The Majority Report with Sam Seder

Emma hosts Noah Kulwin, co-host of the Blowback podcast, to discuss his recent piece in The Baffler entitled "Tales from the Thrifts." First, Emma dives into Biden’s recent executive moves, from codifying DACA to the 10-20k student debt cancellation, and explores the absolutely wild takes from the right on the minimal debt relief. Then, Noah Kulwin joins to discuss the parallel his article painted between the Savings and Loans (SnL) crisis of the 80s and the Crypto crashes of today, jumping back to the 1970s when the deregulation of the SnL industry began amidst inflation, continuing to open it up its investment opportunities and bail it out repeatedly (under both Carter and Reagan), with 1982’s Garn Saint-Germain Act opening the industry up to federally guaranteed money laundering schemes, and the government legislation climaxing with the passage of FIRREA in 1989. Unsurprisingly, Kulwin then walks through the massive influence the SnL sector had in Washington, as the biggest Congressional donors, acting as real estate developers and mortgage lenders at the same time, before they shift to the similarly unregulated market of Crypto, acting effectively as bonds for surplus capital in much the same was, despite their advertisement as a currency, diving into the similar tactics we see between the two sectors, particularly when it comes to broadcasting themself onto the mainstream and bolstering certain illegal and profitable industries. Wrapping up, Emma and Noah walk through the recent collapse of the tied crypto coins Luna and Terra and why Ponzi schemes will never succeed, and the future of the Blowback podcast.

And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Brandon Sutton as they explore student debt bondage as a funnel into the worlds of privatized industry, meaning our smartest students have spent the ‘90s and ‘00s working on derivatives and crashing the stock market, and the 2010s on electronic surveillance and crypto. Sophia from Atlanta discusses her mom’s attraction to Andrew Yang’s “Forwards Party,” Dr. Oz responds to claims that everyone hates him, and the crew dives into an openly racist Juneteenth parody party that took place in Rochester NY, and the lawsuit that has since followed. Adam from Rhode Island discusses Biden’s 10k student debt relief and why being better than the Right isn’t enough, Ron DeSantis lacks the Orange Man juice, and Marjorie Taylor Greene discusses being swatted, plus, your calls and IMs!

Check out Noah's piece here: https://thebaffler.com/salvos/tales-from-the-thrifts-kulwin

Check out Noah's podcast Blowback here: https://blowback.show/

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The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

Emma hosts Dr. Heather Berg, Assistant Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Washington University St. Louis, to discuss her recent book Porn Work: Sex, Labor, and Late Capitalism. Emma hosts Dr. Heather Berg, Assistant Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Washington University St. Louis, to discuss her recent book Porn Work: Sex, Labor, and Late Capitalism. Emma first dives into yesterday’s primary results in NY and Florida, walking through the crushing victories of socialists Krysten Gonzalez, Gustavo Rivera, and Jabari Brisport in New York City and Maxwell Frost in Orlando, before looking at real-estate and NYT-backed Dan Goldman’s victory despite three progressive candidates passing 10k votes. Then, she’s joined by Doctor Heather Berg as they dive right into her class-based analysis of porn and sex work, and how she came to this field of study, walking through the field’s historical focus on consumption and representation in the industry despite the intrigue Dr. Berg found in the grey market nature of the work, occasionally being criminalized and always a precarious element of the gig economy, leading her to look to the void of worker commentary on working conditions in the industry. After a brief conversation on the (unsurprisingly) laborious and mundane nature of this labor, and how it departs from other gig industries (much easier to work for oneself), Dr. Heather Berg and Emma walk through the history of porn and sex work in the US, beginning in the 1970s’ supposed “golden age” of porn, and why, despite the heralding of pieces like “Deep Throat” and “The Devil in Miss Jones,” the majority of pornographic productions in this era saw lower-budget films with lower-quality working conditions, before the switch to video in the 1980s saw profits soar, with better pay being met with longer work weeks and more hardcore productions meaning greater physical labor (and more anti-porn backlash from Christian fundamentalists). Alongside the video boom, the HIV/AIDS epidemic saw the beginnings of organizing in the industry, as sex workers and porn stars saw themselves at the forefront of the public health efforts, creating their own standards of testing across the industry, leading up to the digital boom of the 1990s, where a mass increase in piracy (largely supported by the production elements of the industry) saw workers’ claims to the fruits of their labor start to vanish, with companies like Pornhub springing up to centralize the production with limited redistribution of profits and offering a blueprint for the more clearly “gig” work of Onlyfans that would come about a couple of decades later. Wrapping up, Dr. Berg and Emma tackle the state of the industry today, exploring how the discriminatory policies and pay around certain identities come from the ingrained standards of the late 20th Century, the efforts of organizations such as BIPOC Adult Industry Collective not only to make demands of management but to provide the infrastructure for workers to become completely independent from management, and why the issues around working conditions in sex work and porn are not due to their nature as “sex” but their nature as work.

And in the Fun Half: Emma discusses Biden finally being pushed to do the bare minimum to address the student debt crisis (hitting both means-testing and grant-specific qualifiers), before Kowalski from Nebraska shares his take on the 10-20k in relief. Emma and the crew also tackle the brief fall of Andrew Tate, walking through Hasan’s debate with him, and James from Fort Worth explores book banning and Christian fundamentalism in schools. Jamaal Bowman has an expert response to the NY Democratic Party pitting progressives against each other, and Denis Prager endorses a Naz-so-bad slogan called the three Ks. Plus, your calls and IMs!

Check out Heather's book here: https://uncpress.org/book/9781469661926/porn-work/

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Emma hosts Dr. John Abramson, lecturer of health care policy at Harvard University, to discuss his recent book Sickening: How Big Pharma Broke American Healthcare and How We Can Repair It.  First, Emma walks through Donald Trump’s opening up of a lawsuit against the US Government, ICE officials’ requirement to wipe phones upon leaving, and updates for today’s primaries in Oklahoma, New York, and Florida. Then, Dr. John Abramson joins as he gets right into contextualizing his recent book within his greater work over these last few decades, walking back to his research in the late 1990s – while a family doctor and visiting lecturer at Harvard – that lead him to discover the overwhelming sway that Big Pharma held over determining what the medical community consensus was, particularly around the implementation of more expensive prescriptions. Next, he gets right into the role of pharmaceutical company Merck’s drug “Vioxx,” in his research; advertised as an arthritis drug without adverse GI bleeds, Vioxx was approved in 1999 with a particularly influential spread in the New England Journal of Medicine, only for Abramson to dive into the proper FDA data (incredibly difficult to actually get one’s hands on) and find that Merck had seen (consciously) a doubled risk of Cardiovascular complications. This brings Dr. Abramson to the climax that lead to his first book, Overdosed America, which was his lectures to Harvard Medical students on how and WHY there was this disconnect between Merck and NEJM, with the journal only provided with the peer-reviewed SUMMARY of data (8/13 peers were Merck employees), only to be confronted by lead editors of the Journal attempting to pressure him OUT of revealing this research – not because he hoped to correct it, but because it upset him that Harvard students were questioning his work. Wrapping up, Dr. John Abramson first dives into other forms of Big Pharma control over the US medical industry, looking at how cost-effectiveness studies and price-control are considered illegal allowing for Big Pharma to promote more-expensive less-effective pharmaceuticals, even with high-profile drugs such as insulin, all providing incredible price-gouging abilities for the industry, and the sway over medical journals that helps them back it up.

And in the Fun Half: Emma and the crew take on Donald Trump Jr.’s coked-up defense of his father, Brennan from Kentucky dives into the massive ecological disasters caused by the bourbon industry in the region, and watch DeSantis’ “Top Gun” parody.  They take on the legacy of Stanley Kubrick before Benny Boy from Iowa provides background on today’s interview, Tucker Carlson and Newsmax reflect on the life and legacy of Anthony Fauci, and then watch a haunting school-board meeting on CRT and the livelihoods of queer students. Ron Johnson talks about how safe gay marriage is (soo safe, nothing like abortion), and Tony from Fort Worth dives deep into the legendary depth of the Mean Girls cast, plus, your calls and IMs!

Check out John's book here: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/sickening-john-abramson?variant=39935390089250

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Emma makes her triumphant return to MR! She is joined by Matthew Soules,  associate professor of architecture at the University of British Columbia, to discuss his recent book Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultra-Thin: Architecture and Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century.

First, Emma walks updates us on her week in quarantine, before diving into the GOP’s ongoing fight to release the affidavit for the raid on Mar-a-Lago as Dan Crenshaw pleads with Jake Tapper that Donald Trump was actually super nice and cooperative with the DOJ. Then Emma is joined by Matthew Soules as he gets right into what makes the 21st Century brand of capitalism different from that of the 1900s, that difference being neoliberalism’s mode of finance capitalism becoming hegemonic in the world of wealth accumulation. Expanding on this, Matthew walks through the social role of architecture and how that changed with neoliberalism’s hyper-financialization, going from primarily practical structures of shelter with some cultural and wealth signifiers to becoming largely a unit of investment capital and speculation thus practically a financial asset, not a shelter. Next, Soule and Vigeland take on the role of the financialization of architecture in the 2008 financial crisis, central in the creation of Irish ghost estates, Spanish housing vacancies, and the housing crises in the South West United States. This brings Matthew to the integral and identifiable features of finance capitalism’s architecture, first looking at how it creates spaces of crisis, with housing – acting as assets – more tied to the rise and fall of the economy as representations of wealth speculation, and therefore not focused on actually housing people, but rather creating MORE investments for MORE speculation, resulting in spaces across the globe becoming grounds for huge construction projects with simultaneous mass vacancies – and their antithesis of mass-populated slums across urban spaces. After a brief discussion on the more practical effects of this shift in architecture – from the crippling of public spaces to the mass construction of condominiums that actively seek to distance themselves from the locales they look down upon, Matthew and Emma parse through the specifics of how these elites employ housing as a form of speculative wealth storage, with the “great wall of money” (aka elite wealth) building up in the wake of the 1980s, infecting the sector of real estate and physically mutating how it manifests itself over the next four decades, seeing the construction of “iceberg,” ultra-thin, and other standardized but architecturally “unique” (aka utilizing iconography) to create a facade of liquidity, detached from the ground below them, able to change with the economy. To wrap up, Emma and Matthew look at the development of Property Technology (such as Zillow and AirBnB) in bolstering these systems, providing direct evaluations of liquid assets AND a way to ensure passive income from these investments, bolstering the constant housing crises prevalent in today’s capitalism.

And in the Fun Half: Emma talks with Kory from Indianapolis on fundamentalist Christianity infiltrating the US courts, Matt dives into the conservative exterminationist perspective versus the liberal “cultural genocide” one, Ron Johnson proclaims that he HARDLY had anything to do with 1/6, and Andy Barr complains to Chuck Todd about the “politicization of the finance of oil,” – you know, that one massive profiteering scheme that’s driving inflation. Kenny from Berkeley touches on the PMC and academic exploitation, Bolsonairo loses his temper, and Ben Shaprio salivates at the thought of licking billionaire boots. Plus, your calls and IMs!

Check out Matthew's book here: https://papress.com/products/icebergs-zombies-and-the-ultra-thin

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It's Casual Friday! Sam hosts Heather Digby Parton, contributing writer at Salon.com and proprietor of the blog Hullabaloo, to round up the week in news. Then, Sam is joined by Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, candidate for Congress in New York's 10th Congressional District, to give an update from the campaign trail ahead of next Tuesday's primary.

First, Sam walks through a South Carolina legislator’s revelation that actually his 6-week fetal heartbeat bill actually CAN put literal teenagers through bodily horror and incredible danger, forcing his hand on the legislature’s upcoming totalistic abortion ban… to recuse his vote. Then, Digby joins as she and Sam dive right into the passing of Manchin’s Inflation Reduction Act as a scaled-back form of Biden’s Build Back Better, walking through the frustrating and INSTITUTIONALLY dysfunctional process that lead to this quarter-sandwich of a bill, and situating whether this counts as getting something done for the Democrats heading into the midterms. They also run through the positives of the bill, including opening up medicare negotiations for prescription drug prices, why it importantly opens up the ability to create price benchmarks even if there’s no immediate impact for non-medicare patients, before exploring why, despite this, Democrats still need to take on culture war issues like abortion, fascism, and trans rights if they want to keep their steam heading into the midterms. Next, they shift to the topic of Liz Cheney, exploring her unsurprising loss in the Wyoming primaries, her recent history of citing Democrats’ abortion policy as baby “killing fields,” and how, despite all of this, she’s still achieved the status of “Deified republican,” before wrapping up with a conversation on the Mar-a-Lago raids, and how the FBI knew exactly where to look for Trump’s classified documents. Then, Sam is joined by congressional candidate for NY-10 Yuh-Line Niou, exploring how she made a name for herself in a race with three mainstream progressives, the importance of running in a district that represents the entirety of her assembly district, and what sets her apart from her corporate rival Dan Goldman (there’s a lot). They wrap up their interview by taking on the topics of abortion rights (Dan’s biggest weak point), getting NY real estate money out of politics (also a weak point for Dan), and the roles of housing and climate policy in her campaign (okay, this one is another of Dan’s many weak points).

Check out Digby's work at Salon here: https://www.salon.com/writer/heather_digby_parton

Check out Yuh-Line's campaign here: https://www.nioufornewyork.com/

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Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter:

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Special guest host Matt Binder is joined by cultural theorist Catherine Liu to discuss her recent book, “Virtue Hoarders: The Case against the Professional Managerial Class.” First, Matt walks through updates on Libs of Tik Tok’s first official ban (from Meta of all places), chicken wing prices reaching a four-year low, and Mike Pence’s response to being asked about testifying for the January 6th committee. Then, Catherine Liu joins as she gets right into helping define what the Professional Managerial Class (PMC) is, their role in executing the bosses’ orders and managing our social institutions, and how they came to take the mantle of liberal vanguardists, dominating the ideology of the democratic party over their blue-collar counterparts. Next, they parse through the PMC’s relationship to, and bolstering of the systems of capitalism, taking the benefits of much more social mobility than the working class and a feeling of superiority to physical laborers for their endorsement of capitalism and its modes of rationality, exploring its development starting at the end of the ‘60s and progressing through the neoliberal era as PMCs moved into suburbs and left the industrial world behind, with public discourse shifting to cultural critiques and allowing them to rest on their laurels above the dirty blue-collar world. Liu and Binder also tackle the growing split between generations of PMC, with the full financialization of college crippling incoming laborers with debt before they can even enter the workforce while the illusion of college-educated superiority remains necessary for the PMC’s obsession with status, before wrapping up by walking through the growing striations of the professional classes, the difference between general white-collar workers and professional managers, and whether the PMC can trust socialism’s version of a rising tide lifting all boats.

And in the Fun Half: Matt Binder is joined by Brandon Sutton as they watch Fox News’ highlight package of John Fetterman’s best smackdowns on Dr. Oz, as well as Oz’s attempt to cover his ass on Newsmax. Matt Gaetz gets hit with the “is a literal pedophile sex trafficker” attack ads, Bill from the Chicago suburbs talks Ukraine and behind-the-scenes negotiations, and Ren from the deep state talks about Trump violating Q’s clearance. They also tackle Chaiya Raichik’s stochastic terrorism inciting countless death threats against Boston Children’s Hospital and Missouri’s GOP Senate Majority Leader announcing their focus on the “Trans Issue” (no relation to the Jewish Question, of course), plus, your calls and IMs!  

Sam hosts Brian Callaci, Chief Economist at the Open Markets Institute, to discuss his recent piece in Dissent Magazine "Inflation Is No Excuse For Squeezing Workers." Then, Sam is joined by Ilana Marcucci-Morris, a Kaiser Permanente mental health therapist, to discuss recent efforts by her and her colleagues to strike and organize for better working conditions. First, Sam walks through updates from yesterday’s primaries in Alaska and Wyoming (with Liz Cheney losing in the latter), and the continued suppression of reproductive rights in Florida and Louisiana, before diving deep into the official signing of the IRA into law, and the lingering peril around Manchin’s side deal – especially as progressives (see: Rashida Tlaib) reflect on how Manchin hustled them out of their side deal with the Bipartisan Infrastructure package. Then, Brian Callaci joins as he gets right into situating us within the current inflation discourse, walking through the conventional wisdom that is backing the mainstream media’s rhetoric (blaming wages, low unemployment, etc), and how that is juxtaposed with the actual nature of our current moment, with inflation hitting globally despite each county’s unique levels of wage stagnation and domestic monetary policy. Parsing through these contrasts, Callaci and Sam walk to discuss how US media has been attempting to pin responsibility for inflation on progressive domestic policies like the American Rescue Plan and booming wages, despite the numbers showing wages lagging BEHIND inflation and the obvious international issues of a rampant, three-year-long (so far) pandemic, a shattered supply chain infrastructure, a war in Europe’s bread basket (Ukraine), and violent-levels of monopolistic price gouging in the fossil fuel sector. Next, Sam opens the debate of whether this belief in Fed monetary policy is a genuine misdiagnosis, or if it’s an active undermining of a workforce that has been growing in strength and solidarity, wrapping up the interview by looking at the differences between a solution based on the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy, and on based on its fiscal policy, exploring why the former is likely a clouded attempt to stifle wages. Then, Ilana Marcucci-Morris joins from the Kaiser Permanente picket line as she dives into how she and 2,067 other mental health therapists in California have spent the last 13 months pushing against Kaiser’s actively destructive policies around patient mental healthcare, using their bargaining power to bolster their patients’ right to care and ensuring they are able to provide the necessary work that they are there to provide.

And in the Fun Half: Sam talks with Brennan of KY from the Bo Hines campaign, Ben from VA on his former employer’s “no spoofing at work” policy, and explores Liz Cheney’s subtle soft-launch of a presidential campaign. Stephen Crowder hosts Don Jr. to boast about his stance as the most on-the-ground conservative, maybe ever? and preview Donald’s DeSantis talking points in a presidential race. Dominique from Baton Rouge discusses the Louisiana Democratic Party’s endorsement corruption, Joe from Minneapolis brings up the effect of a redistricting a week before the Democratic primary in the most progressive regions of Minneapolis, and Christina Bobb continues to frustrate conservative media by refusing to answer anything for DT. Prager continues to make Sam famous, Matt Walsh continues his stochastic terrorism against a literal Children’s Hospital, and Greg Gutfeld continues to be a very weird little racist homophobe, plus, your calls and IMs!

Check out Brian's piece here: https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/inflation-is-no-excuse-for-squeezing-workers

Check out the Kaiser Permanente mental health workers story here: https://nuhw.org/kaiser-dont-deny/kaiser-strike/

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Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/

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Sam breaks down the biggest headlines of the day, as “Build Back… a bit” finally reaches Biden’s desk and more primaries approach. First, Sam discusses today’s primaries in Alaska and Wyoming, updates from New York’s primaries next week, and the ongoing Georgia election interference case bringing Rudy Giuliani and Lindsay Graham to the forefront, before also touching on Louisiana’s official abortion void. Next, they dive deep into the varying conservative responses to the raid on Mar-a-Lago, from Stuart Varney and Rachel Campos-Duffy walking through Trump’s mild-mannered threats in awe of his zen to Doocy and Kilmeade beefing over treatment of the FBI, also admiring Senator Tim Scott’s misunderstanding of the DOJ’s secrecy. Sam also walks through some bonus elements of Manchin’s Inflation Reduction Act, including why pretending taxing stock buybacks will do anything is a complete fool’s errand, walking through the corrupt history of stock buybacks that brought us here, and why a tax on repatriated profits is so necessary with US corporate wealth piling up overseas. After a discussion on Scotland's new policy providing free menstrual care supplies (all the infrastructure for which already exists in the US), they wrap up the first half with the story of the recent 160+ person walkout at Amazon’s San Bernardino, CA logistics hub, highlighting the importance of leveraging a company where it hurts especially when it’s as massive as Bezos’ child is.

And in the Fun Half: Doocy and Kilmeade beef, NC GOP Congressional candidate asks Brandon-haters to stop disparaging Banana Republics nationwide, Kate from the University of Iowa discusses how to cover far-right news, and Jeff from Columbus explores Tulsi Gabbard’s horrible past and Andrew Yang’s directionless future. The crew gets into the relationship between immigration and the cheap labor lobby, Kari Lake tiptoes to line up behind DeSantis, and Ronald Raygun dives into the Farm Work Modernization act. John from Kentucky discusses SCOTUS as an active political institution, plus, your calls and IMs!

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ZipRecruiter: Some things in life we like to pick out for ourselves - so we know we've got the one that's best for us - like cuts of steak or mattresses. What if you could do the same for hiring - choose your ideal candidate before they even apply? That’s where ZipRecruiter’s ‘Invite to Apply’ comes in - it gives YOU, as the hiring manager, the power to pick your favorites from top candidates. According to ZipRecruiter Internal Data, jobs where employers use ZipRecruiter’s ‘Invite to Apply’ get on average two and a half times more candidates — which helps make for a faster hiring process. See for yourself! Just go to this exclusive web address, https://www.ziprecruiter.com/majority to try ZipRecruiter for free!

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The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

Sam and Emma host Olufemi O. Taiwo, professor of philosophy at Georgetown University, to discuss his recent book Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else). First, Sam touches on the successful passage of “Build Back– a bit” in the House, effective abortion bans in Idaho and Louisiana, Arizona’s attempts to finish Trump’s wall, and Brittany Griner’s appeal in Russia, before discussing Donald Trump’s magical declassification fingers and why that actually doesn’t matter when it comes to the espionage act. Then, he is joined by Professor Olufemi Taiwo as they first define what identity politics is, birthed from the work of the Combahee River Collective as a way to do politics starting from an understanding of one’s own place in the social world, before walking through the various critiques of IdPol across the spectrum, from the far right’s investment in the status quo and the center’s focus on [difference]-blind perspectives to a class reductionist’s particularism when it comes to social hierarchies. After parsing through how these critiques have developed across the spectrum, Professor Taiwo dives into his concept of “Deference Politics,” the understanding of how identity politics discourse in a capitalist society is then appropriated by and filtered through the ideologies of the elites at the top of various social hierarchies (be they production, military, or media) and thus slowly become a defining stance of the industry through deference to capital power. Next, Professor Taiwo walks through his critique of identity politics, exploring why a class reductionist understanding of how capitalism operates can still be aligned with understanding the systems (racism, transphobia, etc.) that capitalism props up, and why the latter element can often be necessary to inspire solidarity around the former’s movement. After a discussion on “targeted universalism” as a way to unify these two elements, Sam and Professor Taiwo wrap up the interview with a conversation on the breathtaking achievement of the US elites in shaping the “cancel culture” debate.

And in the Fun Half: Sam dives into the Right Wing’s excuses constantly collapsing in on themselves, as Kash Patel cries about Donald Trump’s declassification magic, Tulsi Gabbard asks why the FBI and IRS, now that they’ve gone after the elite (Donald Trump) who says they won’t punish those who don’t have any power… which of course never has happened before, and Rudi Giuliani ponders the dangers of criticizing bad people. Dr. Oz complains about the price of crudités under Joe Biden, Marjorie Taylor Greene rants about appliances and the Green New Deal, and Richard from California suggests some conversations on demographic changes. Kowalski expresses his disappointment with the USDA, Bro Flamingo discusses the state of the GOP as defined by voters, and Stephen from North Carolina discusses teaching at a Charter School. Plus, your calls and IMs!

Check out Olufemi's book here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1867-elite-capture

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Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/

The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

 

It's Casual Friday! Sam hosts David Dayen, executive editor at the American Prospect, to break down the week in news. Then, Sam is joined by Jordan Holmes and Dan Friesen, co-hosts of the Knowledge Fight podcast, to discuss the recent Alex Jones-Sandy Hook trial. First, Sam walks through Merrick Garland’s first impactful moment as Donald Trump put him front and center in the raid on Mar-a-Lago, also touching on today’s IRA vote in the House, the banning of gender-affirming care for ADULTS in Florida, and Europe seeing its worst drought in five centuries. David Dayen then joins as he and Sam discuss how Manchin’s Inflation Reduction Act impacts the US’ healthcare infrastructure, looking first at its changes to ACA and ARP exchange rates, before diving deep into its empowerment of Medicare to negotiate drug prices, and why it’s so important despite its limitation to 10 drugs per year, and not kicking until the next presidential election is over, meaning a Ron DeSantis or Donald J. Trump might be able to take credit for capped Medicare prices. Next, they move on to the Climate provisions of the IRA, with David walking through the positives we can take, including significant investment in domestic production in next-gen tech, particularly when it comes to EVs and batteries, before parsing through the myriad carrots that drive the bill’s policy, how it employs the tax code throughout all of this, and why this essentially deputizes the US Treasury to interpret out climate provisions. After expanding on the tax credits that come from EVs that don’t yet exist, they wrap up by taking on Manchin’s disastrous fossil fuel provisions, from wider-scale requirements to lease fossil fuel extraction before leasing any permits for building renewable energy sites, to literally just “let me build my pipeline.” Then, Dan Friesen and Jordan Holmes join as they reflect on the evolution of the Alex Jones Conspiratorial Multiverse, his slow shift to Televangelism, and how the roots of his income (beyond largely being fear-driven) are still obscured from even the most learned Info Warrior.

And in the Fun Half, Sam and the MR Crew dive into the the interesting push by Republicans in Congress to now all of a sudden hate the FBI. Steve Doocy has had just about enough of that, as he spars with Elise Stefanik and Steve Scalise over their inability to "back the blue" anymore now that they've raided Trump's home. Then they look at whether Brian Kilmeade's producers hate him or if they were really that dumb to accidentally put on screen a photoshopped image of a Florida judge on Jeffrey Epstein's body onboard the Lolita Express. Then, the MR universe gets a look behind the curtain as to what went down when Sam was able to mole his way onto the Dennis Prager Show (for approximately 5 seconds), and how, despite Prager's aching for it, he won't engage in spirited intellectual debate. Plus, your IM's!

Check out David's work at the Prospect here: https://prospect.org/topics/david-dayen/

Check out Knowledge Fight here: https://knowledgefight.com/

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Check out Matt’s show, Left Reckoning, on Youtube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning

Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/

The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/