3598 - Trump Calls for Political Arrests; Urgent 2025 Elections w/ Daniel Nichanian

Summary

The Majority Report with Sam Seder

Episode 3598 - Trump Calls for Political Arrests; Urgent 2025 Elections w/ Daniel Nichanian

Date: October 8, 2025
Host: Emma Vigeland (in for Sam Seder)
Guest: Daniel Nichanian, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Bolts Magazine

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on the escalating political and legal crises in the US, with former President Trump calling for arresting political opponents and pushing aggressive National Guard deployments. The bulk of the show focuses on urgent state and local elections in 2025 with Daniel Nichanian of Bolts Magazine, who provides a deep dive into pivotal races and ballot measures across the country. The episode also examines the ongoing crisis in Gaza and Israel’s interdiction of humanitarian flotillas, with testimonies from activists and journalists, and concludes with a robust discussion of threats to voting rights, the Supreme Court, and progressive organizing.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. National Guard in Chicago, Trump’s Authoritarian Rhetoric, and ICE Tensions

• Texas National Guard Deployment: Texas Governor Abbott sends National Guard to Chicago against Illinois’ wishes; litigation pending (Illinois lawsuit against Texas, [09:05]).
• Federal–State Power Struggle: Courts have blocked similar deployments in other states, but Trump pivots to the Insurrection Act as a potential workaround ([10:29]).
• Posse Comitatus Act: Discussed as limiting military use in domestic law enforcement, with hosts noting how Trump seeks to undermine it.
• Trump Calls for Arrests: Trump calls for Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor Pritzker to be jailed for "failing to protect ICE officers" ([11:06]).
  • Emma Vigeland: “What a shock. Here he was this morning on Truth Social. Chicago mayor […] should be in jail for failing to protect ICE officers. Governor Pritzker too.”
• Crime Hysteria vs Reality: Hosts debunk the narrative of “violent crime crisis” in Chicago ([12:09]):
  • Emma Vigeland: “Over a decade, violent crime has dropped in Chicago 40%.”
• Speaker Mike Johnson’s Response: Speaker Johnson deflects, restates talking points about “destroyed” Democratic cities ([13:38]).

2. ICE Overreach and Local Law Enforcement

• Executive Orders in Chicago: Johnson's orders block ICE from using city lots, direct Chicago Police not to assist ICE on civil immigration arrests ([11:15], [12:09]).
• ICE Faking 911 Calls:
  • CBS report: ICE agents making false 911 calls to tie up local police, including one over a journalist filming a facility ([20:08]).
  • Emma Vigeland: “They are a threat to community safety. The 911 thing too. They don't care about the community.”
• Militarization Analogy: Hosts liken ICE behavior to occupations abroad, emphasizing effects of post-9/11 militarization ([23:08], [23:30]).
  • Matt: “It is the Iraq metaphor… the actual people here hate this occupation.”
• Police and Solidarity: Noting pressure on local police and the meaning for community organizing ([19:22], [19:26]).

3. Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza: Flotilla Interception and Activist Testimonies

• Aid Flotilla Intercepted: Israeli forces seize a second aid flotilla in international waters; former guests, including Greta Thunberg and David Adler, are detailed and later released ([29:20], [35:18]).
• Greta Thunberg’s Message ([33:00]):
  • “We are not the story. Thousands of Palestinians are currently being held in Israeli dungeons without a trial, hundreds of which are children.”
  • “Do not let me and other volunteers on the flotilla be a destruction [distraction]. The global summit flotilla is about solidarity with Palestinians, international solidarity.”
• David Adler’s Testimony ([37:44]):
  • “The anti-Semitism that we endured at the hands of the State of Israel was so wild ... They singled out Jews on the flotilla because of the threat that they pose to the Zionist propaganda project.”
• Broader Context: Discussion of Israel’s siege tactics and the complicity of Western governments; criticism of media focus shifting away from the core crisis ([35:18], [39:56]).

4. Looming Threats to the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and Supreme Court Cases

• Critical SCOTUS Case: Upcoming Supreme Court rehearing of Louisiana v. Calcasieu could gut Section 2 of the VRA; risks up to 19 House seats being redrawn to dilute minority voting power ([41:18]).
• Historical Context: Section 2 is the main enforcement for equal voting rights post-Shelby v. Holder; ruling could devastate black and Hispanic Congressional representation ([45:36]).
  • Emma Vigeland: “This is just like making the House as gerrymandered and undemocratic as possible.”
  • Matt: “Democracy was given a mortal wound when you don’t act to cultivate it more.” ([48:38])

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Interview: Daniel Nichanian (Bolts Magazine)

[50:55 – 77:38]

Bolts Cheat Sheet and Off-Year Election Landscapes

• Scope: Over 180 elections covered; local and state races often have outsized, under-the-radar impact ([51:20]).
  • “An off year actually gives us more space…to drill down in some of the hotspots where there are interesting tensions, interesting conflicts, interesting elections.” — Daniel Nichanian ([51:20])
• Governor’s Races:
  • New Jersey: GOP seeks to end state-level ICE protections immediately if they win ([53:44]).
  • Virginia: Heavy use of anti-trans messaging and right-wing culture war; real consequences for federal workers due to shutdowns ([54:41]).
• Immigration Enforcement at Local Level:
  • Importance of mayor, sheriff, and city council races for local ICE collaboration or resistance ([55:50], [57:34]).
  • Example: Bucks County, PA, sheriff signed contract deputizing ICE; a local race could reverse.
  • Daniel Nichanian: “Sheriff controls the jail, controls often a law enforcement force, and that’s often where we see the clearest contrasts on ICE policy.” ([55:50])
• State Supreme Courts:
  • Pennsylvania’s court is critical for national elections; GOP heavily funding ouster campaigns to manipulate future election law ([59:15]).

Local Progressive Organizing

• Mayoral Races:
  • Minneapolis, Seattle, New York City, and Boston highlighted for left–center Democratic divides; prospects for progressives to unseat centrists ([61:57]–[63:47]).
  • Shared lessons and inspiration across progressive candidates nationally ([65:47]).
• Prosecutor and Sheriff Races:
  • Big stakes for reform DAs (Philly’s Larry Krasner faces surprise right-wing re-challenge) and sheriff positions (often the “tip of the spear” for ICE cooperation) ([66:21], [68:48]).
  • Emma Vigeland: “That is all tech guy, rich billionaire money. I mean, and they were riding this crime panic.” ([68:48])
• Nassau County, Long Island:
  • Microcosm of polarized Democratic approaches—some triangulating towards tough-on-crime narratives, others pushing progressive reforms ([71:05], [74:11]).

Ballot Initiatives and Direct Democracy

• Funding School/Transit (Bond Measures): Critical local investments often on the line in off-year elections ([75:36]).
• Olympia, WA Measure: Proposes labor Bill of Rights and $20 minimum wage ([76:18]).

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Memorable Quotes & Notable Moments

• On ICE and Police:
  • “The people who are most easily fooled by AI Slop and the folks most scared of cities; that Venn diagram is just a circle.” — Emma Vigeland ([17:24])
  • “They are a threat to community safety…they don’t care if people have actual 911 calls…All they care about is meeting quotas and ripping apart families.” — Emma Vigeland ([22:45])
• On the VRA case:
  • “Without Section 2, up to 30% of the Congressional Black Caucus and 11% of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus could be drawn out of their seats…” — Emma Vigeland quoting new reports ([45:36])
• On progressive organizing:
  • “Seattle really is a place where there seems to be up and down the ballot the potential for left gains, not just in mayoral race, but sort of a an overall picture that voters are not satisfied there with the status quo and governance from the center or the right…” — Daniel Nichanian ([67:06])
• On Israel, Gaza, and Activism:
  • “We are not the story. Thousands of Palestinians are currently being held in Israeli dungeons without a trial…” — Greta Thunberg ([33:00])
  • “The anti-Semitism that we endured at the hands of the State of Israel was so wild…” — David Adler ([37:44])

Timestamps – Important Segments

• [07:16] Matt on Texas/Chicago National Guard deployment
• [10:29] Insurrection Act and legal background
• [13:38] Mike Johnson responds to Trump's jail demands
• [20:08] CBS News report: ICE making false 911 calls
• [29:20] Israeli interception of humanitarian flotilla; activist testimonies
• [33:00] Greta Thunberg statement on her detention and Gaza
• [37:44] David Adler’s account of flotilla detention
• [41:18] Upcoming Supreme Court voting rights case
• [50:55] Daniel Nichanian interview begins—election cheat sheet
• [53:44] Governor’s races: New Jersey, Virginia
• [57:34] Impactful sheriff and mayoral races on ICE policy
• [59:15] Pennsylvania Supreme Court: national significance
• [61:57] Mayoral races: progressive insurgencies
• [66:21] Courts, prosecutors, and criminal justice
• [71:05] Discussion of Nassau County, NY
• [75:36] Ballot initiatives and local measures

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Tone and Style

The episode maintains the Majority Report’s signature blend of irreverence, blunt analysis, and progressive skepticism. Emma Vigeland’s hosting is incisive and direct, with frequent fact-checks and historical framing, while guests and co-hosts emphasize organizing and critique mainstream narratives. The language is conversational but serious when the topic demands (e.g., Gaza, Supreme Court).

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For Listeners: Why This Episode Matters

• Clear explanation of complex, urgent threats: From Trump’s authoritarian escalations to the possible gutting of the Voting Rights Act, and the dangers for democratic representation and civil liberties.
• Guide to 2025 elections: In-depth local/state race coverage for listeners tired of “off-year” neglect and wanting actionable awareness about the fights shaping immigrants’ rights, criminal justice reform, and democracy’s future.
• Firsthand activist testimony: Brings international crisis to domestic listeners through unfiltered voices of those risking their safety for humanitarian aid.
• Tools for engagement: Pointers to ballot measures, major races, and the importance of down-ballot engagement.

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[End of summary]

Transcript

[Emma Vigeland]

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[Sam Seder]

The Majority report.

[Emma Vigeland]

With Sam Cedar, it is Wednesday, October 8, 2025. My name is Emma Vigeland in for Sam Seder. 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, Daniel Nikanian of Boltz magazine will join us a bit later to talk about the 2025 races to watch in the general election in the coming weeks. Also on the program, Texas National Guard troops have touched down near Chicago despite a pending lawsuit by the state of Illinois. Arguments in that case will be heard tomorrow. Trump calls for Brandon Johnson and Pritzker to be jailed for protecting their constituents from ICE. Seems bad. Day 8 of the government shutdown. The White House has drafted a memo denying furloughed federal workers their compensation, a plain violation of the law. Trump hints he wants an off ramp with the shutdown surrounding health care. Please, Democrats, save me from the consequences of my own bill that kicks millions and millions of people off their health care and raises premiums. We'll see flight delays begin to climb as the shutdown creates air traffic control staffing shortages. James Comey pleads not guilty on trumped up charges of lying to Congress. The FBI shuts down the agency's corruption investigative unit and fires officers who worked on those cases. I wonder if the kava bag guys were involved. Like that would be their area, huh? Also a little on the nose. Okay. The Supreme Court appears poised to overturn bans on gay conversion therapy in over 20 states. Israel illegally intercepts a second smaller aid flotilla sailing to Gaza and continues killing Palestinians in Gaza despite Trump supposedly telling them to stop on Friday. And lastly, Justin Pearson, one of the Tennessee three gun control advocates, announces a primary challenge against longtime Representative Cohen. All this and more on today's Majority report. Welcome to the show, everybody. You might be wondering why it's me today. Well, I have a wedding to go to, family wedding. I will not be in Thursday or Friday. So Sam is going to be with you on that Majority REPORT Thursday, tomorrow. But for hump day, we've got us three. We've got Matt, we've got Brian, we've got myself. And then later, Daniel Lekanian will be joining us. We'll talk a little bit more about the flotilla we were trying to get. And we had somebody booked on that second flotilla who was going to join us. But we got the news this morning and obviously the guest wasn't able to cancel because Israel intercepted illegally again the flotilla in international waters. So thinking of their safety And I want to talk more about the implications of these flotillas in just a bit. But the National Guard, Texas's National Guard has arrived in Chicago. Greg Abbott not respecting the wishes of another governor, states rights, loyalty to Donald Trump. I guess Trump's everything I've heard conservatives say my entire lifetime.

[Matt]

Well, he's got to send his National Guard up to detain the people that he human trafficked to those states in a ploy about immigration in the previous years.

[Emma Vigeland]

Right.

[Matt]

And you know, if anybody has a summer camp that gets swept up by floods that could have deaths that could have been averted by, I don't know, putting up some sirens or if, if anybody's pacemaker goes out because the power went down because Texas has a stupid privatized grid system experiment, you know, we won't deal with any of those problems. Or Uvalde, you know, just kids. Anything happen with that police department? Are they still intimidating the parents of the children that Uvalde? No, Texas has real things to focus on, like sending their, you know, the best of the best up to Illinois to like, patrol parking lots.

[Emma Vigeland]

Right. And when you say patrol parking lots, at the very least, Brandon Johnson had signed that executive order that prohibits ice, ICE from using city owned parking lots and garages for their own operations. But because of the Posse Comitatus act, these National Guard members cannot do anything except basically protect federal property because Posse Comitatus says that troops, US Military personnel cannot be involved in domestic law enforcement. And Trump has been trying to get around that over and over.

[Matt]

One famous reason for this being honored by America is, is so that we couldn't send the troops into the south to deal with the Klan. So we honored it then, we're not honoring it now.

[Emma Vigeland]

Great point, great point. And it really says it all. So the court case, Illinois's lawsuit to stop this is still pending. So the judge didn't immediately block the troops from entering the city, but the lawsuit arguments will be heard tomorrow, Thursday. And so the troops still have touched down outside of Chicago. And these legal battles are significant. Right. So, like, the courts have temporarily at the very least, blocked the deployment in Oregon and California. And Trump is still trying to work around those blockages. And there will be appeals, of course, and will go to the Supreme Court. But what Trump has in his back pocket is the invocation of the Insurrection act, which creates an exception to Posse Comitatus that would allow the president to send active duty military to stop a, quote, rebellion. He could do that, but that. And he's been toying with doing that, but that's five alarm fire territory for now. We have the courts at the very least slowing the National Guard deployments for these reasons.

[Matt]

He's been stewing about how upset he was that he didn't use it during like the Floyd protests, et cetera, et cetera. So it's glass he's wanted to break for a while.

[Emma Vigeland]

Right. And in Illinois too. What's as concerning as everything I just said is Trump calling for the jailing of his political opponents. What a shock. Here he was this morning on Truth Social. Chicago mayor, he can't remember Brandon Johnson's name's name. Chicago mayor should be in jail for failing to protect ICE officers. Governor Pritzker too.

[Matt]

Sorry, that's such a ridiculous like why is it their job to protect the, the stormtroopers you're putting into their city?

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, he's mad that about that executive order I just mentioned, saying that Johnson may not have the ability to say this about federal buildings, but he says that if you're in parking garages or parking lots outside these federal buildings, you can't use that for your ICE Gestapo operations. Johnson has also directed the Chicago PD not to assist in federal civil immigration arrests, meaning if the person does not have a criminal record or a warrant. Johnson has directed the police in Chicago not to engage with ICE on that. And then you have Pritzker and it's not their job.

[Matt]

I mean we can't. That's not the police's job to check people's immigration papers.

[Emma Vigeland]

It shouldn't be at the very least. I mean, red states want that to be the case. But you know, Pritzker also has of course been vocal using the bully pulpit to tell people to know their rights and encouraging resistance, peaceful resistance. As a reminder, the pretext for this National Guard piece is violent crime being out of control. Well, Washington Post this morning, I was just reading an article. I didn't even know it was this dramatic. Over a decade, violent crime has dropped in Chicago 40% over a decade. That's not just like the pandemic decreases that we saw nationally across these cities that they're still toying about sending the National Guards Guard to. This is a dramatic decrease over a 10 year period.

[Matt]

And I'd also just point out I, having been in Chicago 15 years ago, didn't need the National Guard there from Texas to keep order in line like ridiculous like that. This pretext could even be used to put troops like occupy other states with people's National Guards for some crime hysteria.

[Emma Vigeland]

And Mike Johnson is dealing with this shutdown situation. He was asked about Trump calling for Governor Pritzker and Mayor Johnson to be jailed this morning. And let's listen to how the speaker of the House tries to get out of this pickle. Thank you.

[Daniel Nikanian]

Do you agree that the mayor of.

[Emma Vigeland]

Chicago and Governor of Illinois should be in prison?

[Brian]

Should they be in prison? Should the mayor of Chicago and the Governor of Illinois be in prison? I'm not the Attorney General, I'm the Speaker of the House and I'm trying to manage the chaos here. I'm not following the day to day on that. I do know that they've resisted the introduction of or the offering of National Guard troops in Chicago, which is a terribly dangerous city and has been destroyed under. In the process of being destroyed under liberal Democrat.

[Emma Vigeland]

Can you pause it?

[Matt]

This is hysterical. This is hysteria. This is Chicken Little sky is falling insanity.

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, the 10th Amendment is very clear. Not to be all Constitution on you, but the power not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the states are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people. So Pritzker and Johnson have certain authorities. If the federal government is not specifically delineated in terms of their authority, they have authorities as state and local representatives, Democratically elected representatives to govern in the way that they see fit according to our Constitution. Keep going.

[Brian]

Guard troops in Chicago, which is a terribly dangerous city and has been destroyed under, in the process of being destroyed under liberal Democratic, Democrat terrible policies. I would just cite for you in response, Exhibit A, which is the District of Columbia. All of you are able to walk safely into the Capitol today. And you can park your cars blocks away and walk back to your cars. And you're not in fear of being having your purse snatched or your car being jacked or being assaulted. And why is that? Because President Trump had enough of it. He's a strong leader in the Oval Office and he used the resources that were available to him, the National Guard, to bring order to the chaos. The Democrat mayor of the District of Columbia ultimately said thank you so much for the reinforcements and you're all enjoying the spoils of good policy and return to the rule of law. If we could do that in the other major cities in the country where they're having terrible crime crises, that should be seen as a positive. And I think most Americans see it that way. If you're a resident of Chicago or New Orleans or one of these other Democrat run cities, you've had enough. You're tired of your family being walking in fear and not being Able to enjoy their lives.

[Matt]

Yeah, just like the Iraqis were going to treat us as liberators.

[Emma Vigeland]

The D.C. attorney General Brian Schwab is suing the Trump administration as of last month over the use of the National Guard. This, they're just lying to the chief.

[Matt]

It's performance for their suburbanite electorate. This is like every phone call I've had with like relatives and they're like, how are you safe in New York? How do you feel safe walking to work or whatever? Well, I feel safe because, you know, it's safe, it's safe to do that. And you're. The anxiety or fear you have is a political product meant toward an end. And this is the end it's always been pushing for. It's always. And this is the one that it pushed for. This is how we ended up being the number one jailer of humanity with our mass incarceration in the 90s. The same sort of fear mongering, it's the same sort of hysteria, except back then there was actually higher crime way, way higher than there is now. Like all these people are playing for like, boomer and older, like folks with like shadows in their brains like that, that like are living at the final life as if it's still like 1977 or something.

[Emma Vigeland]

The people who are most easily fooled by AI Slop and the folks that are most scared of cities. That Venn diagram is just a circle. And it's unfortunate because you have some Democrats that are trying to do the same thing, appealing to people in the suburbs. It's funny how we played that clip of Andrew Cuomo, who's not a Democrat right now, running as an independent, but talking about suburban fear of cities to justify his argument. And then you can see who he's really aligned with here in that way. But you have everyone from Tom Suozzi making that argument to Chuck Schumer in 20, previewing the failure of the Democratic Party for the last 10 years. The pivot to affluent suburbanites and that appeal, it's made them completely unable to counter this crime narrative. Because when Republicans and conservatives talk about liberal cities, why they focus on it is because cities are places of community. Cities are places of art and culture. Cities are places of intellectual experimentation. Cities are places of community in terms of just being in close proximity to other people and other people that may not look like you. So they use urban crime or whatever as a shorthand for black or brown crime. But they're also threatened by the multiculturalism of cities, the fact that different kinds of people live amongst one another and have solidarity networks that build, as is happening right now, in response to fascism. And Sam has been making this point about the Chicago police and how they've got to start. And some are, we'll see, standing a little bit more with their communities because this is like, as opposed to sitting.

[Matt]

In the cuck chair. And different types of federal forces come in and do their jobs for them.

[Emma Vigeland]

Because this is a threat to them, too. Listen to this report here from CBS about what appears to be ice faking 911 calls, overwhelming local police, preventing them from doing their actual work to try to get around Johnson's directives towards the police department.

[Matt]

And I just have to say this is in the context of an America where you frequently see right wingers say if you get in, if your protest gets in the way of a first responder, you can be shot basically on the spot. Here's what. Here's how ICE treats your local first responders.

[CBS Reporter]

You are watching as Broadview police respond to a 911 call claiming someone was tampering with a gate at the ICE detention facility There. Body camera footage obtained by the CBS News Chicago investigators shows several Broadview police officers respond to an alleged Homeland Security threat. The gate in question is where ICE takes detained immigrants for processing.

[David Adler]

What's up, guys?

[Matt]

Hey, what's up?

[Daniel Nikanian]

Not much.

[Emma Vigeland]

How are you?

[Brian]

Good. We got a call of subjects trying to climb over the fence or something.

[Matt]

Not since we've been here.

[CBS Reporter]

But when police arrive, all they find is two people and a camera. Our CBS photographer filming the exterior of the building with a CBS security guard by his side.

[Brian]

Okay, you guys didn't tamper with any of those?

[Matt]

No, no, no, no, no, no, man.

[CBS Reporter]

The 911 call clear, claiming someone was tampering with the gate came from an ICE agent. According to this incident report, an ICE agent called police for help, but he.

[Emma Vigeland]

Can'T go and try to force his.

[Daniel Nikanian]

Way into that door.

[CBS Reporter]

Okay, so the guy in the booth.

[Matt]

No, the guy's just recording.

[CBS Reporter]

Do you believe that that was a false call?

[Emma Vigeland]

I do.

[CBS Reporter]

Again, it was just our CBS photographer filming the exterior of the building. In your mind bogus?

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes.

[Daniel Nikanian]

It's disturbing. It's ridiculous.

[CBS Reporter]

Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills says this is just one of several questionable 911 calls his police department has received from ICE at this facility recently. This same detention center has become the site of at least three other incidents involving federal agents who are accused of hitting people with cars, shooting projectiles, and using chemical agents on journalists, including a CBS reporter. Last Saturday Sunday.

[Emma Vigeland]

We. We played some of that footage. Here's another still. This is a Chicago Tribune immigration reporter named Laura Rodriguez.

[Wild Grain Representative]

She posted this, but it's not. She wasn't the one who had the gun pointed at her.

[Emma Vigeland]

Gotcha. Thank you. Either way. This is a local reporter showing a federal agent. This is a woman that was recording them. Thanks, Brian. She took this still, I guess. J, A US citizen and member of a neighborhood patrol team that documents and shares ICE activity across the city was filming when the incident occurred earlier today in the Berwyn area. And this is a cop pointing a gun at her.

[Wild Grain Representative]

Yeah, that's like Stormtrooper.

[Emma Vigeland]

A tear. Thank you. Tear gas. Either way. I mean, crazy. It's violence. Violence.

[Matt]

It's fascism.

[Emma Vigeland]

They are a threat to community safety. The 911 thing too. They don't care about the community. They don't care if people have actual 911 calls and emergencies where they need first responders and police to be aware. All they care about is meeting quotas and ripping apart families. That is their job.

[Matt]

They look at. They're not like the idea that they're. Again, it is the Iraq metaphor. I'm not just making a joke. That's literally what's happening right now is the actual people here hate this occupation.

[Emma Vigeland]

Looks like the West Bank.

[Matt]

Yeah, it's. It's performance for elsewhere. And like, yeah, these guys themselves, they look at this like they're going into.

[Emma Vigeland]

Fucking Baghdad and they have the tools to do it. I mean, when we talk about everything being in the shadow of the war on terror. The reason police have all these little toys, the reason ICE does, I mean, and they're just awash. Is because the military industrial complex got so much money made so much machinery for our illegal war in Iraq and our war on terror in the wake of 9 11. And because there was so much excess equipment. Hey, send it over to local police. Well, why can't we have our Gestapo at ICE use these tactics and then we'll call things terrorism in the way that we did in the early part of the earlier part of the 21st century to justify civil civil rights abuses and rollbacks. They are doing that now locally.

[Wild Grain Representative]

If you look at this, there is no training. This man has received no training. Yeah, in combat you don't point at something you're not going to shoot. This is just.

[Matt]

What if you want to scare it.

[Wild Grain Representative]

This guy's training is movies, right?

[Matt]

Yeah. Oh yeah, 100%.

[Emma Vigeland]

We'll be talking a little bit more about the state of the world and the country in just a sec before we get to Daniel Nikanian. But first, a word from some of our sponsors here. Delete Me is a service that I started using before I even joined the Majority Report and I can get behind it and speak to you about it. About how helpful it's been in removing my personal data online and yours as well. It can be, especially at a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable. When I started in this job, some of my information was out there, personal information, and you got to get that scrubbed and I was recommended. Delete Me. They said they do a great job, it's a great investment and it's been, I mean gosh, nearly 10 years, nearly nine or eight years or something since I've been using Deleteme. It does all the hard work of wiping you and your family's personal information from data broker websites. Deleteme knows your privacy is worth protecting. Sign up and provide Deleteme with exactly what information you want deleted and their experts take it from there. Deleteme sends you regular personal privacy personalized privacy reports showing what information they found, where they found it and what they removed. And Deleteme isn't just a one time service. DeleteMe is always working for you, constantly monitoring and removing the personal information you don't want on the Internet. Thank you to Deleteme for sponsoring the Majority Report. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Deleteme now at a special discount for our listeners. Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to www.joindeleteme.com Majority and use promo code Majority at checkout. The only way to get 20% off is to go to www.joindeleteme.com majority and enter code majority at checkout. That's www.joindeleteme dot com majority code majority link below in the video description and at Majority FM and wherever you're listening to or watching this. And lastly, this episode of the Majority Report is brought to you by Wild Grain Wild Grain is the first baked from frozen subscription box for artisanal breads, seasonal pastries and fresh pastas. Plus all items conveniently bake in 25 minutes or less. My mouth is just watering thinking about the Wild grain that I tried recently. The apple cider donuts. It was. I mean I. It was phenomenal.

[Wild Grain Representative]

Just a pleasing phrase.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes. It's just so good. And I think Sam says he still has some frozen. I may ask to steal a few. Unlike store bought stuff Wild Grain uses a slow fermentation process that's easier on your belly, richer in nutrients and antioxidants and made with simple ingredients you can pronounce. Wild Grains boxes are fully customizable and they're constantly adding seasonal and limited time products for you to enjoy. In addition to their classic box, they now have a gluten free box and a plant based box. Again, those apple cider donuts were amazing. I mean they, I don't, I'm really bad with kinds of bread but there was like, it's like almost like a figure 8 the way it looked. I had that too. Way too much put, you know, butter. I went in. It was really, really good. This fall, treat yourself and your family to warm sourdough breads and seasonal baked goods from Wild Grain. Rumor has it they have apple cider donuts and pumpkin cinnamon biscuits. I didn't even know about those. So get them before those seasonal items sell out. For a limited time, Wild Grain is offering our listeners $30 off the first box plus free croissants in every box when you go to wildgrain.com majority to start your subscription. You heard me. Free croissants in every box and $30 off your first box when you go to wildgrain.com majority. That's wildgrain.com majority or you can use promo code Majority at checkout. Don't miss their seasonal products. We will put a link to this down below in the video or an episode description. And at Majority FM again that's $30 off your first box plus free croissants in every box. Go to wildgrain.com majority to start your subscription. We will be talking to Daniel Nikanian in just a second but wanted to cover some of the developments in the flotilla with the flotilla here. As I mentioned before, there was a second aid flotilla that was intercepted by Israel illegally in international waters headed to Gaza this morning. And thankfully we have reports that some of our friends of the show Greg Stoker has been released. David Adler has a progressive international has been released. And let's we'll play Adler's talk about what he went through in just a second. But let's first start with what Greta Thunberg had to say. She posted a video on social media about really what is most important to remember here. The full thing is really, really worth a watch. We'll just play a few minutes of it. She posted this on her Instagram but already one of the most impactful activists of the 21st century. And it's not Particularly close. Greta could have become someone who cashed in, who did the speaking circuit, who got a documentary made about her.

[Matt]

There are many examples.

[Emma Vigeland]

There are.

[Wild Grain Representative]

And she can't talk very well. Yeah, easy money for.

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, she's 22 years old, and she resisted the pull of celebrity because I think about how RFK speaks about, like, autism and things like that. And Greta's been open about her autism diagnosis and how it's given her the ability to focus and be singularly minded and not distracted. And her neurodivergence is, like, truly part of her superpower, as she describes it. I love that there are so many people throughout the world that may be on the autism spectrum or have different specialized interests or see the world a little bit differently. And we have, like, this kind of administration that, you know, harkens back to, like, an era of. Of eugenics, where disability or neurodivergence is spoken about as some sort of, like, deformity or an. Oh, an example of a degenerate moral character where it's really just like a part of the beauty of human experience. And you can have people like Greta who have that intensity about what she believes in, and she's just never let up the entire way. And she's connected climate change to capitalism and then also the imperial colonial project of Israel to capitalism and to exploitation. And that in and of itself has been so impactful. So the reports were that she was abused in Israeli detention, that she was grabbed by her hair. I saw some people say, witnesses on the flotilla say she was forced to kiss the Israeli flag, that she was paraded around. But Greta has basically refused to even talk about that. This is what her message is. For everybody who's now paying attention to this story.

[Greta Thunberg]

Hello. This is going to be a long video, but I have a lot to say, so bear with me. And we are now many who are safe and released from imprisonment and absurd mistreatment. But many of our comrades from Global Smooth Flotilla are not, and they need to be released now. But most importantly, we are not the story. Thousands of Palestinians are currently being held in Israeli dungeons without a trial, hundreds.

[Daniel Nikanian]

Of which are children.

[Greta Thunberg]

Millions are living trapped under an illegal siege in an apartheid state and occupation who are being sent systematically starved and bombed to pieces. Basic societal infrastructure is being targeted and destroyed, and Palestinians are being systematically deprived of their very, very basic rights and means to survive, such as producing their own food, controlling their own territorial waters, and children being able to go to school. And the whole world knows that this did not start on 10-07-2023 and these Israeli war crimes have happened with impunity and with help and legitimizations from our governments, institutions and media. And this is the story here that people should be focusing on. Do not let me and other volunteers on the flotilla be a destruction. And the global summit flotilla is about solidarity with Palestinians, international solidarity. And what Israel did was mainly not to illegally abduct us in international waters and abuse us in prison, but it was that it stopped a humanitarian mission and violating international law by preventing humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, a population that are being systematically starved by Israel. And this is a blatant violation of international humanitarian and maritime law. And I also want to make it very clear that our imprisonment by Israel is, is a direct result of our governments. They keep talking about the importance of upholding human rights and international law and to get aid into Gaza. And then when we do their job trying to do just that while being completely peaceful and abiding by international law, they fail to ensure our safety. And this mission should not have to exist. It is a last resort when all means fall short and when those in power power failed to step up and do the bare minimum.

[Emma Vigeland]

All right, I think that's good. Especially calling out her own, their own governments, because this flotilla has shown Israel you want to risk bombing a European warship, you want to risk starting a war with a Western allied country by attacking them if they decide to break your illegal siege and control of the waterways of the Gaza Strip, which has been in place since 2006, I believe. 2006. Just another reminder that this has not that this did not start on October 7, 2023. And there was footage where you could see Palestinians were able to fish for the first time in quite a while because the Israeli navy was so distracted by the flotilla. What does that say? That they're being prevented from producing their own food by fishing because Israel will kill them if they try to do so. I mean, we know what's happening here. Greta doesn't want to make it about that treatment totally makes sense. But I think everybody that's watching this for the most part understands that the genocide is of the utmost importance. And I found here David Adler's testimony really important to share as well. David Adler of Progressive International was finally released after a long time. And I'm seeing that the Jerusalem Post reports that of like there were over nearly 500 activists, journalists, humanitarians who were on the flotillas. And I think there are less than 10 that are still in detention, but they should be at the forefront of Our minds as well. But here's Adler speaking about his experience as a Jewish man and how he was treated differently and used by the Israeli government when they were in captivity. And I think they were in the prison in the Negev, which is a torture camp by Israel and God knows what's happening to Palestinians there.

[Daniel Nikanian]

What happened when you guys were taken and captured?

[David Adler]

Where were you taken?

[CBS Reporter]

What were the conditions like?

[Daniel Nikanian]

How were they treating you?

[David Adler]

In Ashdod Port, we were frog marched out, heads down, knees on our knees and you know, for basically a giant photo op for Bendiver as one of the few Jews on the mission. They found me, asked me if I was Jewish, whipped me by the ear, threw me in front of the Israeli flag to sit away from the whole group that was sat, hundreds of us on our knees and heads down for Ben GVIR to show up and come yell at us in our face that we're terrorists. And so we were treated so from that moment, we were strip searched and zip tied and blindfolded and sent to this detention camp without any kind of process. We were basically not allowed to speak to lawyers. Most people didn't speak to lawyers and would not speak to lawyers. We still haven't spoken to lawyers the whole time. We were disappeared into the Nega desert for three days without any confirmation from the US government that we were even alive. I don't like speaking as a Jew, but it bears repeating. The anti Semitism that we endured at the hands of the State of Israel was so wild. It's so important that we change the narrative on the idea that the State of Israel some kind of birthright or land for diasporic Jews to come home to. We were treated like obviously Palestinians are considered to be the most dangerous thing that they need to either deny or destroy. But an unfaithful Jew to this Netanyahu government is considered to be so threatening to them that we were given this special interrogation by Benjamin. And yeah, they and the other Jew that was with me in the cells, who was suffering from severe medication withdrawals, who was begging and begging and begging day in and day out for medic, was denied the most basic access to that medic. I don't want to name him without him being able to name himself. But begging, I mean, you could hear his cries every single morning, day and night. You could hear his suffering. And they basically the guards of this facility just said, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, in your dreams, we'll be with you.

[Emma Vigeland]

So you can see footage of Ben GVIR taunting the flotilla members. These are humanitarians trying to feed people. And that is another really important piece of information about how Israel in practice treats non Zionist Jews. They treat them as traitors, as threats, as in ways where they singled out Jews on the flotilla because of the threat that they pose to the Zionist propaganda project. And that is why we must reiterate that Israel loves the idea that there's an increase in anti Semitism and anti Jewish hatred right now. Anti Jewish conspiracism. They enjoy having that as a pretext to say that there's only one safe place for you to go. Increase our population totals in the settler colony.

[Matt]

If there wasn't a global anti Semitic emergency, then there's no reason to do an apartheid state for Jews in Jim Crow.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yep.

[Matt]

But that's what they what Zionists want. That's what Bibi wants. It's what frankly a huge number of the Israeli population wants. And so the issue is how much are we going to fund it?

[Emma Vigeland]

Really cool writes in Mandla Mandela, Nelson Mandela's grandson and South Africa legislator was finally released earlier today and gave a press conference. We will be on the lookout for that. And that's great news to hear. We'll be talking to Daniel and the Kanian in just a second. But I wanted to quickly draw attention to this one story because it's really important. The Supreme Court is going to hear a case next week that involves the Voting Rights act, which the Supreme Court has continuously eroded over the past decade. Plus they have agreed to rehear this case called Louisiana v. Calais. Now they had heard arguments about this case combined with another case earlier this year. And then I think they filed it for re argument in the fall. I'm not sure why, but it's really significant. Louisiana has been in a fight since the 2020 census over a second majority minority majority black congressional district. So There was the 2020 census in 2021. Louisiana redrew its congressional maps in response to it. The census found that in Louisiana, around a third of the population is black. There are six congressional districts in Louisiana. They created only one majority black district out of the six. So then black voters and civil rights organizations filed lawsuits in the middle district of Louisiana. They challenged the map. It went up to an appeals court. The appeals court says Louisiana needs to draw a second majority black district. But now we have the people claiming reverse racism. So then a group of white voters in response to that challenged the redrawn map with a second majority black district in a federal lawsuit that they filed in the Western District of Louisiana. So now, the Supreme Court is going to hear that case next week, but check out this headline from Politico. These are the implications. Republicans could draw 19 more House seats after an upcoming Supreme Court ruling Democratic voting rights groups are preparing for a nightmare scenario if the Supreme Court guts a key part of the landmark civil rights era legislation, the Voting Rights Act, a very real possibility this term ahead of the court's October 15th rehearing of Louisiana v. Caleas, a case that has major implications for the vra. Two voting rights groups are sounding the alarm warning that eliminating Section 2, a provision that prohibits racial gerrymandering when it dilutes minority voting power, would let Republicans redraw up to 19 House seats to favor the party and crush minority representation in Congress. That calculation, made in a new report from Fair Fight Action and Black Voters Matter Fund, shared exclusively with Politico, would all but guarantee Republican control of Congress. While a ruling in time for next year's midterms is unlikely. That's the one silver lining of the story. The organizations behind the report said that it's not out of the question. Taken together, the groups identified 27 total seats that Republicans could redraw in their favor ahead of the midterms, and 19 of which stem from Section 2 being overturned. Without Section 2, up to 30% of the Congressional Black Caucus and 11% of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus could be drawn out of their seats, according to the report. And this article cites Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, Florida would be affected. Would be the states affected. The election experts basically say that the in Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee and Mississippi, they could basically get rid of all of their Democratic members. Now there are problems with the way that Southern states have like gerrymandered to, you know, Clyburn is an example of that. It doesn't, I think, create the best incentives for the Democratic Party representation. But this is a really, really scary case here because Section 2 of the Voting Rights act has already been weakened significantly by the Supreme Court in numerous rulings recently. And they already have overturned whole other parts of the 1965 Voting Rights act, including the infamous case of Shelby county vs. V. Holder in 2013, where they remove the requirements for Southern states to get federal approval before change changing their election laws like with voter ID or with redistricting, because in the Voting Rights act at the time and still to this day, obviously the south was insanely racist. And we're trying to use these tactics to make sure that black voters did not have representation, adequate representation. And so this has been a Big part of the Republican takeover of parts of our Congress or the overrepresentation of Republicans when There was a 5050 split in the Senate. I keep. I always use the statistic. But it was under Biden, the 50 Democrats represented 40 million more people than the 50 Republicans in the Senate. This is just like making the House as gerrymandered and undemocratic as possible. So really important case to pay attention to here. And Section two of the Voting Rights act is really important because the 15th amendment was curtailed without the prohibitions that were put in place by Section 2 of the VRA. It was an enforcement mechanism for what rights are the rights that were guaranteed under the 15th Amendment. The guarantee to the right to vote regardless of race. It created legislation that put parameters in place and the Supreme Court is in the process of doing away with that altogether. For the most part.

[Matt]

We have media lousy with people who take money from billionaires to obscure the problems with society. And there's all this talk about what went wrong. And you know, people like Ezra Klein very upset about what chances were missed. Well, here's one. April 10, 2022 How Joe Manchin knifed the Democrats and build on saving democracy. He's gonna filibuster reform voting rights legislation. Well, they couldn't get him on board. And why is that not like part of our like regular thing that we talk about? I mean know that we talk about this the of mansions in them all the time. But like this is who knifed him in the back. This is democracy was given a mortal wound when you don't act to cultivate it more.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yep.

[Matt]

There's people actively going against it. There's. You can't be neutral on something that is like in a political fight, you know and. But maybe it was because of something Kamala Harris said in the primaries that was too woke or something.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, I'm trans people. How can we blame them this time? Quick break on that front. Got that story in. We'll be talking to Daniel Nikan it Sam, we are back and I am so happy to be joined now by Daniel Nikanian, founder and editor in chief of Bolts magazine. And their cheat sheet for the 2025 general elections is out now. Everybody go check it out. We'll put a link down below. But that's what we're going to be talking about today. Everything you need to know or races you haven't paid attention to coming up in November. Daniel, thanks so much for coming on the show.

[Daniel Nikanian]

It's always fun to join you.

[Emma Vigeland]

Of course. So Tell us a little bit about Boltz magazine's guide, the cheat sheet to the races, the general elections this year. And maybe we can start with some of the governor's races that here in New York, of course, all we can talk about is Zoran Mamdani. But there are more races going on across the country, certainly.

[Daniel Nikanian]

Well, you know, it's supposed to be an off year, but at Bolt we cover local and state elections, local and state politics. So our sort of idea is that an off year actually gives us more space, even more room to drill down in some of the hot hotspots where there are interesting tensions, interesting conflicts, interesting elections. And so we have 180 elections on this cheat sheet. There's organized hopefully in ways that people can browse thematically based on what they're interested in. But you know, the idea is that you may have heard about this big issue of school boards in recent years and the efforts on the right to take over school boards and restrict the rights of trans students, for instance. Well, that is the sort of thing that off your elections can, can be about. You know, you've heard about New York, the New York City race that you just mentioned. But there's of course other left leaning candidates who are being inspired by Mamdani or say they're kindred spirits who are running in other places in the country if you care about ICE or immigration. There's a lot of elections this fall where candidates are taking opposite positions on what it means to be a city, a county, a state, and have to respond to Trump on how to enforce immigration law. So those are the kind of things we're trying to pay attention to on this cheat sheet. And yeah, I mean, there's so much, so many places to start. The highest profile items on it are what you just said, the governor's races. There's two this fall, one in Virginia and one in New Jersey. Each party holds one of them. Each party is trying to flip the one they don't have or keep it. And no matter sort of what else happens in November, that's probably going to be going to be the headline. And you know, maybe interestingly on immigration enforcement, that's that I just mentioned that. That's, that's the very clear stakes. For instance, in the governor's race in New Jersey, which has state protections in place that prevent law enforcement from collaborating with vice and the Republican governor there, sorry, the Republican candidate there, one of their main promises is to end those, those protections as soon as he enters office. You know, so that, that's the sort of thing we are keeping an eye on.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. And I there were some concerning polling about Cheryl showing her a little bit too close to comfort for with Citarella, I think. I'm not sure if I'm saying it correctly, but that would be a. That would be a massive problem in the blue state if that's where we're at for Democrats. And you also of course have Spamberger in Virginia who is running and it's interesting because I saw that they're trying to use like anti trans ads down there in Virginia because the consultant class felt like Kamala lost because of the they them ad or whatever. Now it turns out it was the economy and the genocide of Gaza and that kind of thing like that. At least there's some hope that Spanberger might run away with it. We'll see. But those are the two big ones is what I've been.

[Daniel Nikanian]

Yeah, those are the two big ones. I mean the polls at the moment in both show Democrats ahead in neither of them by a huge margin. I mean you write a little more attention paid on New Jersey. I mean, I think you're really right that the race in Virginia, the Republican nominee there has really focused on attacking trans rights as the issue she's focused on. I mean particularly what if among many things we could say about that. Like it's also Virginia is the state that has been hit very hard by doge, by the federal layoff by the Trump administration. A lot of people there are federal workers. So there's really a disconnect there of all places for the Republicans who just really drill campaign ads, attacks on trans.

[Emma Vigeland]

Rights and so on immigration. What are some of the other races in the country where basically if you're in your community and you want to protect other folks in your community from being terrorized by ice, Are there any ballot measures or key races outside of of course, the New Jersey governor's race that would that people would want to pay attention to?

[Daniel Nikanian]

Well, I think the key question on if you look away from the federal government and what's happening with ICE is what are pretty much any level of government that has a law enforcement force doing about it? Are they actively going to collaborate and help and deploy their police or their state guard to help ice, are they going to have very strict restrictions against that? Even if there are restrictions, there are often channels of communication or loopholes. What is being done? So that really means paying attention to the mayoral race or the mayoral policy where you are the sheriff office, which is one that doesn't get a Lot of attention. But we've actually talked a lot about MI in prior times. We've talked but the sheriff controls, the jail controls, often a law enforcement force. And that's often where we see the clearest contrasts on ICE policy. So for instance, this fall in Albuquerque, just to give you an example, there's an interesting mayoral race there where the Democratic mayor is promising to keep up sort of restrictions on collaborating with ICE and his opponent is the sheriff. The Republican sheriff is running for mayor and is criticizing this idea of keeping a barrier to ice. Another example for a sheriff race is Bucks county in Pennsylvania. That's the place that's near Philly. A suburban county Republican sheriff just signed a contract with ICE a few months ago to collaborate with ICE to have some sheriff deputies effectively act as ICE agents from a formal contract. And Democrats are criticizing that agreement. So that's really a kind of Pennsylvania.

[Emma Vigeland]

Sardine not have the same kinds of laws that say New Jersey has that allow for.

[Daniel Nikanian]

No, Pennsylvania doesn't really have state level protections. Well, in part because Democrats haven't had, I mean Democrats often do not pass protections when they control a state. But in the places where those protections exist is probably because Democrats have had state, state level control and they haven't had that in Pennsylvania. I mean, actually to put a finer point on that, there's sort of a lot of controversy on the left in New Jersey because the reason that that the Republican governor could come in and almost snap his fingers at end productions is that there is no law in place. All that's happened in New Jersey is that the attorney general has issued the equivalent of an executive order. And the state Democrats who control the state assembly and state Senate have actually not passed a law that would codify this stuff, even though there's been a lot of push there. So that's actually an example where state Democrats have dropped the ball on passing the protections in a way that would not allow Republican just to win one governor's race and erase the protections.

[Emma Vigeland]

It sounds very New Jersey. I mean like in the. There's definitely communities of like suburban areas that are pretty racist towards immigrants and that I would imagine those state reps are appealing to those constituencies with inaction. But Pennsylvania also, there's another key thing that people need to pay attention to, which is the Supreme Court in the state. Can you talk about that? Because it feels like every cycle we're on a razor's edge about which way Pennsylvania is going to go.

[Daniel Nikanian]

If you care about national politics and only national politics, that even is probably more important than the governor's race that we're talking about, which are ultimately about state level politics. There's a state supreme court in Pennsylvania like there is in every state, and democrats have a 5 to 2 majority on it. And that majority has done a lot specifically on election law in the past 10 years. They struck down a gerrymander in 2018, a Republican gerrymander. And in the 2018 midterms, Democrats gained four seats from a court drawn map. They've upheld mail voting. They have rejected Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. So that court has really been in the news constantly on election law. So there's five, two and three justices where Democrats are on the ballot in November. And usually actually, what's a little confusing or complicated here is usually these retention elections for justices are sleepy affairs. Not much happens. There's often not that much money. But that's really changed in recent years. And this is really the first time in decades where there's a real effort on the part of the Republican Party to oust these justices. They're now spending a lot of money. This billionaire has invested a lot of money in sending ads to people and they're trying to oust three justices on the court. It's a bit complicated what would happen if they do. It would tie the court, erase the majority, but kind of set up a complicated multi year process. We have an article in Bolt up yesterday that people could go read if they're interested. But the basic picture is that Republicans have no path to a majority on this court before the next presidential election if they don't win this fall and they really want to pass to the court majority before the next presidential election. I'll let you put together why that might be, but those are the stakes this year in Pennsylvania.

[Emma Vigeland]

And you mentioned mayoral races earlier. You have Detroit, you've got Minneapolis, that's a major one. Seattle, where in Minneapolis and Seattle you have some, some really, you know, progressive challengers. We've covered the Omar Fateh debacle on, on the show before. In terms of the debacle being the DMFI were sitting there, endorsement and how insane it was. But what is the status of some of those mayoral races and what are the consequences of some of them? What are the most consequential races?

[Daniel Nikanian]

Yeah, I mean, you've named the ones that I was going to name immediately. And they're interesting because they have this similar, the three you mentioned, Minneapolis, Seattle and New York have this similar dynamic of a left candidate. I think they probably would. The Three candidates, Amar Fatih Mamdani and Katie Wilson would probably use different words to describe their politics, but they're all trying to take over a city governed by centrist Democrats. That's an interesting parallel to see what happens. Seattle seems particularly interesting since the mayor trailed there actually in the first round in August. So that is almost sure to be at the very least very competitive in November, if not a pickup by the left and. But there's a lot of elections out there. There's also interesting elections at the city council level in those places. Actually there's DSA candidates in Minneapolis and other cities that are trying to gain ground. Also in some places in Ohio that I have on my sheet. Not necessarily the first places you think about as the places to look for left organizing right now, but definitely places to, to watch. And I was going to add something about Seattle that I'm thinking on right.

[Emma Vigeland]

Now, so I'll take that to you. No, no. Well, we were just basically the progressive challengers. The dynamic being similar with like the establishment trying to push back against it. I mean it is for all of those three. In all of those three instances it is a bit of a similar dynamic.

[Daniel Nikanian]

Yeah. And I was going to the fourth city I was going to bring in was Boston, which was supposed to be this very interesting race this fall. And maybe the fourth place where it was particularly clear stake for the left because the mayor there, Michelle Wu, is a progressive and she was facing a challenge from the son of the owner of the New England New England Patriots was spending a lot of his own money and attacking her from the right. But he did so badly in the first round in September a month ago that he dropped out from the race actually. So who will not face any opponent? There's actually a general election, a runoff on the ballot in November, but it's just going to be his name. So that was going to be the my like going into the fall. Those were the four elections I was going to name, but one, one of them has already disappeared.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, Wu has the benefit of incumbency there, but it is like also just, I mean that big money donor trying to unseat progressive or. Yeah, it's very similar in that way. Glad that didn't win the day. Go on.

[Daniel Nikanian]

And it's also interesting because you often think of these races as their own little islands because there are mayoral race happening in Seattle and Minneapolis. But it's interesting to see the candidates often refer to each other. Katie Wilson has talked about Mamamdani. She sort of joked that she's the less sort of smooth version of Mamdani. I think a lot of these candidates we've talked about have mentioned Wu as someone that they draw inspiration from. So, you know, it's interesting to see these ties that are forming, and especially if there's more of them, I think especially if we see in New York City, if Mahmoudani wins, I assume he's going to want to play on those connections to make himself look connected to other parts of the country, other mayors who think like him and want to do the sort of things he wants to do.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, it's also a natural fit because these cities are under threat right now directly by the Trump administration. So collaboration between mayors seems to make absolute, like, logical sense just in terms of governance. Let's turn to the courts for a bit. And, you know, when we're looking at prosecutors and other legal measures, even things that might be on the ballot that you want people to be aware of, what are the most important races coming up on that front?

[Daniel Nikanian]

Yeah. Well, I mean, the immediate thought that comes to mind before I open it up is this very intriguing race in Philly. I mean, if anyone who's watching this has read or cares about the idea of progressive DAs, Reform DAs, that has emerged in the past few years, Philly has been the place you may have heard about Larry. Larry Krasner has been the DA there for eight years, sort of has become an emblem for the idea of reform prosecutors, of the idea of trying to reduce incarceration or reduce the severity of penalties from within the system. And he won a primary, a Democratic primary in May, which was pretty, you know, which was contested. And his opponent insisted he was not going to run as a Republican. He did that. He was going to stop as a Democrat. And then he changed his mind over the summer. Republican convinced him to run again. I mean, not that different than what's happening in New York. And so now Krasner faced a rematch against someone he already defeated in May, as was running as a Republican in Philly. That's really a tall order to run as a Republican in Philly. But I mean, to the extent that you care about prosecutors, that's really where you should start. So that might be the most interesting. Another one in Seattle, maybe we could. That's super interesting in relation to what we were saying. Seattle elected the Republican prosecutor in 2021. That's the only Republican in office in Seattle right now. And she really turned to more aggressive politics around crime, around quality of life offenses and so on. And she's in huge trouble right now heading into November. And that's interesting in relation to the mayoral race, the races for city council in Seattle. There's a general. Seattle really is a place where there seems to be up and down the ballot the potential for left gains, not just in mayoral race, but sort of a an overall picture that voters are not satisfied there with the status quo and governance from the center or the right over the past four years. So those are races to watch. There's been this idea that the reform DA movement has lost steam, has lost its figureheads and there's definitely been some high profile losses last year.

[Emma Vigeland]

But San Francisco though, but that is all tech guy, rich billionaire money. I mean and they were riding this crime panic. I don't see the same environment being there for them at this point, even with all the money that they have on their side.

[Daniel Nikanian]

I mean it's interesting you say that because the high profile, it's not just San Francisco, the high profile reform DA losses have generally come in California. There's been la, Oakland, San Francisco, which is a lot. But also interesting that there's a California dynamic. This year there was actually the DA in New York City, Alvin Bragg, Philly DA. Other DAs in small places that we've covered have faced similar criticism that they've let their guard down and so on around crime and they're winning reelection and they're willing reelection so far. I think the second thing that people should really be thinking about when they think about criminal legal reform in elections is sheriffs. We already talked about them. I mean that's a very different picture. I mean I sort of talked about a couple of sheriff races where we're seeing tensions. The overall picture, Emma, that no one is running for sheriffs in places where conservative sheriffs are very aggressively helping ice, there's been. And places that are not red Republican areas, there's been an absence of candidate. We've actually done a couple of articles on this in both on Virginia, a couple of places that are very swingy, very competitive. There's no Democrat running for sheriff on the sort of like we need to change our approach to ice. That's not in a way surprising. Sheriffs by nature are going to attract a more law and order kind of candidate. But we've also seen places or in the last few years, many places actually where Sheriffs have run N1 on the platform of ending ties with ICE. So it's definitely doable, definitely possible. We've seen it. And the fact that in 2025 that was so many places where that just didn't didn't come up at all. It's not even that competitive. No, no one is running. That's. That's sort of a story in and of itself, I think.

[Emma Vigeland]

Can you to take us back to New York for a bit? Can you talk about what's going on in Nassau County? I'm very interested in Nassau county as somebody from the tri state area, but also because I believe that Nassau police are the highest paid in the country and they kind of run the whole show out there on Long island and it seems like, you know, it could go either way because there's. They were the first county they banned masking in response to the pro Palestine protests. It's a very cop centered area and kind of like the center of the blue. The suburban panic over crime in the city. That's the number one county I would think of, honestly. So what's going on there with their like local criminal justice, the prosecutors and cases on that front?

[Daniel Nikanian]

Great question. Because there's a lot happening in Nassau County, Nassau county, which is a very, very huge county, I think above a million people, people for people who are not from New York. And so yes, actually 2021 Republic, which is the last time the elections this cycle were up. Four years ago, Republicans made a lot of gains in that county. They took over the county executive seat, they took over the DA, the DA's office. And well, on purely partisan terms, Democrats are trying to erase those gains this year. I mean that would actually be a story that is relevant nationally because Trump I believe. Don't quote me on that though. I'm saying it on the show. But I think Trump flipped the county in 24, which was a big deal as well, which had been sort of previewed by the Republicans gains earlier in the local elections.

[Emma Vigeland]

That would not shock me whatsoever. Yeah, but Tom Swazi is from, from like part of that district. If people know him on the national level of like that's the kind of right wing Democrat that could, you know, only get elected there. Right.

[Daniel Nikanian]

And so Democrats are trying to flip back the DA's office, the county executive office. I think from, from my understanding of the dynamic, they're definitely not doing that on anything like a criminal legal reform platform. I think there, I mean, I think you sort of already summed it up at least on these issues on police. The line there is to sort of agree with the criticism Republicans have done of Democratic governance in the state of bail reform. There seems to be a lot of criticism from Democrats in Nassau, of the Democrats in New York City, of Zazor Al Mamdani and so on and trying to triangulate. There's. So that's dynamic and super interesting that that's all happening within, you know, 20.

[Emma Vigeland]

Miles of each other.

[Daniel Nikanian]

There's potentially Zormadani campaigning and winning a precinct and a mile away there's this dynamic in Nassau. But if you want two versions of the Democratic Party, those are happening there very close to each other and both trying to win new ground that they don't have right now.

[Emma Vigeland]

Nassau county spokesperson I should have known to cite one of our frequent IMers here says our maps were ungerrymandered this year. So that's. I didn't. I put two and two together.

[Daniel Nikanian]

So Democrats are trying to flip these offices county wide, but they're also trying to flip the equivalent of the county board. And the Democrats sued to redraw the maps of the county board because they're actually drawn by the county. Every state is different. Right. But in New York, the county board drew its own boundaries and that's. So there's room there for Democratic gains by virtue of this court battle.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes. And RIM says you are correct. Nassau did flip to red in 2024 and it went 54, 44 Biden in 2020. So that's quite significant.

[Daniel Nikanian]

Exactly.

[Emma Vigeland]

So lastly, what about ballot initiatives? What should people be looking out for to vote directly on something that could benefit their community?

[Daniel Nikanian]

Well, the ballot initiative that is going to suck, take all of the attention, is Prop 15 California, which is redistricting by the Gavin Newsom redistricting initiative. Almost everyone who's listening to this knows about that. So I'll skip two. There's a lot else happening on the ballot, but I think the most interesting and off year is all these counties and cities trying to fund themselves and trying to fund infrastructure, trying to fund often things that are not sexy necessarily. Talk about like school repair and a new school or a new transit line or housing government. And that often comes down to these bonds measures. And so there's a bunch happening. There's a lot happening. There's a lot of money that is dependent on voters approving a bonds measure around the country. So that's really interesting to think of how much comes down to that at the level of just the basic infrastructure around the country. Right. But there's also some interesting measures. For instance, obtaining Olympia in Washington is voting on a bill of rights for labor protections. It would also increase the minimum wage to $20, I think, but it also contains a bunch of other protections there in Olympia. So that's just the kind of measure that is happening around the country that is interesting to keep an eye on.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, Daniel Nikanian, giving us a great sense of what Boltz magazine has been working on and more. And you can find all that at the Bolts magazine. We'll put a link to it down below boltsmag.org and you can look up your cheat sheet to the 2025 general elections, everybody. Check it out wherever you are in the country, if you're here in the United States, you can see what's going to be important coming up in November. Daniel McCanian, thanks so much for coming on today.

[Daniel Nikanian]

Thanks for having me.

[Emma Vigeland]

Of course. All right. With that, folks, we're going to wrap up the free part of the program and head into the fun part of the program where we will take your calls, we will read your IMs, we will have fun. Matt, what's happening on Left Reckoning?

[Matt]

Yeah, two guests last night on Left Reckoning, Justin Chen, union president for Federal Workers, also an environmental engineer, talked about the shutdown and also the doge period and the assault on the federal workforce. And also Michael Arevalo talking about a guy, Tim Kennedy, who I'd never heard of, but he's apparently in the manosphere as a vet. UFC guy who may have stolen valor several from me. Do you have a Medal of Valor branch that's.

[Wild Grain Representative]

I can't disclose that information.

[Daniel Nikanian]

Neither confirmed nor denied.

[Emma Vigeland]

Pam Bondi under oath.

[Matt]

But yeah, go check out that episode.

[Emma Vigeland]

Patreon.com liftreckening all right guys, if you don't, if you have the ability, please become a member. Really helps us be resilient in these trying times and helps pay our bills, which I just got my Con Ed bill yesterday. Oh my God. It's not a joke. They I cannot believe. I mean, is this all AI?

[Wild Grain Representative]

Yeah, it's AI pricing.

[Emma Vigeland]

It's gotta be, right? These servers using up all our AI. I mean what Fortune reported that OpenAI alone is emitting or using more energy than New York City and San Diego combined. So I don't think that's probably good for our electricity bills. Maybe, maybe we should stop some of this stuff.

[Wild Grain Representative]

But I saw a video of Michael Jackson doing stand up and that's worth $400 a month.

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, power bill, right? And accelerating the climate catastrophe at untold levels. Holy moly.

[Matt]

Look, a bunch of rich people have put a lot of money towards AI working and we all need to do our best to make sure that they're able to get money back from that or the economy is Going to be very sad.

[Daniel Nikanian]

Okay.

[Emma Vigeland]

I don't want the anthropomorphized economy to have, you know, to feel bad things. But it does show why the whole AI industry was trying to get that piece of wording into the genius act that prevented all states from regulating AI for 10 years. Thankfully, that was taken out. The bill is still atrocious. But that's why they were trying to do it, because people are like. People are gonna see their energy bills go up with all these servers, and they already have.

[Matt]

John Stewart talked to this guy who we should maybe book on the show, but he's talking about that kid who was suicidal.

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh, yeah.

[Matt]

And over the course of six fucking months, the AI coached him to kill himself in. One of the imperatives that these AI have is that you don't go to other sources to resolve your disagreements like the people you're having with them. With you stand the AI because time is money. More you're on the AI, the more profit they make. So when the kid says, I'm thinking about leaving a cry for help for my parents so they know I'm going through this. The AI is imperative because it wants to monopolize your attention is to say, no, let me be the one to see you. And that kid killed himself. And we're just still talking about, you know, like, humor Sam Altman and Elon Musk as they, you know, destroy your water to make more of the shit. It's. It's atrocious.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. So that was my attempt to bully everybody into becoming members. Guilt people, maybe, but not really. It just. It helps us. It helps us out. Really appreciate it if you can join.

[Matt]

Themjorityreport.Com especially if YouTube or Twitch decides.

[Emma Vigeland]

We want to appeal to the.

[Matt]

We're owned by Larry Ellison now.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Wild Grain Representative]

For your own fun, just go look at our views and look at what's been happening to any Palestinian topic.

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh, yeah.

[Wild Grain Representative]

On our YouTube channel.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Wild Grain Representative]

And look at the difference.

[Emma Vigeland]

We'll. We'll still cover it, though. All right. See you guys in the fun house. Have.

[Daniel Nikanian]

Okay, Emma, please.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, I just. I feel that my voice is sorely lacking on the Majority report. Wait, look, Sam is unpopular.

[Sam Seder]

I do deserve a vacation at Disney World, so. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to welcome Emma to the show.

[Emma Vigeland]

It is Thursday.

[Daniel Nikanian]

I think you need to improve it for Sam.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes, please.

[Matt]

No, no, no.

[Emma Vigeland]

I'm. I'm.

[Sam Seder]

I'm gonna pause you right there.

[Emma Vigeland]

Wait, what?

[Sam Seder]

You can't encourage Emma to live like this.

[Daniel Nikanian]

And I'll tell you why?

[Sam Seder]

So it was offered a tour. Sushi and poker with the boys. Sushi and poker with the boys. Who was offered a tour.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

Sushi and poker with the boys. Sushi and poker.

[Emma Vigeland]

Had Tim's upset.

[Sam Seder]

Twerk. Sushi and poker with two boys. It was offered with twerk. Sushi and that's what we call biz.

[Emma Vigeland]

Twerk.

[Sam Seder]

Sushi and polker were two boys.

[Emma Vigeland]

First, right?

[Sam Seder]

Sushi and.

[Emma Vigeland]

We're going to get demonetized.

[Sam Seder]

I just think that what you did to Tim Pool was mean.

[Emma Vigeland]

Free speech.

[Sam Seder]

That's not what we're about here. Look at how sad he's become now. You shouldn't even talk about him. I think you're responsible.

[Emma Vigeland]

I probably am in a certain way. But let's get to the meltdown here.

[Sam Seder]

Sushi and poker with the boys.

[David Adler]

Oh, my God.

[Matt]

Wow.

[Sam Seder]

Sushi.

[Emma Vigeland]

I'm sorry.

[Sam Seder]

I'm losing my mind. Offered twerk. Sushi and poker with the boys.

[Emma Vigeland]

Logic. Twerk.

[Sam Seder]

Sushi and poker with twerk.

[Daniel Nikanian]

I think I'm like a little kid.

[Emma Vigeland]

Think I'm like a little kid. Think I'm like a kid.

[Sam Seder]

Twerk.

[Daniel Nikanian]

I think I'm like a little kid.

[Sam Seder]

Think I'm like a little kid. Had this debate 7,000 times.

[Emma Vigeland]

A little kid. I think I'm like a little kid. Little kid. Think I'm like a dick.

[Matt]

Some people just don't understand.

[Sam Seder]

So I'm not trying to be a dick right now, but, like, I absolutely think the US should be providing me with a wife and kids.

[Emma Vigeland]

That's not what we're talking about here, all right? It's not a fun job.

[Brian]

Twerk.

[Emma Vigeland]

That's a real thing.

[Sam Seder]

That's a real thing. Real thing.

[Emma Vigeland]

Willy Wonka. Twerk.

[Sam Seder]

That's a real thing. That's real thing. That's a real thing. That's real thing. Real thing. That's a real thing. That's offered at work. Ladies and gentlemen, Joe Rogan has done it. That's a real thing. Oh, I think he might be blowing.

[Emma Vigeland]

It out of proportion. Real thing.

[Sam Seder]

That's a real thing.

[Emma Vigeland]

Let's go, Joey.

[Sam Seder]

Sushi and poker.

[CBS Reporter]

Take it easy.

[Sam Seder]

Sushi and poker. Things have really gotten out of hand. Sushi and poker.

[Daniel Nikanian]

Boys.

[Sam Seder]

Sushi. You don't have a clue as to what's going on.

[Emma Vigeland]

I've used Sam has, like, the weight of the world on his shoulders. Want to do this show anymore? Anymore. It was so much easier when the majority report was just you.

[Sam Seder]

Let's change the subject.

[David Adler]

Rangers and Knicks are doing great now.

[Matt]

Shut up.

[Emma Vigeland]

Don't want people saying reckless things on your program.

[Wild Grain Representative]

That's one of the most difficult parts about this show.

[Emma Vigeland]

This is a pro killing podcast.

[Sam Seder]

I'm thinking maybe it's time to bury the hatchet.

[Emma Vigeland]

Left is best. Trump Violet, twerk.

[Sam Seder]

Don't be foolish and don't tweet at me.

[Wild Grain Representative]

And don't the way Emma has cucked.

[Emma Vigeland]

All of these people. Love it. That's where my heart is. So I wrote my honors thesis about it.

[Wild Grain Representative]

I guess I should hand the main.

[Emma Vigeland]

Mic to you now.

[Sam Seder]

You are to the right of me on foreign policy.

[Emma Vigeland]

We already found Israel, dude. Are you against us?

[Sam Seder]

That's a tougher question.

[Emma Vigeland]

I have an answer to.

[Wild Grain Representative]

Incredible theme song.

[Emma Vigeland]

I Bumbler Emma Vin.

[Wild Grain Representative]

Absolutely one of my favorite people, actually. Not just in the game, like, period.