM.

[Sam Seder]

MajorityReport FM on Instagram. There you go.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes, you can follow me on there too. I'm very active these days on Instagram. I basically kind of abandoned. I mean, Twitter. I'll tweet something on occasion and it's most. But it's just the website's broken. Like you don't reach anybody on there. I reached so many more people on Instagram, really since the genocide. Since I started getting more active on.

[Matt Lech]

There And Twitter's for reaching Nazis and journalists.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, yeah, that's it.

[Sam Seder]

Also, we should also announce. I see. I sort of wanted this to happen on Friday. And I'm convinced if I say something now, it's going to end up happening, like, on Thursday. Right. But I don't really care that much about it. I mean, I do. No, I do care. This is exciting.

[Emma Vigeland]

Okay. What's.

[Sam Seder]

What? This is exciting. This is exciting.

[Emma Vigeland]

What?

[Sam Seder]

Ladies and gentlemen, we are just days away. Listen, don't sign up until Friday, okay? Because. We're closing in on 2 million subscribers on YouTube. Saul actually told me that yesterday.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes.

[Sam Seder]

I was like, I, I, I, I, I know. Like, Brian, you had mentioned it, like, months ago, but the thing is, it's ebbs and flows. Like, some, some months we're getting 20, 30,000 subscribers. Other months it's like 10, 15,000 or something like that. So you never know. But, but within. We are within days of getting 2 million subscribers. And I gotta, I gotta, I get a. I gotta write a piece about it. Right. Thank you.

[Emma Vigeland]

Let's go on the fun half, maybe ambivalent announcement.

[Sam Seder]

Well, it's just like, I meant to, like, plan for it, but I was like, I'll plan for it on Friday day.

[Matt Lech]

Who cares?

[Sam Seder]

No, it's. It's good. It's good. It's a good thing. I think it's good.

[Matt Lech]

We're very excited over here.

[Emma Vigeland]

This is a Shaggy broadcast today.

[Sam Seder]

It's a little bit.

[Emma Vigeland]

Pretty shaggy. Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

All right, folks, see you.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, thanks.

[Sam Seder]

Three months from now, six months from now, nine months from now. And I don't think it's going to be the same as it looks like in six months from now. And I don't know if it's necessarily going to be better six months from now than it is three months from now, but I think around 18 months out, we're going to look back and go like, wow.

[Matt Lech]

What?

[Sam Seder]

What is that going on? It's nuts. Wait a second. Hold on. Hold on for a second. Emma. Welcome to the program, Matt. What is up, everyone?

[Emma Vigeland]

Fun.

[Sam Seder]

Fun Pat. No, me.

[Emma Vigeland]

You did it.

[Sam Seder]

Fun hat.

[Emma Vigeland]

Let's go, Brandon.

[Sam Seder]

Let's go, Brandon. Fun Pat Bradley, you want to say hello?

[Matt Lech]

Sorry to disappoint everyone. I'm just a random guy.

[Sam Seder]

It's all the boys today.

[Emma Vigeland]

Fundamentally false. No. I'm sorry.

[Sam Seder]

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

[Emma Vigeland]

Where is this coming from, dude?

[Matt Lech]

But.

[Sam Seder]

Dude, you want to smoke this?

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes.

[Sam Seder]

Hi. Me?

[Matt Lech]

This thing.

[Sam Seder]

Yes. Is this me? Is it me? It is you. Is this Me. Hello? Is this me? I think it is you. Who is you? No sound. Every single freaking guy. What's on your mind?

[Emma Vigeland]

Sports.

[Sam Seder]

We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism. I'm gonna go Skyline. Cool. Libertarians.

[Matt Lech]

They're so stupid.

[Sam Seder]

Though common sense says of course.

[Emma Vigeland]

Gobbledygook.

[Sam Seder]

We nailed him.

[Emma Vigeland]

So what's 79 plus 21?

[Sam Seder]

Challenge. Matt, I'm positively quivering. I believe 96. I want to say. 8, 5, 7, 2, 1, 0, 35, 5, 0, 1, 1 half.

[Matt Lech]

3, 8, 9, 11.

[Emma Vigeland]

For instance, $3,400. $1,900.

[Sam Seder]

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

[Emma Vigeland]

Actually. You're making me think less.

[Sam Seder]

But let me say this. You can call it satire.

[Emma Vigeland]

Sam goes satire on top of it all.

[Sam Seder]

My favorite part about you is just.

[Emma Vigeland]

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

[Matt Lech]

Without a doubt.

[Sam Seder]

Hey, buddy. We see you. All right, folks, folks, folks, folks.

[Emma Vigeland]

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

[Sam Seder]

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

[Emma Vigeland]

But you should know.

[Sam Seder]

People just don't.

[Matt Lech]

Like to entertain ideas anymore.

[Sam Seder]

I have a question. Who cares?

[Matt Lech]

Our chat is enabled, folks.

[Sam Seder]

I love it.

[Emma Vigeland]

I do love that.

[Sam Seder]

Gotta jump. Gotta be quick. I gotta jump. 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 Seder]

Like, what is wrong with you? Love you.

[Matt Lech]

Bye.

[Sam Seder]

Love you. Bye. Bye.