3576 - McTrump Slump; The Immigrant Rebuild of NOLA w/ Sarah Fouts

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Majority Report with Sam Seder

Episode 3576: McTrump Slump; The Immigrant Rebuild of NOLA with Sarah Fouts
Date: September 8, 2025
Host: Sam Seder
Guest: Sarah Fouts (Associate Professor, American Studies, UMBC, Author: Rebuilding New Orleans: Immigrant Laborers & Street Food Vendors in the Post-Katrina Era)
Co-hosts: Emma Vigeland, Brian, Bradley
Main Theme:
The episode explores economic and political turbulence during the Trump administration, with particular focus on the economic crisis dubbed the "McTrump Slump." The heart of the episode is a longform interview with Sarah Fouts, investigating the pivotal (but overlooked) role of immigrant labor in New Orleans’ post-Katrina recovery—framed within larger current debates about immigration, labor, disaster recovery, and gentrification.

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1. Economic and Political News: “McTrump Slump”

[04:00–22:00]

Key Points:

• Government Shutdown Looms: With 22 days left until a possible government shutdown, Democratic leaders Schumer and Jeffries are described as "desperate to help Republicans help themselves" ([00:59]).
• Supreme Court Actions:
  • Trump Fires FTC Commissioner: The Supreme Court allows Trump to fire an FTC commissioner, breaking with precedent ([01:25]).
  • Racial Profiling by ICE: Later, the Supreme Court greenlights ICE racially profiling (see detailed section below).
• Tariffs and Economic “Crap Show”:
  • Trump’s tariffs are worsening inflation and tanking the economy; manufacturing, housing, and consumer spending are all suffering.
  • Notably, the U.S. economy is described as “cratering,” with some regions in a recession already.
  • A recent altercation between Scott Bessant (Trump’s housing finance chief) and an FHA “hatchet man” over mortgage records signals deeper economic and political breakdown ([06:10]).

Notable Analysis:

“The tariffs are already taking their toll on inflation. The economy is stalled out.”
— Sam Seder [07:24]

• Populism as Oligarchy: Trump’s economic policies are painted as “populist” in rhetoric, but in practice benefit the ultra-wealthy, especially asset-buyers who profit by scooping up distressed assets during downturns.
• Distorted Economic Narratives:
  • McDonald’s CEO described a “two-tier economy,” where upper-income Americans are doing well, but middle and lower-income consumers are under intense pressure, even skipping meals ([12:57] Bradley).

Notable Quote:

“If you’re already in the top 0.001%, what is a recession going to do for you except create assets on the cheap for you to buy up and increase your wealth?”
— Emma Vigeland [15:14]

• Speculative Tech Bubble: Concern about the tech (AI) sector being a speculative bubble, and with health care, being the only sectors really growing. Non-farm payroll jobs would have declined were it not for health care gains ([16:09]–[17:28]).

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2. Main Interview: The Immigrant Rebuild of New Orleans (with Sarah Fouts)

[23:00–60:26]

A. Setting the Context: Katrina, Displacement, and Immigration

[23:00–26:19]

• 20 years after Katrina, the recovery is examined as both a story of loss and transformation.
• Many displaced (largely Black) residents were unable to return.
• Guest Sarah Fouts’ new book uses individual immigrant stories—like that of Dennis, a Honduran day laborer—to illustrate wider labor and organizing dynamics.

Notable Quote:

“Dennis really was emblematic of this process of organizing—coming from Honduras… working with day laborers to do know-your-rights… They also build power with the Black workers in the city as well.”
— Sarah Fouts [25:10]

B. Immigration, Labor, and Exploitation

[26:19–29:53]

• About 50% of New Orleans’ post-Katrina reconstruction labor force were immigrants; half of those were undocumented.
• Bush-era policies suspended many labor and wage protections (e.g., Davis-Bacon Act, OSHA rules), “expediting exploitation.”
• The formation and expansion of ICE (just over 2 years old by Katrina) accelerated labor insecurity and the threat of deportation.

C. Immigrant Street Food Vendors & Cultural Visibility

[29:53–36:49]

• As immigrant populations grew, so did the informal (and often criminalized) street food economy—exemplified by Mateo, who transitioned from construction to selling food for laborers.
  • These food vendors filled gaps left by insufficient aid and were critical to community survival.
• Food as both symbol and political flashpoint:
  • Symbol of Cultural Anxiety: Some local politicians fretted about tacos “overrunning” local culinary symbols (e.g., gumbo), revealing anxieties over demographic and cultural change.

Notable Quotes:

“He began as a construction worker… but then saw the need for more street food vendors to sell food to workers because things like Red Cross weren’t reaching those communities.”
— Sarah Fouts [29:53]

“Why did the tacos help the gumbo?”
— New Orleans Councilmember Oliver Thomas, as referenced by Fouts [32:35]

Policy and Racism:

• Officials enacted taco truck bans and policies that favored “gourmet” food trucks over immigrant-run trailers, using food as a proxy for deeper racial and demographic animus ([35:15]).

D. Gentrification, Wealth Transfer, and Labor Dynamics

[36:49–40:49]

• Post-Katrina, the number of restaurants increased even as the local population shrank—a sign of wealth concentration and the prioritization of a tourism economy.
• Displacement and public housing destruction limited Black residents’ ability to return; Latinx populations doubled from 4% to nearly 10% ([39:36]).
• Service and restaurant jobs expanded, but largely with low wages and little security, increasingly filled by immigrants.

E. Organizing and Cross-Racial Solidarity: El Congresso

[40:49–44:27]

• El Congresso, part of the New Orleans Worker Center for Racial Justice, successfully organized hundreds of day laborers—serving as a model for cross-racial, cross-status labor solidarity.
• Coalitions of Black and immigrant workers fought together for wages, job access, and protection from deportation and criminalization.

Notable Quote:

“These are two groups that are usually pitted against each other... [but] really great organizing brought together to fight for rights across the board—for immigrant rights, but also for wages, right to remain, not be locked out of jobs because of a felony conviction…”
— Sarah Fouts [41:36]

F. ICE as a Tool for Labor Control & Model for Repression

[44:27–46:49]

• ICE was wielded as a means to “calibrate” the immigrant labor force—not too big to threaten political control, not too small to undermine business needs.
• Local organizers forced reforms, but the Obama era still saw carry raids, workplace crackdowns, and collaboration with local police.

Notable Quote:

“The Congressa was a political force… sitting at the table with Chief Harrison to do the consent decree…”
— Sarah Fouts [45:15]

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3. Supreme Court’s Ruling: Greenlighting Racial Profiling by ICE

[46:50–67:27]

Key Points:

• On-episode breaking news: The Supreme Court, in an emergency (“shadow docket”) ruling, allows ICE to detain individuals based on little more than “working at a car wash, speaking Spanish or having brown skin” ([63:17]).
  • Dissenters highlight that this decision legalizes open racial profiling under the banner of immigration enforcement.
  • The case arose in California, but is expected to be used as precedent everywhere.
• Comparison to Dred Scott Era:
  • The cast draws a sharp parallel between the Court’s actions now and the infamously racist rulings of the 19th century.

Notable Quotes:

“Full on racial profiling. And my understanding is it’s an emergency appeal… which means the case continues, but the Supreme Court has done this multiple times… The implication is, if you don’t allow ICE to racially profile, they will be irrecoverably harmed.”
— Sam Seder [63:17]

“It’s like a Dred Scott era a bit… This is the kind of decision that will be a stain on our history and we’re living through it.”
— Emma Vigeland [67:18]

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4. The New Orleans Model: How Private Disaster Capitalism Went National

[49:17–58:46]

• Current state of disaster recovery: FEMA is “a shell,” public funding gutted and privatization rampant—echoing New Orleans’ struggles post-Katrina, but now at “national scale.”
• The rise of ICE (“Arpaio on steroids”) & surveillance tech: New technologies (e.g., Palantir, facial recognition) empower a more repressive and less accountable ICE.
• Charterization and Privatization: New Orleans now has no public schools, only charters; union-busting and privatized systems became permanent after the Katrina “shock,” a precursor to national trends.
• Military Privateers: The use of Blackwater (now Constellis) and other security contractors after Katrina is an omen for how today’s disasters might play out under crony, lawless administration—potentially with even less oversight.
• Angola Prison (“detention facility mecca”): Louisiana’s notorious Angola prison, built on a former plantation, is now being retrofitted as a massive immigrant detention site under Governor Landry, further conflating mass incarceration, racism, and anti-immigrant policy ([57:48]).

Notable Quotes:

“A friend called ICE now Sheriff Arpaio on steroids… with surveillance and tech being used in ways only being developed ten years ago.”
— Sarah Fouts [49:17]

“Everything stops at one point. Like it’s just going to be a mess. Nobody’s coming in to clean up… and it puts a billionaire in the position of being able to say, ‘I’m going to do this.'”
— Sam Seder [53:17]

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5. Broader Reflections: Labor, Immigration, and American Politics

• The episode closes with reflections on the lessons from New Orleans—as a cautionary tale but also a model of organizing resilience, despite being undermined by privatization, displacement, and criminalization ([55:12]–[57:24]).
• Structural disinvestment, not mere local or cultural failure, is at the root of suffering and inequality; scapegoating immigrants ignores the more damaging role of capital flight and deliberate state abandonment.

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Memorable Moments and Quotes

• Bradley (McDonald’s CEO, paraphrased):

  “Upper income consumers are doing well… middle & lower income are under pressure: double-digit traffic declines, people skipping meals.” [12:57]

• Sarah Fouts on cross-racial labor organizing:

  “You have them, really great organizing brought together to fight for rights across the board… showing up for each other’s campaigns at local, state, and federal levels.” [41:36]

• On the Supreme Court, from Sam Seder:

  “You know, sometimes you worry you’re being a little hyperbolic when you make an assessment… but it is full-on racial profiling.” [63:17]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Start Time |
|-----------------------------------------------|-----------|
| Opening News & Economic Meltdown (“McTrump Slump”) | 04:00 | | The Two-Tier Economy (McDonald’s CEO) | 12:57 | | The Tech & AI Bubble | 16:09 | | Interview Intro: New Orleans Post-Katrina | 23:00 | | Immigrant Labor: Stats & Exploitation | 26:19 | | Street Food Vendors & Local Culture Shifts | 29:53 | | Gentrification and Economic Impact | 36:49 | | Labor Organizing: El Congresso | 40:49 | | Supreme Court Racial Profiling Ruling | 46:50 | | Modern Disaster Capitalism & Privatization | 49:17 | | Angola Prison & Modern Immigrant Detention | 57:48 |

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Episode Tone and Takeaways

• Tone: Urgent, incisive, and irreverently skeptical, consistent with The Majority Report’s progressive orientation.
• Overall Takeaway:
  The episode weaves together high-level structural critique (the failures and injustices of disaster capitalism and immigration enforcement) with granular, empathetic storytelling about immigrant resilience and community organizing. New Orleans is shown both as warning and inspiration—its struggles now echoed on a national scale by a government untethered from precedent, democratic norms, or basic human rights.

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Recommended: For listeners interested in the intersection of disaster recovery, race, labor, immigration, and the rise of privatized, authoritarian governance—this episode provides both timely analysis and vivid, on-the-ground perspectives.

Transcript

[Sam Cedar]

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[Emma Vigeland]

Felt it in his gut.

[Sam Cedar]

Yep. In a rare ruling, the Israeli Supreme Court finds Israel guilty of having a systemic policy of starving what they call detainees. Some people call them hostages. This on a day when Israel has killed near 50 civilians in Gaza. And as the economy craters, Scott Bessant gets into a near physical altercation with Trump's housing finance chief, Hatchet man. All this and more on today's Majority Report. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks so much for joining us.

[Emma Vigeland]

It is fun day Monday.

[Sam Cedar]

Wow.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes. Very fun.

[Sam Cedar]

You might want to get a little more on a monopoeia with that.

[Emma Vigeland]

What's up?

[Sam Cedar]

Fun day? Oh, you're mad about the Giants.

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I do have a little people already. Yeah, I rushed back from the trip. I was got up really early in the morning so we could make the drive just so I could get back home in time for 1pm kickoff. And yeah, that was not great. It was awful. Atrocious. But congrats to Brian's packers, who look like a 20. No potential Super bowl team.

[Sam Cedar]

Here we go. Exactly.

[Emma Vigeland]

I'm on the bandwagon.

[Sam Cedar]

US Basketball fans are like, whatever, Wake.

[Brian]

Me up when basketball starts.

[Sam Cedar]

Socks. I'll wait for the Sox Yankees series till I talk about sports again. Meanwhile, by that point, I don't think how that. Well, whatever. I know on a monopoeia should be like a word that sounds like it as opposed to the way that you expressed it. But who cares? I don't care. Whoopsie.

[Sarah Fouts]

Yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

Doesn't matter.

[Emma Vigeland]

Your joke suck.

[Sam Cedar]

It doesn't matter. In this. In this environment. Yeah, exactly. In this. Listen, I've watched a lot of people do far better with. With much worse. So like Rob Schneider. Exactly. We will get into maybe that little tussle that Scott Passant had. I imagine things are getting a very a little hairy for the secretary of treasurer because one can't help but think that a he thought he was going to be Fed chair. It's quite clear he's not going to be Fed chair. He thought that he could probably convince Trump not to do the tariff thing and crash the economy for his buddies. It looks like that's not happening. Either way, it's going to be a crap show because the tariffs are already taking their toll on inflation. The economy is stalled out. There's reason to believe that parts of the country already in a recession Even if the tariff thing was to be reversed ultimately by the courts and you can't rely on the Supreme Court, the amount of money the US Government would have to then pay back to people and by people, we're not talking about the people who paid the tariffs. It's probably going to go to Howard Lutnick Sons who bought up a huge portion of all the potential tariff refunds. Bessant gets into a fight with Trump's FHA hatchet man who has been digging through the mortgage documents of Trump's enemies found discrepancies in mortgage documents by one member of the Fed, mortgage documents she initiated and signed well before she was part of the Fed as a way to get her to quit the Fed that Passant is no longer going to be a part of and he gets into a big fight with him. I guess they got into each other's face. They were trying to take it outside to have a fight, but they didn't want to get hit by bags of stuff falling out of the window. The White House apparently. And but at the heart of this is the economy is what appears to be doing like cratering.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

And Bessant is in the news saying things are going to turn around in a year like the that was let Nick. But yes. No, no, no. He's him too now. No. Ludnik said that yesterday. And the talking point this is just this is what they're starting to talk.

[Brian]

About now because pie in the sky when you die.

[Sam Cedar]

But the interesting thing is it's like the, the it's just now that we're starting to see like any reference to this in the economy and now beside to be to his favorite says actually we're going to see the economy should accelerate by the fourth quarter and presumably that's this year fourth quarter which is.

[Emma Vigeland]

Basically when every expert I've heard on this topic has said is going to be when the economy completely collapses, when inventory that has been accumulated in anticipation of the tariffs runs out when holiday season comes around and the tariffs on China where people will be buying toys for children are going to be in effect even if the Trump is unable to prove the legality of his tariff regime by what that's the October deadline that doesn't have its effects like miraculously go dissipate overnight ahead of Christmas and Hanukkah and all of that. It's going to be bad.

[Sam Cedar]

It's going to be bad. And someone's asking I still don't understand how Ludnick Sons place that bet in financial markets or Just in finance in general, you can buy essentially the rights to something that is owed somebody. So this happens in bankruptcies all the time. Majority report goes bankrupt. I still owe Brian money, and it's quite clear I'm not gonna pay Brian, or at least Brian's not sure if he will. So I owe Brian $100. Yeah, obviously that's, that's a half year's salary. And Brian's like, I don't know if I'm gonna get this money, and if I do, I don't know when. And Matt comes along, he's savvy, and he says, brian, I'll tell you what, I'll give you 50 bucks or I'll give you $25 right now, and you walk away and you just give me the right to collect that loan. I'm going to bet that that loan may come in, maybe I'll only get 50 cents on the dollar, but I'll give you $25 today. Brian goes, you know what, I'm going to take that $25 now because I don't think I'm going to get anything out of Sam. And Matt waits to see if he gets anything out of me. In this instance, Brian is somebody who had to pay the tariffs and if the tariffs are found illegal, gets a refund. Matt's coming in and going like, you may not get that refund, and this was like three or four months ago. But Matt in this instance is literally Howard Lutnick's sons at a subsidiary of Cantor Fitzgerald. They're buying up that hundred dollar potential refund for $25, and they may end up seeing all 100 bucks. But even today, because of the court rulings, that refund that you bought, that right to refund, you bought for $25 back in April may be worth $50 today because it looks like there's a better shot of, of those refunds happening. Nevertheless, that is distinct, or at least the tariffs have been raising prices. But what's also happening is the economy is slowing because the tariffs are also harming the economy. And here is the CEO of McDonald's basically outlining, I think, a dynamic that's existed in this country for decades, but it is particularly pronounced now in terms of, like, the direction of economic fortunes for people across the incomes distribution.

[Bradley]

And part of what we also saw was that particularly with middle and lower income consumers, they're feeling under a lot of pressure. He said, I think there's a lot of, you know, commentary about what's the state of the economy, how's it doing and what we see is it's really kind of a two tier economy economy. If you're upper income earning over $100,000, things are good. Stock markets are near all time highs. You're feeling quite confident about things. You're seeing international travel, all those barometers of upper income consumers are doing quite well. What we see with middle and lower income consumers is actually a different story. It's that consumers under a lot of pressure in our industry. Traffic for lower income consumers is down double digits. And it's because people are either choosing to skip a meal, so we're seeing breakfast, people are actually skipping breakfast or they're choosing to just eat at home. And so for our business, which has a significant group of consumers which are in that middle and lower income, we needed to step in with something like what we're doing here.

[Sam Cedar]

Now I don't know what he's doing, maybe lowering prices or I'm not sure exactly what he's talking about. But that dynamic is something that has been brewing since all the COVID support ended 2023 or so. And I think a large reason why the Biden administration and then the Harris campaign could not recognize what was happening in the economy is because we have really like in many respects two different economies. One that is driven by wealthy people and is large enough where we mistake it as including the other like vast majority of people who actually like live in our society.

[Emma Vigeland]

The divide is really between people who are making their money gambling on the stock market and who have assets and people who don't have property or assets and need to survive on wages. And that's always been the case. But there has been an effort to kind of segment the working class and calling them middle class versus lower income or whatever. It's just everybody that needs a wage to survive and doesn't own property or doesn't own these assets are going to be impacted by this disproportionately. And it's why one, you know, 10 out of the last 11 recessions started under Republican administrations just throwing that out there. And incoming wealth inequality keeps getting worse and worse and worse. This is just so naked what they're doing right now where they know that they have the funds to gamble and increase their wealth and everybody else will have to deal with the increased prices. And Donald Trump is trying to bring all these corporations to him to negotiate to get deals for himself and his buddies. If you're already in the top 001%, what is a recession going to do for you except create assets on the cheap for you to buy up and increase your wealth.

[Sam Cedar]

Yep. And of course, that's called populism, apparently for some.

[Emma Vigeland]

And by the way, before we get to this ad, just quickly, this AI bubble, the data that we're seeing about how that's going to burst, like the technology sector is basically the health care for profit. Health care and technology is like the only thing that's growing in the United States right now. I guess real estate too, because there's a lot of building happening and places like Texas and stuff. But AI is like the center of this technological expanse. And we're seeing that already, these large firms, the adoption rates for AI into their workflow is decreasing and has been over the past few months. And without the gains in the healthcare sector, the Financial Times had this that the non form payroll reports that came out on Friday would have not. What'd you say?

[Sam Cedar]

Non farm?

[Emma Vigeland]

Is that what I said or I did form? Damn it. I'm just reading my bad handwriting. Non farm payroll reports would have been a loss. So this is not. It's like consumer spending's down, jobs are down, and this one speculative bubble is about to burst because our AI, like AI, does not have the value that is being portrayed by the markets. It's totally disconnected from reality.

[Sam Cedar]

We'll have more to say on this, obviously, in the coming days and probably weeks, maybe months, years, possibly years. In the meantime, however, I took a little trip this weekend, went to Pennsylvania, delivered a puppy. And this time of year in particular, very difficult to figure out what do I need to wear. I'm gonna wear a T shirt, but the temperature is gonna change throughout the day. What am I gonna wear that's gonna keep me warm and cool? You know what it is? It's my Cozy Earth hoodie. It's my favorite piece of clothing that I own. Cozy Earth products bring ultimate comfort that shows up day in, day out. Cozy Earth nailed comfort with their bamboo joggers and they' wear pant next level. Now, the bamboo joggers are made of the same stuff as my favorite hoodie. I love my bamboo joggers because it's actually the first pair of joggers I've ever had because I thought, like, I'm not the type of person. I don't wear sweats outside. It's not like I'm too. I'm not stylish necessarily, but I'm formal and. But the joggers and I just feel like I can't put my keys. I'm rigid. I'm very particular and I can't put my keys in a, you know, like a pair of sweats. But with these joggers, they're like stable enough that you feel like you're wearing pants, but they're incredibly, incredibly comfortable and they look really good. Made with viscose from bamboo, they will be your softest all season staple along with the hoodie. But I love those joggers. I think I look good in them and I can use them to play both softball or actually like go to the market. I'm trying to think of like what I do socially, but you know, if you did something social, you could wear the cashier sometimes. Yeah, exactly.

[Emma Vigeland]

It's not self checkout.

[Sam Cedar]

How's it. How's guys? How's it doing guys? And I feel comfortable because I'm my joggers.

[Emma Vigeland]

You sound comfortable.

[Sam Cedar]

The and the Everywhere pant is also the epitome of refined comforter and adaptability. It is the new Go to pant effort lately blends breathability and flexibility, allowing you to embrace movement on the go. These are also great. They look great. They stretch super comfortable. I get a lot of compliments on my hoodie too, instantly in my. I know it is my kids try and take it. Thanks to Cozy Earth for sponsoring this episode. Go to cozyearth.com use my code majority report for up to 40% off the best pants, joggers, shirts, everything. And if you get a post purchase survey, tell them you heard about Cozy Earth right here. Built for real life, made to keep up with yours. Cozy Earth. Literally in the middle of that read I was like, I gotta get another sweatshirt. I got another hoodie 40% off.

[Emma Vigeland]

I know, right?

[Sam Cedar]

That's when my ears prick up a little bit. Hey, also it we're doing a little bit of a partnership with a magazine or a website, a periodical I love. We've had Nathan Robinson on this program many times. If you like deep, thoughtful, progressive analysis, and I hope you do, because otherwise I don't know why you would be listening to this show. Eye candy. Exactly. Just curious how many times Sam can say in a sentence, you're going to love the print and digital, or digital for that matter, of Current affairs magazine. Current affairs combines intelligent commentary, biting political satire and really gorgeous artwork to produce one of the country's most elegant and informative magazines. And it's all ad free. Current affairs is a fantastic complement to the Majority Reports work. They deliver hard hitting, totally independent and entertaining coverage of the most important political, social and economic issues of our time. I've been has it been five years, maybe more. Been reading Current Affairs. You should check it out, too. And now you can use code majorireport for 30% off a year on any subscription of your choice. Go to current affairs.org subscribe enter the code Majority Report at checkout. This offer expires on Halloween.

[Brian]

It was 10 years.

[Sam Cedar]

Actually, it's been 10 years. I know.

[Emma Vigeland]

Wow.

[Brian]

Makes me feel very old.

[Sam Cedar]

Oh, geez, I'm losing my sense of time. Meanwhile, take a quick break. We come back Sarah Fouts, associate professor in the Department of American Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore county, author of Rebuilding New Orleans, Immigrant Laborers and Street Food Vendors in the Post Katrina era. Katrina was 20 years ago. Oh, geez. All right. We'll be right back. We are back. Sam Cedar, Emma Vigland on the Majority Report. Want to welcome to the program Sarah Foutz, associate professor in the Department of American Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore county, and author of Rebuilding Immigrant Laborers and Street Food Vendors in the Post Katrina Era. Sarah, welcome to the program. We were just saying at the break it's been 20 years since Katrina, which was terrifying for me to actually realize it's been that long. And it's obviously a good time to look back and see what the implications were. There was a huge concern, some of it realized that the city was going to be gentrified in many respects. A lot of a lot of folks were sent to Houston, were literally put into the metro whatever the Metro Dome, I think it was. And many of those people never came back. And your book is both timely in the sense it gives us an opportunity to reflect on on this, but also, obviously, in the context of what's happening with immigration in this country. I don't know if I would describe this necessarily as an ethnography, but it is a it's using the stories of individuals to tell sort of the some of the dynamics that take place. Let's, let's start with Dennis, who was one of the day laborers who came in, many of whom were from Central America. Let's use Dennis as the way you do in the book to tell us this broader story.

[Sarah Fouts]

Great.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Sarah Fouts]

Thanks, Sam. And thanks to Emma for having me on the show. And yeah, Dennis is a great starting point. I use him as a thread throughout the book to kind of tell the story about immigration, but also kind of labor organizing in the post Katrina era. And I do, yeah, it is wild to think it's been 20 years. But Dennis serves as, you know, he was a day laborer, then he got injured on the work site he was fighting for his rights to. For OSHA protections. While he was doing that, he became an organizer with the workers Center. And so Dennis really kind of was emblematic of this process of organizing and kind of coming from Honduras to first to Tennessee and then to Louisiana for post Katrina rebuilding and really kind of worked with day laborers to do know your rights, to understand kind of their kind of wage theft claims and things like that. But they also build power with the black workers in the city as well. So I think he kind of using his story to tell this bigger picture of organizing in that area is really important. And Dennis is back in Honduras and he has a coffee farm. So he's like, has also gone back, but has siblings that are still in the area.

[Sam Cedar]

So do we have a sense of how many folks like Dennis from Central America, I mean, originally from Central America, who were in the country either undocumented or within the process of potentially being documented? This was at a time when the Bush administration was. Was attempting to do comprehensive immigration reform and really prevented in many respects by their own party, by the sort of conservative element that I think had grown within the Republican Party that Bush and Karl Rove, I think, underestimated how much of that part of their party had taken over. So I'm curious, like if we know the numbers and particularly relative to how many people were there rebuilding or cleaning up. I guess in that process.

[Sarah Fouts]

Right. The immigrant workers made up about 50% of the workers that came in to rebuild. Others were volunteers or local workers or other people brought in. Of that 50%, about 25% were undocumented. I think this is when you see early ICE is kind of a nascent organization, was set up in March 2003. So I think that's really important to think about. So by Katrina, it was just to a little over two years old. So really thinking about how much it's changed over time and kind of beefed up budget wise and things like that, which maybe we could talk about in a little bit. But and then also thinking about the Bush administration, like what their, you know, how they saw kind of this rebuilding, suspending different labor laws like Davis Bacon, which is guarantees of prevailing wage. You see different OSHA suspensions to really expedite workers to come in, but also expedite exploitation and kind of lay the groundwork for a lot of these injustices that took place at that time period. So I do think, you know, it was a time very different than now where you did see kind of on both sides, possible immigration reform at a large Scale, but then that has fallen apart and we don't really see that pathway at all.

[Sam Cedar]

So you have this massive portion of the people who come in to clean up after Katrina and to ostensibly rebuild are immigrants, Central American immigrants. And then you talk about like, like anything. Like you can't have an influx of any type of like, you know, whatever it is. A lot of New Yorkers move to Florida and then all of a sudden you start to see more, you know, New York Giants posters everywhere. Or, you know, you go to the, to the sports bar and they're playing the Giants game as much as they are the Dolphins game. In certain areas we start to see like these, the, these immigrants, we start to see culture build around them. And you use a guy named Mateo who as an example of sort of like the economy that's built around those people who are brought in to sort of help the economy.

[Sarah Fouts]

Yeah. So yeah, Matteo is a great example. I mean, he began as a construction worker, but didn't sell the need for more street food vendors to sell food to the workers because things like Red Cross and other food services weren't really reaching those communities. And they're working 12 hour days. So they need, you know, kind of this issue of food security. So Matteo and his family turned to having food trucks to sell to people or selling like itinerantly on the streets with like tamale vendors and things like that. So you really see this. And I wouldn't say it's a new form of selling food, but there's like informal economies that emerge because they've already existed in the city, like historically and even in black communities. So I think that, you know, kind of understanding the role and the importance of those sort of grassroots food economies in getting people fed in this time when other kind of, there were systemic failures in different ways of actually getting people fed and having sustainable systems of getting food to places instead of making people come to a park or things like that.

[Sam Cedar]

The flip side of that is that when you start to see the street vendors selling food, there becomes suddenly the workers become more visible in terms of a cultural, a cultural force that I'm trying to find where I have this in my notes. But at one point, Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, is like, I think he explicitly said like, you know, like, you know, I don't want tacos replacing, you know, hush puppies. I can't remember what it was. The gumbo? Yeah, the gumbo. And it's almost like all there in that statement there. It's both a sort of a cultural Thing. It's also from an economic standpoint, it's also about a fear of a change in the city. The irony, of course, is that there wasn't the same sort of concern that a significant portion of the black population left New Orleans. They were evacuated, did not have the money to come back and we're going to be replaced by wealthier white people. But there's a concern that there's going to be sort of like a population of Central Americans.

[Sarah Fouts]

Right. So the fear, yeah. And I'll give Megan some credit. He said, I don't want to see to be overrun by workers, by Mexican workers. But it was a council member, Oliver Thomas, that said, why did the talk how do the tacos help the gumbo? So but you're still getting that kind of food reference from who's running for mayor's office right now in New Orleans. But yeah, you see kind of, yeah, food is just very much visible to this day. If you're in New Orleans, you see much more Honduran restaurants or taco trucks and even people sitting outside the grocery stores selling tamales. So it's the way that you can see the visibility of those populations are represented by the foods. Right. So thinking about the impact of using food as that lens, how it's going to infiltrate the New Orleans culture and impact in this ways, and New Orleans culture is so dynamic. Like that's what makes it beautiful. Like from the Vietnamese communities, right. You see how they're kind of this acclaimed immigrant community in the city, but seeing them as like kind of fear mongering around immigrants, but not this like gentrifying class that's bringing in kind of, you know, kind of raising levels of housing at the same time of displacement of black communities because of lack of housing, because of destruction of public housing and things like that. These like policies that have pushed the people who make the gumbos out. And then you're bringing in these kind of, kind of gentrifier class that comes in, but while vilifying the working class immigrant communities. Yeah, I think that's kind of the point of the book is to think about how food can, which is New Orleans is a food city, but how you can think about these different issues through that lens and how it's actually coming out of politicians mouths. Right. In these different ways is food in.

[Sam Cedar]

This instance, is it a sort of a leading indicator, a lagging indicator, like where it plays off in so many different ways, particularly with a city like New Orleans. But broadly speaking, food is, you can enter into there and have Obviously, multiple different conversations. But where, like, how quickly was the food the impetus or was it the excuse or was it. I mean, surely someone must have been like, aware of this dynamic and on both sides of like, the desire to have, I mean, you know, these people who come back in, they're rebuilding the city, you could, you could respond to that in two different ways, I guess.

[Sarah Fouts]

Yeah. What? In 2007, in Jefferson Parish, which is the. The county around New Orleans, they banned taco trucks. Like, there was an outright ban on those types of trucks. So you can really see. And that's where the majority of the Mexican and Central American population lives to this day is in those. The suburbs. So you really see this very much racialized ban of taco trucks. So through food, they're using it, you know, they're kind of acting out these words of these politicians to ban, and they're using the food as that way to do that. So when I moved to New Orleans in 2010, and that's when I started, you know, reading about those policies, reading about the different comments, and really thinking about using food as that way to surface these other issues from bureaucracy that kind of also was used to racial profile folks through allowing these gourmet trucks, these food trucks to come in, but outlawing like taco trailers, which is what most of the immigrants used. So there's on the books to this day a ban against trailers, but you can have, you know, gourmet food trucks, they really liberalize those, those policies. So, you know, I think that, you know, as I kept following food in these different ways and also working with the New Orleans workers Center for Racial justice, kind of seeing on the ground how these everyday experiences through the restaurants, through. And even the restaurant industry, who's working in the kitchens. Right. The. After Katrina, there was, you know, an increase in the amount of restaurants, even though there's a decrease in population in the city. And who's working in the backs of those restaurants?

[Sam Cedar]

Right.

[Sarah Fouts]

It's oftentimes immigrant workers and also poor and working class black workers. So really thinking about these spaces as ways to think about labor and labor organizing in the city, I think was. Helped me to surface a lot of these kind of issues of power and things like that.

[Sam Cedar]

Let's talk about it in terms of that context of wages, because that dynamic of more restaurants opening with less people, it implies that what you have is a higher concentration of wealth because, you know, they can go out to eat five nights a week, six nights a week, or seven nights a week. So you don't need as many people, if they have, if, if the ones you do have are wealthy, meanwhile you have a workforce that is perfectly situated to be exploited because so many of these folks are undocumented or you know, within that community talk about that dynamic.

[Sarah Fouts]

I think you have a wealthier class, but also you're catering to a tourism economy. Right. So they're building, these restaurants are not for the local folks. They're built for kind of this growth of tourism. And that's how the city was rebuilt, right. You have developers calling it a green banana. You have developer white developers calling it the city. A, the vision is like a Afro Caribbean Paris. Right. But how do you have, you know, these kind of top down outsiders kind of imagining these spaces and creating, you know, these restaurants in these neighborhoods that aren't for the local people. Right. And I think, you know, the restaurants definitely embody that and it shows like how much of the city was rebuilt in this way. Right. Again, it's called a blank slate. Right. And he. To pave way for these, this tourist economy for the, you know, the, any, all the, the super bowl that just happened there, the of course Mardi Gras carnival celebrations, all the festivals that take place, all the concerts, right. They're, they're paving way for that instead of kind of making, you know, keeping those jobs for local folks but also making it accessible and equitable for people to be able to come back there, to be enough housing, there to be enough jobs that have good wages for people to come back to. And I think that's why what's kept people, what's kept the population so low and also more kind of upper class of who can afford those housing prices and things like that.

[Sam Cedar]

Interesting. And what, I mean, do we have a sense of like what percentage of the population pre Hurricane Katrina was able to return?

[Sarah Fouts]

Well, I can't give you the, the numbers before Katrina were about 4, almost 500,000 and now they're around 353, 70, 375,000. So you do you still have this decline and even though you know who is coming back, right. It is still majority black city, but much less of the city is black than it was before. You have a higher, you have a, from 4% pre Katrina of Latinx people is now around 9 or 10%. And so you see kind of like who the new demographic that's this big shift is pretty drastic. Right. And that's not because people just didn't want to return. It's because they couldn't. It's not because they didn't have they had access to wealth, but they didn't have access in the wealth to be able to rebuild their homes because there was disproportionately benefited white wealthier neighborhoods than it did in like the ninth Ward neighborhoods. And then you have, you know, these, I think housing is central to these processes. And then also kind of union busting and the jobs and kind of low wages have been kept down in these service sector economies. I think that's been a part of it too in that 21st century context.

[Sam Cedar]

Talk about El Congresso. This grew out of this dynamic, I guess.

[Sarah Fouts]

Yeah. So the El Congresso, they were one of three parts of the New Orleans Worker center for Racial Justice. So they emerged in like 2006, 2007 to fight for rights for workers. And the Congresso was for immigrant workers who came in mostly day laborers. So it was the Congress of Day Laborers. And so it was like these five different day labor corners that established after Katrina in different places across the city in front of Home Depots and things like that, where workers would congregate. And then Dennis and I went around with him for about a year to organize at the different work sites. And then leaders of those different gay labor corners would come together with their families. And that group from in a 10 year period grew from about 80 people to around 250 people at regular meetings every Wednesday night with a membership base of around 1,000 people. So you have this massive group of immigrant workers, well organized, with great organizers and great leaders within the community. And then you had black workers organized within the same worker center model, understand with dignity. And these are black, poor and working class folks who were displaced because of housing, this public housing being destroyed. But we're trying to fight for those jobs through section three ordinances to be able to maintain some of those jobs. And these are two groups that are usually pitted against each other. Right. And you have them really great organizing brought together to fight for kind of rights across the board, for immigrant rights, but also for wages, right to remain rights, not be locked out of different jobs because of a felony conviction and things like that. So yeah, and people showing up for each other's campaigns that were at the local level, but also state and federal levels too, fighting in front of the ICE office against deportations under Obama administration. So I think that's what I really wanted to showcase in the book is how these groups came together, these coalitions within the organization, but also across class, race, language barriers, things like that. And I think that's really powerful and kind of can speak to the contemporary moment.

[Sam Cedar]

What's been the durability of that coalition.

[Sarah Fouts]

The Worker center still exists, but it's in a kind of a different form. I think they're, you know the El Congresso does not exist anymore. But there are other groups that have emerged out of it like Mion Migrante that have really, you know and a lot of the work that's happening today and even kind of similar to then where these kind of reactionary to how do we prevent, how do we maintain these rights to stay. And so they, they don't exist in the same capacities they did 10 years ago, but they're, they're. The Worker center still exists and then all these, a lot of different off branches exist and I think, you know there's a lot more different coalitions in the city. A lot more kind of the unions are coming back in different ways. There's like Step up up Louisiana. You have like utno, the teachers organization. So you have different groups coming together and you have other grassroots organizations that are really bringing climate change into the conversation in ways that the Worker center didn't. So I think it's kind of evolved in different ways. There are smaller organizations that are around that are, that are strong. But I feel like at that time period the Worker center was really doing something that was unique and powerful under great leadership and really building coalitions strength across different organizations.

[Sam Cedar]

I am curious as to how much of that period between 2006 and 2016 where it feels like ice was used as sort of like a way to calibrate how much of the immigrant population the city wanted there. Like we need to have just enough so that they can do the work that we need to have done, but not so much that they become a political force. Is, is my sense of that correct? And how much of that was a model for the way that ICE operates today?

[Sarah Fouts]

I think, okay, two part. I think that the Congressa was a political force. I would argue they were sitting at the table with Chief Harrison to do the consent decree. They were at the table. Undocumented immigrants were at the table doing a lot of that kind of debates to rebuild policy. They fought against the local sheriff's office, Sheriff Gusman to there were ICE holds that were under 287G and got his office to stop collaborating with ICE under those policies. So drew voluntary and then got him to end these holds that were happening that were kind of constitutional crises where he was holding people longer than the 48 hour period. So I think in some ways that their impact in shaping policy they ended a big. This is Obama time period. Ended the carry raids, which was the Criminal Alien Removal Initiative, which was this major deportation, kind of similar to what's happening now, these raids that were happening, workplace raids, church raids, and they were able to kind of intercept the email that kind of divulged that was happening. But I think the difference is accountability, right. Is, you know, back then you have like, the racial profiling. We could call that out. Now we're getting, you know, the Fourth Amendment.

[Sam Cedar]

The administration's in front of the Supreme Court basically saying, let us please racially profile. And it. There's reason to believe they're going to.

[Sarah Fouts]

They just did with L. A. Yeah, I just checked my.

[Sam Cedar]

30 minutes ago. Oh, 30 minutes ago.

[Sarah Fouts]

30 minutes ago.

[Sam Cedar]

An hour ago. Yeah, I just. I mean, for people, to be clear on this, a federal judge had basically said, ICE cannot operate by looking at the color of someone's skin, seeing that they may have a Spanish accent or that they're working, like, as a gardener, and decide we're just going to roll up on that person because that's some type of evidence that they may be an undocumented immigrant. And the Trump administration explicitly went to the Supreme Court and said, yeah, we want to be able to basically racially profile. And I guess 30 minutes ago, the Supreme Court, it's three unbelievable. And I would imagine no decision written. Right. Just a shadow docket would be my guess. Although I don't know, maybe there is actually Sotomayor. I know that there's dissents. Well, I guess Kavanaugh's concurring opinion. So there may actually have written as to why it is legal to racially profile, essentially, when you're looking for immigrants? Well, yeah, that's that things are moving quickly. So where are we today in terms of, like, neurons and what from the perspective of. I mean, I would imagine if this was to happen to New Orleans, again, it would be a very different story about the capacity to rebuild. Because I would imagine that those people who came from all over the country to help rebuild New Orleans would be like, I'm not going anywhere near there. The whole thing is just some type of, like, honey pot for ice at this point. But where from. From New Orleans perspective, Like, where is it relative to the fears that people had about this city becoming just either a Disney World or a place for wealthy people? And then I guess, where is it in terms of, like, how replicable these dynamics can be because of everything that's happened really, over the course of, like, the past eight months?

[Sarah Fouts]

Right. And I mean, a lot of the critiques of Katrina are about fema, but now, you know, but it's about female. The, not about like the necessity for fema, but the, like the, the lack of corruption within that context. Right. And so during Katrina's, almost a billion dollars were just kind of lost, went wasted and, but now you just have like this, this dissolution of FEMA as a, in the most dire of times, you know, when we're getting floods and hurricanes affecting Appalachia. You know, I think, you know, that's what's really frightening. And I think what we have in terms of ICE is, you know, a friend called ICE now like as Sheriff Arpaio of Arizona on steroids. Right. So it's like this, like exactly what we're just hearing from this decision from the Supreme Court. And you also have technology being used in ways that it was only 10 years ago, it was being kind of developed like Palantar, all of Peter Thiel stuff, all the surveillance used to, to face surveillance and things like that. I think that's what's also really scary is the ways in which those types of technologies are able to really kind of make it even harder for any, not just immigrant communities, any, any communities, especially communities of color that are kind of subjected to these types of surveillance in these different ways. So I think that's like, and then this, this, I think the budget of ICE is three times what it was and is growing in these jobs. Like, I think that's what's also frightening in terms, you know, I think with, you know, hurricanes are getting worse and I think we're not really, you know, there is, I think a push on the city level. I have friends who work in kind of disaster related fields at the city of New Orleans who are really kind of being thoughtful of these processes. But a lot of, you know, the money, the funding, the things like that that will be so necessary in those times aren't there? And you know, even under Bush during Katrina, you had Michael Brown who was the FEMA director, he had no experience in disaster management. Right. And think about the people that Trump's putting in place now are people with no experience. There's cronies who he's just trying to empower or do a favor because whatever reason. So I think those are the things that are, you know, we've always had a lack, you know, people in place that aren't trained for those positions. But at this point, not only is it we're moving funding for budget cuts or for tax cuts for billionaires but we are also moving funding that is public sector in ways that help people, not in ways that just are public sector in terms of ICE or policing in ways that threaten people. So I think that's. That's what's frightening. And that's not a positive, happy messaging at all.

[Sam Cedar]

But two other things that occurred to me, like, my understanding is, are there even any public schools left now in New Orleans? I mean, it's all charter, right? And they're all private charter.

[Sarah Fouts]

Exactly. Yeah. But they have. I will say there's great. Like, and that was a big issue with Katrina. So those were great jobs, right, for, for, for people from New Orleans. And then they completely got displaced. The union was busted or kind of dismantled. But there has been a strong movement with utno and there's a long history of strong teacher organizing in that city. And I think those teacher organizing groups are really kind of coming together to get within the charter school systems. But yeah, the public schools are completely gone.

[Sam Cedar]

I mean, and one of the things now I recall too is that early in the wake of the hurricane, I don't know if they were called Blackwater at the time or Jay, but. But mercenaries were sent down there to basically take over control of the city. I mean, all of the worst elements of this, God forbid there's some type of replication in terms of a natural disaster. All of the worst elements of it seem like, have arrayed themselves in this administration almost to be deployed less as, like, almost by design in this instance. Like, you know, I think like the sending in Jay or whatever it was at that time, Blackwater was because they had no idea what to do. I mean, they had no idea what to do leading up to it. They had no idea what to do afterwards. They were fortunate to be able to get 45% of its workforce, 50% of its workforce from, from immigrants. That would not happen today. I mean, like, it's sort of hard to imagine what would happen in there other than some billionaire saying, like, okay, this new city is going to be, you know, Muskville, and otherwise nothing's going to happen. Right? Like, I mean, like, it's if, if New Orleans was to suffer a Katrina today, same type of thing. I know that's impossible, but I'm saying it's something similar. It seems to me like there is no. Everything stops at one point. Like, it's just going to be a mess. Nobody's coming in to clean up the moldy ruins. Nobody's going to do this. And it puts a billionaire in the position of being able to say, like, I'm going to do this. I mean, we almost saw this with wildfires out in California in la, but there's a robust enough sort of state infrastructure. But in one of these red states where none of that infrastructure exists, it seems to me that it is completely vulnerable to like almost being fully privatized.

[Sarah Fouts]

Yeah. And I think those are, you know, the failures of 2005 in that recovery period. Right. That we're like, these are failures. You can name these, you know, kind of the ways in which this privatization really kind of impacted negatively these communities in the city as a whole. And now those politics are kind of like a Tuesday. Right. It's how it's kind of what we're. The way we operate, not we, but like this, the systems that we're moving toward. So, yeah, I think you're completely right. And I think they'll say it's the failure of the city. Right. They'll blame the local people instead of understanding kind of this divestment, these ways in which like the public housing, the things that people who make that city in those places so rich and so important. And I think they'll move the shift the blame like they do with public education. Right. They'll say, well, the schools are failing, but actually this divestment that's been happening for 40 years is the. The problem. Right. It's not the schools. It's like this lack of investment. Yeah. And I think. And what you do have, you have like great local leadership that is there, but what you have is like what happened in Katrina is these no contract bids that come in, like in for Katrina was like Halliburton and these mercenaries that are coming in and doing these top down, wasting money. Right. It's going to bloated contracts. It's going. It's a lot of wage stuff. And they're not doing their job because they don't know. And you have these local organizations that are set to do it, but they're being displaced or pushed out in different ways when there is. I think the answer for me is like the city organizing, which is always the case. You know it best. But then you're also impacted in Louisiana right now with the Landry administration. Right. That is creating this kind of detention center mecca for immigrant, you know, whatever Trump says Landry does. And they're making Angola this immigrant lockdown, Angola prison. So, you know, I think it's really kind of scary, but I do think that there are ways in which the city and its people know what's best, but they're not being listened to or they're being erased in these different ways that are, that's, that's, that's quite frightening.

[Emma Vigeland]

Can you talk briefly about that Angola story? I feel like it's not getting too much attention, but this is a notorious prison in Louisiana that the very Trumpy governor is kind of, you know, working with, with Trump to turn into an immigrant detention facility. It's infamous for its exploitative labor practices, abusive treatment of prisoners, that kind of thing.

[Sarah Fouts]

Yeah, it's on a former plantation in kind of west, about three hours outside of New Orleans, Angola Penitentiary. And they're building kind of this kind and there's already multiple detention centers in Louisiana. But using Angola as this kind of like also a space to hold I think 400 immigrants is how much the capacity it is. But just kind of the symbol, the symbol of using that prison that so has such a troubled history in so many ways that you explained, Emma and I, you know, it's just Landry cowering too. And they were going to name it after Landry. I'm not sure where that is right now. But, you know, these are ways in which they're really trying to double down in these ways of being, you know, using Louisiana as this anti immigrant space. But New Orleans is this kind of stronghold in these different ways that I think is really important to the immigrant communities that are there.

[Sam Cedar]

I feel like Maybe it was 25 years ago there was a documentary about Angola which is worth seeing just to give you a notion of like what the history of that prison is. I mean, it was, I mean, do.

[Emma Vigeland]

They still do that kind of display of like the rodeo? The rodeo where people come and like bet on them.

[Sarah Fouts]

Yeah, it's still. Yeah, that still exists. Which is. Yeah. And there. Yeah, it's a. Yeah, it's a very problematic to say the least. Prison. Yeah, it still exists. And there's, you know, not much.

[Sam Cedar]

Well, Sarah Fouts, It's. I mean, New Orleans is just a. There's so many stories within the recovery of New Orleans and frankly the disaster that took place in New Orleans relative to what happens when you have an agency that has been completely dismantled that is insightful for where we are today and perhaps maybe sadly in some respects predictive of what we can't say for sure, but certainly of something that could happen. Well, not just during this administration. I think their failures are going to resonate for a long time. But Sarah Fouts, the book is Rebuilding New Orleans Immigrant laborers and street food vendors in the post Katrina Era. We'll put A link to that at Majority fm. Sarah Fouts, thanks so much for your time today. Really appreciate it.

[Sarah Fouts]

Thanks for having me, Sam. Thanks, Emma.

[Emma Vigeland]

Thanks, Sarah.

[Sam Cedar]

All right, folks, we're going to take a quick break and head into the fun half.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, I mean, I just was reminded that Angola story, I hadn't, I had forgotten about that. But yeah, basically they pay the prisoners, the inmates there such low wages that I guess once a year or something like that, they have a rodeo where they can win hundreds of dollars, which is like a lot in terms of prison rations and people from all around the state come and gamble on them. And it's like a gladiator type situation that happens as a tradition that started in like the 60s at this particular prison in Louisiana.

[Brian]

Louisiana's, I mean, I love New Orleans, crazy state. Like historically speaking.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Brian]

In terms of like the types of machine, political machines. I've been down there, like they're funded by the, like a state lottery for at least, I don't know if that's still going on, but, but for a huge part of the history, like really.

[Emma Vigeland]

Bizarre governance down there and oil money just soaking the whole state and creating like areas of the state that are entirely uninhabitable, basically. Or when you do live there, you're likely to get cancer.

[Brian]

You don't want Cancer Alley to be in your state.

[Sarah Fouts]

Yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

Hey, folks, your support makes this show possible. You can become a [e-mail] oh, it's just like we'll have fun in the fun half. We're determined. Join themjorityreport.com I think it's good you can help this show survive and thrive and then you get the fun half and you can IM us also enjoy just coffee co op, fair trade coffee out of not in Green Bay but in Madison, Wisconsin. Co op there. Great politics, great coffee. Use the coupon code. Majority get 10% off. Matt left Reckoning yeah, we had a good Sunday show.

[Brian]

Patreon.com LeftReckoning Sunday show for patrons talking about an insane story out of Wired about a Silicon Valley surrogacy story is sort of, I mean, insane. And then also talking about this blowing up a Venezuelan boat that just they're drug dealers, terrorists, both of them at the same time shoot a missile. Bad sort of trajectory we're on in this country in terms of how we're acting out as a nation. So check that out. Patreon.com left reckoning I'm just reading into.

[Sam Cedar]

I mean, I'll just read the first paragraph. For this breakdown of this. The LA Times Supreme Court ruled on Monday for the Trump administration and agreed U.S. immigration agents may stop and detain anyone they suspect is in the US Illegally based on little more than working at a car wash, speaking Spanish or having brown skin. You know, sometimes you worry that you are a little bit hyperbolic when you, you know, haven't seen a ruling and make an assessment and then it's. It. That's what it is. It is full on racial profiling. And my understanding is it's, it's an, it's an emergency appeal. And I don't know if that means that, but it is a lifting of the judge's order in a, on a temporary basis. It seems like it's like an injunction that they're repealing. It's, it's an, it's a, it's a repeal of a, of an injunction or a temporary order, which means that the case continues. But this, the Supreme Court has done this multiple times. Now, the implication is that if you don't allow ICE to racially profile, they will be irrecovably harmed. And I mean, that's why you lift an appeal or you issue an appeal. I should say you lift an injunction or an order or you repeal one, it will. The existence or the absence of one will cause irrecole harm.

[Emma Vigeland]

Irrevocable.

[Sam Cedar]

Thank you. Irrevocable harm. I'm having a stroke. And now what's going to happen is as you go about your day in California, if you're brown, that was on you, man.

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, they were already doing this, but now there's no recourse for clear racial profiling. Right?

[Sam Cedar]

That's right. I mean, they were doing this. That's why the case was brought. Yeah, but now it's going to be policy, stated policy.

[Emma Vigeland]

Where does this, does we have to still read like what the Supreme Court decision says, but does this open the door for explicit uses of racial profiling in context that are not immigration related? I mean, say this is going into.

[Sam Cedar]

This, Kavanaugh says, and federal law says immigration officers may, quote, briefly detain an individual for questioning if they have a, quote, reasonable suspicion based on specific articulable facts that the person being questioned is an alien illegally in the United States.

[Brian]

Like Tom Holman said, explode explicitly that on a hit. Articulable.

[Sam Cedar]

Well, yeah, but, but, but there, there used to be articulable facts that were not relevant as to creating a reasonable suspicion. In this instance, it's going to be like, well, he was brown. Well, he was speaking Spanish. Well, he was doing a job that supposedly Americans won't do. And this is the emergency docket, this is the shadow docket. So it very little. I mean, this is, this is the implications of the Supreme Court.

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, it's like a Dred Scott era a bit.

[Sarah Fouts]

Right.

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, like what. This is the kind of decision that will be a stain on our history and we're living through it.

[Sam Cedar]

Yep. Texas left. Is this just for California? Well, it's specifically the case is California, but I don't see why, if it was brought up, if Los Angeles. Sorry, why if it was brought up, you know, presumably ICE is going to use this exact same thing in Chicago in whatever, you know, name the locality. Precedent's been set and the, you know, Chicago ACLU will, will, will attempt to enjoin them from using this at. In a court. And the court, that federal court could say, oh, we're, we're not going to abide by that ruling because it was specifically to la. But it's unlikely. And in the event they did that, the Supreme Court would probably say, like, you're purposely ignoring our rulings. Supreme Court just did do that. Actually, I can't remember what the case is now off the top of my head. One of the judges clapped back and said, you know, it's not our intention to do that. But when you make all these rulings that are clearly against precedent in creating new law and you have no explanation for it, we're a little bit incapable of following what you're. You consider to be precedent. But more on that at a different time, folks left reckoning. Do you already say it? I'm losing it. See you in the fun half. Three months from now, six months from now, nine months from now. And I don't think it's gonna be the same as it looks like in six months from now. And I don't know if it's necessarily gonna be better six months from now than it is three months from now, but I think around 18 months out, we're gonna look back and go like, wow. What, what is that going on? It's nuts. Wait a second. Hold on, hold on for a second. Emma, welcome to the program. Fun. Matt. Fun. What is up, everyone? Fun Pack. No, me.

[Sarah Fouts]

You did it.

[Sam Cedar]

Fun.

[Emma Vigeland]

Let's go, Brandon.

[Sam Cedar]

Let's go, Brandon.

[Bradley]

Fun Crack.

[Sam Cedar]

Bradley, you want to say hello? Sorry to disappoint everyone.

[Bradley]

I'm just a random guy.

[Sam Cedar]

It's all the boys today.

[Sarah Fouts]

Fundamentally false.

[Emma Vigeland]

No, I'm sorry.

[Sam Cedar]

Women's talking for a second. Let me finish.

[Sarah Fouts]

Where is this coming from?

[Emma Vigeland]

Dude.

[Sam Cedar]

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

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes.

[Sarah Fouts]

Hi.

[Sam Cedar]

Is this me? Yes. Is this me?

[Sarah Fouts]

Is it me?

[Sam Cedar]

It is you? Is this me? Oh, I was this me? Think it is you? Who is you? No sound. Every single freaking day. What's on your mind?

[Sarah Fouts]

Sports.

[Sam Cedar]

We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism.

[Sarah Fouts]

I'm gonna go snow white.

[Sam Cedar]

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

[Emma Vigeland]

Gobbledygook.

[Sam Cedar]

We nailed him.

[Emma Vigeland]

So what's 79 plus 21?

[Sam Cedar]

Challenge. Man. I'm positively quivering. I believe 96. I want to say. 8, 5, 7, 2, 1, 0, 3, 5 5, 0, 1, 1 half. 3, 8, 9, 11.

[Emma Vigeland]

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

[Sam Cedar]

54. $3 trillion. Sold. It's a zero sum game.

[Emma Vigeland]

Actually. You're making me think less.

[Sam Cedar]

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

[Sarah Fouts]

Sam goes satire on top of it all. My favorite part about you is just.

[Emma Vigeland]

Like every day, all day, look at 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.

[Sarah Fouts]

Obviously.

[Bradley]

Yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

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

[Sarah Fouts]

But you should know, people just don't.

[Sam Cedar]

Like to entertain ideas. And I have a question. Who cares?

[Brian]

Our chat is enabled, folks.

[Sam Cedar]

I love it.

[Emma Vigeland]

I do love that.

[Sam Cedar]

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

[Emma Vigeland]

Outrageous.

[Sam Cedar]

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