The Majority Report with Sam Seder

Emma hosts Alex Keyssar, Professor of History and Social Policy at the Kennedy School at Harvard University, to discuss his recent book Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?, on the consistent pushback to our system of Presidential Election since the start of the 19th Century. Professor Keyssar begins by situating the Electoral College as without a doubt the most unpopular institution in American history, with more constitutional amendments introduced regarding its abolition or revision than any other subject, as well as the obvious reasons behind this, from it simply not conforming to the democratic value of “one person = one vote,” to the constant manipulation it saw over its first half-century in existence. Diving into this element, Professor Keyssar paints a picture of the Electoral College in the first century of the U.S.’s existence, with state legislatures completely in control of electoral votes, some choosing to delegate them out themselves, some looking to statewide elections, and some employing district-specific elections, with the push for winner-take-all elections growing as the two-party system ingrained itself into our political culture, but changing state-to-state based off of the party in power. Next, Alex works through the structure of the EC, with a staunch advantage to the South, originally due to the 3/5 clause – and an important element in the South maintaining the institution of slavery – but even in the wake of the Civil War, as the incredible and immediate disenfranchisement of African Americans across the south meant their “freedom” bolstered the clout of the southern White vote. After briefly touching on the tentative approval of the Electoral College by the framers, alongside their misunderstanding of how hard it would truly be to pass amendments, Professor Keyssar and Emma look to Senator Birch Bayh’s effort in the late ‘60s to bring this battle back to Congress, with the wake of WWII, the passing of the VRA, and the ongoing Cold War all pushing democratic values to the forefront, successfully passing an amendment in with 82% of votes in the House, before a Senate filibuster hosted by White supremacists forced it to a halt. They wrap up the interview with the neoliberal era, and the post-1980 Republican mindset that sees the Electoral College as central to their foothold on minority power. Emma also dives into the horrors of a White supremacist and anti-communist mass shooting at a BLM protest in Portland, and Peter Doocy’s attempt to leverage Russia over the Climate Emergency, all while oil and gas have been central to the conflict.

And in the Fun Half: Emma takes an incredible call from Willow the Wendigo as she grapples with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s declaration that Texas will now treat trans and gender-related healthcare for teenagers as abuse; they walk through the importance of teenage gender-affirming care in myriad aspects, from decreasing suicide, self-harm, and depression rates to the impermanence of puberty-blockers, allowing kids going through puberty to take time with any decision on hormonal transition. Then, Tucker Carlson reminds everyday Americans that people who believe in racism and/or are Chinese are the true enemy in the coming Russian conflict, Kyle Rittenhouse joins him to call out the liars and frauds such as… such as… Whoopi Goldberg? The DC Trucker Convoy turns into an ad for one Bob Bolus, and Phil Mickelson discusses how working WITH authoritarians is the only way for change in the PGA, plus, your calls and IMs!

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

Emma hosts Alleen Brown, reporter at The Intercept, to discuss her recent article series "Climate and Punishment". Then, Emma is joined by the AMQuickie's very own Jack Crosbie, currently stationed in Kyiv, to give us an update from the ground! Alleen begins by situating the research that led her to this series, with her work as a climate reporter consistently leading her to look at those most vulnerable, and find ways to tell their stories in a meaningful way, before she and Emma walk through the horrors that climate change (alongside a lack of infrastructural response) has wrought on the incarcerated members of society. They start in California with the Dixie Fire of last year still raging, encroaching on the Susanville detention center, with inmates having been locked in their cells with no electricity or lighting, and no knowledge of when the fire will reach their location, diving into the complete lack of care infrastructure that these facilities had to respond to even a generator failure, much less the wildfire that caused it. This lets them briefly touch on the exacerbation of these elements by the COVID-19 pandemic, from failures in the rollouts of vaccines, treatment, or even simple quarantine procedures, to the correlation between pandemics and climate change emphasizing how the imprisonment of these people forces their vulnerability to the climate. Next, they move from California’s fire crises, to DeSantis’ role in Florida’s flooding facilities, looking to the state as the leader in high-flood-risk detention centers, diving through stories of floods pushing water through the sewer systems and into inmates’ cells, leaving them living in human waste for hours until an eventual evacuation can be organized. They wrap up the interview by looking to Gov Abbott’s active push to deter the construction of air-conditioning in his prisons, largely in response to a collection of lawsuits from his time as Texas Attorney General that came in the wake of a multitude of deaths from heat exhaustion, before Alleen dives into why the state of the climate in these regions, as well as their expansive prison systems, served to make them apt study grounds for her research, but that by no means should suggest that this is anything by a problem of carceral states at large.

And in the Fun Half: Jack Crosbie joins Emma as they dive into the state of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict, walking through the instances of both vehemently nationalist pro-Ukrainian groups and vastly pro-Russian separatist groups (both of whom receive lots of outside funding) as well as the more overwhelming desire to have any semblance of stability without bloodshed amongst Ukrainians. They also dive into the historical divide between the Donbas region, Russia, and Ukraine, stemming all the way back to 2014’s annexation of Crimea by Russia, before touching on NATO’s role in it all. Emma also touches on the difference between wanting a USSR 2.0 and wanting another Russian Empire, Kenyan Ambassador Martin Kimani calls for a response to imperialism that aims to build “something greater formed in peace,” Tucker fantasizes about running into AOC at Jackson Hole, and the EmMajority report goes full Emme Woods. They also cover Ben Shapiro running to the defense of Hitler jokes, plus, your calls and IMs!

  Purchase tickets for the live show in Brooklyn March 26th and Boston on May 15th HERE:   https://majorityreportradio.com/live-show-schedule

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Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

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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Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter:

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

Emma hosts Deva Woodly, Associate Professor of Politics at the New School for Social Research, to discuss her recent book Reckoning: Black Lives Matter and the Democratic Necessity of Social Movements, on the growing importance of Radical Black feminist pragmatism in an age where politics are seen exclusively as brokering deals with the powerful, and never about reconfiguring the power itself. They begin with a 2016 Obama quote on BLM needing to capitalize on their opportunity to have a seat at the table to paint this picture of the larger view of activism that Americans had at the time, before working backwards from the start of the neoliberal era to explore how the depoliticization of public life led to a corrosive “end of history” ideology that ignores the role of the people, both in terms of who legitimizes the political institutions, and in terms of who the institutions are accountable to. This leads them to the concept of the politics of care, as Professor Woodly defines it through its role in acknowledging injustice’s widespread and systemic trauma, and how it works to make racial, social, and economic justice to be the characteristics of political systems by centering the care of each other and ourselves. Next, she and Emma take a step back, looking at her progression into abolitionism as a pragmatic one, seeing the defund movement as an obvious response to large-scale municipal mismanagement of funds that works to bolster systemic processes that make black life precarious, rather than to uplift their communities. They then dive into the mythology of American exceptionalism that creates this intense naturalization of our political institutions to the point that we cannot envision alternatives, as Professor Woodly contrasts this with an abolitionist view of the future of politics, as one not about utopianism, but about progressive iterations that emphasize a constantly evolving political system to go with a constantly evolving citizenry. They wrap up the interview with Professor Woodly looking to define radical Black feminist pragmatism, walking through the development of the BLM movement over the last decade to paint a picture of an ideology that works to sustain itself inter-generationally, and pushes institutions and discourse forwards boldly. Emma also touches on the sentencing of an officer for the murder of Daunte Wright, and Kamala Harris’ taking on a Trumpian stance on Russian sanctions, which she dubs the GREATEST SANCTIONS EVER.

And in the Fun Half: Marjorie Taylor Greene dives into the Globalist roots of monopolizing a digital fiat currency… or something like that? Pete calls in from LA to ask what we do with fascist cops in a theoretical post-defund world, and Emma, Matt, and Bradley dive into Alexandra M. Hunt’s killer stance on crime, the importance of uplifting sex workers, and the dangers of reading the New York Post. Kowalski gives some updates on cornfield corruption, Bob Menendez gets SALT-y, and Jordan Peterson perfectly syncs up a high schooler’s cover of Dark Side of the Moon with an insanely out-of-touch academic’s view on individuality. Ian from CO discusses bolstering progressive media, plus, your calls and IMs!   Purchase tickets for the live show in Boston on May 15th HERE:

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

It's Casual Friday! Sam and Emma host Ben Burgis, columnist at Jacobin, host of Give Them An Argument and author of Christopher Hitchens: What He Got Right, How He Went Wrong, and Why He Still Matters, to round up the week in news. Then, Sam and Emma are joined by comedian Jena Friedman, host and director of Indefensible on AMCPlus! Sam, Emma, and Ben begin by – surprise – diving into the legacy of Christopher Hitchens, and how he went from anti-war activist to weirdly pro-US intervention in the Middle East, looking to his slow trickle over to the side of the elite and well-educated, seeing a difference between the Cold War imperialism against peasant armies and the counter-insurrection of the ‘90s and ‘00s. Next, they look to the Ukraine-Russia conflict, the state of the Ukrainian separatists in the Donbas region, the absurd notion of debating false flags, and where the Biden administration actual stands, before they explore the Democratic establishment looking for any reason to blame the progressive agenda for their losses, even with all the money mismanagement, electoral failures, and policy choices stemming from themselves, all the while refusing to acknowledge the skyrocketing child poverty rates in the wake of them stepping away from progressive policy. Then, Jena Friedman tells the crew how she went from stand-up taking on the absurdity of the true-crime genre, to working on a more self-aware take on the category and its role in the hyper-punitive, racist, and sexist culture we live in. They also admire Charlie Kirk clinging to his childhood pediatrician to make fun of vaccines, and debate how comedy’s relationship to politics and progressivism has developed, before Sam and Emma also touch on the terrible Tommy Tuberville.

And in the Fun Half: Ronald Raygun calls in to explore canceling out cancel culture, aka getting back at Disney, Milo from Maine dives into the lack of union-focused education courses, and Sean from Coco Cali takes a crack at the Kennedy assassination and dives into a conversation on the draw of conspiracy theories. Eric Trump has one question for Jesus that boils down to, “so, what’s up with Biden?” and Andrew Yang wants everyone to pay a crypto lobby group to… solve poverty? Sam and Emma discuss the unsurprisingly bipartisan defense authorization bill, plus, your calls and IMs!

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Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

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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Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter:

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

Emma hosts James Kilgore, Research Scholar at the Center for African Studies at the University of Illinois, to discuss his recent book Understanding E-Carceration: Electronic Monitoring, the Surveillance State, and the Future of Mass Incarceration, on the technological advancements in the surveillance state at the hands of unregulated big tech, and the role the state and its neoliberal practices play in that. James begins by walking Emma through his personal experiences with the surveillance state, living as a federal fugitive from the US for 27 years while working for social justice and liberation movements in South Africa and Zimbabwe, before his eventual extradition in 2002 for federal possession of explosive charges stemming from the ‘70s, where he then spent over 6 years in prison, and lived with an ankle monitor tracking his every movement in his later house arrest. This brings us to James’ inspiration to start his research, as he began to explore the regulations on deployment and information extraction, as well as the breakdown of who it is used on, and how it cycles people back through the prison pipeline. He and Emma then take on neoliberalism’s transition to data as the new raw material for making money, allowing for incredible specificity when it comes to the state’s deployment of bio-power, and the role of deregulated big tech in developing and disseminating this surveillance throughout society, garnering just massive swaths of data on citizens worldwide with absolutely no accountability for where it goes. After touching on the mythology of technology and its development over the last two decades, painting a picture of technocratic development that works outside of human biases despite all data suggesting it is deeply ingrained within these systems of prejudice, they look to the sanitization of the US prison system, presenting e-surveillance as an alternative TO, rather than an alternative form OF, incarceration, before James emphasizes the role of US policymakers in actively funding contracts and work with and by these surveillance tech agencies. They wrap up the interview by diving into the global impact of these investments by US officials, looking at how electronic tech adds to the already insanely brutal surveillance of Palestinians, deeply expressing the nature and goal of these systems of control and dominance. Working off of this, Emma also covers the recent revelations on the horrors taking place on an Amazon-owned deportation plane service, before she runs through the positive outlook on the upcoming PA Senate race and John Fetterman’s progressive candidacy.

And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Matt and Brandon as they remember the Cosby show, Amber from Northern VA dives into her state’s general assembly, and Binder finds the elusive Charlie Kirk’s original Twitter account, managed by him, of his all-white basketball team, and the incredible boost it gave to his AAU stock! They also dive into the Canadian trucker convoy, walking through Dave Rubin’s identification with “both sides” of the Holocaust, misinformation and how it led to Ilhan Omar’s recent comments, and Nick from Manitoba calls in for a bit of a Canadian perspective. Brandon from TX dives into states across the country trying to manipulate the defund movement that never occurred to boost police funding and Kowalski gives his own updates, plus, your calls and IMs!

Purchase tickets for the live show in Boston on May 15th HERE:

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Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse

Check out The Letterhack’s upcoming Kickstarter project for his new graphic novel! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/milagrocomic/milagro-heroe-de-las-calles

Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

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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Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter:

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

Sam hosts investigative journalist Christopher Leonard to discuss his recent book The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy, on how the lessons that the US Government took from the 2008 financial crash led to a decade of an asset boom on Wall Street alongside wage stagnation for workers, and the role the COVID-19 pandemic played at the end of it. They begin by essentially situating what the Federal Reserve is and does, and what changed with the Great Recession in 2008, looking to the Feds creation in 1913 to manage our currency, and the Congressional acts of 1978 that dialed down their focus to specifically a mandate of managing inflation and employment, before diving into how the institution effectively printed 3.5x the money from 2008-2014 that they had printed in the near-century before that. Sam and Christopher then look to the relationship between these two mandates, with a generally inverse relationship between their respective solutions and issues, the differences between democratic fiscal policy and unilateral monetary policy solutions, and how the US has recently seen a complete paralysis of fiscal policy during a multi-decade run of Congressional inaction. Thus, Christopher arrives at how the Federal Reserve was left out as the only problem-solving actor in the shadow of the 2008 financial crisis, setting the stage for the revelation for Wall Street that was quantitative easing, in which the Fed effectively funneled billions of dollars into Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan as primary lenders, reducing debt, pushing the interest rate to zero, and forcing the need for riskier investments. Diving into the difference between assets, which hold their value, and material goods, Sam and Christopher dive into how this tactic worked to bump up risky lending practices, pushing for a hyper-trickle down tactic of forcing up asset prices, and effectively bolstering a separate economic boom for the exclusively-wealthy, while continued wage stagnation saw the regular economy falter and forced high-risk investments saw elites trade away job growth for the working class with no accountability for their mistakes. They wrap up the interview by looking to the CARES Act as the US Government finally coming back around on fiscal policy, despite it quite literally being what saved us from the Great Depression, and why, in spite of this, our commitment to hyper-efficient supply lines, logistics, and monopolies meant the fiscal policy would not also see the necessary systemic changes that have been lagging for 15 years. Sam and Emma also dive into Professor Jonathan Turley’s revelation on Fox News that if MLK had been treated like conservative protesters are, he might have been arrested, potentially even multiple times, some of which maybe would’ve resulted in quintessential civil rights texts that are read across the country.

Purchase tickets for the live show in Boston on May 15th HERE:

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Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse

Check out The Letterhack’s upcoming Kickstarter project for his new graphic novel! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/milagrocomic/milagro-heroe-de-las-calles

Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

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/

Subscribe to AM Quickie writer Corey Pein’s podcast News from Nowhere. https://www.patreon.com/newsfromnowhere 

Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter:

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

Sam and Emma break down some of the biggest stories from the weekend in news, from the ongoing situation in Ukraine to labor, the courts, COVID, and more! Beginning with updates on the Ukrainian border, Sam and Emma dive into the breaking news that a majority of the breaking news this past week has been false, and simply the US media working to fear and warmonger as tensions build in the US populace, before they look to the role of Ukrainian President Zelensky, both in how he has capitalized on US aid, and how the US media has worked to misunderstand his statements on the build-up of Russian troops. Next, Sam and Emma reflect on the US media, bolstered by Right-wing think tanks, and their inability to see war as a bad thing, almost ever. They then move to the release of the John Durham Report, and do their best to get their takes out over the screams of “Russiagate!” as they cover the falsities of the report, how it may relate to the lawsuits against Trump in NYC right now, and why it so weirdly dropped just days after the statute of limitations had expired. Sam and Emma also touch on the hubris of wealth, news on rising drought levels alongside rising temperature, and the Senate’s failure to agree on Russian sanctions.

And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma are joined by the one-and-only Nomiki Konst as she shines a light on the candidacy of Nabila Islam for GA State Senator, and developments in regards to Puerto Rico’s teachers' protests. They also look to the Canadian border to explore the impact of the trucker blockade, alongside Matt Walsh somehow undermining his previous statements on traffic protests, and Justin Trudeau’s potentially overboard response as reports of him freezing the protesters' bank accounts trickle in. They wrap up the fun half by touching on the state of the Democratic and Republicans parties moving into 2022, as the Republican establishment seeks to distance themselves from Trump while their candidates do the opposite, and whether Democrats will be able to muster the strength to maintain at least one of the two chambers of Congress. Lastly, Charlie Kirk knows more about your kids than you do (but it's totally not creepy), plus, your IMs!

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Sam and Emma host writer and filmmaker Rupert Russell to discuss his recent book Price Wars: How the Commodities Markets Made Our Chaotic World, on how the profits in Wall Street come from placing bets on the products most central to our society’s functioning. First, Rupert situates his studies over the past decade, originating with his work on the Arab Spring and studying the cascade of revolution in the wake of one of the biggest spikes in food prices, with millions becoming highly at risk for starvation worldwide at the start of the 2010s. Then, he, Emma, and Sam look to Friedmanomics to explain why we look at pricing the way we do, and dive into the role that finance plays between the seller and buyer binary, bringing in futures trading originally to provide a sense of stability and speculation for necessary production (e.g. food), before Alan Greenspan and Larry Summers came along under Clinton and worked aggressively to cover up the potential risks that had been growing behind the scenes as the math became more and more complicated. This drastically shifts the stage moving into the 2000s, as the finance world moves fully into Quantity Index Funds and derivatives, and cements themselves as the central player in setting future prices, ultimately pushing the profits away from the actual production and selling of commodities, and to the storage of such items with the knowledge of future price booms, thus pushing the prices of important goods higher and higher. Next, Sam, Rupert, and Emma move into how this was set up to compound with the Financial Crisis in 2007, as financiers had to move into a new asset class, looking to commodities in the wake of the collapse of the housing market, and taking the pre-existing price boom to an entirely new level. This, then, brings us back to the Arab Spring, as the broken food pricing wrought horror on the Authoritarian bargains set up by countless regimes in the Middle East, effectively meaning the only regimes that could provide for their people were those bolstered by massive oil reserves, like Saudi Arabia and Libya, setting the stage for the countless crisis of the decade, from ISIS’s rise to the Refugee Crisis to the boom of authoritarian populism. They wrap up the interview by looking at the lessons from the commodity de-stabilization of the 2010s, particularly around oil and drugs, and how we need to genuinely set up new systems that are funded by the banking world, without letting free reign for manipulation of those systems. Sam and Emma also touch on Biden’s frozen aid to Afghanistan, and the moderate position of refusing to support Afghani people.

And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma cover Lindsay Graham’s desire for drama, Seth from Portland explores electoralism and the two-party system, Emma walks through her Super Bowl experience, and Andrew Yang absolutely TEARS Democrats a new one for having the exact same goals on healthcare as he does (no public option, we will give you nothing). Candace Owens feels a wedge driven between her and her anti-Black fanbase after she enjoyed the halftime show, and then we get calls from John from San Antonio and Kenny from Berkeley. "Bret Weinstein" takes aim at Sam’s disrespect of THE Joe Rogan Experience, and explores the importance of his philosophical bro-downs, just like Thomas Jefferson’s before him, and Jesus’s before that. Hunter from Hampton Roads discusses challenging Rep. Bobby Scott for District 3 in VA, plus, your calls and IMs!

Purchase tickets for the live show in Boston on May 15th HERE:

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It's Casual Friday! Sam and Emma host Heather Digby Parton, contributing writer at Salon.com and proprietor of the blog Hullabaloo, to round up the week in news. Then, Sam and Emma are joined by Matthew Film Guy! Heather, Sam, and Emma dive into the Democratic party’s inability to not react to every single Fox News talking point, no matter how baseless it is or how few people genuinely believe it. This lets them walk through the rapid turnaround on harm-reduction safe smoking kits from the Biden Administration, not only pushing out any concept of promoting safer intake of crack, but then turning around and completely abandoning the policy as a whole, despite its incredible efficacy and support, before they also connect this to Biden’s response to the US’s frozen aid to Afghanistan, only granting half of the funds despite starvation and devastation in the country following our withdrawal. Next, they look to some of the better 180's done by the Dems, exploring Pelosi being bullied from extolling the virtues of lawmaker insider-trading to supporting a bill to put a stop to it, and why this looks to be a good fight heading into the midterms. Lastly, they touch on the state of the Right, exploring why the party might have seen a turn against Trump’s idea of a Vice President having the power to overturn elections, including Pence, McConnell, and Brian Kilmeade all rejecting the idea over the course of this week, before they wrap up with a discussion of the dark money behind the Canadian trucker convoy and the impact it could see on our already fragile supply chain. Sam and Emma also dive a little deeper into the unmitigated cowardice of the Biden Administration over these past two days.

And in the Fun Half: Matthew Film Guy joins Emma and Sam as they take on the Oscars and the CIA’s obvious interference and dive into the beauty of truth that captures the impossibility of truth, as seen in The Lovely Month of May (French) and Chronicles of a Summer (also French). Next, Emma and Sam also dive into the value of Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock’s seats in Georgia, especially in pushing congressional trading laws, a Texas GOP statehouse candidate professes her love for bullying trans children in the classroom, and Lindsey Graham understands that the murder of non-American civilians is simply life, and the murder of American citizens is simply impossibly horrible, plus, your IMs!

Purchase tickets for the live show in Boston on May 15th HERE:

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Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

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

Emma hosts journalist Travis Lupick to discuss his recent book Light Up the Night: America's Overdose Crisis and the Drug Users Fighting for Survival. Then, Emma is joined by Jessica Cisneros, candidate for Congress in Texas's 28th District, to give an update from the campaign trail!Travis and Emma begin by situating his story in this week's news regarding the success of and backlash to Biden’s safe smoking kit, including the fact that the existence of clean pipes and needles does not create more demand for opioids, no matter how much that idea supports conservatives’ desire to avoid slight discomfort. Travis dives into his work, which started in Vancouver in the wake of the incredible success of North America’s first needle exchange, and how this represented the importance of taking on the opioid crisis as a public health issue, not a criminal one, before he and Emma work to define the concept of “harm reduction” and the importance of building a system of trust in community health practices, especially when it comes to encouraging future treatment. Next, they look to the Nixon Administration as they dive into the birth of the war on drugs, and John Ehrlichman famously saying the quiet part out loud in pinning their criminalization of heroin and marijuana on an attempt to imprison Black and brown people and hinder the anti-war movements of the era. They wrap up the interview by looking at the current stage of the opioid crisis, moving from one of prescription pills to heroin and now to fentanyl, and this concept of how the “iron law of prohibition,” means the criminalization of illicit substances ultimately pushes for more potent and transportable drugs, rather than putting a stop to their supply, before looking to what legislators and policymakers can and should do moving forwards. Emma also touches on the anti-semitism and anti-worker ideology behind the US-backed Canadian tucker convoy.

And in the Fun Half: Jessica Cisneros comes on to discuss her candidacy for TX-28 in the wake of Henry Cuellar being raided by the FBI, and the progressive agenda she wants to push as San Antonio becomes bluer and bluer, then Chris Leal for HD-114 hops on to explore how he’s riding his union backing in the hopes of winning the first Democratic seat in a statewide Texas election in decades. Emma is also joined by Brandon and Matt Binder as they take on Dave Chappelle leveraging his investments against affordable housing in his town, the absurdity of recent crypto corruption, and Jason Myles from “This is Revolution” calls in to explore the problems of our guest’s representation of drug abuse, and the importance of recognizing the inherent ugliness of the problem and avoiding the need to paint a picture of a “beautiful” victim, plus, your calls and IMs!

Purchase tickets for the live show in Brooklyn on March 26th HERE:

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Purchase tickets for the live show in Boston on May 15th HERE:

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

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Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse

Check out The Letterhack’s upcoming Kickstarter project for his new graphic novel! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/milagrocomic/milagro-heroe-de-las-calles

Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada. https://www.patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at https://www.twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!)

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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Donate to Chris Leal's campaign for Texas Statehouse here!

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