3618 - Iran Sets Ceasefire Terms & Israel Lashes Out w/ Séamus Malekafzali, Effie Phillips-Staley

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Majority Report with Sam Seder

Episode 3618 - Iran Sets Ceasefire Terms & Israel Lashes Out
Guests: Séamus Malekafzali, Effie Phillips-Staley
Date: April 8, 2026
Host: Emma Vigeland (in for Sam Seder)

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Episode Overview

This episode examines the sweeping geopolitical and domestic ramifications of Iran’s imposed ceasefire terms on the US, Israel’s aggressive reaction in Lebanon, and the resultant fractures in US-Israel relations. The show features deep dives with journalist Séamus Malekafzali on Middle East developments, and congressional candidate Effie Phillips-Staley discussing Democratic politics, US policy toward Israel, and progressive organizing.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Iran’s Ceasefire Terms and US Compliance

• Ceasefire Context ([05:31]-[12:01]):

  • Trump, after threatening to "end Iranian civilization" (interpreted as a genocidal threat), is forced under significant international and regional pressure to accept a two-week ceasefire largely on Iran's terms.
  • Key tenets of Iran's 10-point plan:
    • Guarantee against further attacks on Iran
    • Permanent cessation of the war
    • End to Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon (violated immediately by Israel)
    • Lifting of US sanctions and cessation of attacks on Iran’s regional allies (e.g. Hezbollah)
    • Reopening—but tightly controlling—the Strait of Hormuz, including levying and sharing tolls
    • Funds from transit fees redirected to Iranian reconstruction
  • Trump’s claim: US met all military objectives, but also cedes key diplomatic ground.
  • Quote: “Iran got Trump…to heel. I mean, there's no other way to describe these terms…” (Emma, [05:31])

• US and Israeli Disarray ([13:31]-[15:56]):

  • Immediate Israeli bombing campaign in Lebanon, violating the ceasefire terms.
  • Trump publicly denies clauses about Lebanon being part of the ceasefire:
    • “Yeah, they were not included in the deal...because of Hezbollah, they were not included…” (Trump, via PBS, [14:35])
  • This contradiction signals deeper rifts between US and Israeli priorities.

2. Domestic Political Shockwaves

• Trump’s Threats and Congressional Response ([07:12]-[08:55]):

  • Trump's nuclear threats ignite calls for invoking the 25th Amendment, with 50 Democrats openly supporting this step.
  • Polls show 60% of US adults unfavorable toward Israel—an increase of 20 points since 2022.

• Divisions in the DC Establishment ([32:27]-[35:21]):

  • Senator Chris Murphy’s and others’ criticisms focus on failing to achieve “American strategic objectives,” largely ignoring humanitarian costs.
  • Séamus observes bipartisan DC obsession with power projection and “blood and treasure,” regardless of outcomes for affected populations:
    • “The Iranian blood, the thousands upon thousands of people, are a total non entity to these people.” ([34:30], Séamus Malekafzali)
  • Fox News and Republican commentators, despite their hawkish bluster, struggle to articulate clear goals beyond vague ideals of US dominance ([16:49]-[17:44]).

3. Analysis with Séamus Malekafzali

• Fundamental Distrust in Ceasefire Negotiations ([24:40]-[28:38]):

  • Séamus argues US negotiations regularly function as a stalling tactic, not genuine peacemaking.
  • Skepticism regarding ceasefire sincerity—“...every single time America has negotiated, it has been to deceive the Iranians…” ([26:57], Séamus)
  • Israel’s violation of ceasefire terms seen as calculated effort to scuttle diplomacy, keep conflict active, and prevent any regional rearrangement unfavorable to its interests.

• Linkage of Regional Fronts ([28:38]-[29:29]):

  • Iran’s approach aims to tie together Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, and Gaza as a unified “resistance front.”
  • Iran punishingly halts Hormuz traffic after Israeli attacks—a sign that they will escalate economic pain if terms are violated ([46:40]-[47:11]).

• Netanyahu’s Manipulation of Trump ([35:21]-[43:11]):

  • Deep dive into how Netanyahu and Israeli intelligence lobbied Trump, exploiting his lack of expertise and willingness to listen to pro-war advisors.
  • Trump described by panel as “easily manipulated, too weak, stupid, and constitutionally incapable of long-term thinking” ([12:01], Emma).
  • Media snippets used to persuade Trump; key figures with little military experience or judgment (e.g. Pete Hegseth) involved in decision-making ([40:41]).

• Economic Leverage as Only Real “Off Ramp” ([44:33]-[46:40]):

  • Only sustained economic pain (i.e., closure of Hormuz) could force the US away from renewed escalation.
  • Séamus: “There needs to be something that is unignorable and untwistable for the Americans to experience.” ([46:24])

4. Effie Phillips-Staley: Progressive Primary Challenger

• Stance on Israel, Military Aid, and Human Rights ([50:21]-[51:15]):

  • Phillips-Staley supports ending all weapons aid to Israel, echoing AOC’s position that Israel should fund its own military defenses if it continues rights abuses:
    • “We should not be funding any government that violates human rights...as long as Israel is...violating human rights...we should not be enabling this with our tax dollars, full stop.” ([50:38], Effie)

• Contrast with Opponents ([51:45]-[54:08]):

  • Calls out her self-funding, tech-executive rival’s sexist remarks and corporate ties; frames herself as lifetime social justice advocate, funded by ordinary supporters, not PACs or billionaires.

• Condemning Trump and Lawler on Threats Against Iran ([55:09]-[58:44]):

  • Critiques incumbent Republican Mike Lawler for refusing to forcefully reject Trump’s genocidal threat:
    • “That even the words 'ending a civilization' would come out of the...mouth of our nation is so appalling. And that is classic Mike Lawler. That is classic.” ([57:15], Effie)

• Policy Vision: Immigration, Taxes, and Tech Regulation ([59:53]-[66:08]):

  • Abolish ICE, restore humane immigration services, regulate AI and data centers to prevent energy price hikes, and tax extreme wealth to fund public needs:
    • “People who make over $50 million would be taxed at like a 3% wealth tax and over people who are worth over $1 billion at 6%.” ([64:48], Effie)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Iran got Trump to heel...Trump boxed himself in. He set a deadline for a surrender, or he said he would end Iranian civilization...”
  (Emma Vigeland, [05:31])

• “If this ceasefire doesn’t hold, it’s because Israel.”
  (Matt Iglesias, [13:31])

• “The Iranian blood, the thousands upon thousands of people, are a total non entity to these people. It is entirely about the fact that we spent billions of dollars on this and not the fact that we are threatening to literally destroy their civilization.”
  (Séamus Malekafzali, [34:30])

• “You would need to seize more than 300 square miles of Iranian coastline and hold that indefinitely if you wanted the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened...They stopped listening to people who actually knew what they were doing.”
  (Séamus Malekafzali, [39:41])

• “That even the words ‘ending a civilization’ would come out of the...mouth of our nation is so appalling...This is a genocide that is being proposed with our tax dollars, with our military.”
  (Effie Phillips-Staley, [57:15])

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Key Timestamps

• 05:31 – Iran’s ceasefire framework explained, and Trump’s capitulation
• 08:55 – Discussion of Iran’s 10-point plan vs. American demands
• 13:31 – Blame for ceasefire violations placed squarely on Israel
• 24:40 – Séamus Malekafzali joins, questions US/Israeli sincerity in the deal
• 26:57 – Séamus: US negotiations as deceptive stalling
• 29:29 – Linking regional “fronts” to maximize Iranian leverage
• 32:27 – Criticizing US political class’s focus on strategic failure over human cost
• 35:21 – DC "blob" mentality and Netanyahu’s manipulation of Trump
• 44:33 – Only economic pain on US will create a real off ramp; significance of oil markets
• 46:40 – Breaking news: Iran closes Hormuz in response to Israeli attacks
• 50:21 – Effie Phillips-Staley interview, stance on military aid to Israel
• 55:09 – Critique of Rep. Mike Lawler dodging condemnation of Trump’s threats against Iran
• 59:53 – Phillips-Staley on tech/data centers and energy prices
• 62:27 – Comprehensive progressive immigration position
• 64:48 – Wealth tax details

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Conclusion & Flow

The episode delivers a bracing analysis of the latest turn in the Iran conflict. The hosts, guests, and especially Séamus Malekafzali paint a picture of American power in retreat, destabilizing alliances, and rising anti-Israel sentiment at home. The US political establishment—Democrats and Republicans alike—are shown to be focused more on optics and “treasure spent” than on the true human or geopolitical consequences, ignorant to the new regional realities Iran is actively forging.

Effie Phillips-Staley’s segment offers a glimpse into new political possibilities, contrasting her people-powered progressivism with her rivals’ donor-driven, status-quo politics. Her critique of US complicity in Israeli violence and her robust policy agenda distinguish her in this fraught political moment.

Overall, the episode is a must-listen for its sharp insights, pointed humor, and urgent challenge to business as usual in US foreign and domestic affairs.

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Transcript

[Emma Vigeland]

You are listening to a free version of the Majority Report. Support this [e-mail] and get an extra hour of content daily.

[Sam Cedar]

The Majority Report with Sam Cedar.

[Emma Vigeland]

It is Wednesday, April 8, 2026. My name is Emma Vigeland in for Sam Cedar and this is the five time award winning Majority Report. We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, usa. On the program today, Seamus Malafax Ali will be back with us to discuss Iran's humiliating the Iran humiliating the US with these temporary ceasefire terms welcomely and Israel immediately trying to undercut it by bombing Lebanon. And later in the show, Effie Philip Staley, candidate running in the Democratic primary for New York's 17th congressional district will be with us. Also on the program, Iran brings Trump to heel after he threatened genocide against their entire country, forcing the US to accept a two week ceasefire on their terms. Furious, the Israelis pummeled Lebanon, including Beirut without any warning in an effort to undermine the deal. In the West Bank, Israeli soldiers beat a 68 year old Palestinian woman to death during a raid on her home. The White House is scaling back its request for more supplemental funding for for its criminal war in Iran. 100 billion was the latest. It's more focused on the Pentagon slush fund. In the $1.5 trillion budget, over 50 Democrats have joined a push to invoke the 25th Amendment over Trump's threats to wipe out Iran as a civilization. Relatedly, a Pew poll finds that 60% of US adults have an unfavorable view of Israel. It's up by 20 points since 2022. Where are all the popularists? Matt Iglesias Big wins for Democrats in Wisconsin, including the state Supreme Court ensuring liberal control through in Marjorie Taylor Greene's old district in Georgia, the Democrat overperformed by 25 points. ICE agents shot a man, Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez in Northern California this week. He survived but was hospitalized. Another weaponization of a vehicle claim by ice. A federal appeals court allows Iowa to enforce an LGBTQ book ban in public schools. And lastly, Bill Gates will testify before the House Oversight Committee in the weeks to come as a part of their Epstein hearings. I'm gonna enjoy that. This is the bipartisanship I'm in favor of. Oh my God. Everybody check out Kyle Dungan's video on this. All this and more on today's Majority Report. Kyle Dunnigan has a great bit on his Instagram where he superimposed Bill Gates's face onto himself and spoke as Kermit the Frog. I don't want to give too much away, but it's disturbing and hilarious. What may be disturbing some of our live viewers is that the set looks a little bit different today because Brian got on his hands and knees and made the lighting a little bit better. Right. Like, you see the panels, the blue on the bottom now may. Maybe I will look similar to Sam color wise when he gets back because he has those panels filled out on the bottom too.

[Matt Iglesias]

I'm just so excited in the morning installing that. I was gonna say. I was gonna say we should, like, not say anything and see if anybody notices, but Emma's so happy to have the improvement.

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, one improvement. Just literally anything. Just anything.

[Matt Iglesias]

Scratch.

[Emma Vigeland]

We're a little late today because the camera was freezing again. Again. Emma's literally sitting on a milk crate. And I go, yeah. I go, like we're in a bar. I said to Brad, I don't want to be a diva, but I just want the camera to work on the podcast I work on. Because we're not like that small. We're kind of a large show.

[Sam Cedar]

Yes.

[Matt Iglesias]

Which is a little bit against the core brand proposition of not having anything work. So, yeah. 480p resolution and 15 frames per second. Sometimes that's how you start the show.

[Emma Vigeland]

Not even when a guest enters and overloads the WI fi. It's just. Just how it looks. Lady Gaga over here wants her camera to work. Bring me.

[Matt Iglesias]

I'll give you the green M&M's too.

[Emma Vigeland]

Right, right, right. I want you to sort all of my pens here after the show. Brian, no eye contact. Don't look at me. We're a little delirious, but we're also relieved to a degree. I mean, Iran got Trump to brought Trump to heel. I mean, there's no other way to describe these terms that the United States has agreed to in principle. Just to back up for a second, Iran has been laying out these kind of more maximalist conditions for an end to the war, a permanent one, for a while. And we'll get to those conditions in a second. But that's essentially the framework of this two week temporary cease fire that Trump bent the knee to. Iran has said that it will open the strait during this period as long as they negotiate along those terms. But one of the terms included Lebanon and Israel to sabotage. This was just pummeling Lebanon last night. But Trump boxed himself in. He set a deadline for a surrender, or he said he would end Iranian civilization, which was interpreted as a threat to commit Genocide and kill millions and millions of people in a country of over 90 million people.

[Matt Iglesias]

Just calling it Bridge and Power Plant day. Remember Infrastructure Week for America, Right.

[Emma Vigeland]

Instead we're blowing up, we're spending money that could be building bridges here to blow up bridges in Iran. That's what the American people want, baby.

[Matt Iglesias]

America first, baby. Thank you, Mr. Trump.

[Emma Vigeland]

And then that prompted calls from for the 25th Amendment from people like Marjorie Taylor Greene on the outside.

[Matt Iglesias]

Looks like Megyn Kelly kind of too.

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean almost couldn't discuss it at least. And 50 Democrats should be literally 100%

[Matt Iglesias]

of the them gottheimer's like, well, I mainly want him to finish the job.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. Can you explain it a bit better to me, Mr. President? But Trump caved. Iran was strengthened. And this, like the United States in that region in the Persian Gulf has kind of created this world order based on the fact that like, hey, we're going to secure this, we're going to secure the strait. We will be the global enforcer of kind of energy trade. And as Robert Pape wrote about in the New York Times a few days ago, this is an inevitable. This inevitably means that this arrangement in the Gulf is going to change the world order going forward. It has emboldened Iran in ways that we can't even, I think, kind of fully contemplate right now. But this was Trump's truth social last night where just hours after he again threatened to either to nuke to commit genocide, an act of mass murder in Iran, he truthed based on conversations with Prime Minister Shabbat Sharif and Field Marshal Azim Minor of Pakistan, wherein they requested I hold off on the destructive force being sent tonight to Iran and subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the complete, immediate and safe reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. I agree.

[Matt Iglesias]

Which was open before this conflict.

[Emma Vigeland]

Exactly. Which I caused the closure that I caused. I agreed to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks. This would be a double sided ceasefire. The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all military objectives and are very far along with a definitive agreement concerning long term peace with Iran and peace in the Middle east. We received a 10 point proposal from Iran and believe it as a workable basis on which to negotiate. Which is fascinating because we should just like whatever, blah, blah, blah, pull up these terms. The Americans had a 15 point list of demands that. That's not the basis of these negotiations.

[Matt Iglesias]

Number one, stop saying debt to America.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes. Can you be nicer please? These Are the terms that. Apparently this is what they're discussing. The ten point plan. One, guarantee that Iran will not be attacked again. Two, permanent end to the war, not just a ceasefire. Now, hear that?

[Matt Iglesias]

Israel.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes, this is because Israel. The ceasefires that have been negotiated in Gaza and Lebanon have been shown to be complete. Completely false. Just, just lies.

[Matt Iglesias]

Well, and like, the reason that Israel would never want a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, for instance, is because Zionists actually do see that as a situation they want to solve through force. So promising never to reopen. And it's the exact same thing with this Iran stuff. There's not just Israel, but a huge part of our, you know, war hawk, Pentagon type folks. They want war with Iran because otherwise why are we really giving them so much money? Because there's that tweets like, Iran's about to find out why America or the Houthis are about to find out why Americans don't have universal health care. And the truth is we don't have universal health care, but we also don't have the power that they suggest we're getting when we give such an ungodly amount of money to this war machine.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. Yep. Critically on this, if we could just put this back up, number three here. The end to Israeli strikes in Lebanon, that's already been violated. It was violated immediately by Israel as an effort to sabotage this. So we're still. And Trump gave us an update on his thinking about this this morning. But we'll just get through these other kind of demands. Lifting all of US sanctions on Iran and end to all regional fighting against Iranian allies, which, like that means Hezbollah as well. This is not. Israel is not going to agree to this. Six, Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Seven, Iran would impose a $2 million fee per ship transiting Hormuz. Eight, Iran would split these fees with Oman. Iran would establish rules for safe passage through Hormuz. Iran would use Hormuz fees for reconstruction instead of reparations. So accomplished. It is reparations. They just are like, okay, how do we make this slightly less humiliating? Exactly.

[Matt Iglesias]

Yeah, we can. We can't say we're getting reparations.

[Brian]

Right.

[Emma Vigeland]

But if we could just three and five, an end to Israeli strikes in Lebanon and an end to regional fighting against Iranian allies. This is the one silver lining that could potentially come out of this absolute horror show is that if Trump is desperate to get out of this and is really looking for an off ramp and he sees the polls and Lebanon remains a part of Iran's terms, this could cause a schism in the relationship with Israel and the United States. But the problem is, and we'll probably talk about this in the fun half this long, extensive New York Times piece about how Netanyahu manipulated him into this war, is that Trump is too weak, stupid, and he's just constitutionally incapable of having focus and long term thinking. I don't know if that silver lining will actualize. That would be ideal if Trump holds the line and says, okay, this maximalist demand of forcing a ceasefire in Lebanon from Iran, which really is like they're feeling themselves, if they're making this kind of case on behalf of Hezbollah and Lebanon, if they hold on this front and Trump wants this so badly, does that mean that the Israelis go rogue? They already have.

[Matt Iglesias]

It's time for everyone to understand that's what will be happening too, if that is the case. The time. We can't have time for blaming Hezbollah or blaming this or that or Iran secretly behind the scenes doing ghastly stuff. If this ceasefire doesn't hold, it's because Israel.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes, and that Israel struck Lebanon 100 times in under 10 minutes and they didn't give any warning, including when they bomb residential buildings, which they typically. They've typically been doing in their repeated violations of this ceasefire in Lebanon. But this morning we have an update. If we could go to the tear sheet here for. Trump gave a quote to PBS that contradicts planks 3 and 5 of the terms he says he agreed to. The Elizabeth Landers of PBS asked Trump about Lebanon still being hit and if he'd seen that. Trump's response. Yeah, they were not included in the deal. I asked why not and if they should have been. Trump, because of Hezbollah, they were not included in the deal. That'll get taken care of too. It's all right. I asked. And you're okay with the Israelis continuing to hit them? Trump, it's a part of the deal. Everyone knows that. There's a separate skirmish. Okay, you gotta talk faster. I tried to ask if he regretted that truth social post about wiping out a civilization and know that there is a huge pushback to that statement from Democrats. Then he hung up. You gotta talk. You gotta talk faster.

[Matt Iglesias]

Two times. Speed, please.

[Sam Cedar]

I've got a nine o' clock tee off.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, and by that you mean sitting on the toilet and straining? Has anyone seen him golfing recently? I'm not sure. Like that might be why he needs to feel anything by bombing people and killing a bunch of little girls. It's because he doesn't have his Outlet, which is golf too sick, old and disgusting. So that is completely contradicting what the terms he said he agreed to included. And just to finish this off here, he's probably not in the best mood because we know that this is his favorite show, Fox and Friends. It's a warm blanket for him. This is how they responded to the terms that were agreed to.

[PBS Correspondent (Elizabeth Landers)]

But I will say that the president's demands. We have not reached any of those objectives. I have full confidence that the president is going to find some way to make this happen. But he said that we want to dismantle all major nuclear facilities. That has not happened. The end of the. Of uranium enrichment on the soil. They're still enriching. The transfer of the rich uranium stockpiles out of Iran. That hasn't happened. The acceptance of intrusive international inspections. They're still not willing to do that. And they have not suspended their ballistic missiles program. They're still firing them off to stop the production of the long range missiles. That's just a few of them. On the president's proposal, the question is, is the president using this two weeks to give our soldiers a break, a rest, to see if we can get this ultimately done? We'll see.

[Emma Vigeland]

But I will say so you know why he's stammering there? We were kind of talking off air.

[Matt Iglesias]

He nervous?

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah, I think he's nervous.

[Emma Vigeland]

Nervous to say anything critical of the. He knows Trump's watching.

[Matt Iglesias]

I mean, this is really the deep state, folks. The types of thing that keep drawing us into these like cataclysmic wars. Obviously Trump has a lot. It will go down. You know, he'll die as extremely responsible for this sham and horror that got like a bunch of people killed. But there is a gravity towards war in this country that exists outside of Trump. And it's this sort of news organization. It's going to be all these folks that even in, you know, like yesterday, that was it. Gottheimer talking about, you know, we got, we have objectives in the region. No, you have objectives in the region.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Matt Iglesias]

My objective is not to do all this thing. I don't care about like Iran. I want health care here. I want some medical debt.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Matt Iglesias]

Rent to be affordable.

[Emma Vigeland]

I wish that they would just shut the hell up. But the problem is that Fox News wants this war to continue.

[Matt Iglesias]

Exactly right.

[Emma Vigeland]

So I got, I wish that we could just like have some sort of national day of unity where we all agree to lie publicly about that. Trump actually won this thing.

[Matt Iglesias]

Great job, sir.

[Emma Vigeland]

And so we could Just get us out of this low. You know what to do. Yes, but FedEx that crap. New.

[Matt Iglesias]

Got a special new one.

[Emma Vigeland]

Nobel Peace Prize, stat. We can reconvene it. We could do two in a year. It's fine. Parade.

[Matt Iglesias]

Oh, it's actually a special one, right? It's even better than the normal one they do every year.

[Emma Vigeland]

Gosh, does that FIFA Peace Prize mean nothing to you? In a moment we're gonna be talking to our friend Seamus. But first, a word from some of our sponsors. Let's talk about something no one wants to talk about. What happens when you die. Because unfortunately it's going to happen to you. But you can be prepared with Trust and Will Online Estate Planning Are you a parent or a homeowner? Well, it may be time to think about estate planning. Sam has talked about this a he put it off for a while, but Trust and Will made it easy for him to think about the future of his family and all of the stuff that you might be leaving behind. You can create an estate plan with Trust and Will in as little as 30 minutes. Don't know where to start when it comes to estate planning? Overwhelmed by questions you might not know the answer to? Well, Trust and Will provides amazing customer support from real people. Trust and Will's online platform provides a step by step guided process and offers optional one on one support from attorneys in your state. Does estate planning sound expensive? Not sure you'll have enough asset? You have enough assets to warrant a will or trust. Everyone has something to leave behind. Trust and Will makes estate planning easy and they believe it should be accessible to everyone. So they are committed to making it affordable today and valuable tomorrow. You know, you may think that you may not need this, but if you have any assets at all and if you just want to create some sort of certainty and you're thinking about your loved ones, you can make this process easy. And then you don't have to think about it. Trust and Will will do it for you, or at the very least help you by helping create a will online in as little as 30 minutes to protect guardianship of citizen of children and pets, asset distribution and health care directives. Don't wait until it's too late. Protect your loved ones today, tomorrow and beyond with Trust and Will, the most trusted name in online estate planning. Go to trustandwill.com Majority to get 20% off. That's trustandwill.com Majority to Get your 20% off. Trustandwill.com Majority link down below in the video and episode descriptions and at Majority fm. And lastly, lately I've been thinking more about plastic. I've been trying to use my reusable kind of mugs to put my coffee in. I forgot it today. But I am still trying to think about it. And you're also thinking about. I'm also thinking about microplastics, the stuff that, you know, just sticks on everything and breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces and stick around in the environment. And we hear a lot about it in oceans and food. But they can also come from products that we use every day at home, including cleaning products. Blueland is on a mission to make it easy for everyone to make sustainable choices. We believe that hard working clean products can be the norm, not the exception, so that you can do better for your family and the planet at the same time. From cleaning sprays to toilet bowl cleaner to dishwasher and laundry detergent tablets, Blueland products are independently tested to perform alongside major brands. And the formulas are free from dyes, parabens and harsh chemicals. Blueland is trusted in over 1 million homes, including mine and including this office. Every time we're washing our hands, Blueland, every time we're washing out these mugs is Blueland. Every time we're using the all purpose cleaner which should be more often. Blueland. They've got dishwasher tablets proven to perform on baked on burnt out stains. No rinse aid is needed. Laundry tablets proven to lift the toughest stains from grass stains to food stains. It's hypoallergenic and safe for sensitive skin. They've got toilet tablets proven to work on a wide range of stains including rust, mineral deposits, limescale and all of a sudden that Blue Land is a certified B corp and Leaping Bunny cruelty free certified. Their formulas are EPA Safer Choice certified and many products have also earned Cradle to Cradle's gold material health certificate. Celebrate Earth Month and make the switch today. Get 15% off your first order by going to blueland.com majority again celebrate Earth Month and make the switch today. Get 15% off your first order by going to blueland.com majority that's blueland.com majority and this is. Yeah, that's it. That's it. All right, quick break and when we come back we'll be joined by Seamus Malfex Ali. We are back and we are joined now by Seamus Malakalfsali, freelance journalist, host of Turbulence podcast and publisher of his newsletter@seamus malakoffsily.com Seamus, thanks so much for coming on the show today.

[Sam Cedar]

It's a pleasure.

[Emma Vigeland]

Thank you so My first burning question here. Is this temporary two week ceasefire just another way for the US and Israel to deceive Iran?

[Sam Cedar]

I think it is. I had immediate, deep suspicions once I heard that Trump was considering the 10 points that Iran was providing as the basis of negotiations, mainly because they were so far from what America had been proposing. You know, total capitulation in so many words. And that is looking like that is the case. It's deception. Something that just happened a few minutes before we started recording was Trump had said that the 10 point proposal that is being circulated in the media is not what they agreed to. Lebanon. Israel suddenly said that Lebanon was not part of the ceasefire agreement, despite the fact that Pakistan, who had been mediating this, and the Iranian Supreme National Security Council said that Lebanon was a part of it. And now they've launched the biggest attack since the war began, possibly the biggest attack since the invasion of Lebanon back in the 1980s. Israel's been launching drones against Iran. There was an attack on an oil refinery in the south. I mean, there is no indication that the ceasefire was actually, that was agreed to is actually going to happen.

[Emma Vigeland]

Let's, let's bring back two and then we can talk about. I'm not hearing any feedback. Okay.

[Effie Philip Staley]

All right.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, just making sure. Audio sounds good. Let's bring up the points that you're speaking about here. We just went over this in the opening segment, but points three and five in this peace plan is what references Lebanon here. This is one of the demands from the Iranians that Trump said was the framework that has already been broken. Israel and end to Israeli strikes in Lebanon. It was the largest barrage of attacks that we've seen in quite a while. And an end to regional funding fighting against Iranian allies would include Hezbollah, obviously, and Israel's not going to agree to that. So. And then Trump this morning said Lebanon is not included, even though this is the framework that he just said that he agreed to.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah, no, I'm kind of. When people were declaring, you know, total, overwhelming victory for Iran in this regard, that they had been able to make America agree to all these things. And I wanted to maybe put the brakes on that because every single time America has negotiated, it has been to deceive the Iranians in every single respect. I mean, just as a very, very specific thing, Vance had been proposed as a supposedly more trustworthy negotiator to come to these talks in Islamabad. But then suddenly Trump has said, well, actually we might not be able to send Vance because if there's concerns about his safety. So we're going to send Witkoff and Kushner again, those two people who had lied to Iran and lied so continuously that the Iranians said they would never trust those two specific people ever again. Don't send them. No. They were always going to say, well, actually, we're going to agree to that. But then when it came to actually establishing facts on the ground, they were never going to agree to that. They needed the time to regroup. They needed the time to potentially try to replenish something, reposition radar systems, things that were destroyed by Iran. And they were hoping that the two weeks that would be part of the ceasefire would allow them to do that and then they could move into restarting the war on more preferable terms. What I think is good is that Iran appears to be sticking to what they want in that maintaining the linking of the fronts. Apparently, according to the Wall Street Journal, they have already moved to halt the opening of the street of Hormuz because of those strikes in Lebanon.

[Emma Vigeland]

Seamus, can I ask you to explain that the fronts. What do you mean by that, by the fronts?

[Sam Cedar]

I mean that in those negotiations, the bombardment of Lebanon, the bombardment of Iraq by the United States and the potential bombardment of Yemen were all supposed to be halted, including Gaza, though that was somewhat left unsaid. All resistance fronts, that was the terminology that was being used. So Lebanon was obviously included in that. Iraq was included in that. There don't seem to be any strikes happening in Yemen or Iraq, at least for now. But Lebanon was the primary other front that Iran was considering, mainly because of the role that Hezbollah was playing in Iran's defense by diverting Israeli assets elsewhere.

[Emma Vigeland]

Let's pull up six guys. I had seen you tweet about this, Seamus, just to get your response here to Senator Chris Murphy and his reaction. There have been Democrats that have spoken about how this war is illegal, but the criticisms have been a bit muted, I guess, on the substance in many ways. And Murphy is shockingly one of our better senators, despite the way that he reacts here. This is just an indictment on the state of the United States Senate, frankly. But how he reacts about. He's criticizing the terms here on CNN and isn't championing the fact that there needs to be some sort of like, cessation in hostilities. I guess he'll touch on it, but the fact that he's saying that there's the strategic objectives failing should be the top story here is immensely concerning to me. But here he is yesterday reacting to this news with Aaron Burnett.

[Chris Murphy]

Please stand out here. One, the safe passage that Trump is saying is going to be provided for two weeks as part of this, kind of the central part of it, through Hormuz, they're saying it's possible via coordination with Iran's armed forces, which obviously implies that Iran controls the strait. And then from the National Security Council, they say this confers upon Iran a unique geopolitical, economic and geopolitical standing in terms of them regulating passage through the Strait of Hormuz. So, so what do you hear in all this?

[Mike Lawler]

I mean, listen, who knows what's going on? Donald Trump lies every single day. Clearly he's not telling the truth. But if you accept even part of the Iranian statement, Donald Trump has agreed to give Iran control of the Strait of Hormuz. That is extraordinary. If you go deeper into the statement from the Iranian National Security Council, they claim that Trump has also agreed to Iran's right to enrichment, to suspend all sanctions against Iran, and to allow Iran to keep their missile program, their drone program and their nuclear program. Now, who knows if any of that is true. But if at the very least this agreement gives Iran the right to control the Strait, that is cataclysmic for the world. And it is just stunning that that's where we have gotten to, that Donald Trump took a military action that has apparently, at least for the time being, given Iran control over a critical waterway that they did not have control over before the war began. So it just doesn't sound like there's actually an agreement. Because when Trump is saying is totally different than what the Iranians are saying. But if Iran has the strait permanently now, what an error. What a miscalculation this entire endeavor was.

[Emma Vigeland]

Seamus, just your reaction to that and the fact that the focus here is on, I guess American geopolitical aims not necessarily being met. Seems to be some poor framing here at the very least, and is almost designed to incentivize further escalation.

[Sam Cedar]

I found it interesting that Chris Murphy, the senator from Connecticut, changed his wording a little bit. He chose his words a bit more carefully than what he had said on Twitter when he initially saw it. The word that he used was heartbreaking on Twitter to describe the idea that the street of Hormuz might be in Iranians hands. After that, nothing else in the war, I don't think he described as heartbreaking. Not the murder of school children, not the massive attacks that are being suggested. None of that was heartbreaking.

[Matt Iglesias]

No.

[Sam Cedar]

The idea that America might have to pay any kind of economic price for this war, that's heartbreaking to him. I noticed that the Republicans and the Democrats seem to have. They're coming from the same tack here in their criticism of Trump. Lindsey Graham talked about this in many different ways. He used many different tacts. But the primary thing was that, okay, we need to enforce this strategic victory against Iran somehow. There is a potential here that we need to. Okay, we need to. There was some sort of misstep. There was some sort of. We didn't. We achieved victory too quickly. We claimed victory too quickly. We need to enforce this somehow. This needs to be approved by Congress. This needs to be approved by Congress. In the same way the JCPOA is. No, they, they always cared about process, but more or less they want this to have been executed better. They want this to have been executed in a much more strategically sound manner. They still have that fundamental criticism of the war on terror, that it wasn't the fact that all these Arabs died, all these Afghans died, countries were placed under the imperialistic boot and had their affairs seized from them. No, it was the fact that we expended all of this effort for nothing. The word that I saw used by one of Biden's State Department spokespeople was we expended all of this blood and treasure and we got nothing out of it. That's the terminology that they're thinking of using. The Iranian blood, the thousands upon thousands of people are a total non entity to these people. It is entirely about the fact that we spent billions of dollars on this and not the fact that we are threatening to literally destroy their civilization. Those were the words that Trump had used and that rarely factored into anyone else's calculations.

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, it really does speak to the rot of the DC Blob and how entangled it is with our continuous bloodshed and attempts to kind of through might secure our economic power in the Middle East. Like this is so. This is so indelible, indelibly linked to, like the way that the Senate and our current government is structured right now, that there needs to be some sort of way to disentangle it and disincentivize it. But we've talked a lot about, of course, political corruption and it's no coincidence that the Zionist lobby got even more powerful in this country after the Citizens United decision with the explosion of dark money in this country. And there's also this New York Times piece. We'll get to it later. But I wanted to get your reaction, Seamus, showing how Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israelis really sold Trump specifically on this war with Iran alongside the Mossad chief Barnia, I believe is his name, and that there were voices in the room with US Intelligence assessments saying that like regime change is not possible. Trump was essentially not that worried about the regime change part. He just wanted to take out the Ayatollah. But. And then the Times also points out that Hegseth was a big proponent of this, which I think we called, given his previous statements about Muslims, about Iran, his support for bombing civilian infrastructure and cultural sites. But it really does feel like as we kind of get more information, Israel sold Trump on the ease of this. He was feeling like he was on a high after Venezuela. And he turned to the most enthusiastic proponent of this within his cabinet, Pete Hegseth, who is an absolute idiot who doesn't, who was picked for this position because of Trump, liked how he looked on tv essentially. And that's what drove this policy.

[Sam Cedar]

No, there doesn't. I did read the same piece that you're talking about and I'm still bewildered at the idea that this was supposed to go easily in any respect. The whole thing was that you were not supposed to do the Iran war by any administration. This is going to be way too difficult. It was going to be against a way to institutionalized system. There would be way too missiles and drones to deal with. You would have to figure out a way to curb Iranian influence some other way. But Hexef, who, I mean from his days on Fox News is so obsessed with the tragedy of not only Vietnam, but also the withdrawal from Afghanistan, needed some way of getting that honor back and fighting a war in his terms, no matter how badly it went. I don't know if you saw the press conference that Hexif did with Cain.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes.

[Sam Cedar]

I mean, it's, it's, it's like it was like nothing ever happened.

[Emma Vigeland]

He went after the media. He was so sweaty and nervous and he just did the Trump thing where he couldn't answer straight up questions from reporters about how horrible this defeat looks strategically to them. And so he just started saying like abc, of course, you know, oh, of course. This reporter says it's, that's when, you know, I mean, he's got nothing.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah, he has a preset thing. When he initially starts this war, I'm gonna, at the end of this war, I'm gonna come out and say this. Anything else is not even going to be considered. And so he has to ignore questions, he has to abuse people, he has to yell at people. No, he had no idea how this was going to go. And he hoped that like something that I think was very Emblematic about this, there was a piece in the Financial Times about how he trying to get a broker to bet on an arms company right before started and then he lost so much money.

[Effie Philip Staley]

Yeah.

[Emma Vigeland]

How do you lose insider, how do you lose on insider trading when you're on a war, when you're the Secretary of Defense that you have to be that dumb.

[Sam Cedar]

You would have to like this is what happens when you elevate a platoon leader to lead the entire military of the United States. You have people when you are firing people who have gone through these wars and are aware of the limitations of the military and what you can do. I had read somewhere that one of the people in the room was talking about how you would need to seize 300, more than 300 square miles of Iranian coastline and hold that indefinitely if you wanted the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened. And this was something that Hegseth was totally fine with. They stopped listening to people who actually knew what they were doing regardless of actual malicious intent previous wars and started listening to the bluster of Israeli military leadership that they had seen on television and also taking after the bluster of American media and American video games sometimes in a very literal sense.

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh, the Times did say that Netanyahu in part sold him on this by showing him videos. We've also heard that reporting from the, that he, his briefings from the military open with two minute montages of all of the stuff they've blown up in Iran. Like this is a child. And Netanyahu, I mean we saw how Zoran Mamdani manipulated Donald Trump. Like Benjamin Netanyahu has been doing this with American presidents for years and this is perhaps his most easily manipulatable target.

[Sam Cedar]

Oh, oh, 100%. 100%. You see Netanyahu in all these different points in history advocating for the Iraq war, advocating for the Gulf War back when he was a deputy information minister inside Israel. No, he has never gotten a more pliant president. But conversely that means you also have a president who has no idea how to actually execute this plan. And you are relying, relying on this person to give you all these munitions to place all of these ships places invade territory if need be, do the special ops heavy handed work if need be. Israeli spec ops forces are not going into. No, you have to rely on this buffoon to do everything correctly. And Netanyahu is now, I mean even though he's trying to get this war back on, he has been left holding the bag to some extent. The reactions that I'm seeing out of the Israeli political sphere where you not only have Yada Lapid, the liberal opposition leader saying this was a absolute disaster,

[Emma Vigeland]

who endorses Greater Israel theory.

[Sam Cedar]

Endorses Greater Israel and said to a reporter that of course the land of Israel extends into Iraq. You have to take.

[Mike Lawler]

Of course, of course, yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

To Golan, the leftist leader of another party conveniently called the Democrats, also saying that this was a disaster for Israel. Even someone from Itamar Ben Vere's party saying that Donald had ducked out. Like everybody, like Democrats and Republicans in America hate this plan. Both conservatives and ostensible left wingers inside Israel hate this. There is no path other than, I think this war getting back on faster than Jesus. There is no incentive anywhere except, I don't know, in the ether.

[Emma Vigeland]

Exactly. That's what we've been saying on like the incentives for escalation for the actors involved here are. It's uniform. Iran understands that it can, that it needs to ask for maximalist demands. It needs to in order to deter this in the future. I would imagine that the fatwa on the nuclear weapon is completely dead. They're going to be trying to pursue some sort of deterrence, which they should. Israel needs this to escalate because Trump is their last chance and they have the midterms coming up. And I think that this timing is very important in understanding that when Benjamin Netanyahu sold Trump on this, why he feels he needs to act and essentially having like this 10 month window to achieve his objectives. So escalation is in his interests. And Trump is hearing from every side of the political class in this country, the rot that we've been speaking about, that he's a loser and he messed this up and he's already said that terms three and five that are related to ceasing hostilities with those allied with Iran, essentially which Lebanon is at the center of that though that's not the part of the deal that he agreed to last night. So where is the off ramp?

[Sam Cedar]

I think the only off ramp is if Iran inflicts significant economic pain on the United States. That was what they were going for. And this temporary ceasefire, I think headed off those shocks that were supposed to happen in about a week or two when that was really going to be felt. Like throughout all of this, the Trump administration has been able to manipulate the market by claiming that things were happening and therefore driving oil prices down. And it was starting to hit a point where that wasn't working anymore. And literally right before the ceasefire happened, oil prices were about to hit maybe within a dollar Hit the high that it hit during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. And it could have easily gone higher had things proceeded to proceeded that way. When the ceasefire happened, the oil prices tanked. They went back down to $90 and 90 to $100. If Iran is able to close the Strait of Hormuz again firmly, if it is able to restart this war before Iran, before America and Israel are able to regroup and re situate themselves, if they are able to maintain the ladder of escalation again, and then there can be some sort of off ramp that is maybe not satisfying to both parties. Maybe America, I mean, they're already considering sanctions relief amidst all of this. But something that indicates that another war with Iran, what Trump has been calling the need to do more, quote, unquote, taps on Iran in the future. If there is a cost imposed, then future presidents and also Trump himself will not go down. Another war, another preemptive war, whatever he wants to call it. But that cost needs to be imposed. It cannot be through simply we agree to a framework, we agree to negotiate terms. We think this is a good basis for something. There needs to be something that is unignorable and untwistable for the Americans to experience. That is what I think needs to happen.

[Emma Vigeland]

I'll let you go in just a second, Seamus, but breaking news from cnn. Iran says it is halting traffic in the Strait of Hormuz after Israel attacked Lebanon. Testing fragile ceasefire deal. This is obviously what they were going to respond to when the terms that the supposed framework that they were working on for the next two weeks, that they were violated within hours of that agreement. What's your response to that? The, the halting of traffic already beginning.

[Sam Cedar]

That's very good because that means that. Look, look, I'll be very, very brief. The thing that messed up the strategy of Iran and its allies before was that there were delinking the fronts. They were allowing other groups to continue fighting while they stopped fighting. Whoever those groups were, if there is a maintenance of those fronts, and that is ironclad, then Iran's leverage extends very far as long as it maintains that it can hold the upper hand. And if that is happening, that is a very good sign for it and its military strategy.

[Emma Vigeland]

Is it a good thing for the Palestinians?

[Sam Cedar]

I am hoping so. If they can affirm a total stop to the war on all fronts, then that is very good for the Palestinians. Because I cannot imagine a scenario in which things stop in Yemen, in Iraq, in Lebanon and Iran. But somehow Gaza is outside of that process. I think it would be very difficult to justify.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, I guess this is the positive note that we're leaving our conversation off with. I too share your your sentiments. And I guess we would be called Un American by Ben Shapiro, but who cares? Seamus Malakoffsily, freelance journalist, co host of the Turbulence podcast, publisher of his newsletter@seamus malakovskoli.com thank you so much for your time today, Seamus. Really appreciate whenever you come on.

[Sam Cedar]

My pleasure. Thank you.

[Emma Vigeland]

Quick break, folks. And when we come back, we are going to be talking to an exciting candidate in New York's 17 congressional district, Effie Phillips.

[Effie Philip Staley]

Daily.

[Brian]

It's.

[Emma Vigeland]

We are back and we are joined now by Effie Phillip Staley, running in the Democratic primary for New York's 17th congressional district. That's in the Hudson Valley, just a little north of here. Thank you so much for coming on the show, Effie.

[Effie Philip Staley]

Thanks so much for having me.

[Emma Vigeland]

Medicare for all abolishing ice, ending US Weapons to Israel. I'll start off with kind of the big question here. Do you support and agree with Alexandria Ocasio Cortez that Israel can fund its own Iron Dome?

[Effie Philip Staley]

I mean, look, what I agree with is that we should not be funding any government that violates human rights, that commits human rights abuses. This is the leverage that we have as a nation to influence other nations to put people's lives first and to put human rights first. So I would argue that as long as Israel is continuing to violate human rights in the west bank, we've obviously seen the most atrocious genocide in Gaza, that we should not be enabling this with our tax dollars, full stop.

[Emma Vigeland]

That is a very sharp difference than the current representative in New York 17. And I think we will get to him in just a bit. But you are still in the primary and I want to ask you about your Democratic opponent who is a rich tech executive. What are the differences between you and your opponent and what's up with him and all of his like, sexist, crude remarks that seem to be populating the Internet?

[Effie Philip Staley]

Well, look, I would say the fundamental difference between me and that particular candidate is that I have worked my entire life for social justice. I have worked in the nonprofit sector. I, you know, human rights and equality has been a part of everything I've done from the moment I started working. My campaign is not self funded. It's entirely grassroots. It's entirely funded by the people, not corporate PACs, not APAC, nothing along those lines. I was able to give myself some seed money to start this campaign because I won, or rather I was awarded funds following A sexual assault that I had endured. And I decided that that was a good use of the money that I received to continue fighting for women, for women's rights for survivors of sexual assault. We see an immense amount of predatory behavior and people who have committed awful things in our government in this moment. So, yeah, so when he came out when he didn't think it was a problem to make the kinds of sort of sexist, misogynistic statements that he made about women, about girls, that was a bridge too far for me. And that is not the kind of person that we need to see in Congress. So a lot of differences. I can't give myself 5 million to run.

[Emma Vigeland]

Your people power funded. And I mean that's what we're seeing. I think people really that they're desperate for. And I think, you know, beyond the atrocities of course that we've seen in Gaza, I think on the domestic level, it's when you don't take that kind of money, say from AIPAC or you don't take money from PACs at all. But I think this is such a stark example of how could you support this? How could I trust you if you support this? It's a stand in for are you on my side? And it seems like you have a pretty stark contrast both with Representative Mike Lawler, the Republican who's currently the Congressman from New York 17 and in this primary.

[Effie Philip Staley]

Yeah, I mean, the job is to work for the people. That is, the people are the ones who entrust us with this position of power and we only have it for the purpose of serving the people. The job is to be a public servant. But I would say Mike Lawler is doing a pretty good job of serving who funds him, which is not the people. Right. He is funded by no shortage of special interest money. This is what drives his campaign. So I would say the stark difference, I suppose, between myself and Mike Lawler is this idea of public service. Who do we owe in this process? We owe the people of our district, not the kinds of corporations or billionaires who want to bend the system to their benefit off the backs of working people. So Michael Lawler is doing his job. Right? His job is to work for the people who fund him. My job will be to work for the people of the district.

[Emma Vigeland]

Here is a clip of Representative Mike Lawler. I'd love for you to respond to yesterday on CNN in reaction to Trump threatening to end Iranian civilization. He says he doesn't support this statement. And then there's a but, okay, the

[Brian]

new threat for the president is That a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. You say the President doesn't want to do it. Does being reluctant to end a civilization make it okay

[Mike Lawler]

again?

[Mike Lawler (continued)]

I don't think we're talking about ending a civilization. The issue you don't believe, you don't believe.

[Brian]

Are you saying you don't believe, Congressman? Do you say you don't believe the President's threat? Do you say you don't believe the President's threat?

[Mike Lawler (continued)]

Infrastructure. It is their energy infrastructure and their civilian infrastructure, including roads and bridges, that will cripple the Iranian regime and certainly their economy. That is not something we want to do because as Ron Johnson said rightly, we are not at war with the Iranian people. We want them to be free from this oppression and tyranny that they have lived under for 47 years. But if the President has to take necessary action to strike their energy and infrastructure, that is going to cripple the regime. That is what he is talking about.

[Brian]

Now. You don't believe a threat. You don't take him at his word that he will end a whole civilization.

[Mike Lawler (continued)]

He is talking about the energy and civilian infrastructure. That's what he's talking about, John, is he is.

[Brian]

That is. Have you had.

[Emma Vigeland]

We can stop it there. Just because Trump did end up not nuking Iran, but like, that is not leadership. I mean, or it's leadership for the special interests that you're talking about there. But just. I guess that's your reaction to his inability to condemn Trump. Toying with the idea of killing millions of people overnight.

[Effie Philip Staley]

Yeah, 80, 90 million people. That even the words ending a civilization would come out of the president of mouth of our nation is so appalling. And that is classic Mike Lawler. That is classic. He will deflect. He will not answer the question because he knows he's going to be in trouble if he does. And frankly, I think it is appalling that anyone who is a representative of the people in this nation cannot hear a statement like that and say, absolutely not. This is a genocide that is being proposed with our tax dollars, with our military. You know, no, there's only one answer to the question that was posed to Mike Lawlor and he refused to answer it, which we can only mean. We can only take to mean that he's probably okay with it. Right?

[Mike Lawler]

Right.

[Effie Philip Staley]

I mean, because he certainly didn't deny it. And this is. We can call it unhinged, but it's too. But the President has that power. It's his job to stop mass murder on that scale by a madman who seems to be hijacking our country and our military.

[Emma Vigeland]

I'd imagine that you would be one of the now around 50 Democrats who would support the 20 invocation, the invocation of the 25th amendment for Donald Trump based on statements like that.

[Effie Philip Staley]

You know, we always knew 100% and we always knew that there was no bottom with President Trump given the kinds of statements he said that. Vile, violent statements against any number of people, you know, with the kind of people that he courts. Racists, anti Semites, so many people that he attracts to his. To his, to his side. Yeah. We need our Congress to make this stop. We need our Congress. That's why Mike Lawler has to go.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes, absolutely. I want to maybe take a turn to talk about something that's relevant in the Hudson Valley and in New York State more broadly, which is like energy prices and the construction of these AI data centers. I know you have been very critical of that dynamic. Can you speak a little bit about what you would do in Congress and how it would impact your district in terms of regulating some of these data centers and their impacts on people's energy bills?

[Effie Philip Staley]

You know, I think that we have. Let me put it this way. If we put people first in all of the policy that Congress advances, then we will not see threats to our energy prices like this, threats to our environment. We will hold corporations, like AI corporations accountable for putting forward these environmental threats, but also for taking, potentially taking jobs from millions and millions of people. My son is a freshman in college. This is a moment where we all parents who are my age, but, you know, in general are thinking hard about what are the kinds of jobs that are going to be available in the future for our kids who are doing their best to learn and put themselves forward as good workers in our workforce. So I would say broadly that what we absolutely have to do is to regulate these companies to make sure that. That they don't just absorb endless profit, but that they reinvest in the workers of our nation and that they absolutely make sure that there is no future damage to our environment and that our utility prices are not. That we are not paying for their innovation, that they invest in the kind of energy that's necessary to make sure that our prices don't spiral up of control.

[Emma Vigeland]

I know that in this district there are a lot of Latino voters. We've seen a massive swing across the country. Also, just a little bit south of Tarrytown and the Hudson Valley. You have. I think it was Union City, where it was like a 50 very Hispanic city in New Jersey. 50 point swing in the other direction in the 2025 November elections. This is not to speak about voters as a monolith, but it is really interest or it's been heartbreaking to see ICE just absolutely terrorize these communities and, you know, what could have been avoided. But I would imagine that you're hearing from some of your potential constituents that about how wanting more protection from ISIS terror. And I know you're in favor of abolishing ice, but. But what else would you do to address immigration and bring some more humanity back to immigration, our immigration system? Because enforcement means, you know, obviously, this rogue gestapo, essentially.

[Effie Philip Staley]

Yeah, we've. And thank you so much for asking this question because I'll say, look, my mother is an immigrant from El Salvador and she came to the United States when it was still the Immigration and Naturalization Service. It was in 2003 that that shifted to ICE, where we had border. Where we had Customs Enforcement and immigration put together. So when I say abolish ice, it is this construction that puts together what should be an immigration service. Right. That enables people to come to this country under the right conditions and vets people who are not coming to this country under the right conditions when they combine it with Customs Enforcement. You will hear things like, some of my, some of the people I'm running against in this race say things like, well, we can't abolish ICE because we have to have Customs Enforcement. No, we need to separate these things because it's the combination of this kind of enforcement and this idea that somehow drug enforcement is related to immigration that sets us up for the situation that we're in right now, where innocent people are being, you know, treated as if they're criminals, which they're not, who are having their human rights violated, which is appalling. Under some kind of law enforcement justification that this is about drug enforcement or other kinds of things. It's entirely wrong. We need to humanize our immigration services again. We need to bring it back to what it was like when my mom came here.

[Emma Vigeland]

That very well said. And we're just going to do a wide shot quickly to show some of the posters that you have in the background. The ultra wealthy pay their fair share. That is what it says on your poster. Let's end there. How critical is it for you to your campaign to be built on things like taxing the rich? What do you believe is the utility of that or the primary utility? Is it diminishing their power? Is it redirecting resources back to Regular people in the form of, you know, the social safety net. Is it all of the above? Why is that such a guiding principle for you?

[Effie Philip Staley]

Thank you for asking. Look, our country and its people has so much capacity if we invest in what is, I believe, our most important asset, which is our people. I mean, our people is what makes our nation great, for lack of a better way to put it. So the way I see it is I see it as fair tax reform. What is fair in terms of ensuring that our country can enable the best for everyone so that everyone can live their best lives. And so, yes, so we argue that the ultra wealthy certainly have the capacity to be taxed fairly in the benefit of our nation. So people who make over $50 million would be taxed at like a 3% wealth tax and over people who are worth over 1 billion at 6%. And this would infuse so much money, so much capacity into our nation and would not be a huge detriment to their staggering wealth. You know, to me, this is just a wise use of our capacity in a way to bring our nation back to, frankly, where it should be, one where everybody has a fair shot of the American dream.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, Your website is effieforcongress.com you can go there and donate any, any other kind of calls to action for our audience if they want to support your campaign.

[Effie Philip Staley]

Yes, thanks. Please, we are a people powered campaign. We are. Again, the DCCC isn't pouring money on this campaign. The billionaires are not funding this campaign. It's funded by ordinary people with 20$30 contributions. And our ground game is how we're going to win it. So if you're able to volunteer, if you're able to make phone calls, we're going to show everyone, everyone, how to win against the billionaires with people power. So I hope you'll join Effie Phillips

[Emma Vigeland]

Staley running in New York's 17th congressional district. When's your primary?

[Effie Philip Staley]

June 23.

[Emma Vigeland]

June 23. I knew it's always late June in New York, but I just didn't have that off the top of my head. So really appreciate your time today and effiefillips daily. And you can check out her campaign at Effie E F Fie for Congress for spelled out not the number dot com. So thank you so much.

[Effie Philip Staley]

Thank you.

[Emma Vigeland]

All right, folks, with that, we're gonna wrap up the free part of this program and head into the not free part where we purportedly have fun. We have some people really responding well to Effie's campaign. I agree. I Thought she framed all of those answers really well. And Mike Lawler is just one sleazy guy. We've played his town halls. He can't step in public in his district. Yeah. Gets booed out of the building every time he shows up. I mean, and he was hoping that he would be the potentially somebody who could challenge Kathy Hochul as a Republican. And he ended up seeing like winning with the Zoramtani campaign and with all of the negative polarization about Republicans, that probably wasn't the best move for him. It would be so poetic for him to also lose his seat in Congress, especially with a strong candidate like her running against him. But she has to win the primary first. So. Effie Phillips Staley supporter if you can. Lxhpinky Effie Philip Staley would make a marvelous presidential candidate. I hope she wins to have a bit of time to prove herself even further. I always have my eye on potential female presidential candidates and this woman has quickly caught my attention. Well, she. Let's get her into Congress first and then we'll cross that bridge. Matt, what is happening on Left Reckoning and with the Jackaman Show?

[Matt Iglesias]

Yeah, Left Reckoning. We had a new episode yesterday where we went deep into Tim Miller and Sarah Longwell's discussion about if Zora Mamdani and Hasan Piker are malign influences that should be expelled from the Democratic Party. And you know, take it from two Republicans to talk about that. It's got 10,000 views already, so people are really tuned in for this episode.

[Emma Vigeland]

But you don't have 10,000 Instagram followers

[Matt Iglesias]

yet, which, thank you for reminding me.

[Brian]

Actually. Yes.

[Matt Iglesias]

Because that's actually my priority is becoming a micro influencer on Instagram. I've gained like 1200 followers since I started doing this, so I'm like 1600 shy of 10,000. So folks, I need 1600 more of you and then I can. And I actually have some new Bluetooth microphones that I'm going to be start doing front facing videos and everything and maybe I'll do a get ready with me. Who knows? Check that out. Atleck on Instagram.

[Emma Vigeland]

I realized like probably a year and a half or so ago that Instagram is where it's at.

[Matt Iglesias]

Yeah, that's where it's at. I mean Twitter's fun for basically like jamming communications of fascists because that's who controls that.

[Emma Vigeland]

Exactly. And occasionally you'll have a tweet that will go viral that can like get on for you, but there's no discourse happening.

[Matt Iglesias]

Well, what's funny Is like, yeah, you tweet so that people screenshot it on Instagram and then post it.

[Emma Vigeland]

Right.

[Matt Iglesias]

With some music in the background, which I have seen my own tweets like that. I'm like, damn. Okay, I was kind of cooking that.

[Emma Vigeland]

June Oliver says everyone follow Matt on Instagram. He posts next. Nice Brooklyn Bridge photos.

[Matt Iglesias]

I did do a front camera selfie and people did correctly point out that my screen is a little bit blurry. It's, you know, like a five year old camera. Folks.

[PBS Correspondent (Elizabeth Landers)]

It was the once Upon a Time

[Emma Vigeland]

in New York bridge. Right?

[Matt Iglesias]

Yeah, Yeah, I saw that.

[Emma Vigeland]

Saw that post. Ryan's like, didn't like it, though. Yeah, I guess I saw it.

[Matt Iglesias]

Just hover your finger over.

[Emma Vigeland]

I'm pretty sure I did like it.

[Sam Cedar]

I think you probably did.

[Matt Iglesias]

Yeah.

[Emma Vigeland]

We'll have to go check the record.

[Sam Cedar]

Do your research.

[Emma Vigeland]

All right, guys. See you in the fun half.

[Sam Cedar]

Okay, Emma, please.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, I just. I feel that my voice is sorely lacking on the majority report.

[Brian]

Wait, look.

[Sam Cedar]

Sam is unpopular.

[Brian]

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

[Effie Philip Staley]

It is Thursday.

[Matt Iglesias]

I think you need to take over for Sam.

[Brian]

Yes, boy, sir.

[Effie Philip Staley]

I'm going to. I'm going to.

[Brian]

I'm going to pause you right there. Wait, what? You can't encourage Emma to live like this. And I'll tell you why. Someone offered twerk, sushi and poker with boys. Twerk, sushi and poker with boys. Who was offered twerk?

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Brian]

Sushi and poker with boys. What? Tour, sushi and poker.

[Emma Vigeland]

Tim's upset.

[Brian]

Twerk, sushi and poker with boys. It was offered a tour, sushi and that's what we call biz. Twerk, sushi and bulk with two boys.

[Emma Vigeland]

Right.

[Brian]

Twerk, sushi and we're gonna get demonetized. I just think that what you did to Tim pool was mean free speech. That's not what we're about here. Look at how sad he's become now. You shouldn't even talk about it. I think you're responsible.

[Emma Vigeland]

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

[Brian]

Twerk, sushi and poker with the boys. Oh, my God. Wow. Sushi, Sushi. I'm sorry, I'm losing my mind. Someone's offered a tour, sushi and poker. Boys, sushi and poker. I think I'm like a little kid. I think I'm like a little kid. I think I'm like. Okay. I think I'm like a little kid. I think I'm Like a little kid. Add this debate 7,000 times, I'm losing my mind.

[Matt Iglesias]

Some people just don't understand.

[Brian]

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

[Emma Vigeland]

That's not what we're talking about here.

[Brian]

It's not a fun job.

[Emma Vigeland]

Twerk. That's a real thing.

[Brian]

That's a real thing. Real thing. Willy Wonka. That's a real thing. That's a real. That's a real thing. Real thing. That's a real thing that's offered. And, gentlemen, Joe Rogan has done it again. That's a real thing. That's got. I think he might be blowing it out of proportion. Real thing. That's got. Poker with the boy. That's a real thing. That's poker. Let's go, Joe. Sushi and poker with the boy.

[Matt Iglesias]

Take it easy.

[Brian]

Sushi and poker. Things have really gotten out of hand. Sushi and poker with boys. Delusional sushi. You don't have a clue as to what's going on live. YouTube.

[Emma Vigeland]

Sam has, like, the weight of the

[Matt Iglesias]

world on his shoulders.

[Emma Vigeland]

Sam doesn't want to do this show anymore.

[Brian]

Anymore.

[Emma Vigeland]

It was so much easier when the majority report was just you.

[Brian]

Let's change the subject. Rangers in Nixon.

[Emma Vigeland]

Great.

[Brian]

Shut up.

[Emma Vigeland]

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

[Sam Cedar]

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

[Emma Vigeland]

This is the Pro Killing podcast.

[Brian]

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

[Emma Vigeland]

Left his best trump. Violet Twerk. Don't be foolish.

[Brian]

And don't tweet at me. And don't.

[Sam Cedar]

The way this.

[Brian]

All of these people love it.

[Emma Vigeland]

That's where my heart is. So I wrote my honors thesis about it.

[Brian]

Oh, she wrote an honest thesis. I guess I should hand the main mic to you now. You are to the right of the unforeigned policy.

[Emma Vigeland]

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

[Brian]

That's a tougher question. I have an answer to. Incredible theme song.

[Emma Vigeland]

Hi, bumbler.

[Brian]

Emma Vilan.

[Sam Cedar]

Absolutely one of my favorite people, actually.

[Brian]

Not just in the game, like.