3571 - GOP Braces For A Big Beautiful Backlash; Trump’s CDC Purge w/ Brendan James, Amanda Seales

Summary

The Majority Report with Sam Seder

Episode 3571 — GOP Braces For A Big Beautiful Backlash; Trump’s CDC Purge w/ Brendan James, Amanda Seales
Date: August 29, 2025
Host: Emma Vigeland (in for Sam Seder)
Guests: Brendan James (Blowback Podcast), Amanda Seales (comedian/activist)

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EPISODE OVERVIEW

This episode dives into the political turbulence in the U.S. as the Trump administration faces severe backlash over its policies, particularly a deeply unpopular legislative bill nicknamed the “Big Beautiful Bill,” and the radical shakeup at the CDC. Host Emma Vigeland leads an in-depth analysis alongside Matt Lech and Felix Biederman, with interviews featuring Brendan James—focusing on right-wing attacks on public health—and Amanda Seales, who examines the reactionary trend in online discourse and her experiences with activism around Palestine. The show also explores the broader decline of the GOP’s public standing and the pernicious influence of billionaire-backed cranks shaping public policy.

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MAJOR SEGMENTS & THEMES

1. Republican Backlash & “Big Beautiful Bill” (08:23 – 13:35)

Key Points:

• The Republican Party, particularly the Trump administration, is reeling from negative polling on its signature legislative effort—the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” (BBB), which includes drastic social spending cuts.
• Trump, acknowledging the mounting opposition, discusses the need to rebrand the bill to regain public support.
• Panelists highlight the stark realities: potential closure of nearly half of rural hospitals, an estimated 17 million people losing insurance, and massive SNAP (food assistance) program cuts.
• Polls cited: Trump’s job approval is at 38% (with 60% disapproval); only 11% strongly approve of the BBB, and even the GOP base is unenthusiastic.

Notable Quotes:

• Emma Vigeland (09:30): “The bill is death. I wish that was the sound bite…it literally is. It's going to kill people.”
• Matt Lech (09:46): “Raising the amount of time and space people need to travel, say, after they have a heart attack in a rural area…that's what's going to happen here.”

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2. GOP Narrative Wars: Crime, Authoritarianism, and Media (13:35 – 23:19)

Key Points:

• Trump has deployed J.D. Vance to sell the unpopular bill, while Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, is focused on stoking fears about urban crime to justify authoritarian responses (e.g., deploying the National Guard).
• Media critique: TV interviews simultaneously amplify and challenge right-wing narratives, often failing to effectively rebut them and inadvertently normalizing dangerous proposals.
• Violent crime statistics are down, debunking the GOP's central talking point.

Notable Quotes:

• Emma Vigeland (20:55): “The things to do with crime are like, we know how to. Exactly. We know what drives this stuff up…it’s not cops. It's cost of living. It's people's desperation.”
• Brendan James (16:41): “[Mike Johnson] is almost like incognito man by design. He's the most invisible servant of God that we have in Congress.”

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3. Trump’s CDC Purge & Rise of Anti-Science Appointees (28:46 – 48:59)

Key Points:

• Trump and RFK Jr. have engineered a mass exodus of senior leadership at the CDC, replacing experts with anti-vaccine ideologues, notably Jim O’Neill, a Peter Thiel associate with no medical background.
• Discussion of the continuing influence of Silicon Valley “biotech” investors and anti-intellectual capitalists aligning with the right.
• Concerns raised about how much institutional damage can be reversed if/when political power changes hands.

Notable Quotes:

• Emma Vigeland (29:04): “Trump has been really escalating…his firing of these government officials…now he is gutting the CDC senior leadership over basically vaccine policy.”
• Brendan James (33:18): “There is this sort of suicide drive that seems to be at play where they want to get rid of medicine…I mean like proper medicine…that being out the window is…what has felt the most transformative.”

On AI ‘Death Panels’ and Medicare (46:05 – 50:38)

• Federal plans to implement AI in Medicare claim adjudication—paying contractors based on ‘savings’ (i.e., denials of care)—are described as dystopian and a perverse realization of “death panels.”

Notable Quotes:

• Emma Vigeland (48:47): “Remember death panels?... This is a death panel. This is AI death panels.”
• Brendan James (48:59): “Wherever [AI] has been flourishing lately, it's a disaster…The idea that'll be applied to people's assessment of whether they need spinal surgery or not is next level.”

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4. Gaza, Tony Blair, and the U.S.-Israel “Rebuild” Fantasy (50:38 – 64:15)

Key Points:

• Jared Kushner and Tony Blair are directing a U.S.-Israeli plan to “redevelop” Gaza post-war, sidelining Palestinians entirely.
• Brendan James provides historical context on Blair's infamous record as Bush’s “lapdog” in Iraq and his ongoing involvement in exploitative foreign projects.
• The roundtable discusses internal Israeli fatigue, the implausibility of imposed solutions, and the West’s underreporting of the true Palestinian death toll.

Notable Quotes:

• Brendan James (53:14): “Blair’s there for whatever largely evil and nefarious project or client in the Middle East.”
• Emma Vigeland (59:17): “Trump has been saying…I wanna wrap—he’s obsessed with these…deadlines. He wants this done by the end of 2025. And what being done means is…as barbaric as basically entire extermination.”

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5. Shifts in Political Discourse on Israel/AIPAC (65:53 – 70:33)

Key Points:

• Signs of change as taking AIPAC money becomes a liability for Democratic candidates.
• Younger politicians and some high-profile voices in media openly reject pro-Israel lobby money; AIPAC is now routinely called out as a pejorative.
• The panel is cautiously optimistic that these shifts in U.S. rhetoric will translate into future substantive change.

Notable Quotes:

• Brendan James (67:28): “That lizard like stance I think is incredibly alienating…The extermination campaign in Gaza definitely, I think, has given certainly younger politicians an impetus to say, I never want to have to deal with this.”

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6. Amanda Seales Interview: Jubilee, Black Radical Identity, and Algorithmic Reaction (72:43 – 88:22)

Key Points:

• Amanda Seales describes her experience on Jubilee and its role in amplifying reactionary, self-hatred content within Black communities.
• Critiques the attention economy and incentives for rage-driven, sensationalist content that plays into white supremacist narratives.
• Discusses how her activism on Palestine—and the genocidal violence there—has radicalized both her and wider audiences, drawing parallels between the Black and Palestinian struggle.

Notable Quotes:

• Amanda Seales (73:51): “I went on there as a black radical…to literally just demonstrate here is somebody who is not fitting in the boxes…But two, it was an inter-community conversation.”
• Seales, on Palestine activism (83:02): “Palestine has been the awakening, the re-radicalism, in some cases the first radicalism. It's been a blessing and it's really something that we will owe to those who've been murdered in Palestine forever.”
• On educating and radicalizing others (85:35): “If folks come in a place of atonement versus arrogance, then it clears it all for me…it's not like by accident that people don't know.”

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TIMESTAMPED HIGHLIGHTS

• “Big Beautiful Bill” (Trump’s Tax & Healthcare Cuts): 08:23 – 13:35
• Mike Johnson Crime Narrative/Media Critique: 13:35 – 23:19
• CDC Purge & Anti-Science Appointees: 28:46 – 48:59
• Medicare AI Death Panels: 46:05 – 50:38
• Gaza “Rebuild” Fantasy/Blair & Kushner’s Role: 50:38 – 64:15
• AIPAC’s Waning Influence: 65:53 – 70:33
• Amanda Seales on Jubilee & Radicalism: 72:43 – 88:22

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MEMORABLE MOMENTS & QUOTES

• Emma Vigeland: “The bill is death. I wish that was the sound bite.” (09:30)
• Matt Lech: “I think the plane comment or airport comment is so revealing because that's the only time [RFK Jr.] is ever around normal people.” (43:35)
• Brendan James: “There is this sort of suicide drive…where they want to get rid of medicine.” (33:18)
• Amanda Seales (on the pervasiveness of toxic algorithmic content): “If folks come in a place of atonement versus arrogance, then it's all clear for me…” (85:35)

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EPISODE TONE & STYLE

The discussion is sharp, irreverent, and unsparing—blending data-driven analysis, personal anecdotes, righteous indignation, and satirical humor. The hosts maintain a conversational, often sardonic tone while offering incisive political critique and amplifying marginalized perspectives.

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CONCLUSION

This episode delivers a sweeping critique of current U.S. politics, highlighting the convergence of reactionary policy, billionaire influence, anti-science governance, and a shifting public consciousness—especially as the costs of these changes become deadly clear. From rural hospital closures and “AI death panels” to the cynicism of right-wing media and the brutal realities in Gaza, the show provides both a warning and a call to vigilance, wrapped in the wit and candor for which The Majority Report is known.

Transcript

[Emma Vigeland]

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[Felix Biederman]

That means Monday is casual Monday, Tuesday casual Tuesday, Wednesday casual Hump day. Thursday casual thirst, that's what we call it. And Friday casual Shabbat. The Majority Report with Sam Cedar.

[Emma Vigeland]

It is Friday, August 29, 2025. My name is Emma Vigeland in for Sam Cedar and 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, Brendan James of the Blowback Podcast joins us to recap this week in news and also later in the show, comedian Amanda Seals will be back with us talk about her jubilee appearance, the right wing Zionism and more. Also on the program, Trump and RFK Jr. S firing of the CDC head leads to four senior officials resigning in protest and a massive walkout of CDC workers at the CDC headquarters. The replacement for the CDC head, well, RFK Jr's anti vax second in command, of course, a close collaborator and longtime hire high person in the Peter Thiel corporate world works directly for him basically. We'll get into that with Brendan. I think RFK Jr will testify in front of a Senate panel next week as Congress reconvenes. The de minimis exemption on tariffs and duties for goods worth less than $800 is expensive expiring today. Lots of implications for increased prices because that exemption has been in place for quite a while. In some form or another, Trump cancels Kamala Harris's security detail. Yes, I just Pettiness is strength in America. Apparently prosecutors were forced to reduce the charges against the man who threw a sandwich at an ICE officer. Allegedly.

[Matt Lech]

Hey, report to jury duty folks. Yeah, you can come through in the clutch like that jury did.

[Emma Vigeland]

A jury nullification. Well, it wasn't actually a jury. The prosecutors were so pathetic that they had to refile the charge as a misdemeanor instead of a felony because they knew it wouldn't stand.

[Matt Lech]

Oh, I thought the felonies were rejected.

[Brendan James]

But anyway, I could be wrong.

[Matt Lech]

That's one reason why you show up for jury duty.

[Emma Vigeland]

Exactly.

[Matt Lech]

So you can say like look, I'm not persuaded by this evidence and that you don't need to say anything more than that.

[Emma Vigeland]

The the city of Atlanta's turned communist. They actually this is a great, great news. First city run grocery store opening today, an effort to address food deserts. Jared Kushner is back in the fold. He was at Trump's meeting yesterday with Tony Blair about a Gaza Riviera rebuild plan that included Israeli official Ron Dermer. The Palestinians have no say in their future. Apparently Gaza's famine man made by Israel continues to worsen the minimum who have starved to death. Right now in terms of the total is 3 322. Moderate Democratic representative Deborah Ross of North Carolina says she will not take APAC money this cycle. Tides are turning. Nearly 1,000 worker over billionaire protests are scheduled in all 50 states for labor Day. And lastly, Trump's Education department accuses Denver of violating federal federal law for having gender neutral bathrooms in their schools. All this and more on today's majority report we have reached Friday, my friends, we are here. Welcome to the show, everybody. Sam will be back on Tuesday. We have a Labor Day special like we have every year that we will be releasing. But we will be back in person on Tuesday. We'll get into this CDC stuff, which is really the biggest news of the day with Brendan. But I wanted to start here because we didn't get to this earlier this week. But I find this fascinating to see how the Republicans are starting to be in a defensive crouch. They are concerned and they're getting numbers that are not good on a variety of Trump's different actions. And the big beautiful bill is the first one here. Trump said this earlier this week at the White House about how they need to rebrand the one big beautiful bill, which would indicate that the internals are pretty bad. And we'll show you how even public data shows what the polling is. But the fact that Trump is saying this means people are starting to get really pissed once they understand the implications and the implications start to be felt. Here he is earlier this week on why they have to start calling it something different.

[Donald Trump]

So the bill that I'm not going to use the term great big beautiful, that was good for getting it approved, but it's not good for explaining to people what it's all about. It's a massive tax cut for the middle class. It's a massive tax cut for jobs. And it's, I mean, think of it. No tax on tips, no tax on Social Security. So seniors, I don't know how you can vote for anybody else. And, you know, just think of that. And no tax on overtime. So you work overtime, you don't have to pay tax on overtime. That's good. The Democrats don't know what they're going to do. So they have like this sound bite. You know, they have all these sound bites. They send it out. I don't know. Some guy sends out a word and everybody uses it, including the fake news. Some of you are here right now, I'm looking at you, and it's death. They use the word death. No, it's actually life. It's almost like a newborn life. It's not death. That's their sound bite. The bill is death.

[Emma Vigeland]

The bill is death. I wish that was the sound bite.

[Matt Lech]

It literally is. It's going to kill people.

[Emma Vigeland]

Not to, not to joke about it entirely because we know what the implications are of this horrific bill and people under understand that as well.

[Matt Lech]

Raising the amount of time and space people need to travel, say, after they have a heart Attack in a rural area. That's what's going to happen here. You're going to have people's lives cut short.

[Emma Vigeland]

There are estimates that this could result in the closure of nearly half of all rural hospitals, meaning that, as Matt says, people are going to have to drive. They may be already had to drive 45 minutes to the nearest hospital. And now that's going to be an hour and a half. And it won't just result in people's deaths, say, if they have a health emergency or something to that effect. It will also have an impact on preventative care because people won't be seeking care because they don't have the ability to take, you know, three hours out of their day or plus less easy to do checkups, everything to drive. The Medicaid figures show that, like around 17 million people are likely to lose insurance. The CBO estimates that up to, I think 11/million people will be insured by 2034 because of the Medicaid cuts, let alone the fact that when you look at the final analysis of the tax cuts, the people in the lowest income brackets are going to be paying more in the final say of things. And this is also the biggest cut in the history of SNAP, the food assistance program. Almost 200 hospitals here it is. Are at risk of immediate closure because of these cuts. So Labor Guy 420 says the bill is death is an amazing drop. Maybe we should pull that because it describes it accurately. These are the numbers from a few weeks ago. Now, two or so weeks ago in Pew Research showing the approval rating for this horrific bill, Trump's job approval stands at 38%. 60% disapprove. That's a. To hit that in your first year of your administration. 60% disapproval is not good. You're like in Bush 2007 areas here.

[Matt Lech]

Yeah. Geez. Only 11 strongly approve of the BBP of the.

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, that's like.

[Matt Lech]

Even your psychos.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes, even the psychos don't like it. Here it is. 39% strongly disapprove. 22%. Can you scroll so I can see?

[Brendan James]

The one you're reading is for terror.

[Emma Vigeland]

Okay, I can't see it on the screen. Let me look here. This is the one. The budget and tax law. Okay. 33% strongly disapprove. 13% somewhat. 21% somewhat approve. 11%. So that's basically 46 to 32 and 23 are unsure. But that was two weeks ago. And more and more people are going to get sure as they learn more. And this rolls out the Fact that he has to rebrand it already shows they're concerned. And he's sending out J.D. vance all across the country. He was in Georgia. He's going to different places. One, to put pressure on these states to gerrymander even more. Two, though, to sell this horrific legislation to the population. That's going to be immiserated by it. And I do appreciate the tradition of these, like, elderly sociopaths like him and Biden giving their VP the worst jobs possible and offsetting all of their political problems onto them. Like Biden giving Kamala the fix. Immigration, paper issue go down the shields.

[Matt Lech]

Like for the president. I mean, Dick Cheney's the only one that sort of turned the president into his.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes. And you, at the very least, you have to respect him for that level of creativity of turning that on its head. But now he's doing this with J.D. vance, go out and sell this deeply unpopular bill to the public. And Mike Johnson is concerned about his House majority. Now he's being deployed to sell the crime narrative and the crackdown on cities, which there was a Quinnipiac poll yesterday showing something like 56% of Americans already disapprove of Trump's actions in D.C. and deploying the National Guard for this purpose. If he tries with Chicago, these numbers are going to keep getting worse because it's ridiculous and everyone sees it. And despite what Trump may think, people don't like authoritarianism in America. And I still have faith that despite them rigging the rules in this way, that Democrats and independent voters still have like a cultural understanding that we are not about kings and authoritarians and fa. Well, maybe fascists, but we don't like that kind of action if it comes home to America. So those numbers, I think, will still keep getting worse for him. But Mike Johnson has to try to change that. Here he is on Fox News this morning, and they played a clip of Gavin Newsom pointing out that. What'd you say? Yeah. Pointing out that crime is higher in Louisiana than in California. And Mike Johnson, which is Mike Johnson's home state, and he has to deflect a bit.

[Mike Johnson]

But he name dropped you personally yesterday.

[Emma Vigeland]

Essentially trying to say that crime is.

[Mike Johnson]

Worse in Louisiana than it is in California.

[Emma Vigeland]

Take a listen.

[Mike Johnson]

We'll get your thoughts.

[Emma Vigeland]

If he is to invest in crime.

[Sam Cedar]

Suppression, I hope the president states would.

[Brendan James]

Look at the facts.

[Sam Cedar]

Just consider Speaker Johnson's state and district.

[Donald Trump]

Just look at the murder rate that's.

[Emma Vigeland]

Nearly four times higher than California in Louisiana.

[Mike Johnson]

How about it? Again, Gavin Newsom will do anything for attention. He can name drop me all. All he wants. He needs to go and govern his state and not be engaging in all of this. Look, we have.

[Emma Vigeland]

Can you pause it? He needs to go govern it. He's what? He's not governing his state by pointing out he's doing a better job than.

[Brendan James]

Your state gauging all of this criticism.

[Matt Lech]

Of me that on the same lines as I am extending on him.

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, that critique would have been more valid when the dude was podcasting with Charlie Kirk, but that's when Mike Johnson likes that, right? Yeah.

[Brendan James]

Like also the idea that, like a name drop.

[Emma Vigeland]

Gavin Newsom has so much more public recognition than Mike.

[Brendan James]

Most people don't know who chasing is. Mike Johnson, Pee Wee Herman makeup.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. Worry, worry about. Go back to worrying about your son's porn intake and maybe like, figure out the fact that you don't have a bank account or something like that. I mean, this guy is almost like incognito man by design. He's the most invisible servant of God that we have in Congress.

[Brendan James]

And clout chasing.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. Like, to his credit, he was able to. He. I mean, he, he. Chuck Schumer was rolled by him in like the Big Beautiful Bill thing where he thought that the margins would be so slim in the House that they would be infighting. But Mike Johnson kept basically the whole.

[Matt Lech]

Caucus together in a way that the Democrats couldn't.

[Emma Vigeland]

Couldn't. So I'm not trying to say he's ineffective in that way, but as like a speaker on behalf of the Republican Party. I mean, everyone's already falling asleep, but keep going.

[Matt Lech]

But also they're more authoritarian party. Yeah, we want to keep with that clip.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, he basically just deflects.

[Brendan James]

Well, continues into this next clip.

[Emma Vigeland]

And so then he had to go on cnn. He was on Good Morning America this morning. They're panicked. He was on Fox News now making the rounds. And CNN is a little bit more diligent here in pressing him on this point.

[Mike Johnson]

Sometimes local governance does not do the job. And the oversight in D.C. is long overdue.

[Felix Biederman]

Was going to ask when you might be calling for the National Guard in Shreveport, which is you have part of your district in Shreveport. The FBI statistics actually violent crime per 100,000 residents higher in Shreveport last year than Washington D.C. whoopsie.

[Mike Johnson]

There's a lot of good work that's been done. There's a lot of reasons for that. But we have a Democrat DA there who has not been prosecuting crime as some other more aggressive DAs have around the country. Soros funded that individual to Be elected. But I'll say that, you know, it's a, it's an urban area that has a lot of problems, that urban happening around the country and we have to address it.

[Felix Biederman]

So with the Guard help, the Guard can help in D.C. the president has said he wants to send the guards.

[Emma Vigeland]

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Whoa.

[Felix Biederman]

Why not report.

[Mike Johnson]

Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.

[Emma Vigeland]

What is Berman doing with that follow up?

[Matt Lech]

What the media does. And this is how we got to be the number one jailer of humanity on earth, the United States of America. Because yeah, he buys, accepts the premises.

[Emma Vigeland]

We didn't get to this yesterday, but Brandon Johnson went on Morning Joe and Joe Scarborough had like three or four follow ups about like, would you hire more cops? Like, and Brandon Johnson is going through a list of how violent crime has precipitously dropped and they want to continue with their community investment efforts and like doing what they've been doing, which has been effective and yet Scarborough would not let up over and over again. What is this follow up? What do you mean the National Guard would help with the non existent problem that you're presenting us? Insanity. Keep going.

[Mike Johnson]

I'll say that, you know, it's a, it's an urban area that has a lot of problems that are happening around the country and we have to address it.

[Felix Biederman]

So with the Guard help, the Guard can help in D.C. the president has said he wants to send the Guard to Chicago and other places. Why not Shreveport?

[Mike Johnson]

I don't know. That's not my call. Would you be necessary? Well, I don't know. Let's take one city at a time and see. We have to address the crime problem in any city where it is.

[Emma Vigeland]

Can you pause? So it's, it's just whatever, we're good, but it's just like the right question would be is why are you not calling on the National Guard to go to Shreveport and why are you like not saying would it help and making the case that they should do that? You should call out the hypocrisy without making a positive case for the National Guard. I know media critique is easy, but it's just like this is how these fascistic ideas get normalized when you treat it as ho hum. This is the idea, the kind of thing we should seriously think about.

[Matt Lech]

All these cities had massively higher crime 20 years ago. I mean maybe not all of them tutti, but the ones that are Talked about, yes, D.C. or Chicago or New York. And it wasn't appropriate to bring in the National Guard then either.

[Emma Vigeland]

Right.

[Matt Lech]

The things to do with crime are like, we know how to. Exactly. We know what drives this stuff up. We know what drove it up quickly. And because all those things were exacerbated under Covid.

[Emma Vigeland]

Like, it's not cops, but the point is that it's not cops. It's cost of living. It's people's desperation. You think people want to be criminals in their heart of hearts? Of course. There are people who are like organized criminals. And in fact, many of them are in the Trump administration right now. And they're people who are like the true crooks abusing society, ransacking it for their own enrichment. But the people that are desperate and are committing crimes like this, and this is not violent crime, but it also has to do with, like, lack of health care services and mental health. And sometimes violent crime leads to, like, street gang or desperation, leads to street gangs and modes of, like, creating an informal economy because our economy isn't working for those people. And that can lead to violence. That's how this is addressed.

[Matt Lech]

People were stealing detergent.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes.

[Matt Lech]

For the resale value. You during COVID Like this.

[Emma Vigeland]

That's.

[Matt Lech]

That's a country failing.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. And obviously we don't even need to mention this. Violent crime is down nearly 11% compared to 2024, when there was already a precipitous drop in violent crime. So when they talk about crime in cities, it's a way to appeal to a base of white people who are afraid of. Of their own shadow and who feel validated in their, like, kind of view of liberal degeneracy, degeneracy from suburbia. And it is nothing more than racist dog whistling that should be treated as such in our press because everything that they're doing around this flies in the face of all of the available data. And they choose to focus on specific cities, often run by black people or predominantly black in blue areas, because they are sending a message not just to the Nazis, but to their base of support that is fundamentally fairly antisocial and believes that the most important thing that our political system provides them is low taxes on their suburban homes that are walled off from the rest of the hoards. They don't want associated with them unless they're working for them.

[Matt Lech]

Philly, with their progressive DA Larry Krasner, has a notable drop in homicide rate in the lowest, reaching the lowest level in decades and the largest declining gun violence among major US cities.

[Emma Vigeland]

There you go. In a moment, we will be talking to Brendan James. But first, a word from some of our sponsors. Busy schedules and the last days of summer plans are sometimes overwhelming and you may just have a couple of minutes and it could be tempting to break down and just like pick up fast food. I've been there. But then your stomach hurts, you feel like crap. Especially as I'm getting older, it's like I can't eat the way I wanted to. It's foods affect. It's not just booze foods affecting me now. God damn it. Well, Factor makes it a lot easier for me with smarter, tasty chef prepped meals that are dietitian approved and delivered right to my door. And now with more than 65 weekly meals made for how I live and what I like to eat, I have even more ways to fit in a real meal wherever the day takes me. We want to thank Factor a hellofresh company for supporting the Majority report. Go to FactorMeals.com Majority50OFF and use code Majority50OFF to get 50% off your first box plus free breakfast for one year. Factor has this great grilled chicken pesto thing that I've been really enjoying. My husband liked this like cheesy meat thing that we got. I don't like cheese so I didn't eat it but he seemed to really enjoy it. But this morning I had some of their smoothies that I got. They're really easy on the go snack as well and gets my morning started off right. So I recommend it very highly. Those smoothies too are awesome. Including the meals. More variety, more meals. Choose from a wider selection of weekly meal options including premium seafood choices like salmon and shrimp at no extra cost. Savor global flavors. Try Asian inspired meals with bold flavors influenced by China, Thailand and more. Feel the difference no matter your routine. Eat [e-mail] Majority 50 off and use code Majority50OFF to get 50% off your first box plus free breakfast for one year. That's code Majority50OFF@Factor Meals.com for 50% off your first box plus FREE breakfast for one year. Get delicious ready to eat meals delivered with Factor offer only valid for new Factor customers with code and qualifying auto renewing subscription purchase. The link will be down below in the YouTube and video description. Again, that's FactorMeals.com Majority50OFF and use code Majority50OFF to get 50% off your first box plus free breakfast for one year. We have a word from another one of our sponsors but you will hear from Sam and then we will be joined by Brendan James.

[Sam Cedar]

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[Emma Vigeland]

We are back and I'm so happy to be joined by Brendan James, host of the Blowback podcast which I cannot recommend more highly. It's phenomenal. All of the seasons are wonderful listens and I can't wait to see what you guys have in store next. Brendan, welcome to the show.

[Brendan James]

Thanks for having me. Good to be back.

[Emma Vigeland]

Great to see you. Let's just start right here. You know, the casual Fridays were recapping this week in news, and it feels like maybe the biggest story of the week, at least domestically, is really hitting a fever pitch today. This CDC purge here. Trump has been really escalating the. His firing of these government officials. I mean, this was just this month. He fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in response to unemployment data. That was not good for him. He then has tried to, earlier this week, remove the Fed Reserve, Federal Reserve governor, and now he is gutting the CDC senior leadership over basically vaccine policy. So this, the head of the CDC resigned because basically they were pushing her out. And now the rumored replacement is this guy, Jim o'. Neill. So Jim o' Neill was previously the CEO of Peter Thiel's Thiel Foundation. He was the managing director for Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital. He was a part of the Peter Thiel Fellowship and co founder. Co founder. And his Twitter account is still public. So we get these wonderfully just intellectual thoughts like this about science and medicine. He's tweeted this in November 2021, remember, the name Covid was chosen to conceal the origin of the virus. This name makes it harder to study and probably slowed the response. What is your theory on that? Is it too many letters for him?

[Brendan James]

Does he. Well, the thing he's quoting says SARS in it. Does he want to call, like, you know, because it's.

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh, he's quoting himself. Yes, Lynn. He's saying Covid and SARS were both.

[Donald Trump]

Coded to hide the Chinese origin.

[Emma Vigeland]

Understood. So it should have just been China virus. China virus. That's. This is.

[Brendan James]

This is my thing with, with this whole sort of new, you know, influx of guys like this is they've won. Like, Trump calls it the China virus pretty often. It's. I mean, he calls it that already, but they, like, they won't take a win. You know, they have to keep complaining or set up this idea that there is still, I don't know, some kind of shadow government that's preventing them from. From getting everything that they want. So we need to pretend it's not already called the China virus by the president. But he already does that.

[Matt Lech]

I mean, it's the same people that wouldn't let Obama say radical Islamic terror.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, right. Yes. And speaking of that person, she is now the Director of National Intelligence. Tulsi Gabbard was the Democrat that was really holding Obama accountable on not saying it.

[Brendan James]

Yeah. You have to say, you have to Say China virus now. I mean, I don't know a lot about this guy. Is there, is there a well of stuff coming up about him now? Now that like people are looking?

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, well, well, the Guardian has a good write up here. Mana as this is the woman who was fired, who was confirmed by the Senate as CDC director less than a month ago, was viewed by agency staff and outside experts as someone who could potentially help moderate Kennedy's anti vaccine agenda. O', Neill, unlike Monterrez, has no training in medicine or infectious disease science. He's a former speechwriter for the Health Department. During the Bush years. He went on to work for the tech investor and conservative mega donor Peter Thiel. During the COVID pandemic, o' Neill voiced public support for unproven treatments that were not supported by scientific evidence, including ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, as well as vitamin D as a supposed prophylaxis, which like, okay, yeah, take vitamin D, take supplements. Not gonna help you not get Covid.

[Brendan James]

Well, that's just what you say. He's the new authority on this. So I mean, I don't know who to believe, but yeah, I don't know. Is it like this has been interesting too, seeing the rise of this sort of woo, woo, right wing and obviously RFK Jr. Is the, you know, embodiment of all of that. I haven't been. I haven't really been. That's the thing that almost is the most dystopian to me of the, of the whole thing right now. I mean, as far as domestic politics is concerned, because there is this sort of suicide drive that seems to be at play where they want to get rid of medicine, I mean like proper medicine and even the most. I mean, the W. Bush administration, they had like pandemic plans set in place. I think there was an article about that in the past few years of like, it was a fairly robust plan. There were real attempts, however ideologically, you know, warped things were in the Bush administration or even Trump won. There was this idea that the government is responsible for making sure you don't die of a disease. And that, that being out the window is, is to me what has felt the most transformative because there's always been the, you know, Hoover Institution guys and wanting to slash, you know, public services and war and go to war and stuff. But this is, this is the most sort of freakish new outgrowth that I've. At least, at least to me. So again, I don't know anything about this guy, but he's obviously seems to be in line with that. If he's telling you to take you know, like a B1 if you want to prevent yourself from getting the next from bird flu or whatever.

[Matt Lech]

He's literally a biotech investor. I mean, I feel like that's the new thing now with the right is like we have the Heritage foundation stuff in Project 2025, which you know, seem to be pretty accurate prediction of their agenda. And that still is going to exist even after Trump's gone. And I. It's interesting to see how that is just going to like combine like a cyborg with this Silicon Valley psycho shit.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, that's a great point. And there's so much money on that side of things like the tech bio biology almost world where these cranks are calling the shots. And you have, I mean, RFK's independent campaign bid was subsidized by his supposed vice presidential pick who was the ex wife of a former Google executive who had.

[Matt Lech]

Sergey Brin.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, what'd you say?

[Matt Lech]

Sergey Brin.

[Emma Vigeland]

Sergey Brin, right. Who had a crap ton of money. And she was like, that was the big impetus behind his ability to really even like bankroll this kind of thing. And so there's so much. It's. I would argue that it's the anti intellectualism and anti peer review element that is most enticing to the capitalists that are behind this because take the Theranos lady for example. She's notorious, but her story is not unique. These are like these tech people that want to get into the field of say biomedicine or health that don't want like the cumbersome government regulations that would tell you whether or not this product is say, effective or good to get in the way of them making a bunch of money. And RFK is a great vehicle for that because he's a crank enough to like truly believe, I think what he says, but it fits very nicely with a libertarian agenda about health care.

[Brendan James]

Yeah, I think, I suppose that's. That's the clear, if you like, ideological link there is is all of these, as you say, crank or you know, holistic stuff that has come out of the RFK junior wing of, of the Trump coalition is stuff that they don't want to be regulated and they don't want to be gummed up by, you know, scientists or government bureaucrats determining whether it's good or bad for you. And that's part and parcel of everything else that they want to, you know, reorganize now. So I guess that is the explanation for it. I'm curious how quickly that will be repaired, you know, on the other side of this, because that's always what I think is there, whether it's institutions of, you know, like USAID or all the stuff that Doge took apart. I keep thinking, you know, if there is a Democratic administration after this, how easy will it be for them and how much will they expend the effort to repair all that? And I wonder with the damage being done to HHS as well, you know, how much this can be reversed and how quickly.

[Emma Vigeland]

And I would say that the popular support behind it where like you look at rfk, and much to my chagrin, he's maybe the best polling figure in the administration at this moment. And it's because he at least talks about an issue that people are anxious about. I mean, I've long maintained that his appeal is that he exploits the anxiety people have about their health care and gives them these like bespoke market based solutions of buy this supplement. Do, do this within your personal control. That makes them feel empowered when they really aren't. And let's pull up eight here. This was from earlier this week. This is RFK talking about what he sees at the airport. And like, I mean, I think this clip more than many underscores how this guy views disease or views abnormalities or views even obesity or down syndrome or autism. Like, remember he said that stuff about how people with autism, like can't vote or can't.

[Matt Lech]

They'll never pay taxes.

[Emma Vigeland]

Pay taxes. It's not based in anything except in my view, like a pretty scary eugenicist disgust for folks. Listen to how he talks about kids he sees in the airport.

[Donald Trump]

And I know what a healthy child is supposed to look like. I'm looking at kids as I walk through the airports today.

[Matt Lech]

What's a healthy man supposed to sound like?

[Brendan James]

I was about to say this is, this is. Sorry, go on.

[Emma Vigeland]

No, I mean, talk about glass houses again. This guy, this is the talking catcher's mitt who sounds like his voice is in a blender speaking about health for everybody.

[Donald Trump]

And I know what a healthy child is supposed to look like. I'm looking at kids as I walk through the airports today, as I walk down the street and I see these kids that are just overburdened with mitochondrial challenges with inflammation. You can tell from their faces, from their body movements and from their lack of social connection. And I know that that's not how our children are supposed to look.

[Emma Vigeland]

And I know they should look like me.

[Brendan James]

Those mitochondrial challenges and social Social pro. Like, that's just. I do, you know, how can you.

[Emma Vigeland]

Observe that in the airport, the kids are both inflamed and don't have friends. And RFK can tell you that. Based on what?

[Donald Trump]

Who has friends at the airport?

[Brendan James]

From looking at them all, from every child, you know, passing through the gate. He is just studying them up and down, I guess. I mean, he says stuff like this a lot, doesn't he, where he's like. It's always like, I see kids now and I just. By looking at them, I know that I don't know that they've. That they've taken the vaccine or whatever, but it's. Yeah, I mean, I saw this go around. I. This is like the Laura Loomer thing where she was saying, we're paying too much for foreigners, particularly Palestinians, to come over here and get surgeries. And my buddy Felix Biederman raised the question, should she really be the one deciding how many surgeries is appropriate? Same with RFK Jr. It's just like, I can never believe this is the guy. And what you say about. He does. He's the perfect sort of candidate for this because he says there's a problem and then the solution is a bunch of deregulation and hokum. But people do feel as though he is just talking about something apolitical health. He's talking about something that both the Democrats and Republicans neither will admit there's a problem. And I don't know if he's really running policy. It seems like he is to a certain extent, but the idea of we're going to talk about the Medicaid stuff, I guess, like, like that's just an old mission to. To bring all that crashing down. And he is this kind of, I think, to a lot of people just yet apolitical kook. That is just, you know, I don't know if he's charismatic. He's certainly not. I wouldn't say that he's. He's not telegenic or audiogenic or whatever, but he's definitely. He. I think he strikes people like you say, as someone who might be a little weird, but he's not talking in any kind of like, politicized language. He just says, we need to make our kids better. And, you know, everyone goes, well, I don't send the vaccine because frankly, I'm not a doctor. I just believe, like, like all the sheeple that he's, you know, wagging his finger at. I just believe the government authorities when they say, we have a vaccine and you should Take it. So as soon as you spark a little bit of doubt in that, drop Big pharma in your speeches. You know, every now and again, I think he won people's trust just by default because, you know, everyone else seems like such a crook compared to the, the kook in the room at this point.

[Matt Lech]

You know, I think the plane comment or airport comment is so revealing because that's the only time he's ever around normal people.

[Emma Vigeland]

Exactly.

[Matt Lech]

Has to fly, like. And it reminded me of this Kenneth Copeland clip from Inside Edition where he was, they asked him why he bought Tyler Perry's plane. And he says he needs. He needs to fly private because he can't get in a tube with a bunch of demons.

[Emma Vigeland]

Demons. Yeah. Yeah. Do you ever. Do you ever use your private jets to go visit your vacation homes, for example? Yes. Okay, again, getting back to the comment. You said that you don't like to fly commercial because you don't want to get into a tube with a bunch of demons. Do you really believe that human beings are demons?

[Donald Trump]

No, I do not. And don't you ever say I did. We wrestle not with flesh and blood.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. I mean, that, that little, that little eye thing he did was pretty demonic to me. I mean, I don't know.

[Brendan James]

That was. I mean, at least there's some energy there, you know, rfk. Every time I see him now, he's like one step closer, you know, to just melting down and his body's gonna shut down. Like, I, I don't know. I, I'm. I'm ready to let her rip. Let's just, you know, let's just see how it goes. Bird. The fact that bird flu has not, like, unleashed yet is still shocking to me. I don't know if that's just, you know, I know we're not testing for it as much anymore.

[Emma Vigeland]

Right.

[Brendan James]

So there's probably some level of, of like a. Intentional or unintentional cover up of that.

[Emma Vigeland]

But.

[Brendan James]

But yeah, this guy in charge during an outbreak of any kind is pretty terrifying.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, I think it's probably in many ways people behind the scenes that are still there that are working probably way harder for the exact same pay. Deeply understaffed who are like, trying their hardest to keep their profession and the work of the agency together with duct tape and gum. And, you know, we saw that a little bit in the wake of those horrible floods in Texas where like the. Nationally, they, they did get out some of the warnings in time, which a lot of people were speculating that that may not be the case. Given the cuts, it was just good old Republican politics down in Texas that caused the deaths, the lack of infrastructure.

[Matt Lech]

And let's not pay $3,000 for a.

[Emma Vigeland]

Siren, right, that they were warned about in, you know, disasters down there. But you mentioned the AI thing. I just want to touch on it really quickly and then we'll get to Israel, Palestine, because I headlined this yesterday, but I really think it deserves a little bit more attention. There was an article in the New York Times again that came out yesterday morning speaking about how there's now this pilot program that the administration is using in six states that would use AI to determine whether or not certain programs will be covered by Medicare. Now, if this sounds familiar to people, you might have heard the story of one Luigi Mangioni. I don't know if AI was a part of declining care for him or if it was just, you know, the normal bureaucratic incentives of a health insurer, but this is what, like they're trying to do this for a, basically a government program here, which is deeply concerning. I'll just read a little bit of this. The article opens kind of Talking about this 74 year old woman who is facing, you know, concerns that she's going to be getting these denials. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services plan to begin a pilot program that would involve a similar review process for traditional Medicare. And this is comparing it to, you know, private companies doing this. The federal insurance program for people 65 and older, as well as for many younger people with disabilities. The pilot would start in six states next year, including Oklahoma, where Ms. Ayers lives. The federal government plans to hire private companies to use artificial intelligence to determine whether patients would be covered for some procedure like certain spinal surgeries or steroid injections. Similar algorithms used by insurers have been the subject of several high profile lawsuits which have asserted that the technology allowed the companies to swiftly deny large batches of claims and cut patients off from care and rehabilitation facilities. The AI companies selected to oversee the program would have a strong financial incentive to deny claims. Medicare plans to pay them a share of the savings generated from rejections. The government said the AI screening tool would focus narrowly on about a dozen procedures which it has determined to be costly and of course, and little to no benefit to patients. Well, I mean, if the Trump administration says there's little to no benefit to patients, I guess we should just believe them. This is horrifying. Medicare is immensely important.

[Matt Lech]

Remember death panels?

[Emma Vigeland]

So this is a death panel. This is AI death panels. This is what they were talking about another frickin instance of goddamn conservative projection coming right back around. This is what they're trying to do.

[Brendan James]

There was a book a couple years back called Automating Inequality, I think it was called. The author was, I believe her name was Virginia Eubanks. And the book is basically about mostly in social services and policing, the introduction of technology that I don't know if it was AI or it was thought of as AI at the time, but essentially in the name of efficiency and a more sort of constructive and accurate system to either police or manage databases and allocate the resources for social work, that things got way, way worse in the cases that she observed in certain states that were tinkering around with this stuff. And, and that's what I was thinking of when I was reading the article that you just were reading from. I mean, it's obviously going to be declared in the name of a more efficient and speedier and therefore more effective set of, of procedures. But you have the profit motive at play obviously now inside of what is supposed to be a government, you know, profit free set of services and systems. But then you also have just what we now is almost a punchline of AI being this. Wherever it's been flourishing lately, it's a disaster. And yeah, I mean, the idea that that'll be applied to people's assessment of whether they need spinal surgery or not.

[Emma Vigeland]

Is next level the financial incentive to deny care of like insurers just basically being through the use of technology inserted into the already completely threadbare social safety net that we have. It's dystopian. But Brendan, while we have you here, obviously as I wax poetically about the Blowback podcast, you have an intricate understanding of the depravity of our foreign policy and the establishment that goes along with it. And you did a wonderful season on the Iraq war. And one of the many villains of that war was one Tony Blair. Now, Tony Blair is reportedly working with Jared Kushner at Trump's direction. Kushner's back. Remember when he was telling a bunch of Harvard people about all the real estate possibilities in Gaza, like over a year ago, and now Trump is saying the exact same thing. Curious. So apparently Kushner and Blair are working together on this Gaza rebuilding plan. And the meeting also include a senior Israeli official because For. Because the only democracy in the Middle east, in heavy air quotes, wants to impose a government upon a people that they will have no say in. Because democracy.

[Brendan James]

Yeah, ever since that whole idea was floated, I mean, I'd love to see Them try this. I don't know if it's just something they're saying. I mean, it's obviously a very Trump style line, you know, that we're going to turn it into a beautiful whatever, like seaside development. I can't imagine. I mean, what we're going to introduce American troops to secure a joint Israeli American redevelopment of Gaza doesn't seem likely to me. And if that happened, that would be like. I mean, he got a little bit of flack even from the right for striking Iran. I mean, I can't imagine anyone, at least from the perspective of public opinion or even his coalition being okay with following through on the idea of, of committing American lives in Gaza. But Blair being attached is never a good sign.

[Emma Vigeland]

Can you give people some background on his role in the Middle East?

[Brendan James]

Yeah, I mean, the Iraq war is probably the most significant place to start. He was the Prime Minister. It was sort of already the Clinton of the Labour party in the 90s. And then early 2000s it was called New labor, which was the idea that we need to get with the times and stop doing as much socialism or sort of Fabian British social democracy and start to privatize and start to deregulate and things that was sort of matching up with what Clinton and the Democratic Party were doing here. But he's most infamous and became incredibly unpopular for becoming Bush's lapdog with Afghanistan and Iraq. And so some of the kookiest and most embarrassingly fake intelligence meant to justify the Iraq war actually came from British dossiers, including one that was claiming there were little green vials of deadly chemicals that was clearly lifted from a scene in the movie the Rock with Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery that was overseen by Tony Blair. Not to mention the actual commitment of British troops and the selling of the war in general and the management of the war. So he has the Iraq war on his record. He also sort of was a part of rehabilitating Muammar Gaddafi before we de. Rehabilitated him when he was for a second there, an ally in the war on terror. Blair did some consulting for Gaddafi and Gaddafi ended up going on like British shows, talking about his little green book or whatever. Obviously what came after Gaddafi in Libya was worse. But Blair would. Blair's there for whatever largely evil and nefarious project or client in the Middle East. So it does not surprise me that, I mean, it kind of actually surprised me to hear his name, but it doesn't surprise me that he'd be involved in something like the American proposals for.

[Emma Vigeland]

Gaza at This point, how could it possibly be implemented? I mean, I. I'm not trying to under or to downplay the horror of what they're proposing, but, I mean, we're seeing real issues internally within Israel right now. We reported this yesterday, but, like, these poor reservists are exhausted from helping commit genocide, and they're, like, just not showing up. And there are talks about fatigue among the idf, and there have been, I think, like, suicides. And so internally in Israel, Netanyahu is going to have a problem trying to get these reservists to the ground invasion of Gaza City, which has been. He's been ramping up to for quite a while. Like, how can Israel sustain this level of barbarity on so many different fronts? Not just, of course, in Gaza, they're annexing the west bank as we speak, and they're bombing Syria. And, like, they also underreported, it appears, the damage that Iran did to them when they struck Israel. We still don't know the extent of it, but it appears fairly significant. So, like, there's gotta be at least some, I mean, pushback within the region to this kind of thing. I would hope.

[Brendan James]

I mean, we're all sort of probably, you know, operating off of the same, you know, guesswork when it comes to Trump, whether it's you and me or the King of Jordan. I don't. I don't know if anyone takes it seriously or knows when we should start taking it seriously. I. It was last year that Trump talked about the, you know, turning Gaza into a resort or whatever. And I remember at the time just thinking, like, again, I would. I would love to see them try to do that, because it just. It obviously sounds insane, not only for its moral, you know, implications, but just that. The one part of Iraq. To talk about Iraq again, the one part of Iraq where you could have, like, McDonald's or whatever and walk around and, you know, not worry about getting blown up, was in the. In the. The bubble that was the Green Zone.

[Emma Vigeland]

You talked about this in blowback. Yes, yeah.

[Brendan James]

And otherwise. And that's a much larger country, but in some sense an even harder country to fight an insurgency. Hamas is fighting a pretty darn good insurgency against Israel right now. And the idea that anything in the near term could produce the conditions for, again, putting aside the just evil of the proposition that could produce the conditions for what Kushner or Trump or, I guess, Blair would be aiming to do is ridiculous. I mean, people would get blown up every single day trying to build the cracker barrel or whatever. So I don't see that happening. And I don't know what Blair brings to this other than the prestige of a former head of state who, you know, maybe the, the hicks in the administration thinks sounds smart because he's British, I don't know. But like, I just don't know what. He has no particular prestige in the actual region among, among like, you know, populations or even leadership in the Middle East. So, yeah, it, it would be very unlikely, I mean, to imagine any of this coming to fruition. What will continue, of course, is the war and the extermination campaign by Israel. And I think they're saying stuff like this just to almost convince their own, probably their own audience and then the audiences in America that this will be over soon. I think that's why you start talking about.

[Emma Vigeland]

Trump has been saying we're gonna, you gotta. I wanna wrap. He's obsessed with these, imposing these self imposed deadlines. He wants this done by the end of 2025. And what being done means is, could be as barbaric as basically entire extermination, which is like what we're looking at here. I mean, like I, I'm a dog with a bone with this death toll thing, but it just drives me up a wall every time I read the west. You know, we read a packet in the news in the morning and the Western Press is 63K. They, you know, like, whatever, we've been lagging. And I'm, it's manufacturing consent for this genocide in ways that is perhaps the most pernicious piece of Israeli propaganda in the west right now, because it's across every outlet because there's no verifiable information on the death toll. But like I, okay, use that figure because you don't have real figures. I get it. The press might do that. Immediate caveat needs to be. There have been analyses by Lancet and other showing that it's likely hundreds of thousands. It's part of why there isn't enough urgency in the public. And I'm not trying to say there would be a revolution here, but is because we know we don't know the truth. It's hundreds of thousands dead and more are dying.

[Brendan James]

I am a stickler about the death toll stuff as well. You know, I do wonder if 63,000 doesn't upset or, you know, explode your conscience, whether 163,000 would. And we do know that it's an unpopular policy to support Israel now among Democrats and Independents. I think it's obviously a minority within Republicans, but across the board it's unpopular. Does that matter? Probably not. I mean, as far as affecting policy, probably not. The Iran strikes were unpopular. They did them anyway. But yeah, I think you're right about the crackup that's happening because it's been two years now. And that to me is why especially someone like Trump would start to say, don't worry, we're wrapping it up soon. That phrase, even wrap it up, you know, like the way to wrap it up. If he had the political or, you know, whatever type of courage, he would wrap it up by cutting Israel off completely. And then they would probably wither on the vine for a little bit until they had to really decide they didn't have the resources anymore to continue the extermination. But he doesn't want to do that, or rather feels like he politically can't do that. And I'm sure he would get a wallop if he did, just like any Democratic president would. So he has to just keep asking pretty please to Netanyahu and say things like, don't worry, it's only going to be another month or two. And then we'll have, you know, flowering of Western style, you know, like a new Paris, you think, you know, it'll take like decades, it'll take decades to even clear the rubble from Gaza, let alone this idea of like SimCity style, you know, like reskinning the map to make it look shiny and full of Western restaurants. So to me, it's a sign of desperation. And I think the Iran strikes were another sign of desperation because they really, I think they realized that this is not really going to end well for Israel anymore than it's, it's obviously not that Israel is the victim, but it's not going to end well. It's a kind of death drive at this point.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, I mean, the, they're creating in this frenzy facts on the ground, which is an Israeli phrase, to try to cement Greater Israel, I mean, one, by completely destroying the Gaza Strip and either ethnically cleansing or outright just killing basically all of the Palestinians there. And then the west bank actions are increasingly deadly, violent, escalating the approval of this E1 settlement plan we've been covering on the show and trying to create facts on the ground to further foreclose the possibility of a Palestinian state. Although obviously, Brendan, you know that that two state solution is fictional and a stalling tactic. But even just like the diplomatic significance of a Palestinian state being recognized, they are sprinting to ensure that that's not possible. And I am optimistic. When you say things like they're worried and desperate. But I also am not naive about what just sheer power and violence can achieve in a short period of time.

[Brendan James]

Absolutely. Same goes for America as well. I mean, I think we're living through the age of if there was decline before free fall at this point and it' you can be optimistic about certain aspects of that. But these types of states, whether it's a sort of lunatic ethnocracy like Israel or a dying empire like America, they don't go down without a fight. So then of course the concern is maybe they'll just let her rip. And I think that is basically like Israel would have had a greater chance at Greater Israel if they had played this slowly and piecemeal over the next 50 years. I mean, they've already achieved half of Greater Israel, as you say, with the facts on the ground. But instead I think it's gotten to its terminus of like any kind of logical or strategic ethnic cleansing. And after October 7th they just said we can do whatever we want, not unlike what happened after 911 in America. And we saw how that turned out. We reversed whatever leverage we had in those countries through a series of ironic and, or you know, blood stained reversals. So yeah, I mean the, it does seem desperate, but that as you point out, doesn't mean it's going to get any better anytime soon. You know, they'll just grind on, you know.

[Emma Vigeland]

Lastly, Brendan, I do think it's interesting to examine how the Democrats are responding to this. Like we, the Torres interview is not a good look for him and he comes off incredibly callous and sociopathic. Not hard for him to do. But we just headlined this story that this moderate Democrat in North Carolina is swearing off now and announcing pretty early on, you know, in her race, probably to foreclose the idea of a primary challenger. I would imagine, I don't know the district that well that she won't take APAC money. And you have like this exciting candidate that we've interviewed up in Maine, Graham Platner, who is like putting no APAC basically to the forefront of his race. And even a guy like Charlemagne, the God who's just kind of like an independent vibe guy on TV or on the radio calling Jeffrey's AIPAC Shakur. The fact that AIPAC is becoming a pejorative. And it's not just Democrats like Marjorie Taylor Greene says what she says because she's one of the top three representatives slash senators that take the most percentage of money from small dollar donations. Like not saying she's not an anti Semite, but her Bernie and AOC are the top three and she's the only Republican calling out aipac. It's becoming a pejorative. And that at the very least domestically here in the US is an improvement. Just your thoughts on that?

[Brendan James]

Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm sure you guys talked about the Torres thing. It is a good like, you know, Adam's a buddy. I thought it was an interesting interview on both sides of that set. But, but Torres being this just retreating into that like a gator, you know, sunbathing. Just like, just he couldn't, like he, he knew he, he couldn't blow up and I'm sure he was thinking of like whatever staffer booked him on this and was imagining traps from the movie saw to apply to them later. You know, for in the moment that we realized this wasn't going to make him look hip and cool. But, but that lizard like stance I think is incredibly alienating and more people, I remember AIPAC was already becoming a pejorative because it was so linked with Republicans over the past four or five years at this point, you know, Trump embracing Miriam Adelson and just like the, I think a lot of Democrats, even if they quietly kept taking AIPAC money, they didn't mind accepting that it was now a Republican coded lobby for many people. But the extermination campaign in Gaza definitely, I think has given certainly younger politicians an impetus to say, I never want to have to deal with this. You know, why would. Okay, I'll take some flack for maybe being too sympathetic to the Palestinians. Maybe they'll call it genocide, maybe they won't. That whole rhetorical war will probably be with us for a little while longer. But they have, they have no reason to, if they're smart to think, yeah, in five years I don't want to have to be tarred with the fact that I took APAC money. And it's just, it's a non starter. I think if, again, if you're smart then you have people like Slotkin who are, you know, trying to in real time, you know, transmogrify. Right, exactly. And that's probably going to be unsuccessful. But yeah, it's good that it's become a pejorative. I hope it spreads to other forms of how this policy sustains itself and just the general support for Israel, whether it's a lobby or whether it's our public figures, whether they take APEC money or not. It should probably soon become a stain on your record to have said anything supportive of this. I Know that leading Democrat, I can't remember her name at the moment. You probably covered it. She said genocide and then she took it back.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. Catherine Clark, she said it to her constituents and then ran to, like, a Zionist publication and backtracked it. Yeah.

[Brendan James]

So you can see it happening in real time. The younger upstarts know, let's just have a clean slate. And the ones who are already, you know, caught in this web at the top are trying to wriggle out of this in real time. So it's that. That in and of itself is a good sign. Yeah.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, not complete optimism in our conversation here, but we can leave it on that note, Brandon James, really appreciate you coming on. And everybody, as I keep saying, check out Blowback. Anything else you're working on that we should mention?

[Brendan James]

Well, I'm working with my buddy Felix. I mentioned earlier, I am working on a miniseries with him, but it's about Metal Gear Solid, so I don't know how many Majority Report listeners would care about that. But we are putting it out this week.

[Emma Vigeland]

We've got a bunch of nerds in the audience. They might be into it.

[Brendan James]

I would never call them nerds that.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, I have to discipline them in some way.

[Brendan James]

I do the same with our listeners. But no Blowback Season 6 is coming out September 20th, and it will be about the civil war in Angola, the Cold War showdown in Africa. We've never done a season about Africa before. It's incredibly rich vein and a fascinating story. So if you like Blowback already, please check your podcast feeds come September 20th. But if you would like a hopefully entertaining and compelling show about largely Cold War history and American shenanigans all over the world, check out Blowback wherever you get your podcasts.

[Emma Vigeland]

All right, Alex Hiddell says I will be listening, sir. So we already have one listener on board. Thanks so much, Brendan.

[Brendan James]

Thank you, guys.

[Emma Vigeland]

You coming on.

[Matt Lech]

Thanks, Brandon.

[Emma Vigeland]

All right, folks, quick break, and when we come back, we'll be joined by Amanda Seals. We are back, folks. Apologies for some of the audio issues, but this is what happens with leftist audio as it's described. We're working with what we've got here. We are back with Amanda. So, Seals, thanks so much for coming back on the show. Amanda, thank you.

[Amanda Seals]

Thank you for having me.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, Amanda Seals, obviously comedian, actress, producer, host of the Small Doses podcast and the latest. I don't. I don't want to say victim, because you're not a victim here, but I do think, like, the Jubilee people are getting at a level of like, I don't know, some of cynicism and of, of like this reactionary thing. They're trying to create as inflammatory content as possible between yours and also Mehdi Hassan who was talking directly to like open fascists. I mean, you know, these open white supremacists. And I know that you were like ostensibly debating conservatives, but it also was like, I don't know about it was directed towards making you almost like have to defend certain things. It's. They're appealing to white supremacists increasingly is basically my contention. Oh no, okay, sorry.

[Amanda Seals]

I would say yes, but I would also say this. My episode of Surrounded was a very particular set up and it was by design for my like in my vision because I wanted to one, demonstrate someone who was not taking the position of the binary liberal, conservative, Democrat, Republican. I went on there as a black radical. So that was one I wanted to literally just demonstrate here is somebody who is not fitting in the boxes that have been created, assigned and upheld by mainstream media and you know, this U.S. joke of a government. But two, it was an inter community conversation. And I think for a lot of folks who are not black, they may have seen my episode and said, oh, I don't need to bother with this or like I don't need to pay attention to this one because like this isn't. And not even in a racist way, but just in like a. Oh, that's like a them conversation, not an conversation. And I would actually pin you because black people have been at the forefront of really trying to get the United States to live up to everything it claims that it is on paper. Right. So we have always been in the middle of the fray. We've always been a part of that fight. So when you see that the colonization of, you know, lands that we've seen all over the world have now very effectively come to black minds and black bodies. You should be on like red alert. Like, wow, she sat in there with 20 black people that were willing to. Not even with like MAGA hats and all the regalia because you know, you can kind of write that off. When you see the rallies and stuff, you're like, okay, these are just like loonies. No, these were like majority young people that felt very comfortable being on a show that they know is going to get millions of followers spewing self hating white nationalist rhetoric. And even if they don't believe it, they were willing to do it for the possibility of visibility or money. And that should concern everybody.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, I mean, absolutely. It's about the pernicious nature Also, I would say of capitalism and how it can co opt people into it, like quite easily. But it's about this attention economy too, where we had a little echo at the beginning. We fixed it. We're all good now. Just wanted to say that it might have. My question may have kind of been muddled there, but the way that Jubilee and these algorithms and these other shows are really directing a lot of hatred towards people and seem to be designed put to create the most intense reaction. That's what the algorithms are doing. Whether it's the top of your feed on Twitter or whatever, or it's on YouTube where they're increasingly okay with platforming people who. I don't know 10 years ago, that would be like, that's beyond the pale. This is a Klansman. This is a Nazi person. Or this person is saying insane things on camera and that should kill their career. But no, it doesn't kill their career. It gets them ahead. Because right now it's all about shock value and creating the most attention that you can with, like these corporations creating algorithms that incentivize that kind of thing.

[Amanda Seals (continued, possibly a second voice or co-host)]

I would agree with that. I'll also add that any of these pages who do not moderate their chats, who allow for their comment sections to be flooded and riddled with constant toxicity and nastiness and hatred, they're all a part of that as well. I mean, whether I go on Don Lemon or Savvy Stabs or go, or you go in the chat of Jubilee, it's all the same. It's all the same. It's all filled with folks who are aligning with what that algorithm is all about, and that is creating rage, weight, and toxicity. Because people respond to that. I mean, our brains, for some reason, this human brain responds to the negativity more than the positive. Like I do my show views for Amanda Land once a week, every Wednesday, 10am Eastern. And my moderators, like, my module, my moderators, like, they don't play around. Do I get less views for that? Absolutely. Do I get less push to the algorithm? Absolutely right. So it's just, you know, I think it's not even just Jubilee. I think that they are just a bigger version of what I'm seeing this YouTube Internet space has become, which is. I really don't. It doesn't really matter what I'm saying or what the people in my chat are saying, as long as it's going to still get me money.

[Emma Vigeland]

Exactly.

[Amanda Seals (continued, possibly a second voice or co-host)]

That's trash. For the record, I did not get paid to go on Jubilee because I See people in. In various chats being like, you did this. I was like, no, right?

[Emma Vigeland]

No, no, you didn't. I mean, we know that Sam did it. Sam did it. But of course, like, I mean, that's some of the people that are picked for you and Mehdi is. It's different. Different than for, you know, when they have Sam on there, I guess that is. Yeah. I mean, it's pretty self evident. But Ben Shapiro.

[Amanda Seals (continued, possibly a second voice or co-host)]

Because he's a white guy, right?

[Emma Vigeland]

Because he's a white guy. Of course, of course, of course. I mean, another white guy here, though, Ben Shapiro. I don't know if you saw this. He reacted to. To your jubilee. I want you to react to his reaction. Right? This is. You do not. You can. You can veto it. You can veto it.

[Amanda Seals (continued, possibly a second voice or co-host)]

I want to veto it. I'll tell you why.

[Emma Vigeland]

Okay, go for it.

[Amanda Seals (continued, possibly a second voice or co-host)]

Because I think that we do the work for them when we platform them.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Amanda Seals (continued, possibly a second voice or co-host)]

Quite honest, I don't think any of these right wing mouthpieces are going to live long in their work. They are all just a part of the empire systems of fascism. Can you name off the top of your head any radio or radio hosts or like newspaper writers from like the Third Reich? Because I can't.

[Emma Vigeland]

No. But I will say that part of, you know, our show, right. What I think we try to do is get into the algorithm for these guys by making fun of them. It's a really powerful tool to mock these freaks because first of all. But if you don't combat it, they have all of the advantages that we're describing. So you have to at least engage in some way. Not saying we need to do right now, but because they have such a capture of the economy in this way, because they just have more money on their side. It's the same way like Bill O'Reilly or all these conservative influencers books get to the top of the charts because they just buy them all up, like the Heritage foundation or something. Oh, best selling author. Because it was rigged in their favor. But you like.

[Amanda Seals (continued, possibly a second voice or co-host)]

But I feel like when we choose these ministries. Right. Because that's a choice. Like we're gonna do this on Majority Report to check this thing. Right?

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Amanda Seals (continued, possibly a second voice or co-host)]

I feel like we also end up having to like, create a balance. A melody, if you will, a harmony, if you will, in our lives. Because when, like, if I commit myself to do like, people are like, will you ever go back? Will you go back? This is your lane. You should do this all the time. And I'm like, I sat in the middle of 20 willfully ignorant fools all the time as, like a lifestyle. And I didn't have. And I didn't have anything else. Like, I. You would be on here. Like, we just had Amanda's last week and now she has gone to the other realm, like, over. Like, I wouldn't be able to handle it. So I, I mitigate that, Emma.

[Emma Vigeland]

If for your own piece of nothing else.

[Amanda Seals (continued, possibly a second voice or co-host)]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Emma Vigeland]

So then let's just. We'll. We'll talk then, just Palestine really briefly while I have you. I mean, last time, last time we had you on that was the center of our conversation. And like a lot of some of the choices that you were making in your career to be very outspoken about Palestine and how you were received, some really, you know, harsh reaction to it and of course, affects people's bottom lines. Now that we're a little further away from our conversation, like, what new do you have to share with us about how your activism has been, like, received?

[Amanda Seals (continued, possibly a second voice or co-host)]

I think, you know, for many of us, I would say that Palestine has been the awakening, the re. Radicalism, in some cases the first radicalism. It's been a blessing and it's really something that we will owe to those who've been murdered in Palestine forever. Because that is so deeply dystopian that my awakening had to come from, you know, seeing a physical, visible genocide every day and then understanding how am I culpable in making this happen? How. And then that, and then being responsible for how I can take the step to no longer be culpable as much as possible. Right. So, you know, you. You start taking those steps by addressing your capitalism, how you engage in capitalism, your consumerism. How do you engage in consumerism? You know, what, as a creative, as an artist, what art am I supporting? What art am I actually, actually doing? So, like, I have my one woman show. What Would the Ancestors say? I have a residency. I do it for the first. I do it the first Saturday of every month at the People's Forum in New York City. So the next One is on September 6th. And I mean, this piece in which I talk about Palestine, I connect it to the United States, Black American experience and struggle in the United States. And the goal of it is to really use art to reconnect our. I would say that at this point in my life, since I've spoken, since I've spoken to you, I've just gotten even more aware, more informed, and also more empowered to help others who are genuinely curious become more aware and more informed. Because since we've spoken, Emma, I Think you and I would agree that this has hit the fan for a lot more people in terms of just their seeing how the dots are connecting, you know?

[Emma Vigeland]

Right. And how do you approach that? I mean, there's. I have a devil on my shoulder that wants to say to some of these people, like, how long did this take? How could you just be getting here? And even, you know, sometimes the privileging, in my view, of, like, Western Jewish perspectives over that of Palestinians gets me frustrated. But you have. But there's also this balance of meeting people where they are, and I struggle with that, as I imagine you do, where there's this rage boiling beneath. But you also have to kind of maintain a level head of education, educating people.

[Amanda Seals (continued, possibly a second voice or co-host)]

Well, I'll tell you what, I did a lot of that on that Surrounded episode. I feel like I had a lot of level heading that was kept. But honestly, if folks come in a place of atonement versus arrogance, then I'm. It clears it all for me. Like, if someone shows up with, I cannot believe I did not know about this, and I need to work three times as harder. I am so much more motivated, knowing that I had been caught in the matrix this long, then, you know, what are we gonna do? These. These factions are selling out millions and billions to keep people stupid. So it's not as if there are. It's not like by accident that people don't know. It's just that when people come with, like, a. Well, what did you expect me to do? Then I'm like, oh, go off yourself.

[Emma Vigeland]

Right, right. Well, anything, Amanda, that you have coming up that you want folks to know about, I mean, obviously follow Amanda Seals on social media everywhere as I do. What do you have coming up?

[Amanda Seals (continued, possibly a second voice or co-host)]

So I'm actually. I do my show Views from Mandolin every Wednesday at 10am Eastern on YouTube. Amanda seals TV. And we also are doing a summit at the TPF at the People's Forum, September 19th, 20th and 21st. Amanda land summit. Well, actually, it's called the Amanda Land Summit because they call themselves Amanda Landers. Do your viewers call themselves majority reporters?

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. Yeah, they do, actually.

[Amanda Seals (continued, possibly a second voice or co-host)]

And I was like, oh, okay. Shout out to the majority reporters. The event that we'll be having there will be open to the public. So one of them will be a live taping of Youth 3 Mandaland. But the other will be a panel that I put together called Cracking up the System. I actually want to do this, like, on a regular basis where I bring together two socially conscious comedians, talk to organizers, because the work that organizers are doing needs to be spoken about. But sometimes it's so boring and it's like not. You know what I mean? You're like, okay, I get it. I get it. So we have Davidson Boswell and Christina Brown, our comedians and our organizers. This panel are Angelica Langdon and Claudia De La Cruz. So it's gonna be a good one. It's gonna be a good one. So you can go to. You can go to the People's Forum.org and get your either of those events and that will be actually contributing to the People's Forum. I hope to see you all there. I hope to see you all Saturday, September 6th at what would the Ancestors say? And I love you all here continuing to do this work. It's very necessary.

[Emma Vigeland]

Appreciate you. I'm sorry for our audio issues. We'll have you on another time and we'll figure it out. I'll be able to come on before.

[Amanda Seals (continued, possibly a second voice or co-host)]

And do the tech. The pre text, you know, today was not. I was not able.

[Emma Vigeland]

But thanks so much, Amanda. Really appreciate your time today.

[Amanda Seals (continued, possibly a second voice or co-host)]

And Emma, you need to come on my show.

[Emma Vigeland]

I would love to. Let's set that up after this. I'll text you. Okay, guys, thank you. Bye, Amanda. All right. Sorry, guys. I know there was some tech stuff, but I wanted to make sure we got Amanda on because it had been a minute. How are we doing on sound now? We're good.

[Matt Lech]

Yeah.

[Emma Vigeland]

Maybe Matt sweating through his shirt. It's good, it's good. Do you have that?

[Matt Lech]

It may be a bit suboptimal, but yeah. If I had to issue any sort of, you know, overall assessment of what, I would probably, probably say something. Why isn't it showing up in my email?

[Emma Vigeland]

Just search from me. I think it's good. I think it's good. Okay. I feel like Matt and I never email, but like at like 11:30 on a week that I'll just email him a sound drop that I want to incorporate into the board I'm using. Still using. It's good. I think it's good. I'm still using this free board that can only put like 12 things on there. And I just should ask Sam for the.

[Brendan James]

We need to modernize the Mr. Card.

[Emma Vigeland]

So I can get a more on here. But appreciate you all. Thank you so much. We are going to head into the fun half. But first, Matt, what's happening on Left Reckoning?

[Matt Lech]

Yeah, Left Reckoning, a Sunday show. David and I are going to disclose a financial relationship that was previously secret.

[Emma Vigeland]

Maybe we'll talk about that in the fun half a Little bit.

[Matt Lech]

And talk about how it's actually normal and good.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes.

[Matt Lech]

To take $8,000 to learn how to do thumbnails being incubated.

[Emma Vigeland]

Okay.

[Matt Lech]

Interesting. I love it. Yeah. Patreon.com left reckon if you, if you want to help David and I try to get to the $8,000 a month club by being members of a podcast instead of just, you know, donors in the shadowy network.

[Emma Vigeland]

All right. We will see you in the fun half.

[Sam Cedar]

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.

[Emma Vigeland]

What?

[Sam Cedar]

What is that going on? It's nuts. Wait a second. Hold on. Hold on for a second. Emma. Welcome to the program. Fun Half.

[Emma Vigeland]

Matt. Boo.

[Sam Cedar]

Fun hack.

[Emma Vigeland]

What is up, everyone?

[Sam Cedar]

Fun path.

[Brendan James]

No.

[Emma Vigeland]

Mi Keen. You did it.

[Sam Cedar]

Fun pack.

[Emma Vigeland]

Let's go, Brandon.

[Brendan James]

Let's go, Brandon.

[Emma Vigeland]

Fun pack.

[Sam Cedar]

Ada, you want to say hello?

[Emma Vigeland]

Sorry to disappoint everyone. I'm just a random guy. It's all the boys today. Fundamentally false. No. I'm sorry.

[Brendan James]

Women.

[Sam Cedar]

Stop talking for a second.

[Emma Vigeland]

Let me finish. Where is this coming from? Dude.

[Donald Trump]

But.

[Emma Vigeland]

Dude, you want to smoke this?

[Sam Cedar]

7A.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes. All right.

[Donald Trump]

You safe?

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes. Is this me?

[Brendan James]

Is it me?

[Sam Cedar]

It is you.

[Emma Vigeland]

If it's me, a lot of us.

[Sam Cedar]

May think it is you.

[Emma Vigeland]

Who is you?

[Sam Cedar]

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

[Emma Vigeland]

Sports. We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism. I'm gonna go snow white. Cool.

[Sam Cedar]

Libertarians. They're so stupid. Though common sense says of course.

[Brendan James]

Gobble.

[Emma Vigeland]

Goldie Cook. We nailed him. So what's 79 plus 21?

[Sam Cedar]

Challenge. Man.

[Amanda Seals (continued, possibly a second voice or co-host)]

I'm positively quivering.

[Sam Cedar]

I believe 96. I want to say 8572-1085-5011-0389, 11.

[Brendan James]

For instance.

[Emma Vigeland]

3, $400. $1900.

[Sam Cedar]

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

[Emma Vigeland]

Actually. You're making me think less.

[Sam Cedar]

But let me say this.

[Emma Vigeland]

Call it satire.

[Brendan James]

Sam goes satire on top of it all.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Amanda Seals]

My favorite part about you is just.

[Emma Vigeland]

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

[Sam Cedar]

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

[Emma Vigeland]

It's just the week being weeded out. Obviously. Yeah. Sundown. Guns out.

[Sam Cedar]

I, I, I don't know, but you.

[Brendan James]

Should know.

[Emma Vigeland]

People just don't like to entertain ideas anymore.

[Sam Cedar]

I have a question. Who cares?

[Matt Lech]

Our chat is enabled.

[Emma Vigeland]

I love it. I do love that. Gotta jump.

[Sam Cedar]

Gotta be quick. I gotta jump.

[Emma Vigeland]

I'm losing it, bro.

[Sam Cedar]

Team 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?

[Brendan James]

Love you.

[Emma Vigeland]

Bye.

[Donald Trump]

Love you.

[Emma Vigeland]

Bye.

[Sam Cedar]

Bye.