Epstein Attended Trump’s Wedding. DOJ’s Hiding Files. MAGA’s Demanding Answers. 7/23/25

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh my gosh. Pause, please please please remain standing? Yes, please,
I am I am overwhelmed by your recorded applause. It
is quite a magnificent thing on this Wednesday in America. Yes,
we are a troubled country, but we are not completely

(00:22):
crashing against the rocks. There are still those in America
who are guiding the the ship of state, are trying
to and among those who are the opinions that once
in a while, Albert, when I start speaking like this,
I realized, with of minute, I've just spoken myself into
a corner. I don't even know what I'm saying, and

(00:43):
I feel like that's one of those Albert, thank you.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Get out of it.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, I really can't get out of it. I don't
know what.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
You've been a member of the Chinese Communist Party.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
And I'm what I'm trying to say is there are
opinions that help shape the What am I trying to say?
Do you have any thoughts on?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
I don't really like the way this whole show has started.

Speaker 4 (01:06):
Can we start over again?

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Kim is here? How are you guys? What I'm trying
to say is in the body politics there are opinions
you see that will ultimately influence collective thought, and one
of those opinions is with us today. John Rothman joins
this bottom of the hour, that's kind of what I
was saying in Our two. Belinda Weymouth is here with

(01:32):
it's the planet stupid. News of the environment, the EPA,
as you know, essentially being dismantled. Bring on the pollution.
Let's get this country back to the nineteen sixties when
you couldn't breathe, you couldn't swim, you couldn't plant anything,
you couldn't have your kids go play outside. Let's get
America back to that. And that is the state of

(01:57):
the environment. We'll talk to Blenda back there. Actually, there's
a phenomena that is going viral. It's about mass movements
of animals in Yellowstone. It has been wildly misunderstood, and
I will speak to it along with Belinda. When we

(02:22):
talk to Belinda later in the program, it'll be our two.
There is much going on and we will get to it.
The thing that really whipped Albert's head around was the
fact that in and out Burger is leaving California was

(02:43):
the headlines. But in truth, they're not leaving California, are
they Albert. They're going to remain here.

Speaker 4 (02:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:49):
My heart stopped for just a quick second until I
realized it was the I guess, the heiress or the
one who's in charge of the heiress.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
That's exactly right. She inherited the Yeah, indionnaire.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Who feels it's just too hard to raise a family
in California.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Her name is Lindsay Snyder, I believe, and she is
of the belief that California is too expensive. It's too
I think she's at odds with it politically a bit,
you know, and that might be a polite way of
putting it. She is moving a part of In and Out,
you know, Shanna, as they expand. She's saying they are

(03:26):
moving to Tennessee, where life is better, life's more affordable,
and she's leaving California behind. But she wants people to know,
and she made a public statement about it that NEILOK,
she loves California. California's where they built this great brand,
and In and Out isn't going anywhere except we are

(03:47):
expanding to Tennessee and that will allow our employees to
be able to buy homes. This was kind of the
good spin on it. There others would say she's a
hard right winger. She is. She's a full on you
know anti.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
They put the Bible, they put the Bible passages on
the inside of the hats and the bottom of the cups. Yeah,
they're very, very religious, and they give a lot of
money to conservatives, but they she said, there's a lot
of great things about California, but raising a family is
not easy here, and doing business is not easy here. Well,
really because doing business here allowed you to build in

(04:26):
and out, I.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Mean apparently apparently it didn't stand in your family's way exactly.

Speaker 5 (04:33):
I'm reading here that Tennessee doesn't tax individual income and
it ranks as according to the CNBC, ranking number eighth
overall in terms of how much money they taking from people.
I guess taxing more.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Of those billions for herself.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
Well, it's you know, better for her, by the way,
that's a great question. What is the net worth of
the CEO of In and Out Burke? What's the net
worth of Lindsey Snyder, the woman whose visage is on

(05:09):
the screen right now, She's built in and out along
with her family. It was really kind of built.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
It's hard out here for an errest mark.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
Yeah, it's hard out here for an error. Thirty three billion,
says John Watson. That seems like, oh wow, two hundred billions,
as phineas Jesus. Guys, do you know how much a
billion dollars is? Two hundred guys, guys, let me just
help you. Elon Musk is the richest guy in the world.

(05:40):
How much is he worth? Two hundred and thirty six
billions something like that? So she can't have two hundred
billion just based on that. Let's have let's have some
reason to these guesses, is all I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (05:52):
That's a little sexist.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
Mark.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
Well, I'm just saying you would hear her in the
conversation Waite who said six billions, give me somebody said
six billion, bring me, bring me six six point seven,
says Gil. That is that's her act six point seven. Yeah, Gil,
And I'm sure you came up with that six point
seven without googling at Gil. Yeah, I'm six point.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
Seven point three actually in the article that I'm looking at.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
Oh, is it really? You're right?

Speaker 2 (06:20):
Seven right three billion?

Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah, seven point three, you're right. Six point seven was
the old they sold some additional burgers in the time. Yeah,
that this article was written.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
Double double wild style, and you know that really rules
in the cash.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
Gil. I'm taking away your your ding of the six
point seven, but I'm also taking away my smart ass
comment about you having googled it, because that's not the
actual correct yees, so seven point three billion. Anyway, she
and her crew headed to Tennessee, where life is sweet
and they can sip chill drinks on the back port

(07:00):
of some Tennessee mansion. Anyway, that was the big news
that we were kind of all beside ourselves with the
other big news, and I would put this into the
Jeffrey Epstein distraction category was the news that Donald Trump

(07:20):
and the House Mago wing of the GOP they can't
move quickly enough to pledge their love for everything Trump,
and in this case, they want to rename the Kennedy
Center Opera House after Milania Trump. They are kiss they

(07:44):
are they are, they are everything Trump. They want to
sidle up to the House. Republicans on the Appropriations Committee
approved an amendment to the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies
Annual Spending Bill that would rename the Opera House in
the John F. Kennedy Center as First Lady Malania Trump

(08:11):
Opera House what Yeah, they.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
Made it contingent as well. Like you, it's conditional. You
don't get funding for the Kennedy Center unless you change
the name to this ridiculousness.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
I would say this, I'll be good changing the name
to the Milania Trump Opera House if Milania Trump and
Donald Trump together can name three operas all I'm asking

(08:48):
three operas, all.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
Right, I could name three operas exactly.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
That's why they're not naming opera houses after you. You're
not some fan of the opera. Nor is Donald Trump,
nor is Malania Trump. But that is the latest distraction.
And then let me say this isn't distraction necessarily that
Trump cooked up, but it's just like one more thing
that's going on. It falls into the the sycophants that

(09:16):
has kind of defined Washington as this leader has come
to power with such great strength and grip over this
entire party. Uh. The fact is that there is oh
is that I didn't I didn't see this. There is

(09:37):
a White House painting of Donald Trump surrounded by the
American flags and bald eagles.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
So these are this is with the Malania thing, and
this these are these wild distractions from the dirty, dirty
Epstein scandal.

Speaker 4 (09:55):
This is him.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
We will get to that shooting in wild directions, trying to,
you know, claim attention for all of these things. So
they did this picture and it's a painting. Yeah, oh
there it is. No, this is different. This is I
have it in there. This is a painting of Trump

(10:16):
surrounded by the American flag and bald eagles, and it's captioned,
I was the hunted, Now I'm the hunters. That's a
quote we've heard him say before. But it's this very
tacky picture that he's posting. So it's just one of
these crazy thing.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
It would be really great if we had that picture
right now. Do we not have?

Speaker 2 (10:38):
I think Albert's working on it.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
Okay, sick events is a ding word. You're right, and
thank you. I actually got a comment yesterday. I'll tell you.
I read the comments under the video. So of those
who are just joining us, there it is. I was
the hunted, Now I'm the hunter.

Speaker 6 (10:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
Another strong picture of Donald Trump. If you're just listening
and not watching, it's he's kind of got that. And
remember this is a painting. He has that kind of
square jawed look into the distance as though he is
vanquishing evil and defending all those things that are America.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
The fireworks in the background and the eagles flying in
the White House. Official account on x posted this and
they said with the comment they came after the wrong man.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
Oh yes, well again this is the stuff of madness.
I think. Actually the word you use, taki, is exactly right.
Like I mean, but taki has sort of begun to
define Washington. And you can call me a lib and
you can call me, you know, an elitist or whatever.

(11:54):
But there there was and always has been I think,
in this Republic a decision made that those things that
pertain to power would be related to the people in
such a way that gaudy palatial things, for example, associated

(12:15):
with the White House, you know, gold and big statues
that don't have historical significance but just have more of
an ornamental significance. You know, this kind of over the
top decoration that they're doing. That would never be something
that we would do in America, because the idea is
that the people I mean, obviously this is something that

(12:37):
is a fading dream, but that the people would have
a connection to the government and to power such that
you know, whose house the people's house, right the White
House is the people's house, that you have a stake
in your government, and not only a stake, but a
voice in the future. And so in that way, elevating

(12:59):
any one person and as you would a king or
a ruler is something that's very Unamerican. And through the
decades that has at least that philosophy has been more
or less reflected in again, as I say, the ways
that might just strike you as superficial but nonetheless can

(13:20):
be significant. So again, muted tones through the White House.
You know, when you go in there, there's a sense
of grandeur in the White House, but there isn't a
sense of royal grandeur. It's not like, you know, it's
not over the top. It hadn't been. Now when you
go in, there's a sense of a palace, like you're

(13:42):
going into Buckingham Palace or something like that. They have
really reconstituted the White House again in these superficial ways.
So that painting, you know, with Trump surrounded by eagles
and flags and look in the distance and the fireworks.
It's so tone deaf to the way America has always been,

(14:04):
at least as it's reflected in leadership historically. Even if
it's just been the lip service that's been paid to
the people's voice. It's just strikingly different than we've seen
through the decades. But there it is. I was the hunted,
now I am the hunter and a hunting we will go,

(14:25):
all right, welcome Mark Thompson Show. So I know that
this Jeffrey Epstein thing is something that when you look
at the range of problems and challenges and policy decisions
that have to be made in this country, Jeffrey Epstein

(14:45):
really is not a point of significance. But what has
vaulted it to a point of significance is the political
relevance it has had and it continues to have, and
Trump's obsession with and when you have a president working
so hard to skate away from something, it begins to

(15:06):
take on a significance from the standpoint of mystery about
what might be wrapped up in this case in the
Epstein files, and also the true toxicity of this thing
such that it's weighing down the Trump presidency. Now that's
not to say that he's not still able to do
all of the things that he wants to do, pursue

(15:27):
these immigration policies that are chaotic, that are aggressive, that
are illegal to build these detention centers to go after
the tariffs that are again also chaotic and illegal. But
this is just muted, honestly by the size of this
Epstein controversy, because the controversy associated with Jeffrey Epstein is

(15:51):
I think informs so much by just how horrifying a
guy Epstein was. I mean, he really had compromat seemed
on so many powerful people such that he was able
to get away with human trafficking. It's a grotesque, truly skeazy,
awful thing to read about what Jeffrey Epstein and his

(16:14):
associates did. And one of his associates, his prime associates,
former girlfriend and then became kind of the right hand
person for Jeffrey Epstein. She's serving time right now, Gallainne Maxwell, Right, Yeah, Well,
what we've learned is, and we touched on this yesterday
with David K. Johnston, is the number two person at

(16:36):
the Justice Department is going to go meet with her.
That in itself is extraordinary. I mean, her case has
been adjudicated, the cake is baked. She's serving twenty years.
Why you would go meet with her behind closed doors?
While there are congressional subcommittees that want her or to

(17:00):
testify in the open about what's in something of the
Epstein files that is bizarre. It almost as we were
saying yesterday only could point to a deal, Like what
additional information do you need from her? You fired Pam

(17:24):
BONDI did the prosecutor James Comey's daughter, who was the
prosecutor against Jeffrey Epstein, the one who got the conviction.
You fired her. That just happened a couple days ago. Right,
So I don't understand exactly what's going on, unless, as

(17:45):
I think we all have come to understand, you're going
to try to figure out a way in which she
might get a lesser sentence for time served or whatever
it might be, in return for an understanding that can
be implied or can be explicit that what she says

(18:08):
will not implicate Donald Trump. Clearly, there is stuff in
this Epstein file that is damaging to Donald Trump. Has
to be otherwise, why would he be so obsessed with it.
It doesn't make any sense if you truly had an
innocuous relationship where you were just piles didn't know anything
about it. And first of all, that's impossible to believe

(18:28):
that you would be around that guy. As much as
they were, they were best friends for so long. For
you to be that close to someone and not know
that he is a pedophile and a human trafficker, to
say it strains credulity, is to be polite. So now
Pam BONDI will also be going to meet with her.

(18:53):
The stakes in this Gallain Maxwell meeting have just been
upped even further. Albert, do you have the there's a
story on this, and I liked the legal rap on it,
and here it is from just a couple of hours ago.

Speaker 7 (19:10):
The Justice Department now intends to interview Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice,
Gallaine Maxwell, who's currently serving a twenty year prison sentence
in Florida for sex trafficking. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche
announced plans to meet with Maxwell in the coming days,
saying quote, if she has information about anyone who has
committed crimes against victims, the FBI and DOJ will hear

(19:31):
what she has to say. Maxwell's attorney confirmed discussions with
the government are underway, adding quote, Delaine will always testify truthfully.
President Trump was asked about the outreach to Maxwell at
the White House yesterday.

Speaker 8 (19:46):
Here's Department of Justice Department seeing an interview with Aliane aswell.

Speaker 3 (19:49):
Tour the Attorney General. I don't know anything about it.
They're going to know what meet.

Speaker 8 (19:54):
Her your general office, guys.

Speaker 6 (20:00):
Attorney Yeah, I don't know about it, but I think
it's something that would be sounds appropriate to.

Speaker 9 (20:06):
Do you, Attorney.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
No, I have no concern there.

Speaker 6 (20:14):
He's very he's a very talented person, he's very smart.

Speaker 4 (20:18):
I didn't know that.

Speaker 3 (20:19):
They were going to do it. I don't really follow
that too much. It's a.

Speaker 6 (20:23):
Sort of a witch hunt, just a continuation of the
witch hunt, but.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
There it is.

Speaker 10 (20:27):
Let's bring an MSNBC legal correspondent, former litigator Lisa Rupe
and Lisa good morning. What would you expect the deputy
Attorney general to be asking Gallaine Maxwell at that federal
prison in Florida.

Speaker 11 (20:40):
First of all, the existence of a meeting between the
Deputy Attorney General and any person who's incarcerated is remarkable,
and so when Todd Blanche wrote in his ex post yesterday,
no administration has ever done this as if it were
a good thing. I just want to take a step
back and recognize why it's so atypical that a political
appointee we'd go to see a convicted fellon. It's because

(21:02):
Glene Maxwell was prosecuted some time ago. She had an
opportunity to testify in her own defense at her criminal trial.

Speaker 12 (21:08):
She didn't take it.

Speaker 11 (21:09):
But presumably the conversation between Todd Blanche and Glene Maxwell
is going to be what didn't you say that you're
willing to say now in exchange for some form of leniency.
And the reason I think that there's a deal to
be had is where Glene Maxwell is in her criminal
conviction journey, so to speak. Her conviction has been upheld
by the Second Circuit, that's the Federal Court of Appeals.

(21:30):
Last November, she is in the middle of briefing a
petition to the Supreme Court to review her conviction. And
the sole question for review by the Supreme Court if
Glene Maxwell gets her way, is am I entitled to
the rights and privileges that Jeffrey Epstein negotiated when he
negotiated that sweetheart deal with Trump's first Labor secretary Alex Acosta.

Speaker 12 (21:49):
If so, I should have.

Speaker 11 (21:51):
Never been prosecuted by the Southern District of New York.
But of course, getting the Supreme Court to review that
conviction is an uphill battle to begin with, and then
winning is the call an uphill battle. So Glenn Maxwell
very much wants to get out of prison. She has
contended that she was wrongfully prosecuted and convicted. She may
be willing to say certain things or tell certain truths

(22:12):
in order for some leniency from this administration.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
At least there you go. That's what I wanted you
to hear. I mean, or a lie. She may be right,
I love well. I think that was, you know, kind
of the unspoken part, reading between the lines to tell
certain truths, meaning she'll say whatever she has to say
to get out of prison. You have the top people
at the Justice Department going to meet her. And I'll
remind you of something that I mentioned to you when

(22:35):
his name first came up, and that was a long
time ago. Todd Blanche, who is number two at DOJ.
He used to be Trump's personal attorney. This is the
guy who and you know Trump has surrounded himself by
these personal attorneys. We talked about Emil Beauvet, who is
likely on track to be a Supreme Court justice and

(22:58):
going through Senate conform That's another one who is Trump's
personal attorney. These are people who have tremendous loyalty to
Donald Trump. And so anyway, in the case of Blanche,
he's going down there with Pam Bondy, I guess apparently
now to talk to Ghlainne Maxwell. I mean, if that
doesn't tell you everything that you need to know about

(23:20):
the importance of this Epstein file, that should, I think,
animate even greater interest in it. So you know it's
double edged. But if I were Ghlaine Maxwell, I'd make
sure that there were some other people there besides just
those two, because you could just all of a sudden
start thinking about taking your own life and ways in

(23:43):
which I don't buy the Jeffrey Epstein took his own
life story at all, not at all, and all of
these people sort of being suicided. I think it's all
too possible. So by the way, Jeffrey Epstein, probably based
on what I've read, didn't even think he was going

(24:06):
to be convicted. He didn't even think that he was
actually going to end up in prison for any length
of time based on the deal he'd made with alex Acosta.
So the idea that Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide, I think
it's laughable, absolutely no chance. And so Gallainne Maxwell now

(24:28):
meeting with top DOJ people. Now she has leverage, right,
she has information, and she has the power. I'm sure
they think to maybe defuse this situation which has become
so very explosive for Donald Trump. So in this moment anyway,

(24:50):
maybe she can maneuver some sort of escape, legal escape.
We'll see, but I mean, all things are possible. Meantime,
before I get to Rothman, new video has come out
to further animate this Epstein thing, and the boys have

(25:12):
come out.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
Trump is angry about it too. He just can't no
matter how many distractions he fires off, he can't get
rid of this scandal. And every day the press is
not letting up. And now we have new old pictures,
fresh a fresh take on old classics, showing Epstein at
various Trump events, including his wedding to Marla Maples that

(25:36):
would be wife number two. The oh there he is
with his kids, a little too close to Epstein, right
with the children. And then there's video I think that
we have video of him at a victorious secret fashion
show as well, where they're chumming around and laughing and
looking at people.

Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yeah, yeah, he's there. They are yeah, this is if
you're just listening. These are just various social events, and
I'd include the Trump wedding as a social event in
which you find Jeffrey Epstein prominently alongside Trump. So that's

(26:14):
the fashion show, and you find Trump and Jeffrey Epstein.
So the idea somehow that you Trump barely knew him.
He really just can't skate away from his relationship with
Jeffrey Epstein. It was very close. He shows up in
the flight manifest at least seven times that we know about,

(26:35):
and so it's a real problem for Trump to say
that he didn't know Jeffrey Epstein very well. So he's
now just trying to avoid the subject completely. But the
reality is there is something, if not many, things in

(26:55):
the Epstein file that Trump does not want released, which
is why he did the headfake thing with BONDI saying
please look into releasing the grand jury testimony, which is
like one one thousandth of what's in the Epstein files.
Read any of the excerpts, even from some of the

(27:16):
civil litigation. I mean, the victim testimony is it's moving.
I mean, what they did to these young girls twelve, thirteen,
fourteen years old, some even younger than that. So you
know what's alleged here and the information that is compiled

(27:37):
in those Epstein files, it is so very damning and
damaging and even Magination would have trouble swallowing it. But
Matt w says, one thousand percent, that's what's going to happen.
They'll promise to pardon her right before Trump gets out.
If she plays ball. They definitely want her cooperation. And

(28:02):
let me just say this, they couldn't find a more
willing player. She wants to get out. What do you
guys want me to say? I'll say it. I mean,
I'm sorry. This isn't some woman who's going to stand
on principle. She's an incarcerated person who desperately wants out.

(28:23):
And if you're telling me, I've got to say, ABC, great,
where do I say it? Show me the cameras, show
me the microphones. Let's end this madness.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
It's not like she's someone with good morals. Look what
she's in jail for. I mean, buying is is the
you know, is a pittance for her?

Speaker 1 (28:39):
It's like nothing. Uh, And it's I must say this
about her. And again I get this from from victim testimony.
Apparently she's very charming, warm, you know, she comes across
very well. That's why they were able to groom so
many of these young girls into this horrifying existence in

(29:02):
the orbit of Jeffrey Epstein, where they could call them
in the middle of the night and they would come
over and take care of some guy who is a
heavy hitter Wall Street person, government person. Look, Prince Andrew
was involved in this and British intelligence and by the way,

(29:26):
we'll talk to Rothman in a moment. Rothman would tell
you this British intelligence may be the elite of the
elite when it comes to intelligence communities. America has great
intelligence Mosad of course, Israel very very well developed elite
intelligence force, and the British as well. If they looked

(29:50):
into this and they reported to the royal family details
such that the royal family said, we want nothing more
to do with Prince Anne Andrew. That again gives you
an insight into the Epstein files. These are incendiary, they
are radioactive, and Trump does not want them revealed, Randy says.

(30:13):
The New York Times has just reported that the judge
has refused the request to unseal the transcripts of the
Epstein grand jury. Yeah, by the way, that was part
of the arithmetic already, you know, to ask for something
that you knew the judge would say, no, we can't
do that, right. But as I say, even the judge
that granted the request, there's so little there relative to

(30:34):
the wealth of information of the Epstein files that it
really wouldn't have made a difference. But again, this is
all theater. It's all performative. It's all to show the
effort that they're making.

Speaker 6 (30:44):
Go.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
We want, we want to get this out of the public. Look,
I just asked the judge to release those files, and
most people in Magnation they don't know, right, grand jury testimony.
Whatever they want. Ultimately they want their man to be
on the side of the righteous. Maybe Gleane could only
name Democrats. That's right, thank you, miss Apollo, that's right.

(31:09):
Not looking well, indeed, not looking well. All right. That's
a quick wrap on the situation with Epstein to this moment.
We'll give you more. This is a story that won't
go away. I told you yesterday and now you're seeing
it play out that Congress is adjourning early, MAGA, Mike

(31:32):
Johnson is adjourning Congress early. So they won't be able
to vote on the release of the Epstein files, a
vote that the Democrats want. Trump is trying to pull
this across the finish line. He's getting all the help

(31:53):
of mag nation in Congress. But ultimately, the more they squirm,
the the more they deny, the more they say it's
not important, the more it grows in importance. Cassen jam says,
listen to him. He doesn't know anything about them going
to threaten Maxwell. She's toast shaking my head. They could

(32:14):
spirit her away anywhere and call her an immigrant being deported. Yeah,
it is true, that is certainly true. I had one
more piece of video before I get to John Rothman.
It was what else did I have, Albert? I have
something before Rothman. I could run it even with Rothman.

(32:36):
Let's let me get to Rothman, and if Albert, you
can tell me what video I might have left out,
try to find video for you that is pertinent, you know,
that's relevant and and kind of forward to the discussion.
So that's kind of what Yeah.

Speaker 5 (32:51):
It was for later, it's an Epstein video. It's a
Trump speaking in the Oval office.

Speaker 1 (32:55):
Oh yeah, yeah, Well we'll watch that with John Rothman. Okay,
good stuff, Mark Thompson Show. Before I get to anything else,
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(35:02):
You will love it. The thums. This man is a
distinguished lecturer, historian, author, and our former colleague at KGO Radio.
He is the great John Roffman. Welcome John, Thank you Mark.
So John, there's a lot going on. I was saying
before that the Epstein scandal is super relevant because of

(35:28):
the political effects it's having on Trump, and the more
he tries to skate away from it in a way,
the more relevant it becomes. When I stack it up
against the things that are happening in the country, tariffs, deportations,
you know, the lawlessness of all of these things that
this administration is doing. In my judgment, it doesn't measure up.
I mean, aside from the real cost that there is

(35:52):
associated with the victims. But what I mean to say
is because of its political relevance, I think it really
is a front and center issue. Now.

Speaker 4 (36:00):
I agree with you, and it's going to continue to be.
All you have to do is watch. And the biggest,
most telling moment was when Speaker Johnson, as you pointed
out a few moments ago, sent Congress home early.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
There's no doubt about it.

Speaker 4 (36:13):
This is a scandal, which, let me emphasize, is more
involved with a cover up than anything else. And that's
what brought Nixon down, the cover up, not the Watergate
break in, but the cover up. And what you're seeing
now from the White House is a cover up, and
there's no doubt about it, and Republicans are very uncomfortable

(36:33):
with it, and the Democrats obviously are uncomfortable. And the
point is, if there's nothing to hide, why are they
doing this? That's the question.

Speaker 1 (36:44):
Well, let's look at something from the Oval Office Trump
is you know, again, for Trump, there's no meeting worth
having unless it's on camera. So he's having a meeting
with the new head of the Philippines. And by the way,
this is Marcos. Is this is so? This would be

(37:07):
Ferdinand Marcos's son son.

Speaker 4 (37:11):
It's Ferdinand Marcos Junior, who's been president now for quite
a while.

Speaker 1 (37:15):
Actually, now, John, you'll correct me if I'm wrong. But
Ferdinand Marcos was a brutal dictator of the Philippines, is
he not, yes.

Speaker 4 (37:23):
Who was ultimately overthrown you will recall. And he and
Amelda made all their money and did all their stuff.
But his son inherited the Marcos machine and is running
it quite well.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
The reason I mention it is one of the things
that Trump said during these sort of pleasantries that are extended,
is you're from a great family. Your family is such
a great family. I'm thinking, such a great family. He
was a brutal dictator who was overthrown by the people
of the Philippines. I mean again, you know, it was

(37:58):
kind of like the where did you learn English and
learn to speak so well? Moment? You know, it was
just a little bit weird. Here is a little bit
of the Oval Office, back and forth. So again during
that Trump gets a question about Bondie and Todd Blanche,
the Justice Department top heads going to visit Glenn Maxwell.

Speaker 3 (38:25):
I don't know anything about it. They're going to know
what meet her?

Speaker 9 (38:27):
They're going to's attorney.

Speaker 6 (38:35):
Yeah, I don't know about it, but I think it's
something that would be sounds appropriate to do.

Speaker 9 (38:39):
You, Attorney Cony, No, I have no concern that he's
very he's a very talented person.

Speaker 3 (38:49):
He's very smart. I didn't know that they were going
to do it. I don't really follow that too much.

Speaker 6 (38:54):
It's a it's a sort of a witch hunt, just
a continuation of the witch hunt. The witch hunt that
you should be talking about is they caught President Obama
absolutely cold, Chelsea Gabbert, what they did to this country
in twenty sixteen, starting in twenty sixteen, but going up
all the way going up.

Speaker 3 (39:13):
To twenty twenty of the election.

Speaker 6 (39:15):
They tried to rig the election and they got caught,
and there should be very severe consequences for that.

Speaker 3 (39:22):
You know, when we caught Hillary Clinton.

Speaker 6 (39:24):
I said, you know what, let's not go too far here.
It's the ex wife of a president. And I thought
it was sort of terrible, and I let her off
the hook, and I'm very happy I did. But it's
time to start after what they did to me, and
whether it's right or wrong, it's time to go after people.

(39:45):
Obama's been caught directly. So people say, oh, you know
a group, It's not a group, it's Obama. His orders
are on the paper, the papers are signed. The papers
came right out of their office. They sent everything to
be highly classified. Well, the highly it's been released, and
what they did in twenty sixteen and in twenty twenty

(40:06):
is very criminal. It's criminal at the highest level. So
that's really the things you should be talking about. I
know nothing about the other, but I think it's appropriate
that they do go I ask.

Speaker 8 (40:16):
You submitted a criminal referral to the Department of Justice.
From your perspective, who should the DOJ target as part
of their investigation? What's the city figures in the administration?

Speaker 6 (40:31):
Well, based on what I read, and I read pretty
much what you read, it would be President Obama. He
started it, and Biden was there with him, and Komi
was there, and Clapper, the whole group was there, Brennan,
they were all there in a room right here. This
is the room. This is much more beautiful than it

(40:51):
was then. But that's okay. I have nice pictures up.
They came out of the vaults. They were in there
for one hundred years. This is much more beautiful. We
have the Declaration of Independence now in the room, which
wasn't here. I guess people didn't feel too good about
putting it here, but I do. But you know what,
if you look at that those papers, they have a

(41:12):
stone called and it was President Obama.

Speaker 3 (41:16):
It wasn't lots of people all over the place. It
was them too, But the leader of the gang.

Speaker 6 (41:22):
Was President Obama, Barack Hussein Obama.

Speaker 3 (41:25):
Have you heard of him? And except for.

Speaker 6 (41:27):
The fact that he gets shielded by the press for
his entire life.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
All right, there we go that just first of all,
of course, he's got this the knife out always for Obama.
But I wonder if you could speak to this Tulsea
Gabbard revelation that she has discovered enough in her intelligence

(41:52):
community looking at the twenty sixteen election, again another obsession
of Donald Trump to actually produce a criminal referral to
the Justice Department related to Obama.

Speaker 4 (42:04):
Use the word that we did not hear in this recording,
but which is everywhere about treason. Donald Trump said, the
Barack Houssein Obama committed treason. Do you understand never in
the history of our country, not since the Civil War,
have we heard treason used in this fashion? And may

(42:24):
I say, it is so appalling, it is almost beyond words.
I do not understand why there isn't universal condemnation of this.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
The Gabbard tweet Albert she posted in social media, which
is I guess, just the way stuff has done in
this administration. She posted something that was really designed I thought,
I mean, based on the post to appeal to the boss,
to the president. She said. Their goal, this is from
the DNI, Telsey Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence. Their

(42:56):
goal was to use Sir President Trump and the will
of the American people, no matter how powerful. Every person
involved in this conspiracy must be investigated and prosecuted to
the fullest extent of the law. The integrity of our
democratic republic depends on it. We are turning over all
documents to the DOJ for criminal referral, and of course

(43:17):
the attached document is new evidence. It's titled of Obama's
administration Conspiracy to subvert President Trump's twenty sixteen victory and presidency.
So the specifics here I think fall into the category

(43:38):
of that which the opening statement falls into. Crafted for
the president to feel good about Tulsey Gabbard and the
job she's doing. This goes nowhere, And this is the
question I have for you. First of all, I'd love
for you to comment on that, but also wouldn't even

(43:59):
if this were true, and I'm sure it's total bs,
But even if it were true, wouldn't the actions of
President Obama be covered by the immunity decision made by
the Supreme Court?

Speaker 4 (44:17):
Well, that's exactly right. But let me let me be
clear about this. Do you understand do our listeners understand
that Donald Trump accused former President Rock Obama a treason? Treason?
There was no ambiguity about his statement, and to me,
that is the most appalling thing. You can't you can't

(44:38):
make this up. I talked with somebody who said, John,
you're so outraged. Why are you outraged? And I said,
because I get drive every time they do something like this,
And on the Epstein case, it's it's purely a deception.
The simple truth is Donald Trump could release all the
files on Martin Luther King Junior relating to the assassination.
If he said release the Epstein, they would be released.

(45:02):
And I don't know if there's anything in them. All
I know is that Epstein was convicted is now dead.
But Donald Trump clearly does not want something revealed, and
it is what he does not want revealed that needs
to be understood. Republicans are panicked. Why do you think
Speaker Johnson, as you pointed out, why do you think

(45:24):
Speaker Johnson brought the session of the House to a
quick close sent them home. They don't want to have
to deal with this. So that means that we will
continue to wallow in this until September when Congress comes back,
and at that point maybe we'll find out. But in
the meantime, Donald Trump is getting away with accusing Barack

(45:44):
Obama of treason. And let me be clear, there are
many things on which you can disagree with Barack Obama,
but Barack Obama did not commit treason. Oh and by
the way, you heard and the thing that Albert just
played that the President of the United States referred to
Hillary Clinton as the former wife of President Clinton, which
of course is inaccurate. But he is completely out of

(46:09):
his mind when it comes to these things. And may
I also quickly point out you and I come out
of radio and television, and look what the Trump administration
is doing to NPR, both on radio and television. There's
a story in this morning's chronicle about the fact that
the independent radio station up in Eureka and television station

(46:31):
may go into bankruptcy. They won't have the money to continue.
And that's happening across the board. There is something terribly amiss.
And I don't care whether you're a Trump supporter or not.
This kind of vindictive misuse of power is exactly what
the founders opposed.

Speaker 1 (46:51):
And well, I wanted to just say one thing quickly
about treason. Treason is a very very high bar to
clear to actually get a conviction. That you'll remember, even
in the J six stuff, they talked about treason and
they talked about other things. Generally, these things are related
to a wartime situation in which there might be espionage

(47:12):
or might be, you know, a collusion with the enemy.
Tradition sedition, yeah, but even sedition is not right. Sedition
can be in the same category. But that sedition was
relative to the J six people that was invoked in
that way, and actually they achieved convictions. But what I
of course they all got pardons. But I guess what

(47:33):
I'm trying by Donald Trump? Yeah, by Donald Trump. Treason
is one of those things throwing right. You know, my
dad was a constitutional lawyer, and I used to go,
I remember as a kid, is that treason? Is that treason?
And my dad just have to go. Treason is so
difficult both to prove and also the definition is slippery.
So it's one of those words that's really powerful, and

(47:57):
it's a great headline grabber. But from a legal standpoint,
treason is one of those things that you know, is
seldom invoked anymore so, but in any case, obviously he
uses it because it's a it's a headline grabber. As
I say, I just want to run out what he
had to say or what is sort of the Russian
interference in that election is something that the intelligence community

(48:21):
has identified, John, I mean, I'm talking about the twenty
sixteen election, and in reports. The Intelligence assessment of the
twenty sixteen election found that some standard procedures were not followed,
with analysts having been given an unusually short time to
produce the report. But the review did not refute the

(48:43):
findings of the intelligence assessment that Russia sought to interfere
in the election. Again, that was the agency review in
twenty seventeen.

Speaker 4 (48:53):
But that is correct. And I want to point out
I played ads on the air produced by the Russians
for strategically placed districts in order to give Trump an
advantage and disadvantage Obama and I rather Clinton, And I

(49:14):
think it's very important to point out that, of course,
the Russians interfered in the election. Question of collusion, and
my son Samuel challenged me on this. He said, well,
there was no proof of collusion. There was proof of interference,
and collusion implies that Donald Trump supervised that. I don't
think he supervised it. I think the Russians did it
to assist him, of.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
Course, right, I mean that seems indisputable. You know, he
disputes it. Oh no, well he disputes it. But okay,
this is a rare moment during which Obama came forward
through a spokesperson and said the following in a statement
sent to reporters on Tuesday, a spokesperson for former president

(49:57):
Barack Obama dismissing that Donald Trump's ridiculous accusation that Obama
had committed quote treason in twenty sixteen by directing his
administration to reveal after the twenty sixteen election that the
Russian government had attempted to boost Trump's candidacy. The statement
from the spokesperson is this, out of respect for the
office of the Presidency, our office does not normally dignify

(50:18):
the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White
House with a response. But these claims are outrageous enough
to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a
weak attempt at distraction. Nothing in the document issued last
week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to

(50:38):
influence the twenty sixteen presidential election, but did not successfully
manipulate any votes. These findings were affirmed in a twenty
twenty report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by
then chairman wait for it, Marco Rubio, the State. But

(51:00):
I want you to know, I mean, dude, your own guy.
Look to your You've you've given him, you put him
in charge of the State Department and five other things.
Because you keep firing people and you keep giving the
stuff to Marco Rubio, his own committee said that there
was an attempt to interfere in the election, and indeed Russia.

(51:23):
Russian interference was present in that twenty sixteen confused people
with the facts. Mark, So that's where we stand. I
just wanted people to hear what Obama's response was.

Speaker 4 (51:36):
No, but to me, it is so profoundly disturbing and
in a normal time, there would be tremendous outrage, there
would be fury. But Donald Trump has created a situation
in which nothing is normal. And I said, actually the
other day to someone, it's not normal, and they said,
but what Donald Trump is doing now is the norm.

(51:58):
It has become normal, and that is the ultimate American tragedy.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
I want to ask you what the future of FEMA
is in your view. This is just to pivot for
a moment, because you know, the Texas flood disaster shows
at one time the imperative that FEMA responds to, right,
and it also shows how a well run agency under

(52:28):
a director who has their act together can make a
difference or completely screw things up.

Speaker 4 (52:33):
The Christine job Brownie, remember that.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
Yeah, I mean that was good from Hurricane Katrina. But
in this case you have the biggest natural disaster in
the history of Texas that in certainly modern history, and
I think in the history of the state. And you
have Christine Nome having imposed some kind of ridiculous draconian
budget request so that anything that exceeded one hundred thousand
dollars she had a personal approval of, well everything, virtually

(53:02):
everything done when it comes to addressing a natural disaster
of this size exceeds one hundred thousand dollars. So you
had literally days and days going by. They were unable
to get staffers on the ground, they were unable to
provide basic assistance because even basic existence exceeds that threshold

(53:22):
of one hundred thousand dollars. So that's just one example.
I'm asking you about FEMA because I think there'll be
more of these natural disasters, and they're going to hit
Red States too, Man Florida, along the Gulf Coast, Louisiana,
et cetera. There's its hurricane season and a lot of
Donald Trump's Magaville will be affected by this as well.

Speaker 4 (53:40):
Troof is in the aftermath, Mark, and that is that
Donald Trump called for the removal the extinction of FEMA.
He's no longer doing that. Now they're talking about making
it better. But the simple truth is, not only has
FEMA been gutted, Noah has been gutted. Not only that
they're not allowed to report the weather crises around. I mean,

(54:02):
it's it's insanity. And I may I tell you if
I sound frustrated, it is because I am. This is
not a normal time. This is not a normal administration,
whether you're dealing with the Epstein case, whether you're and
by the way, we've only touched on the release of
the Martin Luther King Junior files, which is the ultimate distraction.

(54:23):
Over the objection by the way of the Martin Luther
King Junior family.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
I mean this, well, that was that was so clearly
a distraction and just red meat for his base, but
just to put a button on FEMA. The former urban
Search and Rescue chief has now resigned, and the resignation
was because of the policies of the new administration that

(54:47):
delayed disaster responds to this deadly.

Speaker 4 (54:51):
That is correct, Area Texas. Yeah, will there I guess
my problem. And if I seem almost tongue tied, which
which is not normal for someone who is in our business,
it is because what is happening is so outrageous, it
is so egregious, It is so unprecedented in the history

(55:11):
of our republic. And the fact that Trump is getting
away with it, and the fact that the Speaker of
the House of Representatives is sending the house home until
September in the midst of all of this is absolutely
incomprehensible to me. I'm going to teach a course in
five years on the Trump administration, and I will no
doubt have a lot more to say, because we'll know

(55:32):
a lot more. But everybody shouldn't understand how thoroughly horrific
what is happening is for all of us. And may
I say I haven't talked about Ice with you.

Speaker 1 (55:44):
No, this is exactly the question of Phineas is saying,
ask Grothman about Ice aka Trump's Gestapo, something we need
to be seriously concerned about how we can stop them.

Speaker 4 (55:52):
Go ahead, Phineas, I didn't know you were going to
ask a question, but I can only tell you my
friends in the Hispanic community are terrified, and I know
you all have the same feeling. My sister's son is
married to an El Salvador and woman whose mother is
afraid to go out of her House because she's afraid
she'll be rounded up and deported. And of course we

(56:15):
all understand the implications. I remember reading about the Palmer Raids,
a Mitchell Palmer, who was the Attorney General under Woodrow Wilson,
and they rounded up people from Eastern Europe by the way,
primarily Jews, and deported them back to Russia because they
were viewed as extremists. That went to the United States
Supreme Court in nineteen twenty and the Palmer Raids were stopped.

(56:38):
My question is where is the Supreme Court on all
of this. It is one of the ultimate tragedies for
this great country that the failure of the Supreme Court
in these matters is so clear and precise. It is
a real blow to American democracy as we know it,
and I hope it can be reclaimed.

Speaker 1 (56:59):
That was the question.

Speaker 4 (57:00):
The other question that was posed to me what happens
if we get a president of the United States who
will reverse much of this. They can reverse a lot
of it, because a lot of it's been done by
executive order, but the damage is severe. What do you
do with the thousands and thousands and thousands of people
who lost their jobs in vital agencies Look what's happening

(57:20):
right now in FEMA in Noah. Look what's happening in
the Justice Department. Do you know, Mark? The Civil Rights
Division of the Justice Department has been cleaned out. And
now how do you get a fair process going?

Speaker 1 (57:38):
Whatnot they been? I mean, as you know, there have
been mass resignations at the Justice Department. FBI the same story. FBI,
of course doing the loyalty tests with the ton Trump
has done with detects.

Speaker 4 (57:49):
Yeah, I mean, you and I agree on that. And
one of the reasons why I'm so delighted to be
able to be with you on this program is because
we need to spread the word. I do it in
my podcast almost every single day. My podcast today is
all about the charge that Trump made against Obama of treason.
Can you imagine a former president of the United States
of America being accused of treason?

Speaker 1 (58:11):
Oh wait a minute, Wait a minute.

Speaker 4 (58:12):
Can you imagine the same guy who did that also
said that Barack Obama wasn't qualified to be president because
he wasn't born in the United States of America. Talk
about conspiracy theories that are absolutely ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
I want to finish up with the death of Roy
Black who is the Epstein lawyer. On the one hand,
it was mentioned in the chat just a moment ago,
and I don't want to leave without mentioning it or
touching I don't see it the comment now, But anyway, Yeah,
Roy Black was an Epstein lawyer, very high profile attorney,

(58:48):
defense attorney who defended Epstein. He's the one who made
the deal with alex Acosta. He's the one who made
that deal, this deal that was literally a get out
of jail free card for Jeffrey Epstein. So Black dies
at age eighty, and he was like considered the greatest
of all time, you know, he was like the Michael

(59:09):
Jordan of law of defense attorneys. And I'm just simply
because you're such a student of history and you I'm
sure the Roy Black name has rolled around in so
many files. I wanted you to at least have a
chance to speak to it.

Speaker 4 (59:26):
Well, we don't know the circumstances, but I can tell
you this, Jane, that Coney's daughter, who was the lead
prosecutor on the whole business with Epstein, was fired last week.

Speaker 1 (59:39):
Was fired.

Speaker 4 (59:40):
She was she'd been in the Justice Department for ten years.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
She's the one who secured the conviction exactly exactly, So
John is witnessed. Is this witness tampering or intimidation? Bird
Dog is asking, when when you have these high profile
Justice Department people, the top of the Justice Department, Bondi
and Blanche going to to meet with Gallaine Maxwell, is
that made Yes?

Speaker 4 (01:00:05):
Yeah, there is no precedent for this kind of thing
at all. Ever, And look, you know, here's the problem
we're having, Mark, It's one thing after another. You and
I could spend the next ten hours going down the
list of outrageous things that have happened. First problem is
how do people keep it all straight? The second problem

(01:00:27):
is you now have media being censored, being controlled. You
have a suit against the Wall Street Journal for twenty
billion dollars. You know, Mark, if you could just file
a lawsuit against somebody for twenty billion bucks, you wouldn't
have to do any fundraising. Why you'd be an independent force.

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
Well, he's been able to do it, John, he's been
able to leve it down. He picks the eye.

Speaker 4 (01:00:49):
There is no precedent for it in American.

Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
History, apparently. You know, just when you go through these
defamation lawsuits, you can name whatever number you want and
then you know, if you actually get it adjudicated, they
work out the numbers. But he doesn't want this to
actually go to trial. The Wall Street Journal defamation cases
all about Epstein. You'll be able to be able to
depose him. I made this point a few days ago
on the show. You be able to depose Donald Trump,

(01:01:15):
and you'd also get access to all these files. You
absolutely would have legal right to review all of these materials.
So he doesn't want to actually go there. This is
all again distraction, intimidation, pushback. But let's be fair, John,
he has a lot of leverages. President of the United States,
he can make life pretty bad for Murdoch. He's already
done it. He got ABC to tap out, he got

(01:01:36):
Paramount CBS to cancel col Fa Yes, and the sixty
minutes lawsuit settlement. I mean, he's got major academic institutions
rolling over for him, and legal institutions. This is, thank god,
scary time in America.

Speaker 4 (01:01:50):
Thank God Harvard is fighting back and many academic institutions
are fighting back. But Mark, I want to thank you
because what you do on this program in terms of
alerting people. My only regret is that we don't have
more people attuned to this, and there are still people

(01:02:11):
who say, well, he did win the election, just let
him go and do what he wants to do. Well,
judge him in four years or three years. Now. I
have to tell you the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
And I believe that what Donald Trump is doing is
so destructive that it is almost beyond words. And I
want to reiterate this. To accuse Barack Obama of being

(01:02:33):
of having committed treason is an obscenity. An obscenity.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
John can be found daily around the political world with
John Rothman, who is the name of the podcast. All
you need to know in like eight or ten minutes.
I forget is it eight or ten minutes.

Speaker 4 (01:02:50):
Depends on how long winded I am.

Speaker 1 (01:02:53):
What I like a man who's not bound by time.
And next week is our last visit with you, because
then you go on vacation for a little while.

Speaker 4 (01:03:03):
Right, Yes, I'm going to be away for three weeks.
I want you to know that it will be extremely
frustrating for me not to be able to communicate with
you each week, but I know that you will handle
it well, Mark, and I want again I will be
here next Wednesday, but I want to urge everybody to
support the Mark Thompson Program, but don't really support it.
Let people know about it. The more information gets out

(01:03:27):
about what is revealed here on the Mark Thompson Program,
I think the better off we are, and may I
say that we call little endorsement.

Speaker 1 (01:03:35):
Go ahead. Oh well, we don't have time fish anything
nice about Kim. I'm sorry, thank you, Don.

Speaker 4 (01:03:39):
I'm just gonna say Mark is away. Mark is going
to be away the next couple of days. If you
need me for anything, Kim, I am your servant.

Speaker 1 (01:03:47):
Oh that's sweet. All right, Well done, John Rothman. Everybody,
Thanks Jean, Thanks Mark, Bye bye. Mark Thumpson's shows right on, everybody.
Thanks to everybody who helps to put this show on.

(01:04:08):
I'm talking about our Patreon and PayPal people. We are
a crowdfunded show. We're the NPR PBS model. So the
show is free. It's free everywhere. It's free on YouTube.
As a live show. We do a live show from
two to four in the East, it's eleven to one
in the West, and then you can hear the show
across all the different podcast platforms Spotify, iHeartRadio. We're on

(01:04:34):
the Apple podcast platform as well. Google podcasts everywhere. It's
all free, but it's made free and it's made possible
by our Patreon and PayPal supporters, and if you're one
of them, thank you. And you know, I roll everybody's
name unless people have said, please don't use my name.
I'm making this contribution, but please don't. I don't want

(01:04:55):
to be acknowledged. There are a handful of people like that,
but everybody else is on that scroll at the end
of every show because you're the reason we're here. You
make every show possible. So if you're not yet part
of that crew and you want to consider it, jump
on the Patreon or PayPal platforms and join for whatever

(01:05:18):
whatever small amount. You can find the links under all
our videos Patreon and PayPal. There are live links to both,
or you can go to our website, the Mark Thompson
Show dot com and they're live links there as well.
And if you're really into it, you can jump on
our merch The new merch store is banging Man. It

(01:05:39):
is really doing well and there's some really cool designs.
Courtney's been involved with the designs and it's a pretty
fun thing to wear at the next Coalplay concert. So
rock it out. Everybody. Yeah, right on, thanks again. Well
there it is. Albert's got it up. Getmarch dot com.

(01:06:01):
There are some of the designs for summer, the T shirts.
Uh yeah, I'm just looking here to Uh. I got
to blow this up a little higher so I can
see it. Oh. They're jackets and hats and all kinds
of fun things. And the socks, which I love, rock
the sock. Yeah, look at those socks. Gosh, those are great.

(01:06:27):
I like the white hats too. The new the New
merch line is very very styling. So uh they've got
a bomber jacket. Really geez, that's wild. Uh Cardigan golf Fest.
It's nice, yes, little something to wear to you next affair.
It's it's quite special. Really.

Speaker 12 (01:06:47):
We have processes and protcols and standards.

Speaker 1 (01:06:50):
Don't we We do, and I think the new merch
line quite conforms with those. And this is our merches
showing up in Bruges, bell Jim. Isn't that where Bruges is?

Speaker 3 (01:07:01):
Rothman?

Speaker 1 (01:07:01):
I think it's in Belgium, Belgium, And uh, it's a no.
I just told you you don't need to go and
our uh there that is our hat is now what
is that? What would you call that? What are the
kids that call that kind of happene beanie? Exactly? Yeah,
so the beanie showing up in Bruges and also it's

(01:07:25):
it's made its way around all of Europe. So there
it is. I would love it if you took us
wherever you go. West Theory with a ten dollars super
chat and West says, this lost my wallet yesterday, so
I turned off my credit cards. Here's five for yesterday

(01:07:48):
to the thief snuck into my house and put my
wallet back in my washing machine overnight. I found it
this morning. Sneaky. Yeah, it's funny about that, isn't it? Oh?
Isn't that wild? Where you're waiting, waiting, waiting, going I
don't want to cancel the stuff I know is no
one's going to turn up. I'm going to find I'm

(01:08:08):
going to find it. Then you go, I gotta cancel it.
It's not turning up, and then bam, it turns up.
Michelle Walton, look at you. Thank you for the supersticker, Michelle,
and a big shout out un Wes, thank you everybody,
and the lady Beatrice too bigot. Is any of this
damage fixable? Will our next democratic president be able to
reverse any of this mess well, as we just noted
with John, a lot of this is done by executive orders.

(01:08:29):
So the answer is yes. But I'd suggest that the
for example, supercharging of the Ice Crew with the addition
of tens of billions of dollars to make them, from
a budgetary standpoint, the fifteenth biggest army in the world.
You can't undo that. You'll need Congress to undo that.

(01:08:52):
But a lot of the other stuff that Trump is
doing can be undone. But that again is providing for
the Democrats winning an election. I don't know that that's
going to happen. I love this Epstein thing for the
way it is engulfing the Trump presidency. That's why I
like it. Otherwise it's a tawdry, awful, gross thing. But

(01:09:17):
the fact that Trump was involved, and it's got a
stickiness that has political relevance that makes it very important,
and it makes it something that you, as a voter
and a concerned citizen, can do something with. And today
is the birthday of Spencer Christian, Is that right? Nullifidian

(01:09:38):
our favorite weathercaster of all time, America's weathercaster, Spencer Christian.
It is his birthday. Kim yeah it is.

Speaker 2 (01:09:50):
I'm looking on Facebook and it is today, Kim.

Speaker 1 (01:09:53):
How could you not keep track of this? How could
you not keep track of this? Kim? I mean you're Christian?
Is the question to you? I blame you? All right,
Well you can blame me. But I'm sure Spencer is
way older than we think. He looks great, he takes
care of himself, he works out regularly. I will take

(01:10:17):
a guess at Spencer's age. I don't want to. In fact,
let me give you a Hollywood guess. Okay, this is
where you guess somebody's age and you guess much lower,
just because that's the Hollywood thing to say.

Speaker 2 (01:10:29):
So it's the age minus ten years.

Speaker 1 (01:10:31):
I'm going to say, Spencer, he might be seventy one
something like that.

Speaker 2 (01:10:38):
Oh pretty good. Yeah, you want the real answer, all right?

Speaker 1 (01:10:48):
How old is he?

Speaker 2 (01:10:49):
Seventy eight?

Speaker 1 (01:10:51):
Wow? And he's working and.

Speaker 2 (01:10:53):
He's on TV, and he looks great, and he's doing
all kinds of wonderful things. I think it's all the
red wine.

Speaker 1 (01:11:00):
The red wine sometimes can help. D Elliott says, who
is Spencer Christian? I can't believe that. I can't believe
you gonna ask that question, de But I will tell
you former Good Morning America weather person and friend of
the show, and that we and Spencer and I had
sort of a shared path in the world of television.

(01:11:22):
Personalities and whether people is something that we talk about
on the show. We used to talk about it a
lot because of Spencer in San Francisco and our radio
show is in San Francisco. So that's the deal. But
that's really cool, Spencer, Happy birthday, buddies. We love you,
We really do love you and want you on the
show again soon. Mark Thompson Show. Now, how do we

(01:11:47):
miss up quiz opportunity? I agree, Ron, that was we
kind of had it. We sort of that. You're right,
that was a half assed quiz. But no, I don't
know now, Albert, I have a couple of places to
go here. I still have some things I want to
get in. What are we waiting for? As chaplain Fred

(01:12:09):
in the super Chat, what are we waiting for? Why
is everyone afraid of Trump? Trump has done far worse
things and we are entertaining Epstein? What a distraction? You know,
You're not completely wrong about Epstein being a distraction from
some of the horror that I've talked about. I even generally,

(01:12:29):
and you heard it today. A couple of times, I'll
offer a preamble, excuse me if I go the cough.
I'll offer a preamble to discussion of the Epstein issue.
And the preamble is generally something along what you said,
which is when you add up the things. I'm sorry,
I've got to take a drink of water because I'm

(01:12:49):
coughing like crazy. Hang wow, Tim, talk to the boys
and girls.

Speaker 2 (01:12:53):
We'll talk to the boys and girls about you know, well,
I don't even know exactly where you were going with that,
but I'll just remind everyone that Spencer Christian did manage
to swoop in and steal the Good Morning America weatherman
job from Mark Thompson.

Speaker 1 (01:13:08):
It is true.

Speaker 2 (01:13:09):
Any chance to tell people about that is a good chance.
It's a good day for me.

Speaker 1 (01:13:14):
When I said talk to the boys and girls, that's
not really what I was hoping for. It Sure, okay,
I'll love it that it's true it did happen. But
know what I was going to say is just that
the preamble that I always offer on the Epstein thing is,
in a way, You're right, it is a distraction from
the horror that is the immigration policy chaotic illegal, the
terrorist policy chaotic illegal, and the dismantling of the EPA,

(01:13:39):
the polluting of America now, the dismantling of Noah of
the NWS National Weather Service. I mean, these are things
that are striking at the essence of what America is
leading in science. The Robert F. Kennedy junior appointment and HHS,
everything that's happening there nih the complete racing of all

(01:14:01):
of these brilliant scientists, esteemed scientists. Now the vaccine board
populated wall to wall by anti vaxers. There is your right,
a gutting of America and American leadership. I haven't even
gotten to the cowing of media companies from Paramount to ABC,

(01:14:22):
the academic community being cowed as well, the legal community
having to pledge all of this pro bono work for
the current administration in order to get the administration to
allow them to pursue the normal course of legal work. Remember,
they were being banned from government buildings. Any law firm
that had anything to do with any of these anything

(01:14:48):
involving Trump related issues, they were being attacked. They went
after them, they barred them from government buildings and went
beyond just that. So My point in mentioning that laundry
list and that does even that long list doesn't cover everything,
is to say your right epstein is a distraction from that,

(01:15:09):
but it vaults to relevance because of the way it's
engulfed this president. It vaults to relevance because of the
way Donald Trump is doing any number of things to
distract that are real things. So the release of the

(01:15:29):
Martin Luther King Junior files, which were done deliberately to
stain the reputation of Martin Luther King. I'm talking at
the time, not talking now. The reason the FBI was
surveilling Martin Luther King Junior was to smear him. They
wanted to find dirt on Martin Luther King, Jr. That
was the j Edgar Hoover FBI, And so those files

(01:15:56):
were unsealed to smear the memory of Martin Luther King,
smear the reputation of this great American, and also as
a bone thrown to magination. So when you see that happen,
when you see the Justice Department going down in the

(01:16:19):
form of the lead Justice official, Pam Bondy, accompanied by
Todd Blanche the former Donald Trump lawyer, you see them
both going down to meet with Gallaine Maxwell. That's unprecedented,
It's crazy. It could only mean one thing. They're trying
to make some deal for Gallaine Maxwell to say a

(01:16:45):
B and C and clear Trump such that this issue
can be disposed of. In return, Gallaine Maxwell will get
time served, a break unner sentence, et cetera. The fixes
in so that all is wildly relevant. You can't ignore

(01:17:07):
it again. The balance between what's happening with those other
things and that which is related to Epstein. That balance
is one that we struggle with every day. But it
is insanely relevant, the Epstein thing. And it's made, as
I say, more relevant every hour that this president begins

(01:17:30):
to do things like build some kind of legal case
against Barack Obama turns his intelligence agency and FBI and
other Justice Department officials on Democrats. He's trying to concoct
legal cases, you get it, against democrats. The higher profile,

(01:17:52):
the better. We need those legal cases to take the
headlines away from Epstein. That's his thing.

Speaker 2 (01:18:01):
How much more? How many more years of this? Three
and a half.

Speaker 1 (01:18:03):
Now, God, it's crazy, you're right, it has been. It's
been a long first Lord a year.

Speaker 2 (01:18:13):
How are we going to survive this I don't know stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:18:16):
Yeah, can we talk.

Speaker 2 (01:18:17):
For a minute about the speaking of Trump the CBS scandal,
because there's a couple of things that we need to
touch on with the you know, obviously making news with
the cancelation of late night shows with Stephen Colbert and
their whole late night lineup. But there's some information about

(01:18:39):
what Paramount is saying and what Trump is getting from
all this.

Speaker 1 (01:18:43):
Yeah, you know, this is all in relation to what
is a huge deal for the sky Dance Paramount merger.
And Kim is right, I mean there is there is
more and more the CBS deal and now here's the

(01:19:06):
it's all pretty gross. But here's the first gross part.
The new CBS owner, according to President Trump, will gift
him twenty million dollars worth of airtime. This is in
relation to the CBS settlement, isn't that right, Kim, settlement

(01:19:31):
with the settlement with Paramount. Remember there's a sixteen million
dollar payout, but in addition to that sixteen million dollar payout,
there will be twenty million dollars worth of advertising and programming.
This is days after Colbert has been canceled. And you know,
again CBS, this is the sixty minutes lawsuit they called

(01:19:52):
the lawsuit and apparently you know all the legal experts
that we spoke to, David Katz, et cetera. So there's
no there there the sixty minutes re edit of the
Kamala Kamala Harris interview. But now we find out that
in addition to the sixteen million dollars that they pay out,
they also are going to get twenty million dollars more
from these new owners of Paramount in advertising, public service

(01:20:18):
announcements or similar programming. It'll be thirty six million dollars
again according to the Trump people. And that's not all.
Apparently one of the things they are talking about sky Dance.

Speaker 2 (01:20:36):
Is the by the way, is the one of the
owners of Skydance his The owner's name is David Ellison, right.

Speaker 1 (01:20:43):
He met with the FCC chairman is Brendan Carr to
get approval for this merger with Paramount. And according to
a letter from the sky Dance lawyer. And the reason
we know about this letter is because you have to
file a letter is a federal filing. The transaction has
rolled Paramount subsidiary CBS News and its longtime Crown Jewel

(01:21:05):
sixty minutes into this deal. And David Ellison, by the way,
if the name Ellison means something to you, Larry Ellison
is the father of this. David Ellison, the sky Dance CEO.
Anybody on Larry Ellison, Larry.

Speaker 2 (01:21:26):
Ellison, CEO of Oracle, and.

Speaker 1 (01:21:31):
David Ellison and sky Dance's general counsels say they express
their commitment to embracing diverse viewpoints that will reflect the
varied ideological perspectives of American viewers. They also address concerns
about potential Chinese influence, saying that China based tech Tencent,
which holds a stake in Skydance, will own only a

(01:21:54):
non voting passive interest in any new version of Paramount
less than five percent. They say, wait, they really want.

Speaker 2 (01:22:03):
The sale to go through. What does this mean when
you have representing varied American interests so that we're going
to tell lies as well as the truth.

Speaker 1 (01:22:11):
It means that mag nation will be represented Kim. Yeah,
and the Libs can let go of another media empire
no more so.

Speaker 2 (01:22:22):
CBS is the newest Fox?

Speaker 1 (01:22:23):
Is that right? This looks as though CBS under this
Skydance Paramount merger would drift further to the right. The
Ellisons are right wingers. So Ellison is a supporter of
President Trump. Larry Ellison, the Dad, the Oracle guy, He's

(01:22:43):
a big supporter of Donald Trump. And I would imagine
that based on these filings, it sounds like his son
is as well, David Ellison. So, I mean, the media
landscape is changing. You will need to find independent media
like this and you know, others that are so much

(01:23:04):
bigger than this in order to get a reasonable sense
of what's happening as more and more media is absorbed
by bigger and bigger M and A stuff and five
guys control everything. I think it's notable that, you know,
one of those guys I would have said, is Rupert Murdoch.

(01:23:27):
Ruper Murdoch is being sued by this president. It's pretty extraordinary,
and it's pretty extraordinary that Murdoch let that story fly
with Epstein. Pretty damning story, the revelations about the birthday
card Trump's signature. That story ran in the Wall Street Journal.
That is a well sourced piece of journalism typically that

(01:23:50):
you'll find in the Wall Street Journal. And Trump, who
has to punch back, sues the Wall Street Journal, and
that's Rupert Murdoch We told you yesterday that Murdoch has
a meeting with JD. Vance at his ranch without Trump there,
without any press, there, no notes, just out there in

(01:24:11):
the wiles of visit Montana. Meeting with JD. Vance was
Murdoch to discuss what maybe some additional moves. Who's to say,
but that's the state of the state there. But I'm
glad you mentioned it, because yes, the Skydance ownership seems

(01:24:32):
to be very much in the thrall of Donald Trump,
and they start with Stephen Colbert, the sixty Minute settlement, which,
as I say, much bigger than we originally had thought,
and ultimately moving forward, they may be creating a media
giant that is yet another arm of the current administration

(01:24:55):
and the administration propaganda. They really want this deal to
go through.

Speaker 2 (01:25:00):
So isn't it against the fairness doctrine to there's a
doctrine that says, you know, the media, because it's public airwaves,
we have to I still say we as if I'm
in traditional media, but the traditional media has to provide
equal airtime to political candidates. If Trump is being given

(01:25:20):
ads and programming twenty million dollars worth by CBS slash,
what will be Skydance CBS. That seems to be kind
of unfair.

Speaker 1 (01:25:30):
So you correctly have noted the media fairness doctrine, but
it only applies to what you said, the public airwaves.
No one's on the public airwaves anymore. People are on
cable and streaming. It is completely not covered by the
fairness doctrine. So I can say whatever I want on

(01:25:51):
Fox News Channel. I don't have to have any Democrats
on here, and I don't have to have any other
kind of opposing opinion. So it's been that way for
decades now, since sort of the right of cable television.
Now you earn a situation, i'd say, where you have
the dominance of cable television. Right, it's not even the
rise anymore. Few people have product that's coming into their
home through an antenna. You know, it's coming either through

(01:26:14):
the cable or it's coming through the Internet, which is
also on a cable or fiber optic, et cetera. So
all of those old rules don't apply to the new technologies.
It's been a giant loophole that propaganda has been able
to walk through. So that's the reason that doesn't apply.

Speaker 2 (01:26:30):
Then what's the point of having an FCC. What does
it even cover then.

Speaker 1 (01:26:35):
So this is interesting too. What the FCC is now
dealing with is a bunch of stuff that is related
to other communications. The SEC isn't just related to broadcast.
The FCC is still related to broadband and some of
these new technologies. It's just that the political part that
you're talking about that is something that doesn't concern the

(01:26:57):
FCC much anymore. So, all right, I have I've got
to get to some Mark thumpson show. I just I
promised I would get to some immigration and I really
do want to do it quickly. So this is I
think the immigration policy in this country is is off

(01:27:19):
the rails. I think the way it's being applied is
off the rails, and I think any objective appraisal of
how it's being applied has to agree and come to
that conclusion. Here's the latest craziness. And Afghan who moved
to the United States after working for the US military
in his home country of Afghanistan, was seized by armed,

(01:27:42):
masked immigration agents, put in a van and taken out
of the state, identified only as Zia by members of
Congress and his attorney out of concern for his safety,
and that of his family. The man had worked as
an interpreter for the US military during the war in Afghanistan.

(01:28:03):
He was in the United States legally. He was arrested
after an appointment in Connecticut related to his application for
a green card under a program to protect people who
worked for US forces. Since starting his second term in January,
Republican President Donald Trump has pursued a broad crackdown on immigration. Quote.

(01:28:29):
What happened to him is the worst kind of abhorrent
violation of basic decency, said Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.
He actually worked and risked his life in Afghanistan to
uphold the values and rights that are central to democracy.

(01:28:49):
Blumenthal and two other Democrats who served Zia's district in
Connecticut are pledging to fight for his release. A judge
has issued a temporary stay preventing Zeo's removal from the
United States, but he does remain in detention. It is
an absolute aboma nation. These are the guarantees that we

(01:29:17):
made to Afghanis who helped us in that ridiculous conflict
that went on for decades.

Speaker 2 (01:29:26):
These people put their lives at risk and their families
lives at risk, all for the hope of coming to
America and living here and becoming a citizen. And this
is the way we repay them.

Speaker 1 (01:29:41):
Not to mention, we guaranteed their safety. We guaranteed that
they would be able to pursue that dream of coming
into this country. That's exactly right.

Speaker 2 (01:29:52):
But are you going to deport this guy? It means
his certain death to send him back to Afghanistan.

Speaker 1 (01:29:57):
Seriously, and when it comes to pursuing these policies as grotesque,
as chaotic, and as utterly without purpose as they are,
they've diverted roughly two thousand officers and agents from the
country's ports and borders so that they can support these

(01:30:19):
immigration raids. They've shifted money and personnel because they're trying
to up the number of deportations and ice interdictions that
there are every day, even if it means sapping manpower
normally devoted to countering terrorism and drug trafficking along the

(01:30:42):
borders and at ports of entry. The extra bodies they
say here have come from the US Customs and Border
Protection Agency, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security,
US Border Patrol, a separate agency and entity from US
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And yet it's all being worked together.

(01:31:07):
The Customs and Border Protection Crew is now lending out
more than eleven hundred of its nineteen thousand border patrol
agents and more than eight hundred of its twenty six
hundred port officers to ICE, according to the latest public documents.

Speaker 2 (01:31:22):
So does that mean that our ports are less secure?

Speaker 1 (01:31:26):
Absolutely? Absolutely?

Speaker 4 (01:31:28):
That seems you can't problem.

Speaker 1 (01:31:30):
You can't pull resources and personnel away from the border
and the ports without losing something.

Speaker 2 (01:31:38):
So we have no idea what's coming in now with
ships and things, and there could be lawlessness at our
ports because it's more important to go to home depot.

Speaker 1 (01:31:47):
We have less of an idea because it's more important
than wrapping up people at home depot and deporting Afghanis
who helped us with translations when the war in Afghanistan
was going on. Yes, that's where we are, all right, everybody.
I am on time, which is an incredible I know,

(01:32:10):
it is just an incredible thing. Now, is there a
reason that I'm not saying it really hasn't? Is Belinda's
a camera working over I don't see I see her
in the green room, but I don't see her. Yeah,
there she is, Okay, she likes I don't I don't
blame her. She likes to You know, she's from show business.
You know her husband is a major show business guy.

(01:32:32):
I don't know if I make people know that. What. Yeah,
she's married to like one of the funniest and most
successful comics in the modern history of comedy, Jake Joe Hansen. Yeah,
he's unbelievable. I've paid big money to see Jake Joe Hanson.
You'd think, knowing Belinda and Jake, I wouldn't have to

(01:32:54):
pay anymore, but I do. Just another indignity that I
suffered day to day. And before I get to her,
I want to just recognize Richard Delamator a fiver, he says,
for our darling Kim, mistress of the chat box, have

(01:33:14):
a beer on me, babe. Wow, Richard Delamator really loves
his Kim. And who doesn't I think he was Kim.
How are you feeling like you might have not liked
him or something, or you didn't that you put him
in time out or something mistakenly.

Speaker 2 (01:33:31):
I don't think I did.

Speaker 1 (01:33:32):
No, No, I don't think you did. I think it
was a misunderstanding. Oh yeah, but anyway, that's said by
that coming Jake Joe Hanson is great, says Trevor Starr
in Hollywood. He is great. He ja Joe Hanson is
like they're just a handful of comics where I go.
I know, whatever he's going to say or do is
going to make me laugh and think. He's just so

(01:33:57):
talented and smart. Really love Jake, but I couldn't get Jake,
so I got his wife on. Yeah, Jo's my hard book.

Speaker 2 (01:34:04):
Jake Johansson is that he married Belinda Weymouth. That's I mean,
that's the.

Speaker 1 (01:34:08):
Smart part, smart part. Yeah, exactly, all right, So we
love delaying on this show, but without delaying any Mark
Thompson Show, we like to look at the planet on
a weekly basis. It should probably be looked at on
an hourly basis the way things are going, but we
do it every week in a segment we call It's
the Planet Stupid, the Planet Earth.

Speaker 2 (01:34:31):
Some call me Nature.

Speaker 11 (01:34:32):
I am very passionate about the planet Earth.

Speaker 12 (01:34:36):
A living, breathing planet capable of sustaining whatever life forms
we see fit to deposit on it.

Speaker 6 (01:34:41):
The spot judging by the pollution content of the atmosphere,
I believe we have her on.

Speaker 4 (01:34:45):
It's the planet Stupid.

Speaker 1 (01:34:46):
No, no, no, it's the planet stupid. Our guide for
it's the planet Stupid is eco journalist Belinda Weymouth. Hi, Belinda, Hi,
how are you? We are well? There was a story
slory that kind of went viral about the movement of
all of these animals in Yellowstone and the way I

(01:35:09):
saw it on TikTok, I saw it everywhere. The way
it goes down is and then their pictures of all
of these animals moving on masks and the way it
goes down is. People were saying they're moving because they
see and feel stuff close to nature that we don't feel,
and what they're feeling is seismic activity associated with a

(01:35:31):
coming volcanic eruption. But it turns out what.

Speaker 12 (01:35:38):
AI generated photos and social media commentations went nuts and
you know, scared everybody and said, you know it's going
to be the caldera is going to erupt. You know,
the end of the world is nigh. They didn't go
to the National Park Service and check out what was
really happening. They just took these AI generated photos of

(01:35:58):
masses of animals. You can put it up out, but
I mean it's you know, there are you know, bears
all over the roads and you know, it's like, guys,
before you have your freak out, you know, go to
the source and check what's actually happening. It's it's insane,
it's completely insane.

Speaker 1 (01:36:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (01:36:16):
And also you know there are there are all these people,
so this is this is a normal day at Yellowstone.
And then on the blue social link that you had
the interaction with one of our listeners saying, you know,
what's going on mark that shows all the animals there
and what's actually happening at National Parks is you know,

(01:36:38):
you've got all these experts who are looking at you know,
any seismic activity, any volcanic gases that are coming out
of the ground. So here's the picture that was you.

Speaker 1 (01:36:50):
Know, so for those just listening, it's a bunch you
see bear cubs, I mean scores of them and and
other bear sitting in the road flanked on either side
of the road by the trees of Yellowstone. But you're
suggesting that this is all AI generated.

Speaker 12 (01:37:08):
Yeah. Yeah, And the National Park Surface did come out
and say, you know, because these photos have been going
around for a couple of weeks and they were able
to say, look, you know this has gone viral and
everyone's you know, making a big brou haha about it,
but this isn't actually what's going on.

Speaker 2 (01:37:23):
And you know the.

Speaker 12 (01:37:24):
Last time that there was so the last two times
that there were volcanic eruptions in Yellowstone, one was one
hundred and seventy four thousand years ago and the other
was over six hundred thousand years ago. But Yellowstone is
being monitored at all times. So these animals and animals
also can't sense when a volcanic eruption is you know

(01:37:45):
it was coming. You don't see screens of animals running.
I know, when we have earthquakes, you know you will
see you know, the birds get up in the air
and you know, start moving. But it has to be
super super eminent, you know. And this wasn't a warning,
but you know, it goes viral. You know, social media
has become a news source for so many people and

(01:38:07):
so you can have this really misguided newsflash and it's
not a news flash, it's thank you AI. So this
is the problem, right.

Speaker 1 (01:38:20):
Yeah, it's clickbaity, which is that's the problem. It's all
about clicks.

Speaker 12 (01:38:24):
Yeah yeah, and it looks amazing and of course it does,
you know, catch your eye and you know, I I'm,
you know, so skeptical now because I know we all love,
you know, the instagram of the cute animals, and I
don't know if anyone's seen the snow leopards being saved,
but it was so obviously AI generated. It's a snow

(01:38:44):
leopard cub who goes and finds these climbers and gets
them to come back and rescue its mother. And she's
stuck in this you know, sort of cravas, like, you know,
super dangerous and you see these climbers saving her. Well,
if you actually watch the footage, you can see your
head is wonky. It's AI generated. It didn't happen. But
does it get your heartstrings? Oh yes it does. You know,

(01:39:07):
human megafauna interaction. You know, we love that stuff, but
we have to question, you know, really questioned now with
AI it's apt to get us, it's apt to manipulate us.

Speaker 1 (01:39:21):
Well, I want to pivot from that to something that
is really happening. It's real life. The EPA with a
new plan drafted that would be a radical Apparently it
will give the This is a draft of a plan
to repeal a fundamental scientific finding that gives the US

(01:39:45):
government authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change.
So this takes away again another regulatory muscle from that
agency which is supposed to protect lutonts from the environment
and to protect us a bit from climate change and

(01:40:06):
the release of gases like carbon dioxide and methane, et cetera.

Speaker 12 (01:40:10):
M Yeah, well, I mean he did this the last
time he was in office. You know, it was all
about undermining the EPA and what they can do. And
you know, obviously this will become you know, a legal
battle and we'll have to you know, see what happens.

(01:40:31):
I mean, it's just more in the playbook. And I
have to say sometimes, you know, it's like the thing
that Obama had to come out and say, you know,
with what they're talking about that he did with you know,
Hillary Clinton and you know, trying to stop you know,
Trump winning the first time. It's a lot of noise
that goes on that sort of distracts from the nefarious

(01:40:53):
things that are happening. The thing that you were talking
about just before I came on, the things that are
happening with immigration. I feel like there's a lot, a
lot of a lot of stuff gets thrown up there,
and I feel like a lot of it is to
descript from you know, the really terrible things that are
actually happening. I mean, obviously he's going to do everything
he can say that climate change isn't isn't real. I mean,
it's you know, that's that's part of his agenda.

Speaker 1 (01:41:17):
And I mean I feel like that. I feel like
regulatory power has already been taken from the e p
A in part by court cases, you know what I mean.
That was one of the big cases that was before
the Supreme Court. It was designed to remove the power
of agencies like the e PA from regulation, from the

(01:41:37):
leverage that they had over these various aspects of American life,
in this case, the environment, so and chemical plants. And
it was quite an extensive list of things because what
they went to the Supreme Court to uh get them
to adjudicate over was the EPA's legal role in regulation.

(01:42:00):
It would involve a fishing boat. It was they always
take one specific case and there was an EPA governmental
pointed official that had to be on this boat. And
it all started with the APA official being compensated by
the Without getting too much into the weeds, there was
like the boat, the compensation of five hundred dollars a
day of this guy in the boat. How can they

(01:42:20):
do that? How can they force us to pay for
a regulator, et cetera. And it brought into the legal
sphere the question of whether or not the EPA even
has the power to regulate, and that was really where
we were. I mean, it was a Chevron deference I
think on one level also applied to that. So I

(01:42:42):
feel as though this is the train that has been
chugging along for a time, and now with all these
legal allies and governmental allies, it's really achieving some momentum.

Speaker 12 (01:42:52):
Yeah, yeah, would you load the courts, you know, like
he did, you know, with his judges and then yes,
and then he comes in for a second and he
has all that, he has this lever to pull, you know,
at every turn, and it's terrible. It's terrible. I mean,
you know. One of the things that I wanted to

(01:43:12):
talk about today, and it's sort of along the same lines,
you know. It's it's what is happening with trying to
regulate you know, climate change, and what's happening right now
is also what we're trying to do with the plastic
pollution crisis. On a global level, and what's happening at

(01:43:33):
the U N and you know the UN. And I
feel like also you know, courts here because of citizens
United and how much you know money we have in
the political gain you know, the UN and also US

(01:43:54):
politics are really hijacked, you know, buy money and the
power that corporations have and a petrochemical companies have, and
it really limits the protections and what government organizations like
the EPA and then also our electric officials are able

(01:44:14):
to do to protect us. And what we're seeing on
an international level with the with the UN and say
climate change, is that the UN just they don't have
the backbone to stand up to the power, you know,
the money and the office obficecation of facts that we
get from the petrochemical you know, industry. And so what's
happening right now. So the UN has got this the

(01:44:37):
United Nations Environment Program, they're holding these treaty talks. They've
been doing it since twenty twenty two to try and
stop this incredible flow of plastics that you know, come
into use, that are single use and then what happens
to them, you know, because they're ending up in the ocean.
We know that plastic is ending up. You know, in

(01:44:58):
our food, it's in our I the a beer, it's
in the water that we drink, it's been found in
our blood. Uh. This is Indonesia, and these people on
these boats, so this is where a river mouth comes
out into the ocean, and they're trying to pick out
the bits of plastic that are actually recyclable. Now remember
only nine percent of plastic gets recycled. And it's in fact,

(01:45:21):
in fact recyclable because it you know, it has to
be a certain grade for us to be able to
recycle it. And the awful thing about these negotiations is
that the petrochemical industry has completely infiltrated them. So lobbyists
are there in actual greater numbers than delegates and sometimes

(01:45:42):
three times as many lobbyists as there are scientists at
these meetings because they can afford to go because the
meetings are in you know, and it's exactly like what's
happening here, you know, Onshore with petrochemical companies wanting to
limit the regulation so that the EBA has to stop
them polluting. It's exactly the same, you know. And also

(01:46:05):
you know, as we've talked about before, you know, the
plastics industry is a branch of the petrochemicals because where
do plastics come from. They come from the ethane and methane,
which is a byproduct of oil when we refine oil.
And we also have excessive amounts of methane and ethane
thanks to all the fracking that we've done, and so

(01:46:26):
we have cracker facilities, which is where they turn these
gases into plastics being built all over the world, all
over the US, They're being built in Europe, they being
built in China, and they say that the production of
plastic is going to increase threefold by twenty sixty. We're
already producing four hundred and fifty million tons of new

(01:46:47):
plastic every year on top of the plastic that's already
been produced and that we're trying to deal with and recycle.
So I think we're really in this sort of this
really awful place where these crises, these different crises, you know,
the climate change and putting too much greenhouse gases into

(01:47:09):
the atmosphere, making too many plastics. This has all been
hijacked by these companies who this is their bottom line.
They want to keep making the money and they don't
care about the environmental impact or the pollution that it
causes us.

Speaker 1 (01:47:24):
I think you frame it so beautifully. The ugliness of
it is framed beautifully because it is hard. In this
fog of war associated with the environment and with greed
and with the desire to expand and to feed the

(01:47:45):
bottom line and development worldwide, it's hard to roll back
production of anything. I mean they I think in the
form of plastic. You see sort of the crescendo of
these things, as you said, like these fossil fuels taking
on this form of plastic, which is we're inundated by.

(01:48:05):
But you see it in exploitation of chemical production of
all sorts worldwide. And the UN it's a little like
what's happening in Gaza, you know. I mean, the UN
can decry it, the nations of the world can point
to it, talk about the horror. It can be agreed

(01:48:25):
upon as a horror, but their ability to do anything
is somewhat limited. And I'd say this is an existential
horror that is being perpetrated to the world and we're
all suffering from it with cancers, with health effects that
are demonstrable, and our ability to do anything is limited,
would be a polite way to put it. It's pretty

(01:48:47):
much non existent.

Speaker 12 (01:48:49):
Well, when you allow the polluters a place at the table,
you know, I mean, I think that's so so egregious.
Like there's the there's this the Bureau of National Representatives
who run the treaty talk so they have. Last year
a Saudi Arabia Ministry of Energy official was voted on

(01:49:12):
to this ten person bureau. And it's like, this is
like inviting the NRA to come to you know, a
school where there was a recent shooting to talk about,
you know, how do we control guns. And sorry if
that's superincendiary to anyone who's this thing, but I really
feel that it's on the level of that you can't
invite or let the polluters be at the table because

(01:49:37):
you know, now what's happening because all these polluters, you know,
basically all these these lobbyists can you know, have more
money and can be part of these negotiations and can
even become, you know, members of the delegation. They're going
to these talks about plastic pollution and they're completely intimidating
anyone who's talking about what a problem it is. There's
the story of this one. She's a Swedish ecotoxicologist. And

(01:49:59):
last year Ottawa when they were having you know, one
of these treaty talks. They're about to have the six
to one in Geneva next month, she was surrounded by
a ring of lobbyists who was screaming at her that
she was misrepresenting the truth. She has to have a
screen on her cell phone, you know, one of those
privacy screens, so that they can't see what she's looking at.
She doesn't open her computer until she knows who's behind

(01:50:22):
her because she doesn't want them to see, you know,
any of the information that she's dealing with. And because
the UN is relying and you know, it relies on
all these member nations to finance it. You know, so
Saudi Arabia and these other countries give lots of money
and then you've got the ED of the UNIP, the
United Nations Environment Program going to Saudi Arabia. You know,

(01:50:44):
in twenty twenty four they had the Environmental World Day
in Saudi Arabia. They've made a million dollars to do it.
Now countries do do that. ANDBS is making you know,
the Linear City, which is going to be you know,
no emissions, and people are going to live sustainably on
all those different levels. We've talked about it before on
the program. But they behind the US are the second

(01:51:05):
biggest you know, petrochemical country in the world. They are uh,
you know, one of the biggest producers of plastics, and
they are leading this group at these treaty talks on
how to reduce plastics. You know, they're leading the group
that you know, take They directly took the playbook out

(01:51:25):
of the tobacco industries tactics. You know, you obfuscate the truth,
you take charge of the narrative. You turn it around
on you know, US utillance as our fault. I mean,
I said, Albert the picture of the crying Indian because
you know that ad campaign in the nineteen seventies told
Americans that they were the ones who were the problem.

(01:51:47):
They were the one they were the blues. It's not
the fact that now Coca Cola and everyone, rather than
putting their drinks into a glass bottle that could actually
be recycled, who were giving these single use plastic bottles
full of Coca cola and that then they had to
deal with the problem at the end that we have
to pay. Yeah, the you know, get involved. Pollution hurts
all of us, but we were told, you know, that

(01:52:08):
we were the pollutants, and we pay for it. You know,
our tax money goes to our municipalities, to our local
governments to pay for our waste management system. So I
think that, uh, I just think, you know, we're these

(01:52:28):
talks and where we're at as a society, it's already
been hijacked by the ones in power. We sort of
see it here with well we're not sort of see it.
We're seeing it here with you know, the billionaires who
really have a seat at the table and have Trump's here.
And what activist countries are really calling upon for Geneva

(01:52:50):
and for the next round of treaty talks on curbing
plastic pollution is that we really have to be there
and be strong and stand up to the polluters and
you know, basically markets like we have to try our
hardest because the plastic pollution is so you know, it's
so bad.

Speaker 1 (01:53:12):
Yeah, it's a proliferation. And what I was going to
ask were out of time, but I was going to
ask you or just remark on the fact that the
Europeans seem to be just you know, now, particularly given
the fact that we're just turning back the clock to
like nineteen fifty eight or whatever. The Europeans seem to
really be a far more able to take on some

(01:53:33):
of these industries or at least to regulate them in
some responsible way. Or is that just my perception of it.
Are they actually succumbing to the same kind of big
money buyout of policy that we succumb to here.

Speaker 12 (01:53:47):
Well, one of the things that you know, Bernie talks
about all the time, Bernie Sanders and you know a
lot of other politicians, and you know, I talk about
it because I come from the parliamentary system. You know,
in the parliamentary system, you have three months to campaign
to win offers to become the prime minister. You could
only do it if you have the majority, that your
party gets the majority, so that when you're in, you know,

(01:54:08):
it's not like the executive branch, and then you can
you know, you can win the presidency but not have
your party in. But but it's also the money. You know,
you only get a certain amount of public moneys. It's
nowhere near the billions that get spent to get elected here.
So because of citizens, you know, United and because corporations
now can give, you know, just in undated. And they

(01:54:29):
do it on both sides. They do it with democratic
and Republicans, you know, because then because they want to
have you know, influence whoever gets in. And so until
you take the money out of politics, and when you
have a parliamentary system, you don't have so much money
in politics. It's just you know, you get in use
public money. It's a shorter campaigning time, and so the

(01:54:53):
public have more of a say and more control in
what their representatives do than we do with the system
that we have here. And and I think also the
really important thing about Europe and I think this is
because it's older, so it's been dealing with you know,
sort of inter societal problems for you know, millennia, whereas
this is a very new country. And they also operate

(01:55:16):
under the precautionary principle, which we don't do here. The
precautionary principle is you have to prove something is safe
before you're allowed to put it on the market. You
have to know that it's safe and it's not going
to hurt consumers. It's not toxic to put you know,
on your face, in your mouth, you know, wash your
hair with feed, your baby foods. But we don't operate

(01:55:37):
under the precautionary principle here. Things go to market, Yes
they have to have be FDA approved, but once they're
on the shelves, and if we know they're causing harm,
we have to prove it retrospectively after they're already on
the shelves, and that's a big legal battle. Again, to
come back to what we were talking about at the very
beginning with the EPA and now all these legal fights.

(01:55:57):
You have to prove the heart before you can remove
it from the shelves. We don't. We don't operate, We
don't use the precautionary principle, and we would do a
lot better by our citizens if we did.

Speaker 1 (01:56:09):
Sure, No, so interesting to me the way our culture
has evolved, in our society and our government has evolved
a wash in money and a wash in special interests
and special interests that are wealthy and driven by their
ability to essentially by legislation by regulators everybody from the FDA,

(01:56:30):
the FCC to you know, to the e p A.
But e p A has been always an agency that
has governed with a pretty strong regulatory arm, but now
completely defanged. I mean it's really sad to see, but
we're out of time. I thought we did some good
stuff today though, so I felt pretty good about it.

Speaker 12 (01:56:51):
Yeah yeah, And can I can I leave? Can I
leave everyone with one happy story? I sent out but
a photograph of the bears. There's one bear actually the photograph,
but I just to tell everyone quickly. So you know,
we talked about last year after I'd been to Laos
and we went to Luang Probag and we went to
this organization called Free the Bears and they're working super

(01:57:11):
super hard to get bears out of the bear bile industry.
So they just saved two brown beer cubs recently.

Speaker 1 (01:57:16):
Oh that's sweet. You don't have that, whereas the do
you have a er?

Speaker 12 (01:57:21):
I sent? Yeah, there's a link and there's what there's
a picture of a beer. Yeah yeah, oh I was
hoping we could just get the bear. But yeah, there's
so there's a brown bear that's you know, being saved.
And you know what they say with these bears, So
these so if anyone wants to get involved with an
organization that's really doing a massively amazing good work for
these beautiful animals, it takes a lot of money to
look after. Oh thanks, thanks, that's beautiful. So these two,

(01:57:44):
the two cups have just been saved. They will have
to be with Free the Bears, with the organization for
the next thirty five years. They will be looked after
and they will be rehabbed. They you know, they're wounded,
they've been hurt, they're they're.

Speaker 1 (01:57:58):
Not used their bile.

Speaker 12 (01:58:00):
They take the buyo out of them while they're alive.
They have the you know, the horrible.

Speaker 1 (01:58:05):
You know, we're a pretty we're a pretty awful species.

Speaker 12 (01:58:10):
So if you want to be involved with something cool,
Free the Bears is an amazing organization and.

Speaker 1 (01:58:15):
It's Freeze Bears dot org. Yeah, they were in a
long probong. We didn't go to Free the Bears.

Speaker 12 (01:58:21):
Next time, you got to go.

Speaker 1 (01:58:23):
Back that village we meant to. Yeah, I think you Belinda,
Thank you, appreciate you and our best ja all right
bye black Well then they way with everybody. That's it's
the planet stupid for the day more.

Speaker 4 (01:58:41):
It's the planet stupid.

Speaker 1 (01:58:43):
No, no, no, it's the planet stupid.

Speaker 3 (01:58:45):
Next time only on the Mark Thompson Show.

Speaker 1 (01:58:52):
How did this happen? Kim? I don't know how we've
we've run out of time, but we have and I
feel as though you well, maybe it is my fault.
I'm I'm sure in part I'm to blame. But Albert,
thank you. Yeah, Albert, it's probably and also to blame.
We know one thing, Kim is not to blame for

(01:59:12):
an no.

Speaker 2 (01:59:15):
Big story on the way out. You ready for it?

Speaker 1 (01:59:17):
Yeah, go for it?

Speaker 2 (01:59:19):
Headline reads Trump told by Bondi his name is in
the Epstein files.

Speaker 1 (01:59:25):
Why what?

Speaker 2 (01:59:26):
According to the Wall Street Journal.

Speaker 1 (01:59:28):
You mean the non existent Epstein files. There's nothing to
see here, boy, Bondy goes from. Files are on my
desk and I'm going to be reviewing them in a moment.
Two files don't contain anything. It's a big nothing burger. Wow,
there's no there there two. Oh wait a minute. Those

(01:59:50):
files must have been under some other files. I've just
found them. And yes, your name, sir, all over the files. Wow.
I don't think so. I think this is wow. That
is a that's a breaker. Is that what you call
it in the news business, Kim. That's a breaker. Yeah,

(02:00:12):
I'm telling you.

Speaker 4 (02:00:12):
What is no picnic, no summer.

Speaker 1 (02:00:15):
That's right, life's getting tough there. It is in the
Wall Street Journal.

Speaker 2 (02:00:19):
Thanks all Street Journal.

Speaker 1 (02:00:20):
Justice Department told Trump in May that his name is
among many in the Epstein files, so he knew about
it all along. You cannot say you love your country,
m The truth is the truth. You can't skate away
from it, mister President.

Speaker 4 (02:00:39):
That way.

Speaker 1 (02:00:42):
Unbelievable. There it is again reading the headline. Bondi also
told President at that meeting that Justice decided to not
release more Jeffrey Epstein documents because of the presence of
child pornography and the need to protect victims. This is

(02:01:02):
a gross story. It is grotesque. It is a story
that is so full of things that will creep you
out and turn your stomach because it involves children underage,
girls and boys. And Donald Trump's name is among the

(02:01:25):
many in the Epstein files. That is the headline from
the Wall Street Journal, and he was told as much
in May. This is big, big trouble, and this story
will only grow. So that was very inappropriate. It is
something that we will report moron tomorrow. The legal side

(02:01:52):
of this from David Katz, the Bondi visit, the Blanche
visit to Gallaine Maxwell, and the legal ramifications of all
of this, even the legal ramifications of the Trump connection

(02:02:16):
to this. It is all pretty disturbing. Good stuff, Kim
for getting it in before we said goodbye. We do
have to say goodbye, though, so can we get to
whatever we need to get to? And Angel in the

(02:02:40):
Bay Area says in a ten dollars super chat goodbye
Star Trek. What?

Speaker 4 (02:02:45):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (02:02:46):
Yeah, because Star Trek is a paramount property. Is that
what Angel in the Bay Area means? I'm guessing yeah. Wow.

Speaker 2 (02:02:59):
Well, my husband asked me last night, do we want
to cancel our paramount subscription to you know, send a message? Oh?

Speaker 1 (02:03:09):
I don't know. I never know. Do those messages make it?
Do they matter? I always felt the Washington the Washington
Post cancelations they were that was a mistake when all
these all these people, you know, with the virtue signaling.
I've canceled my subscription of the Washington Post since they
didn't endorse Kamala Harris or they didn't endorse anyone for president.

(02:03:32):
Now they're doing great journalism at the Washington Post. I wouldn't,
you know, but I get it. It's great too, you know,
social media post about that. But when the McAllister House
cancels their paramount plus, that's a different story. So Lucy McAllister.
I don't know whether she has paramount plus or no.

(02:03:53):
Lucy my favorite. McAllister shout out number. Lucy's number one,
then again Julia's number two, and then the rest of them.

Speaker 2 (02:04:07):
I'm somewhere around the hovering around the nine or ten.

Speaker 1 (02:04:09):
I don't know where you are. I lost interest after
number two, to be honest, but Lucy is wonderful and
getting to be hof on this show.

Speaker 5 (02:04:21):
And Kevin McAllister is my favorite.

Speaker 1 (02:04:24):
Kevin McAllister, come on, yeah, Angel the Bay Area says,
Bravo correct Trek reference for Belinda's intro. I see the
intro with judging from the pollution, I'd say we have arrived.
Isn't that there? Something like that? That's the quote. But

(02:04:45):
I'll tell you the truth. I could continue like this
all day and just wait for the next Wall Street
Journal breaking news.

Speaker 2 (02:04:50):
But multiple times his name is in the report, according
to the Wall Street.

Speaker 1 (02:04:55):
Term, multiple times his name is in the report, he.

Speaker 2 (02:04:59):
Is him deep Did any even think it was gonna
be different? We all knew, of course, we all knew it.

Speaker 1 (02:05:05):
But to actually know that it's there in the report
and maybe nowhere to hide, Yeah, I don't know. Man. Well, tomorrow,
David Katz joins, and we'll talk again about the legal
ramifications of all of this.

Speaker 2 (02:05:23):
Gill Gross will be here as.

Speaker 1 (02:05:24):
Gill Gross will be here tomorrow. I love it, you
lose me. I'd say it was a trade. It was
one of those giant trades. Albert, you know, you trade Thompson,
you pick up Gill Gross. Yeah, onto the Championship. The
After Party Live is next door in the After Party
Live channel and until tomorrow Show of Stevens for the

(02:05:46):
Mark Johnson Show. Al but, thank you, Kim, thank you.
We're out of time. By thanks everybody who supports the
show and participates on until tomorrow, Bye bye. Doing pattings.

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