It’s Hump Day! Sam speaks with Jarod Facundo, writing fellow at The American Prospect, to discuss his recent piece entitled “Rural Letter Carriers Push for Union Decertification.” Then, he’s joined by Dr. Sara Nur Yildiz, professor in history at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, to discuss the developing situation in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. First, Sam runs through updates on a brand new Donald Trump fraud charge, labor action with the UAW and WGA, the FTC suit against Amazon, net neutrality, the Senate’s continuing resolution, and GOP fascism, before parsing through the absurd news coverage making parallels between Joe Biden visiting the UAW picket line and Donald Trump visiting a NON-union manufacturer. Jarod Facundo then joins, diving right into the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association’s ongoing project to decertify their own union in the face of union collusion and malpractice with Louie DeJoy’s postal service. Facundo briefly outlines the structure of unions in the letter carrier world, before walking through NRLCA’s myriad failures in recent years, resulting in cuts to hours, overtime, and general labor costs with the implementation of the RRECS system – all of which were underexaggerated to union members. Next, Jacob and Sam explore the much broader infrastructure of US unions, with most functioning under the Teamsters, AFL-CIO, and SEIU, as they assess why current NRLCA members want to reorganize under the Teamsters, why the Teamsters are hesitant to outwardly organize with them, and why that conflict is putting such a delay on NRLCA members’ decertification project. Professor Sara Nur-Yildiz then walks Sam through the historical and geographical context for the ongoing cultural genocide of Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh region by Azerbaijan, tackling the ethnic history of the region, and the slow development of nationalism within the respective countries over the pre-soviet and soviet periods. Expanding on this, Professor Nur-Yildiz walks through the explosion of violence in the latter half of the 1900s, with a mass pogrom of Azeris, and the eventual Russian-brokered ceasefire that cemented the Armenian victory in the region. Next, Nur-Yildiz looks to the recent military action, with the Four-Day War in 2020 seeing the billionaire-backed Azerbaijan regime of Ilham Aliyev reclaim control of the disputed territory, and implement a blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of hundreds of thousands, forcing a mass exodus of Armenia refugees facing rampant death and starvation. Wrapping up, Professor Sara Nur-Yildiz brings Sam through the major factors in Azerbaijan’s invasion and cultural genocide – mainly the business interests of the billionaire capitalists – and why the Oligarch PR complex might be the only thing preventing a full-throated genocide.

And in the Fun Half: Sam discusses developments in Rumble’s viewership numbers, Tim Pool sees the beginning of the end as Chicago begins tackling food security, and the MR Team walks through the myriad success stories of state-run grocery stores. Tommy Tuberville votes against the woke military, and Jesse Watters gets embarrassed across various Fox programs, plus, your calls and IMs!

Check out Jarod’s work at the Prospect here: https://prospect.org/topics/jarod-facundo/

Check out “Decertify NRLCA” here: https://decertifynrlca.com/

Follow Sara on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/SN_Yildiz

Check out Sara’s piece, co-authored with Djene Bajalan & Vazken Davidian, in Jacobin from 2020: https://jacobin.com/2020/10/azerbaijan-armenia-conflict-nationalism-colonialism

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