3594 - The Iran Escalation Trap; UK Green Party's Historic Win w/ Robert Pape, Grace Blakeley

You are listening to a free version of the majority report. Support this show at join the majority report dot com and get an extra hour of content daily.

The majority report with Sam Cedar.

It is Thursday March 5th, 2026. My name is Emma Vigeland in for Sam Cedar and this is the five time award winning majority report.

We are broadcasting live from the industrially ravaged Goanis Canal in the heartland of America downtown Brooklyn, USA.

On the program today, Professor Robert Pape will be with us to talk about the Iran bombing campaign and how it drags us into an escalation trap.

And later in the show, Grace Blakely will be with us to talk about the significance of last week's green party victory in the UK.

Also on the program, the Senate votes down Tim Keynes' war powers resolution that would have rained in Trump's criminal war on Iran.

Cutterman, the only Democrat, I say, with heavy quotation marks to break rank, the House votes on its version today.

The death toll from the bombing of Iran tops 1,000 and the US kills at least 80 sinking in Iranian vessel coming back from a training exercise.

Sri Lanka's Navy rescued 32 of the Iranian soldiers.

The Pentagon is running out of its stores of precision weapons less than a week into the war, which Trump denied on truth social, calling the US supply infinite.

We'll never run out. Don't even ask about it.

Some Senate Democrats are refusing to rule out voting for supplemental funding for Trump's war in Iran, more on that in just a second.

Crude oil prices skyrocket to their highest since June 2025 when Israel bombed Iran the last time.

Israeli attacks kill at least 10 in Lebanon and the closure of Gaza's border presents a new hunger crisis.

Trump is supposedly calling Republicans on the hill to ask them whether or not he should fire Christy Known.

Senator Steve Daines of Montana is retiring, yet another Republican hitting the eject button.

Colorado's Democratic governor Jared Polis says he's weighing, pardoning election denier Tina Peters amid Trump's public pleas.

Every Democrat in his state says, don't do this.

And lastly, what is his about abundance?

He's their guy.

And lastly, Pam Bondi's DOJ will investigate the most pressing issue of our time Joe Biden's use of the auto pen.

All this and more on today's majority report. Welcome to the show everybody. It's an M majority report Thursday. Hello to Matt. Hello to Brian.

Also wanted to shout out Julie Julie who works on our show of course Sam's sister of both both things equally important.

Happy birthday to Julie. It's Julie's birthday today.

Happy birthday Julie. Shout out to Julie. Really looking forward to both of our conversations today.

But let's start of course with the Iran War, the news that you're the story that is just obviously the most important in the country right now.

The US and Israel are continuing to carpet bomb parts of Iran, including Tehran, one of the oldest cities in the world.

There's videos of damage to historical sites in addition to the 1000 plus that are dead at this point.

There's a lot of nearly 10 million people that's larger than the population of New York City.

Just imagine the circumstances that what things would look like if Iran was carpet bombing New York City.

We have such privilege at being at the center of the Imperial Corps that we can't even fathom what this must be like except when you see the horrific images coming out.

Death tolls out at least a thousand as I mentioned. We have bomb schools. We have bombed hospitals.

And earlier this week the US military confirmed that they've been using these B2 stealth bombers.

You may remember that name because those are the bombers that can typically carry the 2000 pound bombs that the Israelis were dropping on the people of Gaza in the midst of the,

in the height of the genocide and that was at issue with the Biden administration.

Whether or not they should be using 2000 pound bombs and a densely packed urban area of 141 square miles with two plus million people in it at the time.

We're using these tactics in Iran at this moment. This is the expansion of the Palestine laboratory. Anthony Lowenstein's thesis and his great book.

Apparently I saw a tree to party was pointing out that it appears that the Israelis and perhaps the Americans are using AI bombing without any human oversight.

That that is his assessment based on the pattern of bombing here.

So yesterday Tim Cain's war powers resolution failed. Rand Paul was the only Republican to break and then John Federman was the only Democrat to not support the war powers resolution.

And it's just amazing because of course you had like a week or so of the I'm concerned dance from Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski.

Susan Collins up in 2026 and you guys know how we feel about Graham Platner taking her on, but in this vote.

Yes, there was just one Democrat technically to defect here, John Federman, but that is separate from the issue of the supplemental funding that is coming up right now.

And we mentioned this yesterday, but I wanted to highlight these quotes from the top Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer and also Chris Coons, if we could just put this on the screen.

So the supplemental funding here, like after giving the Pentagon a trillion dollars, they're still running low on these precision precision munitions, both missiles and interceptors.

So the White House wants $50 billion in supplemental emergency spending to help pay for this criminal war in Iran.

And here is what was said yesterday in Politico, but Democratic votes will be needed to pass any emergency funding package in the Senate and minority party leaders say they will need far more details from the Trump administration if they are going to consider support for new Pentagon cash. Here's Chuck Schumer's quote.

Before you can feel satisfied about a supplemental.

And I haven't seen it. You need to know what the real goals are and what the end game is. Then here's Chris Coons, Joe Biden's protege, one of the most conservative Democrats in the Senate.

He's a senior appropriator. He's the corporate state of Delaware.

His yep, his quote is that they he wants to quote make sure we are making all the investments we can and quote to keep us troops safe.

If you read between the lines there, that is Chuck Schumer and Chris Coons saying that they are not opposed to supplemental funding the $50 billion for this criminal war in Iran on principle.

They just need to see some more details first before they commit to it.

I would I would zero in on the next quote to the American quote the American people can get questions answered about the failures and plan that led to some of the challenges lost some mistakes in this war.

We have the answers. We have our answers, Chris, which is that we don't want this war.

So what Chris Coons is saying by the idea that by keeping this question open even though his base is completely decided.

Yeah, no, it's not for me is to say well actually hear him out here the Trump administration out.

It's a it's a it's dressed up as a call for questioning but actually it's giving them more rope and saying hey can you give us a little bit more help so we can help you Mr. Trump and giving this money to the Pentagon so they can help Israel conquer the Middle East.

They're not alone because then there's another story in political this morning about the top Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee which includes Gary Peters of Michigan, Tim Cain of Virginia and Alyssa Slokkin of Michigan and Jack Reed of Rhode Island who is the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Now, notice that I just said Tim Cain's name. He introduced that war powers resolution but he's not ruling out supporting $50 billion in additional funding because of what I just spoke about here because the US stock stockpile is currently under strain for things like missiles, interceptors and and and smart bombs.

Because of how much has been sent to Ukraine since Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine and since that war has been ongoing the supply has already been short depleted so they do need $50 billion if they want to pay for this criminal war.

So you don't give it to them because it's a criminal war.

Even heggseth is going to the press saying actually we've we've actually moved past the need for these highly sophisticated bombs that we've been using up so we can there's no way around can outlast us. Okay, well then you don't need democratic votes.

Well, here's Jack Reed though, not committing to opposing this supplemental funding.

I will vote to invoke the War Powers Act which would give the president 30 days to terminate the operation except for activities descending the state of Israel, which is critical to our alliance and alliance on Israel.

Senator Jack Reed, I do appreciate your time this morning.

Our reliance on Israel, that's this is where we can play this this next clip of the president of Israel Isaac Herzog being asked by Tony two cuts doke pole in a very respectful manner with hushed tones about the fact that the American public overwhelmingly does not support this war.

Reed just said it we need I mean if because the our munitions are our precision munitions are depleted even if you know we support we don't we on principle are against this war short short short.

We have to send a replenish with $50 billion extra to support Israel. This is how regime change wars and endless wars begin.

This action by the Trump administration is roping these senators who are corrupted by the Zionist lobby and the military industrial complex into supporting it but they want but like you know they wanted to I understand what you're saying but it's just it's it's it's a sunk cost fallacy because the action was so aggressive and because the munitions already were in short supply they're able to be like well do you support the troops do you support Israel.

If you do you better fund their defense and um this is the president of Israel obviously netanyahu's the prime minister Herzog's the president addressing the question as to why how are you going to work around the fact that like 70 to 80% of Americans oppose this war with Iran.

I just have one more question because I'm cognizant of your time. What do you think this war does to the U.S. Israeli relationship going forward and I ask because it's not a popular war in America.

I understand it's not a popular war in America because you know usually people do not know the intricacies of the war and they also compare it to previous and other wars.

This is a unique war and I listen very carefully to secretaries Rubio's statements yesterday in Congress. It's a unique war it's a focused war.

It is a war that comes in a time where you can really bring real change in the Middle East for the future. Thank you Mr. President.

The American public may be unhappy with another endless war but this is our opportunity to strike and they just don't fully understand the intricacies of how important it is for Israel to expand into Lebanon into Syria to steal more and more land to create a buffer zone to the buffer zone to complete the genocide and Iran's capabilities are a threat to them in that region.

So in this supposed democracy public opinion for the supplier of the weapons that allows Israel to behave so belligerently is just a small obstacle that we have to get over and that's what the money is for.

Remember what Ilhan Omar said it's all about the Benjamin's and then you had a public rebuke by Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats for stating this exact fact we are in this position now where this war is so they didn't even bother to manufacture consent for war with Iran because of how distant our government and the military industrial complex and that apparatus is from the levers of public opinion.

This is about the fact that our democracy is already gone in its current structure under citizens united the explosion of dark money.

You have the Israel lobby you have the military industrial complex you have all of these forces that are financially invested in Israel's expansion having completely conquered our government.

They have the Senate minority leader they have the House minority leader they have the Senate majority leader they have the House majority leader they have the president they have a good amount of Democrats and the entire Republican party safer like Massey and Rand Paul and this is because of political corruption.

And we were told for many years that it was anti-Semitic to speak about this the idea that this amount of money is influencing our politics and there you have the president of Israel saying that the money has become has been built up to such a degree that we don't even really need to consider public opinion when we're trying to push this forward in fact.

Voters don't understand the voters are dumb Democrats and Republicans agree with that well Republicans probably think Democrats do Democrats definitely do they think people are too stupid Chuck Schumer thinks you're stupid they think that you they can they think that they know better than the what 90% of the Democratic base of their own party at this point that doesn't support Israel's military action the half of the American public that thinks that they're committing genocide.

We know better in the hallowed halls of the Senate which is really just how corrupt people justify their actions and their existence and there's also zealotry on some of you know those people's behalf as well.

But for many for many even like a guy like Jack Reed it's just the the blob you get caught up in it.

And and people of that age started to cut him. Yeah no I'm not.

The Democratic Party has seen this like rights be rolled back you lost Roe versus Wade these are fundamental failures and whose heads have really rolled because of that.

Pramila Jaipal is the only person who's taken any kind of accountability and frankly she probably the one of the one of the best in the house.

And there's been there's been no kind of it we're still dealing with the Clintons.

At this point you have to blame and I'm including Bernie Sanders Elizabeth Warren Chris Murphy all of these people in the supposed fight club we heard about this three months ago they leaked to the New York Times.

That they are coming up with like an alternative power structure to challenge Chuck Schumer and we've heard nothing since then about that I blame them for not taking this fight publicly it is it is endangering our democracy.

The Republicans make a spectacle about their internal disagreement and it has done absolutely nothing to hurt them politically nothing nothing the Democrats shot off the public from debates about internal leadership structure.

And then do it in hush tones because they're more institutionalists than they are democratically responsive and it's a major major problem so love for Bernie love for Warren it's past time to take this fight publicly we need it it's an existential issue.

In the moment we're going to be talking to professor Robert pay first a word from our sponsors here this episode of the majority report is brought to you by wild grain.

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We are back and we are joined now by professor Robert Pape professor of political science at the University of

Chicago founding director of the Chicago project on security and threats and publisher of the excellent sub stack the escalation trap professor thanks so much for coming on the show today.

Of course so this bombing campaign in Iran which the Trump administration has dubbed operation epic fury is supposedly aiming for regime change but your book and your work your book your research also on your sub stack has been analyzing air campaigns since world war one.

What is the rate of success for air campaigns for toppling governments it's brutal we are over every effort tried so the way of history now is bearing down on President Trump not just Iranian drones for over 100 years states have been trying to topple governments with air power alone and just you know think about what you're hearing now how magical it would be if everything would just work out in a few days.

It's quick and decisive almost nobody dies on maybe even on either side except leaders well this is been seductive it was seductive in the dumb bomb age seductive even more in the precision age and I now call it the smart bomb trap because we're we're getting trapped and it has never and I'm choosing my words carefully never worked.

Never zero zero percent yeah that we it's zero we we really don't have so my book bombing the win goes to 40 air campaigns okay so just to put some numbers on this we've probably conducted about another 15 or so not just the United States but other countries since that book and I published an article on foreign affairs on each and every one of those including last summers.

Typically before they happen or early on to explain what to expect there's another piece by for by me and foreign affairs coming out in a few days so just just be aware I kind of yes again it's the paper article on the precision air campaign and and all the all I have to do is just update it with the concrete details because the same problems come up and right now you're seeing it's all the the target set

that was splendidly struck on on Saturday morning it really was but it was always going to be splendidly struck there's nothing extraordinary about that.

We've been doing after 30 years with precision air power there's there's some new tools a little bit but that 100% tactical success did not lead to strategic success.

So it did not take down the regime it did not even set the regime back from being able to lash back and that first your listeners will remember we talked about you know oh that was just the spasms of the dying body no this is a coordinated surgical precision air campaign these are precision guided drones.

So they are targeting in ways we the air for I talked to the US Air Force on parallel attack I know quite a bit about all these details and the bottom line is what you are seeing is Iran taking a page not not just with drones but the actual strategy of parallel attack and you're seeing that it's paralyzing.

From the airports we're trying to now madly rush to get half million to a million Americans out in days when the airports are shut down.

You see this is what we're up against now is the typical failure in the smart bomb trap we're in stage two stage one happened we're now in stage two there's a stage three so if you've been reading the sub stack you just know what what's coming.

Can you explain that a little bit then I mean I want to also go back a little bit in history to talk about the transition from dumb bombs to the precision age and how it hasn't made a difference at all but take us through the different stages of the escalation trap also the name of your sub stack but also the smart bomb track but trap which is specific to this bombing campaign.

So we've always had this a war that we could use air power to take down regimes we call it taking down the regime with the precision age however once you know you can highly rely 80 90% of the time the bombs will land within five to 15 feet of the target and the blast radius is 25 feet now you know that you can put the bomb right in an office in a building not just simply on a building or on a city block.

That from the day one of these precision weapons led to the idea of killing we call it decapitating leaders.

The first precision air campaign in history was by Ronald Reagan April 1986 to decapitate Kadoffi in Libya.

We missed him he stepped out of his tent literally seconds before the bombs fell killed everybody in that tent including his three year old daughter

and then two years later he retaliated by having his Libyan agents blow up Pan Am Flight 103 killing 271 civilians 190 Americans two years after you see so so the bad guys don't have to respond right away.

Here what you're seeing is this is stage one we have the 100% tactical success on that Saturday.

Now we're in stage two where it has failed to take down the regime or even stop it from coherently lashing back in ways that are incredibly painful to us.

And we don't even know where the fizzle that this you're enriched uranium is my goodness gracious we've got nothing for all this bombing.

And so what are we doing now we're trying to double down and at the same time President Trump is looking for the golden offering.

He's trying to say well what can I claim I was doing even though I've given all these videos about I want to take down the regime.

What can I say I got out of this and that's what you see this mad scramble for in in in Washington and people are very loyal to the president here.

I'm not trying to be any you know I'm very pro American.

It's not about being anti anybody.

It's but at the bottom line is we are in stage two and we are not coming out of this very well and we have unleashed a wicked escalation on the region.

And it's not clear to me Iran's just going to stop this we've been really pushing this tiger pretty hard and they're now pretty fed up.

I made the mistake of going into your replies on Twitter and so I'm going to play devil's advocate here and this is not an argument I subscribed to.

I'm just curious.

I love this and people are trying they love the game can we get the professor so that's okay let's play again.

Yes well so this is conservatives are saying that okay your theory about this having a about air campaigns having a 0% success rate toppling government since World War one doesn't take into account the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and they would say that that constitutes a success by your metric.

What is your response to that?

Rebombing to win of course I'm not talking about nuclear bombing I'm talking about conventional bombing I make that absolutely clear see what happens in the game of gotcha here is they sort of pretend as if they read the books but they haven't actually read the book.

All you have to do is go to Amazon and you have to buy the book just go to read the sample.

You will see this completely taken off the table not an issue here now of course if Donald Trump decides he's going to turn around the glass with nuclear weapons and kill 92 million people that would be a different story.

That would be a change will happen with the death of 92 million people so this is what so again let's this is the silliness that we get and it's not just by the way social media this is just what happens in the age of gotcha where they tried it but let's keep going I love the game let's and maybe they'll score point so let's let's be honest about it.

Right keep it up right here the laughter of your fun let's let's have a little humor in this really tragic horrible time I mean that's that's the show's mantra get the professor let's and maybe before let's do it let's do it all right well just wanted to ask you but I was curious about your reaction to but but let's go back to to Iran here and if you are sorry about that.

So bring me back on and you'll have another group of absolutely once we have more time but but I just wanted to ask a little bit more about the history of precision bombing and and what constitutes precision bombing what bombing campaigns look like prior to this age and what they look like after and why.

Yeah just because people want to know about the mechanics I did a big sub stack on this yesterday yeah the key thing to know is that word precision we've used that even in World War 2 and in World War 2 we have a thing called a Norden bomb site that the British didn't have and the British bombs fell within five miles of their target so just think about that for a moment.

American bombs were called precision because half the time we could get them within a thousand feet so just think about that for a second.

So had we bombed Auschwitz for example a big thing I've studied and written and so forth we would have likely killed somewhere between ten and forty thousand Jews in the bombing campaign to destroy four of the furnaces just to kind of put this in some perspective and that was called precision now.

What happened is in the nineteen eighties the electronics revolution the digital age comes in so just like digital we're used to that and that impacted lasers at first you could use lasers to guide the target in.

Then you could do have GPS just like we have on our phones even better than lasers so now we have a mix of laser guide we used to use radio guided that was also but now they can fall these bombs can fall with the laser guide and you can adjust the fence so you can literally adjust the fence on the way down.

So they fall even in moderate winds within about five to fifteen feet of a target now if you have a gale it's not going to work so hurricane one you don't bomb you're not going to do it but this is really the why I call it the smart bomb trap you see because what happens is when you get the PowerPoint briefing and it's going to be spiffy and it's going to look very professional you know what is the president Trump like to say it you know made for TV.

It's going to look very impressive and it's going to be true we're any target we can visibly see we have a over ninety percent chance of destroying that target in just one go round you might have to put a couple of bombs on it but you you will be able to do that that tends to create the illusion of control control over time not just on that hour of contact on the first instance.

So that's really the trap and I've seen this I've advised every White House since 2001 2001 2004 not this one yet but the first Trump White House and I advised chiefs of staff of the Air Force chief naval operations that's top Navy so secretaries of defense that that issue I'm talking about it's very seductive even when you have super smart folks doesn't matter Democrat Republican.

That temptation of control is really there you see and when you talk about if I could just jump in for a second the fact that it's an illusion is really important to understanding here the illusion of control and the trap that's coming in here because

can you speak a little bit about how your research has found that this this kind of bombing campaign and this mode of warfare has increased kind of nationalist sentiment and does nothing except hard and nationalist sentiment but it creates but there's bloodshed we've killed nearly a thousand or over a thousand people at this point in Iran but in terms of effectiveness for the stated goals that doesn't seem to be on table.

So before the bombing happens there is the society and the regime and often there's a gap between the society and the regime and right now what President Trump has a 38% approval rating so you could say there's a gap between the society and President Trump but when you take the third actor in the foreign military attacker they are coming in and they're picking a government you hear today.

And Trump is literally looking at the list of possible replacements for the eye he just killed no not going to go there not it's like he's on the apprentice and he's going to pick the you see this is not going to go down well in Iran and it's and what you're doing is you're infusing the idea of nationalism with the ideas they may not like their leader but they don't want to be run by Donald Trump or anybody else certain that Yahoo Trump or anybody else.

And so what you're doing is you're changing the game and you're infuse that you're changing politics inside of the target and that is fusing that nationalism the society and the regime closer together and it allows the regime to do more aggressive things it makes it harder for the moderates the pro democracy moderates to go up against their own regime because now they're henchmen of a foreign military power.

If you don't mind analogies here with America I think are very helpful so we know that Iran has tried to assassinate President Trump several times well what if they were to succeed tomorrow would Democrats take to the streets and drove thanking Iran and saying hey come on over in New York to Times where we're going to party with you.

I don't think that's going to happen and you can see right away they would lose the midterms badly if they did that's nationalism here and it's not because Democrats of course have any love for Donald Trump.

It's because of nationalism same dynamic supply this is really human nature it's not a democratic thing it's not a Republican thing it's not a tribal thing people trying to complexify all this.

I mean dealing with a lot of complexifiers for a lot of years it's not that complex but it's about politics and when your eye is on the like mesmerized by that technology and you can go poof to any target you can see you're really not thinking about that politics and you're Intel they can't see this coming because it hasn't come.

So you can ask Intel and I've seen this happen go out there and get me all the best intel on the emerging nationalism here and it doesn't come and that's why I'm in the sub stack I'm giving some indicators here that are a little bit different here I'm telling you what to kind of keep your eyes on a little bit and you'll see that over time I'm going to try to help understand but the bottom line is that you the regime now is probably more resilient than it ever was this idea that we have destroyed it they're playing a long game.

And that's why Trump's looking for an off ramp to say what kind of deal can I get him to accept.

And lastly what do you anticipate the the outcome is going to be now that we are in the trap that you're describing when you say Trump is looking for an off ramp is that even possible.

He can take it it'll be a loser for him in the short term so he's not getting out of this with a golden off ramp that's for sure half a mega half of the republicans now it's 44 to 44 you see what I mean in the republicans support this so they're clearly divided on this pretty aggressively this is not just.

Democrat republicans split anymore and so even if he cuts a deal here that the the mega crowd is pretty angry at him right now if he goes further he'll then take the risk of becoming

Lyndon Johnson in the Vietnam War where where now the cost mounts so much and there's so he's got to in any quits later the political cost is even bigger i'm not saying you'll step down but you could easily see lose the house in the Senate and maybe get close to 60 democratic seats in the Senate the republicans

are going to forget him for that so that's not going to be these are his choices now he wherever he stops tomorrow or three months from tomorrow we have a wicked problem on our hands there are there is a thousand pounds of 60% in rich

uranium enough for 10 bonds and another 10,000 pounds of five and 20% in rich uranium enough for a couple more and we don't know where an ounce of that is so we can walk away from this but there's a good chance

that aronnie's not walking away from this there there there weren't in the lesson here that we were taught a model of a lot of lessons here and i think that this is really the trap in the smart bomb trap we are we are really in a negative some world.

well our professor Robert pape thanks so much the escalation trap is on sub stack and you can check it out over there we'll put the link to that down below thanks so much for your time today really appreciate

thank you enjoy the lot thank you quick break and when we come back we'll be joined by grace Blakely and we'll be talking about the UK green parties victory.

we are back and we are joined by grace Blakely author including of the excellent recent book

capitalism corporate crimes back door bailouts and the death of freedom host of the roundup podcast and publisher on sub stack at grace Blakely dot com grace thanks so much for coming on the show back on the show thanks to having me of course so this is a we covered this last week the UK green parties pretty historic victory in this parliamentary by election but I need more context on British politics take us through why this was so significant

and and and what it means for like to say labor and the future of that failing party for example.

yeah so as your listeners will probably know kiss stammer who currently leads the labor party has been in power has been our prime minister for a while now and he took over after a period when the left was effectively leading and running the labor party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn now

stammer was elected by the membership on the basis that he would kind of continue a lot of Corbynism so particularly the kind of economic policies redistribution tackling inequality et cetera

and then he flipped sharply to the right so kicked out almost you know anyone who was sympathetic to the left within the party really rigidly centralized control

so he could really determine which people were able to get which seats which allowed him to put loyalists in place for the upcoming election

and he really just purged the left and for a while that left us those of us who are on the British left feeling pretty disillusioned and hopeless

and kind of looking around to see where we could build from and you know there's lots of springs of hope we have a vibrant labor movement we have lots of fantastic social movements the environmental movement but they had yet to kind of coalesce into a body that could represent everyone on the British left

we had Jeremy Corbyn attempt to try and start a new party in the form of your party that didn't really work there was a little too much factional in fighting and they weren't really able to get it off the ground

what was that over Grace I'm just curious because I assumed that that would be the more viable option but that didn't end up being the case

it's complicated and to be honest I don't know the full ins and outs

but effectively there are different people who are trying to work together backed by quite different groups and they don't trust each other

which is a problem that I think we have quite a bit on the left which is like people trying to work together in pretty complicated and difficult conditions

not necessarily being able to kind of come together and work towards the greater good but I've been really excited about with the Greens

I personally joined the Greens quite a while ago to encourage people to vote for the current leaders at Philansky

I've known him for a very long time I know that he's a really good leader he has great politics great values but also he's just a decent guy

and I think that's really come out over the course of this campaign people can really relate to him

he comes across really well on social media and in the media and that's really led to this big surge of support for the Greens

just showing that that big base of the left that was kicked out of the Labour Party really wants somewhere to go

and actually when we're able to kind of rally around an institution like the Greens we can bring so many more people

in around these popular policies of well three distribution investing in the green economy no more endless wars

all of these sort of like basic common sense things that most people agree with but just aren't represented among the mainstream political establishment

and that's what the Greens are really just doing right now

talk about Hannah Spencer who won in Gordon and Denton and what her campaign was centered around I know she was a plumber

was you know focused on a working class kind of policy said and also was strong standing up against the genocide in Gaza for example

yeah so there were a couple of things that Hannah Spencer did really well the first of which was focusing on as I said those kind of key common sense issues

that really resonate with most people which is stuff like dealing with the cost of living crisis what you guys would call the affordability crisis

taking a really strong and principled stance on Gaza which a lot of people are extremely angry about that is a significant Muslim population in the seat that she was running for

so that was obviously a rallying cry for them but it was also something about which a significant number of particularly young people

and by young I'm talking anyone under kind of 40 50 was really really passionate about and still are

there was also a real strength of Hannah's was that she was able to mobilize people to come out and fight and knock on doors and speak to people

and one thing that I'm consistently hearing amongst the activists who went to kind of volunteer knock on doors and speak to local constituents

was that they were really invested in listening to what people were concerned about

and then taking that back and like orienting their political messaging around that

I think that was what was really exciting for me was that it just the campaign showed what's possible

when you get these like powerful movements of passionate people who are able to work together

and like listen and then plan campaigning and messaging off the back of that

it is really exciting to see that kind of like movement building happening again in such an individualistic

and kind of isolated society and then the final thing of course was that she was very relatable

the Greens historically have probably been more of like a middle class party

uniting people who are to the left but also socially liberal progressive on the climate

and their task now is ready to broaden that base and to do that they have to get more candidates like Hannah

how have they responded to socialist movements in the UK have they evolved to be more amenable to socialism?

Yeah so the UK Greens are slightly different from Greens in a lot of Europe

in like Germany and a few other European countries green parties are basically kind of liberal

so quite centrist liberal in I guess the UK European sense of the word like in the middle of the political spectrum

basically often kind of like pro market but socially liberal and obviously focused on green issues

in the UK they've always been more left of centre

you know we have a similar sort of electoral system as what you guys have in the US

it's a majoritarian system so it really kind of militates against the emergence of third parties

unless they have really strong local representation so the Greens have historically been a kind of marginal force

they had a really powerful leader in parliamentary leader in Caroline Lucas

who was just seen as a kind of really strong campaigner on the climate on things like inequality

but it's really been since the left was kicked out of the Labour Party

that the Greens have kind of been reorganised as a new force, a really strong force on the left of British politics

and you know people have reacted to that in different ways some long standing members have kind of been like wow

okay our party is changing quite a lot but they can't deny the fact that in you know

soaking up all of this energy that exists on the left of British politics

and that doesn't have any representation right now the Greens are being propelled to a position that we haven't really seen before

and what's fascinating as well about this point in time is that we are seeing the breakdown of that two-party chokehold

on British politics that's existed for a century and new parties for better or worse

are beginning to really like emerge and build power and we will see what happens

at the next election as to whether that will translate into parliamentary representation

well that's my last question because I know we have you for a limited time

the one when is the next election most likely and two can you speak about the rise of the far right

reform party under national forage we've been covering this for a while

but it feels obviously quite similar just the polarization that we're seeing in our politics

even though we're still in this two-party system

yeah so in terms of the next election in all likelihood we have a few years

yeah it's really within the remit of the government to determine when the next election is

it has to be within a five-year period they'll likely this Labour government will likely hold on for as long as

conceivably possible because they are extremely unpopular and many of those MPs are going to lose their seats

so they're going to want to have as much time as possible to figure out how they can translate their parliamentary careers

into nice lucrative careers in the private sector I'm sure

but you know we are facing this big challenge which is the rise of the far right in terms of reform

and that has been something that's been building a British politics for a really really long time

it was kind of for a while sidelined by the movement to leave the European Union

but the disappointment that has been associated with that process as well as the ongoing profound

mistrust and anger towards political elites

combined with the affordability crisis has driven increasing support among the far right

what I will say is that this is a very age dependent story

so right now anyone basically under 60 like the Greens have a vast a huge lead in the polls

you know if it was just people under 60 who were voting the Greens would be storming the next elections

it's the over 60 group people who possibly kind of own their own homes have maybe seen their living standards fall somewhat

and you know maybe a socially a bit more conservative and have a tendency to kind of blaming particularly migrants

and other underrepresented groups for that shift in their economic circumstances

they're the ones that are really driving that support for the far right

and yes there is a story to be said here among their increasing popularity among young men

but this is really predominantly an age story here

so the question is you know how's that going to break down when we look at voting patterns

and also can left parties really mobilize on the basis of that anger towards the political establishment

and translate that into a more positive message around okay we can change things

we don't just have to boot all the immigrants out and hope for the best

we can instead think about this positive economic message that relies on redistribution

and preparing for a kind of more sustainable and more equal future

well a boom homing boomers boomers being racist and ruining our politics

I don't want to say it like that but that's our situation too

so I'm glad to know that we're in somewhat of a similar boat gracefully

I mean the culture capitalism if you haven't read it at this point what's wrong with you

check out her book and then also gracefully.com publisher on sub-stack

thanks so much for taking the time I know that you were time limited so I really appreciate it

thanks so much for having me it's great Steve

of course bye

well let's uh there's Grace is a sub-stack she's great

she's great and that focus phenomenal

I wanted to wrap up with one more story since we're not at one p.m yet

so we can squeeze some more news in because we didn't get to this the other day

but um Kristi Nome has testified now she testified in front of the Senate

and and House Judiciary panels yesterday and Tuesday so

yeah earlier this week

and um apparently there was an item in in punch bowl this morning

that Trump is supposedly calling a bunch of other Republicans on the hill

to ask for advice about whether or not he should fire Kristi Nome

and apparently it was this exchange with Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana

who um asked her about this 220 million dollar contract for this ad campaign

it was awarded to a company that I think it was like

10 or 11 days or something like that it was created

eight

eight days

so a week in change that's how old this company was that the DHS uh

what you don't like startups?

I don't like innovation um

they got this major major contract and what do you know

it was connected to the husband of the DHS spokeswoman

who resigned uh two weeks ago

so here is Kennedy asking Kristi Nome about that and this was apparently the thing

that made Trump most upset about uh her her hearing

good what because he didn't get a cut

probably or because she was getting more attention

uh in an ad campaign

I'm sorry to interrupt

but the president approved ahead of time you spending

220 million dollars

running TV ads across the country in which you

feet are featured prominently

yes sir we went through the legal processes did it correct?

did the president know you're going to do this?

yes he did

yes okay um

and one thing Senator I think would be

helpful to know is how effective that communications has been

then uh overwhelmingly

well effective in your name recognition um

I mean I personally just

I mean to me it puts the president in a terribly awkward spot

and it

and I just I'm not saying you're not telling the truth

it's just hard for me to believe knowing the president

as I do that you said Mr. President

here's some ads I've cut and I'm going to spend

220 million dollars

running them that he would have agreed to that

I don't think Russ vote

at OMB would have agreed to that

it's something we have to defend

I'm on the Appropriations Committee

um I mean

my research shows that you did not

bid them out that

you in fact one of the people you picked

the strategy group

I'm sorry

say for America media

was a company

formed 11 days before

you picked them

and that the strategy group got most of the money

and the head of that

is

married to your former spokesperson

I'm I'm

look we all have friends that are qualified

I'm not quittling with that

I'm just

it troubles me

fifth to a quarter of the

billion dollars

taxpayer money

when when we're scratching forever penny

and we're fighting over

recession packages

I just can't agree

with Madam Secretary

are you still running those ads?

Senator I did not have anything to do

with picking those contractors

no politicals at the department

all necessary did it

I'm not sure

the one that is running

is focusing on angel families

have you seen that

it is the one that's talking about

this is our why

this is why we work every day

is for the angel families

and all the money that the government

gives us in contracts

and angel families

have you seen that one?

it's fantastic

the angel family

the angel family

she says the Kennedy

let's play

let's play an example of this

clearly this has to be why Trump

was upset about it

brazen corruption

giving contracts to your friends

from I guess

back in South Dakota

there's no way that Trump is really

that upset

I don't like that kind of

I run a clean operation here

she had Trump's permission

makes me think that he has

information that Trump has been

unhappy with this prior to that

I think that that's also why

you're seeing that leak in

political that Trump is making

the rounds calling Republicans

on the hill she's such a show

about which I hate

and she's been in

attention seeker

makeup

plastic surgery

what did she think she's in one of my

pageants

I honestly

why is there a woman in her forties

on a campaign

and why is she brunette

hasn't she

dealt with that

already look girl or she's

barely recognizable these days

but he wants to go blonde

go blonde

it's not that hard

but we have to watch his ads

to be a celebrity

and prominently featuring herself

in these ad campaigns

why do I love these wide

open spaces?

I

not just for its beauty

but for the freedom only America

provides

from the cowboys

who tame the west

to the tightens who build our cities

to the dreamers who chase the impossible

always rewarded vision

finally Trump

our greatness calls people to us

for a chance to prosper

to live how they choose

to become part of something special

anyone who searches for freedom

can always find a home here

but that freedom's a precious thing

and we defend it vigorously

you cross the border illegally

we'll find you

break our laws

we'll punish you

but if you come here the right way

your American dream

can be as big as these endless guys

from prison

whatever math

I did not appear in that ad

until halfway

through

they prioritize

the slow motion video

of christine home

wrangling cattle

I love the idea

they still paint lips

which we're trying to make it hard to do

in every single second

there's anything happening in the rest of the world

our first comment is

yeah we're not accepting any refugees from there

even if it's our bombs that are causing it

it's weird that they even need to pay

I think

it's a sign that they know

that fundamentally people are not on board

with this

thankfully Stephen Miller Nazi style

closing of the border

isn't it amazing when you can trust

the law

with the

understanding that

when christine home took over

DHS

that she required

that and this was under I think the one big ugly

ugly ass bill

when after she got all of that money

150 billion dollars for DHS

they still have this policy

that she had to personally approve

any payment

or any grant

she included

like her new

responsibilities

as it related to things like disaster relief

and funds that people would need

just to have

like the

that would be

I guess kind of greenlit in a normal circumstance

any payment over a hundred thousand dollars

within the hundred and fifty billion dollar budget

means you're just

putting every contract

or grant on hold

but here's a

hundreds of millions of dollars

in this slosh fund for my friend

and her husband

sponsored by the United States

Department of Homeland Securities

what it says at the end of that ad

that is a two hundred

million what is this

negu says hundred and forty three

million dollars of taxpayer dollars

into a company that has no headquarters

no website do you want to play this

two before we

do

the

another

exchange

this is the house

this has got to be though a different

it's a different contract

a different hundred million dollar

yes no rather she's involved in

right because the

I would assume let's hear what he's talking about

here

I've seen this yet

this

in just a second

two of them

are inaccurate

madam madam secretary

I'll read from the notice from your agency

given the immediate action to significantly reduce illegal immigration

and border crossings

dhs invite excuse me identified

four companies

four of the hundreds of thousands of companies in the United States

you identified four

one of those is this safe American media company

where is safe American media headquartered

I don't know

I don't know either

we can't find it

we can't find a website

we did find an address

that's registered for this company

do you know where that address is

is there a problem with this contract

I'll tell you about it

I'll tell you about it

Madam secretary the red

registered to a political operative

in virginia

so just by way of example

whether this company that received $143 million in taxpayer

dollars has it ever done work for the government before?

I don't know I can't

the answer is it has not

and do you know why we know that?

because it was incorporated eight days

eight days before

this contract went out

you want the American people to believe

that this is all above board

that $143 million of taxpayer money

just happened to go to this one company

that doesn't have a headquarters

doesn't have a website

has never done work for the federal government before

and is registered

apparently or attached to a residence

from a political operative

and of course one of the subcontractors of that contract

as you know is a

political firm that's tied to you

back when you were governor of South Dakota

the reason why I asked these questions

this is taxpayer money

and I presume

I don't know this for a fact

but Senator Tillis noted yesterday

the way in which your agency

is blocking the inspector general

from 11 different investigations that it is trying to conduct

I don't know if this happens to be one of them

I certainly hope it is

because eventually the facts

will become public in this regard

and

So I guess the polymarket

odds on which

Republican

or which Trump administration official

is going to have

negative odds right now

Christy Nome

I feel like Pam Bonney has eaten so much shit

she does too much

I mean

I think she does that too much

Christy Nome

Christy Nome is an easy scapegoat

because they can

go back to peer

but tell him

he speaks with more authority

I can't understand it

that's what he says

and then

you know Steven Miller is just in his ear

like she bungled this

we should have done it my way

or the highway

and he's back on television now

selling the Iran war to the public

maybe we'll play his hysterical

spitting in the fun half here

but I just am tickled by the idea

that of all of these scandals

the thing that is embarrassing Trump the most

is this expensive ad campaign

going to her buddies

and he doesn't care about that on principle

he cares about it probably

probably because he's seeing the ad

and he doesn't like how he's not central in it

I think there might be a pattern

of commercial media grifting

going on by Christy Nome

because this ad came out

and it made waves in 2019

and the tagline is

meth were on it

I remember this

saying that like what you had suggested to me

with Drake that there are people

that are working on Drake

it goes writers that are working on Drake

songs that they're putting in

to embarrass them

to embarrass him secretly

are you trying to say that that's the dynamic

and Christy Nome's ad campaign

I just think they like to scam this way

by giving media stuff and they don't really care about what they put out

how embarrassing looks

but let's just watch this meth campaign

I'm on meth

I'm on meth

I'm on it too

so am I

I'm on meth

meth is not someone else's problem

it's everyone in South Dakota's problem

and we need everyone to get on it

I'm on it

I'm on it too

the implication is that

not enough people are on meth

we'll be too clever if

I'm going to say to Armando Yannucci

right?

okay

it could work

I'm on it

if all of the people that they showed previously

weren't cuddly grandmas

and boys on the football team

they would have had to show them as struggling

and having difficulty

but it's like everyone in your community is on meth

you got to get on it

no they're on it like we're on stopping it

no I get it that's the divide

no I think you're both wrong

I think what they're saying is meth is something that

it doesn't go to the stereotypes you usually think of

and it's a wider public health crisis

I'll just say this isn't an ad that's too clever by half

it's too treated as a public health crisis

no Brian you were right

everybody in that ad is supposedly

taking on meth

we're on it boss

that's the double on time

I didn't know if there was a transition

to the people that were like tweaking on meth

to the others who were helping fight it

but it is

a little too convoluted for a PSA

I gotta say

but I hope they got a nice little government contract

100 million dollar commercial

probably coasters in every barn

South Dakota

we're on it

we honestly probably should try to find

some of those t-shirts in the way that we have that

Jeb Merch

Merch somewhere around the office

that's like a yeah

that's a that's a collector

probably has a big wash in like three years

I'm not touching

I'm not touching that

so folks

we're gonna wrap up the free part of this program

we're gonna head into the

fun have

shortly

Matt what's happening?

I'm left reckoning with the Jacobin show

and I know you were on the van guard

last night

yeah I was on the van guard

yesterday talking about

Platner and anti-Semitism

and other stuff go check that out

tomorrow Jacobin show

talking with Bronco March

she talks about the Iran war going into some of

the right wing's response to it

yeah

hello Brandon

hello Emma

how are you doing?

I'm actually not doing well

both personally

and I guess

as a content creator

personally I think I have a touch of the flu

oh no

as a content creator

but that's the minor thing

as a content creator

I'm being censored I think actively by YouTube

I have noticed that twice this week

the live stream has gone down

because I've been accused of violating

the fire arms policy

on YouTube for live streaming

because you're not allowed to have

anyone handling

fire arms in a video

in a live stream

now the first time I got dinged

for playing that video clip

of those Cuban expats

who tried to raid Cuba

but you're not doing that

you would think that

and then the second time though

today I hit again

because I played a video

of Glenn Beck playing a video

of AI George Washington

which included a musket

and they said that that

it's never been a better time

to support the discourse

on Twitch

on YouTube even though

I'm still out of post videos

it's not go live

it's just another example

of the ways in which

I personally not the left

but the left also

but I personally

am constantly being victimized

by the many tech overlords

that run our lives

so I'm asking you the people

to come on the right side

the brand inside

the side of the discourse

free the discourse

Absolutely

I am

at youtube.com

slash my bender

tuning for

an episode of the left

is mafia

do so

and for my

plugs

I guess it's been like a week

since it's been released

but if people still haven't

checked it out

live at Dynasty typewriter 3 30 p.m.

Obviously Francesca Fiorentini, Van Lathan,

Ida Rodriguez, perhaps some other special guests.

We shall see, but I know that tickets are scarce at this point.

So if you want to come, now is the time to get the tickets

and they're like 30 bucks plus a fee.

It's going to be a really, really fun afternoon.

Also join the majority report.com.

Please helps us stay resilient in times of censorship

and with the third party of platforms that were on,

being a little bit scary to rely on as Brandon just elucidated for us.

So join the majority report.com.

Help us stay alive in an independent media ecosystem that is not the best.

So see you on the fun half.

Okay, Emma, please.

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

Wait.

Well, look, Sam is unpopular.

I do deserve vacation at Disney World.

So ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to welcome Emma to the show.

It is Thursday.

I don't think you need to take over for sale.

Well, yes, please.

Sir, I'm Emma.

I'm a pause right there.

We're good.

You can't encourage Emma to live like this.

And I'll tell you why.

That's not what we're about here.

Well, look at how sad he's become now.

We shouldn't even talk about it.

I know I think you're not.

I probably am in a certain way.

But let's get to the meltdown here.

Twerk?

Oh, sushi and poker with the boys.

Oh, my God.

Wow.

Sushi.

I'm losing my fucking mind.

Someone's offered a tour.

Yeah.

Sushi and poker with the boys.

Logic.

Sushi and poker with the boys.

Logic.

Sushi and poker with the boys.

Boy, boy, boy.

Boy, boy, boy.

I think I'm like a little kid.

I think I'm like a little kid.

I think I'm like a little kid.

I think I'm like a little kid.

I think I'm like a little kid.

I think I'm like a little kid.

I think I'm like a little kid.

I think I'm like a little kid.

At this debate, seven thousand times.

I think I'm like a little kid.

I think I'm like a little kid.

I think I'm like a little kid.

I'm losing my fucking mind.

I'm losing my fucking mind.

I'm losing my fucking mind.

I think I'm like a little kid.

I think I'm like a little kid.

I think I'm like a little kid.

I think I'm like a little kid.

I think I'm like a little kid.

I think I'm like a little kid.

I think I'm like a little kid.

That's not what we're talking about here is not a fun job

That's a real thing. That's that's what the majority report was just you

subject. Rangers and next year. I don't want people saying reckless things on your program.

That's one of the most difficult parts of this show. This is a pro killing podcast.

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

Trump, I let twerp.

Don't be foolish and don't fucking treat any, and don't get changed.

The weight and all this cutthroat is before my blood.

That's where my heart is, so I wrote my honor species about it.

Oh, my honor species.

I guess I should hear the main mic to you now.

You want to hear the right song?

We already fun this real dude. Are you against that?

That's a tough question.

I have an answer to you.

That's an incredible steam song.

I bumbler.

Emma Viglin, absolutely one of my favorite people, actually not just in the game, like

period.