The American Dissent

On today’s show, Sam is joined by Minnesota State Senator Jen McEwen of Duluth to talk about Dems not just taking power, but actually using it! A novel concept, I know, but one that yielded incredible results. As Dems in Minnesota prepare for another round of accomplishments, what are they planning, and what can we all expect?

A big part of the conversation is data centers. What can the state do? What can regular people do? If local governments have moved ahead with plans the people are against, what actions can they take? Senator McEwen is kind enough to answer these questions and more!

First, though, a tale of greed and cowardice: how Robert Kraft defends Israel, Ed Sheeran caves to pressure, and Macklemore stands up for human rights.

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On today’s show, Sam and Jen round up some wacky news. Trump attacks his Supreme Court justices when they break with him on mail-in voting. Republicans are under water on nearly every issue. GOP PACs are spending all of their money in districts Trump won. You wanna know what they think is really going on in the election? Follow the money!

New polling in Minnesota and unearthed oppo on GOP Senate nominee Michele Tafoya from her days as a podcaster (which were after her days as an NFL sideline reporter on Sunday Night Football). 

At the end of the day, it’s going to be the economic stuff that rules the day with these elections. The war in Iran and, to a lesser extent, the war between Yemen and Saudi Arabia: these are what will decide fuel prices. Fuel prices will decide this election. Even in Kansas!

Mitch McConnell went out in public: NO VIDEO ALLOWED! Thank goodness for a brief video from TMZ! NOT a good look.

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On today’s show, Sam and Jen confront the profound importance of 9/11 on its 25th anniversary. What it meant, what it means, and how politicians and others have used and abused all that has come after it.

Before that, though, a quick recap of Trump’s remarks at his bizarre “convention” in Dallas and the surprising results of the primaries in Rhode Island.

However you mark the dubious and painful 25th anniversary of that horrible day, we wish you all the best.

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On today’s show, Jen returns just as more bad news on the bond rates hits. First, the latest revelation from Haaretz about what Netanyahu knew and what he failed to do may cause an earthquake in Israeli politics, but it’s hard to predict what the fallout might be. The UK is finally taking steps to address Israel’s depravity, though still just baby steps. The German state of Saxony-Anhalt gives a majority of power to neo-Nazis while Volkswagen agrees to convert a car plant into an Israeli weapons plant. Yeesh! Polling of US Jews shows little support for Israel’s current actions and continued overwhelming support of Democrats.

That’s good news for candidates like Abdul El-Sayed, who keep getting attacked as bad for Jews. The majority of Jews don’t appear to agree. El-Sayed keeps plugging away maintaining a lead in the polling and nailing interviews. Case in point: his appearance with Stephen A. His win will mean trouble for centrist Dems who want to keep making electability arguments against the left rather than confront them on issues. Oh no!

New Hampshire primaries resulted in wins for the state political dynasties on both sides of the aisle. Though Democrat Chris Pappas is the favorite in November, this is one to keep an eye on. John Sununu, the Republican, is stronger than you’d think in the state and Pappas potentially weaker.

Meanwhile, economic news is still less than ideal. The bond rates jumped up again, this time in the face of what appears to be a desperate ploy by Secretary Scott Bessent to fool the market with a triple-sized bond purchase that’s ultimately a drop in the bucket. Gas prices are up—especially diesel—and bond purchasers are more excited about AI than treasuries. END THE WAR!

Both New York Senators now have kids deeply tied into the tech broligarchy. How are we supposed to trust the Dems to do something about these destructive industries if two of the very top Dems in the Senate—the whole country, really—are as compromised as this?!

Speaking of Senate Dems, a new exposé of John Fetterman in the Wall Street Journal paints an absolutely dreadful picture of who he has become.

At least there’s fantastic news out of New York! Mamdani to the rescue! (Of workers, this time.)

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On the show today, Sam quickly breaks down today’s primaries in New Hampshire and tomorrow’s primaries in Rhode Island before getting to an interview with Minnesota Farmers Union President Gary Wertish.

We talk about some history before diving into the major issues of the day: how are farmers coping with the massive increase in costs given tariffs and the war in Iran? How is it that as farmers fall further behind, prices continue to shoot up in the stores? What needs to be done?

Spoiler alert: ANTI-TRUST!!! More important than new policy is acting on the policy that’s been on the books for over a century. Our food supply needs to diversify and get more local for all of us to be more healthy, both physically and economically.

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On today’s show, Sam sets aside his AI skepticism for a bit to talk about the OpenAI hack as we get more and more information about how these systems can potentially wreak mass havoc in real ways with no way for humans to contain it. Bernie Sanders, old as he may be, is leading the way on a potential government response. Man’s still got it!

More Democrats line up to betray the first amendment: 33 did it on behalf of Israel, and 8 (with a lot of overlap) did it to red-bait. Ugh! If MAGA is about dragging us back to the 1950s in all the worst ways, these Dems are fully on board with the GOP. At the center of it are the two who voted with the GOP to pass the rules that allowed the votes: Jared Golden and Marie Glusenkamp-Perez. SHAME!

Fox News is on full Hasan Piker Derangement Syndrome watch. Piker has a message for Dems on strategy that they SHOULD LISTEN TO!

Is the Iran War the greatest foreign policy blunder in the history of the United States? John Mearsheimer sure thinks so!

Don’t forget to subscribe to the channel and like the video!

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On today’s show, Sam is joined by Ashley Grimm, a county commissioner for St. Louis County, Minnesota. Ashley has courted controversy for her strong (and righteous!) stance against elected officials signing non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), especially with hyperscale data center companies like Google, Amazon, or Microsoft.

We cover what it is to be a county commissioner, what commissioners can do, and, of course, what Ashley has done with regard to her anti-NDA and anti-data center stances, which includes supporting an intra-party challenge to one of her colleagues on the commission. 

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On today’s show, Sam reports back on his trip to the Minnesota State Fair. The GOP in the state are obsessed with the former racist state flag and are waving it proudly at the Minnesota Get-Together.

Jen fills us in on the latest dangers to the global economy as the bond market continues to augur trouble ahead for the dollar.

They also discuss the six Democrats viciously attacking members of their own party and helping the Republicans not only with messaging, but also with moving their agenda forward on the floor of the House. Josh Gottheimer, Hillary Scholten, Tom Suozzi, Jared Moskowitz, Jared Golden, and Marie Glusenkamp-Perez need to be called out and shamed for red-baiting and for abetting Speaker Mike Johnson in his quest to deliver the vote-suppressing SAVE America Act to Donald Trump.

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On today’s show, Sam and Jen are joined by Patrick Coolican Editor-in-Chief and founding editor of Minnesota Reformer, an independent and completely free online news organization. We ask Patrick about the state of journalism in the country, why it matters, and what the industry looks like for the people who make the news, cover the news, and consume the news. It’s a fantastic conversation!

Please visit the Minnesota Reformer and sign up for their free newsletter!

https://minnesotareformer.com/subscribe/

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On today’s show, Sam and Jen cover more of the fallout of tariffs from Trump and threats from Treasury. The world shrugs and Americans suffer. ICE had a record of arrests in July, mostly of people with no criminal record and no pending charges. Just disappearing neighbors to who-the-hell knows where.

Meanwhile, in Michigan, Republican Mike Rogers appears to be teaming up with centrist Democrats to attack Abdul El-Sayed through Hasan Piker. It’s cynical. It’s gross. But it’s not unexpected.

Lastly, we round up what’s coming up in primaries in Massachusetts next week.

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