Emma hosts Brian Mier, correspondent for teleSUR English, to discuss the upcoming 2nd round of Brazilian elections between former President Lula Da Silva and current President Jair Bolsonaro. Then, Emma is joined by Aaron Kleinman, director of research for the States Project at Future Now, to discuss the current projections for the control of state legislatures across the country as the midterm elections approach. Emma first runs through updates on the first week of the new SCOTUS term – likely as they are to uphold Alabama’s racial gerrymandering – Trump’s request to reverse the circuit 11 rulings opening up his stolen documents to the DOJ, and union-busting efforts by Apple and Amazon before diving deeper into this weekend’s Herschel Walker news, as Right-Wing nutjobs come out of the woodworks to defending voting for a hypocrite. Brian Mier then joins as he and Emma get right into contextualizing the results of the first round of the Brazilian presidential election, with Lula’s PT workers party actually becoming the first example of an incumbent losing the first round of a presidential election, and likely to keep the steam going with the third and fourth parties rallying behind him, despite the undermining coverage he and his party have gotten from the Right-Wing Brazilian press. Next, they tackle the role of the other parties in the first round of the election, with Ciro Gomes largely funneling his voters to Bolsonaro (despite his party’s post-election affiliation to Lula), and why they seemed to be more intent on taking down Lula than Bolsonaro, also touching on the down-ballot success of the workers’ party, particularly when it comes to the victories of Afro-Brazilian candidates. Wrapping up they explore the role of voting fraud in the election, and where US-Brazilian relations are likely to go from here. Aaron Kleinman and Emma then give the midterms a heat check as we enter October, exploring how the Dobbs decision bolstered Americans’ fears of Right-Wing legislatures, walking through the massive importance of elections in Arizona and Pennsylvania (featuring two of the more heavily anti-democracy legislatures), and emphasizing the importance of on-the-ground organizing in these efforts. They also tackle what to expect in Michigan (and whether the Dems can flip their legislature) and why Maine’s incredibly progressive agenda could be challenged by a return of Governor LePage.

And in the Fun Half: Emma tackles the pseudo-artsy voyeurism of “Blonde,” Jon calls in to discuss the American coverage of Iran, misinformation, and whom the American left should engage with to learn about this issue. Megan Kelly and Dave Rubin discuss whether it matters that Herschel Walker was an incredibly abusive parent/husband/member of society, and Brian Kilmeade stretches out his Fox-News softball arm in an interview with Herschel himself. Margaret discusses helping introverts to Get Out the Vote, and Emma and the crew dive into updates on Amazon’s work stoppage over fire safety issues and the union-busting that followed, plus, your calls and IMs!

Check out Brian’s latest piece here: https://www.brasilwire.com/media-spins-lula-victory-as-defeat/

Check out the States Project here: https://statesproject.org/

Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com: https://fans.fm/majority/join