Global Trade Scrambles as Trump Triggers Tariff Surge 8/1/25

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, thank you all. It is a delight on Friday
HIV with you, and I am buoyed and encouraged and
humbled by your recorded applause. Hello, we have an insanely
good show today and I'm really excited to get it started.
An insanely busy work. Yes, you've seen. The new cardigan
is available at Getmarkmarch dot com. The cardigan the knitted

(00:24):
cardigan and has the just a beautiful embroidery. There's really
something quite special the logo since the production of this,
you know, we order all this stuff so that we
can see how looks, and we've moved the logo up
and we've made it smaller so you the cardigan that
you get will likely be even nicer than the one

(00:45):
I'm wearing. Although if you got one like going I'm wearing,
it's something of the collector's item because very few in existence.
As I say, the the logo is moving up. Kim
is here.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
How are you?

Speaker 1 (00:57):
I cannot keep this cardigan on, Kim because it's very warm,
but it's the perfect thing for the coming fall season
and the winter time. It's got a mister Rogers quality
to it. And we found the one guy who doesn't
like mister Rogers's what I said. Yeah, anyway, I didn't

(01:18):
think that was possible that you'd find somebody who doesn't
like mister Well what's not to like?

Speaker 3 (01:23):
It was a shocking revelation, honest.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
It was How dare you tell me?

Speaker 4 (01:27):
It just was a bit too slow.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
Even as a kid, I just was like, oh, I
gotta go. This is when you put on your other
sweater now and you change your tennis shoes.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yes, that's right. Who are the people in There was
a campaign. You probably don't remember this, Kim, you're too young,
but there was a campaign, a beautiful, big campaign. When
I was in the Bay Area, I did something called
neighborhood Weather. I just created this thing. Now it might

(02:01):
exist in other markets now, but there was nothing like
it at the time. It was pre internet, pre email.
People would send in pictures of themselves, their family, their neighborhood,
whatever it might be, full description of why we should
do the weather from their neighborhood, and we would actually
go out and do the weather in their neighborhood. So
it was called neighborhood weather. They did a whole campaign

(02:22):
around We had drinking glasses, a bunch of merch weather.
It was really kind of fun, and they did a
blitz on television with this commercial and I come in
just like mister Rogers. That's what made me think of it.
Your description is exactly what was in the spot, and
this music plays as I walk in, and I do

(02:42):
the whole mister Rogers thing. It's a quick spot and
then I sit down to a piano and I play
a little and it was really it was really fun,
and it was very well received, and it ran during
the Olympics and you know, so it was really.

Speaker 4 (02:56):
Getting a lot of views.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
And I had thought about it in all these years
until just now.

Speaker 4 (03:02):
Yeah, did you play the piano?

Speaker 1 (03:05):
No, it was a and the piano thing was like
really like this jazzy piano thing. No, it was a
total cheat. But I talked to the pianist and he
gave me the basic fingering associated with the moves. And
so if you watch, it's hard to see whether or
not I'm playing, because I'm doing the very moves that

(03:26):
a you know, in general that the pianist was doing.
It was fun.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yeah, so I know how you love a good compliment.
And that shirt, the sleeves of the shirt you're wearing
hit you in such a way that your biceps look massive.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yes, I know, thank you, I am. I've got the
best biceps on YouTube. Like kind of shirt, sir, thank you,
it's fantastic, Thank you very much. It's my I'm not
comfortable in short sleeves, I'll tell you. And so, by
the way, just because i'm talking about merch, I love this.
We just had somebody order one of these. These are

(04:02):
the seasonal T shirts make Love not Fascism. It's a
perfect And then, oh, this is the Project nineteen eighty
four and a half reference to George orwell, this is
a small which is the reason I'm not wearing it
right now. He was looking for a shirt but I

(04:23):
don't have. And then this is really cool. I can't
wait to wear this. This is the sweatshirt. I'm sorry,
it's a sweater. It's a knitted sweater, and it's just awesome.
All of our stuff is knitted. There's nothing like iron
non nice. Yeah, it's really great. I can't wait to
wear it as the weather gets a little cooler. But

(04:45):
and then Richard Delamater sent us a picture of himself
rocking the merch. I think Tony has it and Richard,
really there he isn't a liquor star, which is a Yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
The lady who had the counter going, what are you doing?

Speaker 1 (05:03):
He said, just so, he said to me, just so
you know, that's my friend behind the counter. I come
here all the time. And I asked her and she
said it's okay to show the picture with her face.

Speaker 4 (05:12):
So really funny.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
I love it. Yeah, so good in the bucket hat too,
it looks nice.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
He rocks it. Look at the guy. He's really this
is a guy who really does get life, you know
what I mean? He is really the best Richard Delamator.
Thank you, Richard, thank you for rocking our merch in
all the different ways that you do. So that's a
quick preamble to Mark Thompson Show. Now there's all kinds

(05:38):
of stuff, merch stuff you can knock around and check
it out. I want to get to a couple of
quick pieces of news before we welcome in the award
winning screenwriter and political activist Billy Ray. And then we have,
as you know, and I promised it yesterday, the social
security activist. And when it comes to knowledge about social security,

(06:01):
I think he is a wondrous resource. Alex Laws him,
and he's executive director of Social Security Works, and he
can tell you exactly what's happening and the future of
the Social Security Administration under the MAGA and the Trump Party.
So I do you want to start, though, with what's
happening with the stock market? Stock market and not only

(06:22):
here but internationally being dramatically affected by the tariffs. And
the tariffs go into effect on every country, I think,
but Mexico, which is exempted because there is an ongoing
negotiation there. But global markets are rattled for sure. Tony,

(06:44):
I think has a little bit of what was happening
just a couple of hours ago. And here's the way
it was greeted that news. Go ahead to me.

Speaker 5 (06:50):
Stocks are sinking sharply right now.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
The Dow is down.

Speaker 5 (06:54):
Take a look at this. The Dow is down right
now a lot of points. One point six four one
point sixty five percent. The Dow Jones is down seven
hundred and twenty nine points right now.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
That's a big number.

Speaker 5 (07:07):
This morning's lackluster jobs report and President Trump's new tariff
policy clearly having a major impact. The Labor Department says
just seventy three thousand jobs were added to the US
economy in July far fewer than expected, and revised figures
showed June with the weakest job growth in more.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Than four years.

Speaker 5 (07:27):
President Trump is also cementing his break with America's long
standing free trade policy as he announces sweeping new tariffs.

Speaker 4 (07:35):
For the entire world.

Speaker 5 (07:36):
More than sixty countries now face higher rates. The new
tariffs for any country with a trade deficit is now
at least at least fifteen percent, and more than two
dozen nations are being hit with an even higher percentage.
These new rates will go into effect on Thursday. CNN
is covering all the angles with Kevin Loptek over at the.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
One Yeah Show, Tony, Thank you for that back a
little bit of an overview. One of the things there
that was referenced, and it is important, is the revised
job numbers. He kind of blew past it quickly. But
what they're basically saying is that the May and June
numbers were not as good as was reported, and the
actual numbers are bad. So you're looking at month after

(08:23):
month of jobs numbers that are not too good. And
here's a little something on that to sort of put
that into a perspective.

Speaker 6 (08:31):
Jason Furman is former chairman of the White House Council
of Economic Advisors and a Harvard Kennedy School professor. It's
good to have all of you here, So obviously, Jason,
that's the guy who had your old job who said, basically,
nothing to worry about. This is quirks and seasonal stuff.
Is that what we're saying.

Speaker 7 (08:51):
In one sense, I sort of agree with him, But
in another sense, I think he's betraying, you know, just
a profoundly diminished expectation of what the US economy can accomplish.
If you look, on average, this year, the economy has
added eighty five thousand jobs a month. Last year it
added one hundred and sixty eight thousand jobs a month.

(09:12):
So the pace of job growth has half. If your
content with eighty five thousand jobs a month, or you know,
I think you said eighty for this month private sector,
that says you're expecting just much less from the US
economy than we had before. Some of that slowed down
as tariffs, A lot of it is immigration. The dramatic

(09:32):
cutbacks and immigration have really slowed the growth of the
labor force, slowed job growth, and are slowing economic growth
as well.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
It takes me.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
Thank you. That's again something that I don't think you're
hearing a lot about. You're hearing about the terroristion. I
think that's the right thing to hear about on one level.
But there is a beginning of the erosion of the
good Biden economy that Trump inherited. That is going to continue.
And again a week US jobs report is sort of

(10:05):
suggesting that the trade wars have hurt America's labor market.
And watch those labor numbers month to month. They will
be instructive. I think as as we continue. The other
thing that is happening is and again, you know, there's
a ton that's going on in this administration. We'll revisit

(10:27):
it with Avola and Shure as we on Fridays look
back at the week in politics. But in addition to
everything happening at the White House, and by the way,
the White House is getting a brand new ballroom, aren't
they a cam a two hundred million dollar ballroom.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
Yeah, in the East Wing. You know, because you got
to dance. You know, what's life without a dance?

Speaker 1 (10:47):
Mark, Well, with more and more people out of work,
there'll be more and more people who will be available
to dance. With and the two hundred million Trump is
saying he's going to cover it along with private money.
I don't believe a word of that. I mean, this
is when Trump said he is running a charity event

(11:08):
at his golf resort and then the charity didn't get
one dollar. Yeah, put this ballroom in the same category.
He won't spend one dollar of his own money on
that ballroom. There is already a huge ballroom at the
State Department. That's usually where they have these big dinners
that they're talking about. But this is the envisioned White

(11:31):
House ballroom. Two hundred million dollars. How do you spend that?
And this is the marlagoization of the White House. So
would you.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
Rather have staff at the EPA who protects your aaron
water or would you rather have a ballroom because as
an American, I'm going clean air and water.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
Well, that's a very quaint idea very old school, Kim. Now,
it's about trying to impress visitors who want to see
a Liberachi White House, which is what we are getting.
I mean, it's just chandeliers and gold. And it's true
that the White House is an older building. It's been around,
you know since well, in post Civil War, I think

(12:14):
they did a lot of sort of renovation on it.
But bottom line is, it's always been an underpinning philosophy
that the White House is not a place that is
palatial by definition, because the idea is it's the people's house.
It's not supposed to reflect a king, it's not supposed

(12:36):
to reflect a ruler on a throne. America is not
supposed to be about that. That was the old America.
The new America is all about a guy who basically
owns the country and can do whatever he wants. And look,
he wants a two hundred million dollar ballroom. That's what
he's going to get. I'll discuss some of the other
things that he's talking about. I'll get to Glene Maxwell

(12:56):
all of that a little bit later in the show.
Right now, I've got a big name online too, so
I've got the Martinson. I'm such a huge fan of
this guy. I mean, Billy Ray is not only a
great screenwriter, award winning screenwriter, but he is one of

(13:17):
Hollywood's most respected storytellers, and he oftentimes turns real life
drama into unforgettable films. So he's the guy behind Shattered
Glass Captain Phillips, Richard Jewell, and this deep research he does,
the sharp writing he does, and knack for tension in
every story he tells. He has a gift for exploring truth,

(13:40):
power and that gray area in between. He is a
go to voice for smart, gripping, character driven films, and he,
on top of all of that, is a brilliant political activist.
How about it for a friend of the show, Billy Ray,
Everybody look at you. It's been a minute. It's been

(14:02):
a minute since I've seen you. You you Yeah, So, Billy,
I don't know where to start, you know, if we
had a longer time to visit. We talk about Hollywood,
and we talk about the changing face of AI in Hollywood,
and I'd still love to touch on it, maybe toward
the end of our conversation, but I sort of feel
with the five alarm fire that's going on in Washington,

(14:26):
and you've really you've made films about the Trump administration.
In season one of Trump, when he was a meeting
with Komi and at that dinner, I remember that was
a riveting scene and that Showtime special, it was a film, really,
two films over two nights. I wonder if you can

(14:47):
give me a sense of how you see Trump having
consolidated power it would seem in now season two, in
second four year term, and how and this is what
strikes me, how America is a different place than I
thought it was four years ago.

Speaker 8 (15:04):
Well, here's first of all, greatly with you.

Speaker 9 (15:06):
But the founders of the constitution, framers of the Constitution,
they saw Donald Trump coming.

Speaker 8 (15:15):
They built all kinds.

Speaker 9 (15:17):
Of backstops and escape valves into the Constitution. To get
rid of it would be death spot. What they did
not see coming was Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House.
They made the Legislative Body Article I of the Constitution.
It was the most important part of the Constitution. And

(15:39):
it never occurred to them that a Mike Johnson would
show up and just lay down for a president, that
a Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House would voluntarily
just surrender all power in order to please that DEAs spot.
They didn't build a fail sae in to that document

(16:02):
for that. The fail safe to that is us. That's
what we need to do now, gearing up for twenty
twenty six, so that we actually put a balance of
power back into our government.

Speaker 8 (16:19):
It does not exist, you know, Billy.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
It strikes me though, in addition to Maga Mike Johnson,
you also have a party that's been entirely cowed by
Trump or they see a route to retaining power. I
don't know. I think there are a lot of different
sort of reasons that everybody's fallen in line, but they
nonetheless have fallen in line, and that's allowed Mike Johnson
and his leadership to you know, sort of be on

(16:43):
a glide path in a way that they wouldn't likely
have seen. We wouldn't have seen, I think had there
been any pushback on the part of the GOP.

Speaker 9 (16:52):
There was a famous philosopher who said that all that
is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men
to do nothing.

Speaker 8 (17:01):
And that's what.

Speaker 9 (17:02):
You're seeing right now, otherwise decent people who have completely
sacrificed their own personal ethos, their own integrity in order
for this White House to do what it wants. And
that has to do with a desire for political power,
it has to do with financial greed, in some cases,

(17:23):
it has to do with religious zelotry, and in some
cases it has to do with just out and out
white nationalism. And those people are all sort of glombing
onto the phenomenon that is Trump and using it for
their own purposes, and of course getting used at the

(17:46):
same time.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
One of the things that struck me is the way
in which Trump campaigned and the electorate, and I think
generally and even in polling, a lot of people, even
those Democrats and Republicans rallied around them. No, that's sort
of the bleeding at the border had to be stopped,
but the southern border was just really too porous, wasn't
being administered well. Of course Trump kneecapped that bill that

(18:10):
was supposed to really would have taken care of a
lot of this. But in any case, what's happened now
is a conflation of that border policy and this ICE expansion,
which includes going to high school graduations, to slaughterhouses, to
agricultural fields, to restaurants and just picking people up, many

(18:31):
of whom are American citizens or are here legally, and
they're getting thrown in vans by guys who are masked
with no markings, and Americans to the point, are not
as good with that. I mean in polling, that's not
polling as well as the southern border stuff. But the
conflation of the two has created a momentum to this

(18:52):
immigration policy, and it's pretty hard to stop.

Speaker 8 (18:56):
Again. It'll come back to the people stopping it.

Speaker 9 (19:00):
Trump is underwater on the economy for the first time
in either presidency. He's underwater on immigration for the first
time in either presidency. People do not like what they're seeing.

Speaker 10 (19:10):
They don't believe that masked people without displaying badges or
court orders or warrants should be able to go into
a home depot and just arrest people based on the
color of their skin.

Speaker 9 (19:22):
People do not believe in Alligator Alcatraz as an expression
of a decent country. But the focus that I have
now is not on Trump, believe it or not. And
it's not on complaining about Trump, because the fact is
we've been telling America that Trump is an asshole for
ten years, and in each.

Speaker 8 (19:43):
Election his vote total growth.

Speaker 9 (19:45):
What my focus is is the Democratic Party and fixing
it and making it own its own hypocrisy and its
own dishonesty and its own excess so that the American
people can trust it once again. I've been flying all
over the country to talk to Democrats, especially progressives, about

(20:06):
the way that we are pushing voters away, the way
that the language we've been using, and the messaging we've
been using, and the policies we've been fighting for are
actually turning off the middle of the country in a
way that is dangerous.

Speaker 8 (20:19):
Now, we have a moral obligation.

Speaker 9 (20:22):
To win and to rescue our democracy, and we have
to find a way to do that that will bring
more people into the tent of the party, not push
them out.

Speaker 8 (20:32):
And that's been the thing that I really hope to
talk to you about.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
And that makes total sense given the fact that the
Democrats actually poll worse than that poorly polling president that
you're talking about. So I mean, yeah, I mean, look.

Speaker 9 (20:44):
The party right now is slightly more popular than syphilis,
and there's a reason for that.

Speaker 8 (20:50):
May I give you a.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
Couple examples, please, And I'd also like to know what
messaging you feel we should default to or.

Speaker 9 (20:57):
First, sixty eight percent of this country is Christian. Eighty
eight percent of the homes in this country have a Bible,
the average has four. In the Democratic platform in twenty
twenty four, there were mentions of Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and Islam.

Speaker 8 (21:13):
Do you know who to mention some Christianity? There were
in our platform zero not one zero.

Speaker 9 (21:21):
Not only is that political suicide, it's discriminatory. As someone
who's not Christian, it's deeply offensive to me. You can't
say to sixty eight percent of the country you don't matter,
or worse, you're the problem. What I ask my electeds
to do, I mean, I'm doing messaging for eighty or

(21:41):
eighty five sitting members of the House and Center right now,
and what I'm asking them to do is.

Speaker 8 (21:46):
To say these six things out loud.

Speaker 9 (21:49):
They are incontrovertibly true, They are empirically true, but they
are a violation of democratic orthodoxy, which is our entire problem.

Speaker 8 (21:58):
Ready, if you.

Speaker 9 (22:00):
Can challenge any of these just on a truthfulness basis,
Wanting secure borders does not make you a racist, it
does not. Okay, owning a school gun, I'm sorry, owning
a gun does not.

Speaker 8 (22:14):
Make you a school shooter. Okay, They're not the same thing.

Speaker 9 (22:19):
Disagreeing with us on abortion does not make you a fascist.

Speaker 8 (22:23):
No, it does not.

Speaker 9 (22:25):
You can disagree with us on abortion and still be
someone that we welcome into our party. Being unsure about
vaccines does not make you a flatter earth. Lots of
smart people are unsure about vaccines. They belong in our
party too. Maleness is not inherently toxic, Oh my god,

(22:45):
do we have to get over to that one. And
being a Christian is not the same thing as being
a white nationalist. These are incontrovertibly.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
True as you run down that.

Speaker 9 (22:58):
When Democrats start saying them out loud, we will get
the votes in the big middle, which is where the
vote the winds have always been. We will bring independence
back into our party. We will stop sounding condescending, superior, smug,
and out of touch. When we stop telling people that
they have to say justice involved individuals instead of criminals,

(23:21):
when we stop telling people they have to say unhoused
instead of homeless, or a pregnant person instead of pregnant woman.
When we stop that, we will win, and we have
a moral obligation to do so. You cannot help transgender
people by losing elections.

Speaker 1 (23:37):
Well that's a really powerful series of messages. And I wonder, honestly, Billy,
if all of these things that you mention land like
we've heard it, how much of it is the right
lifting what is not really a mainstream part of the

(23:58):
democratic message and turning it into all about trans all about.

Speaker 9 (24:04):
Yeah, of course they do that of course they do that,
but we make it easy. You might notice that Aoc,
the feigned leader of the squad, has taken the pronouns
off of her website.

Speaker 8 (24:18):
She figured it out. Everybody's figuring it out.

Speaker 9 (24:22):
I'm going and speaking to rooms full of progressive people
and I'm saying to them, we're doing this all wrong.
We're embracing all we're forgetting to embrace the very people
that we need. And we've got to stop. We've got
to stop trying to win the wocal Olympics. We've got
to stop being the pronoun police. This is how we lose,

(24:42):
and we have a moral obligation to win.

Speaker 8 (24:45):
They stand up and cheer, They rush forward and say
thank you.

Speaker 9 (24:49):
I got thrown out to Virginia to give a speech
literally to a room of one thousand progressives of the women.
They all rush forward and said thank you. No one
saying this, no one saying this.

Speaker 8 (25:01):
Then I was brought.

Speaker 9 (25:02):
Into this room to do some work with a workshop
with twenty five candidates running for the House of Delegates
in Virginia.

Speaker 8 (25:08):
The room held twenty five.

Speaker 9 (25:09):
One hundred people came in and there was no ac
They were standing along the wall because nobody's talking like this.
The Democratic Party has to recognize its own hypocrisy, its
own excess. Stop worrying about what the mainstream media is doing.
Stop worrying about what Fox is doing or what CNN

(25:33):
is doing in an effort to look fair and balanced,
which is giving a microphone to insane people. We need
to clean up our own house. We need to stop
saying what we're against, and we need to start saying.

Speaker 8 (25:44):
What we're for.

Speaker 9 (25:45):
We just dropped six point seven billion dollars on an
election cycle that if you stopped any American in the
street and said what does a.

Speaker 8 (25:53):
Democratic Party stand for? He can't tell you.

Speaker 9 (25:55):
There's no idea, And if pushed, he'd say, I know
you hate Trump. I know you're four. You love abortion,
open borders, and trans people. That's our that's our brand.
It's hardly the new Frontier, and we need to do
better and then the people will come.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
Tony, do you have the uh the town hall? I
wanted to play that for Billy Ray. There is pushback
in the world of town halls, as you might expect
GOP town halls. You made me think of when you
talked about, you know, these various forums in which you're speaking,
but I just want you to see a little bit
of the pushback that some of these GOP Congress people

(26:37):
are getting.

Speaker 8 (26:37):
Go ahead, Tony, that's why they don't do town halls.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
Yeah, that's exactly.

Speaker 5 (26:41):
President Trump seems to run Southeast Wisconsin.

Speaker 11 (26:45):
True, a fund of the impression that Congress was responsible
for issuing.

Speaker 2 (26:55):
Terrible I really feel that this is.

Speaker 11 (27:04):
A terrible tax that's going to be placed upon the
citizens of the United States.

Speaker 4 (27:10):
This really, at its core needs to be an opportunity
to make sure that other countries are treating the United
States fairly.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
The United States.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
I'm not looking.

Speaker 12 (27:21):
I want to want to be able to get through
as many of your questions as we can.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
Ladies and gentlemen, we will never get questions if we
can't keep the auditorium quiet.

Speaker 13 (27:31):
It's not politics, it's morality. I care about people, and
what I see happening to our immigrant population embarrasses me.
You have not raised a voice to complain about it.
Where do I see your leadership.

Speaker 4 (27:45):
I see no leadership.

Speaker 13 (27:47):
I see following Trump one hundred percent of the time,
and Trump's lead.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
Okay, Toner, thank you. You get the vibe. You know
this is real pushback. It's like, why are you guys
just henchmen for this guy who doesn't care about civil
rights human rights and is able to just flex and
you guys salute Again.

Speaker 9 (28:11):
It's focusing on them and what they're doing and their dishonesty.

Speaker 8 (28:17):
We already know about that. What are we as a
party doing?

Speaker 9 (28:21):
What are we doing that is saying to the United
States of America, to the citizens, give us power.

Speaker 8 (28:27):
This is what we're going to deliver for you.

Speaker 9 (28:29):
In other words, I don't think America wants us to
complain about Trump. I think America wants us to say, Okay,
they're taking a chainsaw to the VA.

Speaker 8 (28:42):
Here's what we're going to go do for vets.

Speaker 9 (28:44):
Here's how we are going to create relationships with the
private sector in your community so that vets are still
taking care. Okay, they're trying to get rid of Medicaid.
They're trying to kick you off Medicaid. Here's what we
as the Democratic Party are going to do to try
to tech you. Make it about the voter, and make
it about the Democratic Party as the only champion, the

(29:07):
only advocate that that party has. The thing about social
media is at least the algorithm that feeds me is
it is a bunch of Democrats complaining and agreeing with
each other about Trump. Okay, true and maybe necessary to
blow off steam, but not particularly helpful and it will
not help us build our brand. Our brand is we

(29:31):
try to bring more people into the middle class. We
are working for working people, their health, their welfare, their
well being, their future. That's our mission, right. We believe
that small businesses need more help than big businesses do.
We believe that labor needs to be protected everywhere. We

(29:52):
believe that the middle class and the working class need
to be protected from a tax code that overwhelmingly favors
the rich. We believe that our greatness comes from our goodness.
We believe that we have to stand up for vets,
the elderly, and kids. We believe that every American matters,
and no American matters more than anybody else.

Speaker 8 (30:12):
That's our brand.

Speaker 9 (30:13):
We will win more running on that than we will,
like pissing off sixty eight percent of the electorate.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
Sure, and that's a great run. I mean what you've
just said is a great run. It's and this is
sort of in your sweet spot, like doing the reducto
on that finding messaging that can be repeated and that
can find its way into the public forums. That's really
the challenge, isn't it. Because they successfully messaged, and as
you say, there was no message. You know, the Kamala

(30:43):
Harris campaign had so much momentum going into the It
was this, you know, short campaign, kind of the way
I'd like to see all presidential campaigns actually be. But
it was it was momentum. It seemed blunted by the
fact that there wasn't really a clean message that was
getting through. Was' you say, I would absolutely.

Speaker 9 (31:01):
Say, And look, you cannot call people weird and ask
for their vote at the same time, like the these
are things that are just contradictory. You can't do that.
Our tent needs to get bigger. All that matters is winning.

Speaker 8 (31:21):
That's it.

Speaker 9 (31:21):
I don't care if you agree with me on an
abortion or not. You may have religious reasons why that
is just anathema to you. Okay, But you still believe
in democracy, You still believe in the constitution, right, you
still believe in lowering the cost of insulin, you still
believe in clean water and clean air, you still believe
in social security and medicaid.

Speaker 8 (31:42):
Well, then you're a Democrat.

Speaker 9 (31:44):
You may not know it, but you're a Democrat and
you need to be welcomed back into this.

Speaker 8 (31:50):
Party because we don't want to give you anywhere else
to go. We need your vote.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
I want to ask you this question, and you're kind
of the perfect guy ask Trump is a generational political figure, loathsome,
I think, but he is truly, I think, without peer
when it comes to the sort of again, i'll just
call it charisma or this cult that he's built. It

(32:16):
appeals to masculinity, it appeals to I don't know, people
are sparked to his perceived wealth and success, even though
that was a fraud, of course. But the idea that
this guy is someone who is intimidating, uses his power
and was able to build this coalition behind him is
I think generational as a political figure. As I say, now,

(32:38):
this gets to the part that I feel is about you.
If you kind of put it in show business terms,
he's like a lead that a male lead that is
so great that everybody goes to the theater to see
the film, regardless of what the film is about. And
the reason I kind of put it in that way
is I'm getting to the Democrat. The message I think

(33:02):
that you've suggested is so very powerful. They still need
a male lead, and sadly it has to be a
white male lead. I just think that's where what I'm
learning about America, and I'm not crazy about it, but
i'd love your impressions. Is that true? Don't you think?
Even Biden? Last thing, and I'll let you speak, Even
Biden was doing some great things for regular Americans. I mean,

(33:24):
his legislative record was actually quite impressive. The Infrastructure Bill
was expansive and transformational. And yet because he was doddering
and old, he didn't have the kind of charismatic dynamic
to sell his own accomplishments. And so this guy could

(33:44):
come up and just talk crap about him, and you
end up with a kind of asymmetry to the two
of them. So do we need this male lead to
extend the parallel? And who might it be?

Speaker 8 (33:57):
Okay, it's going to be a long answer. So forgetting.

Speaker 9 (34:01):
In the Civil War, the Union Army kept firing general
after general because it kept everyone kept losing battles to
Robert E.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
Lee.

Speaker 9 (34:09):
Finally, Lincoln brings in Ulysses S. Grant, and Grant meets
with all of his staff, all of his generals, and
they keep talking about Bobby Lee this, and Bobby Lee that,
and what Bobby Lee can do, and Bobby Lee how
Bobby Lee made them look bad.

Speaker 8 (34:22):
And he said, stop talking about Bobby Lee, stop.

Speaker 9 (34:25):
Thinking about what Bobby Lee's doing to you, and you
start thinking about.

Speaker 8 (34:27):
What you're going to do to Bobby Lee. Okay, this
was a guy who.

Speaker 9 (34:30):
Didn't scare worth a dam, and he knew how to
lick Robert E.

Speaker 8 (34:36):
Lee's army and then went out and did it.

Speaker 9 (34:38):
Okay, that's what's necessary.

Speaker 8 (34:41):
Now.

Speaker 9 (34:42):
I reject the premise of your question. Trump is not
some big sexy lead. That's not what's going on out here.
Trump is a.

Speaker 8 (34:50):
Studio head who has decided to.

Speaker 9 (34:54):
Destroy whoever was in his way, and to pump up
anyone who could make him look good, and to fin
every actress on the lot.

Speaker 8 (35:01):
Okay, that's what he is. He's a pick.

Speaker 9 (35:04):
He's not a male lead who's sexy and people want
to keep coming.

Speaker 8 (35:07):
To see his movies.

Speaker 9 (35:09):
What he did was he validated people's hatreds. He came
to them in twenty fifteen and he said to them,
you should hate liberals, you should hate the Clintons. You
should hate the elites, you should hate the media, you
should hate the coasts, and in some cases, you should
hate black people because they're all laughing at you. Well,

(35:31):
I'm not fucking laughing at you. I'm going to punish
them for laughing at you. That was his pitch. It's
still his pitch, okay. And people found that attractive because
it made them feel better about the ugliest parts of themselves.

Speaker 8 (35:45):
Put that aside.

Speaker 9 (35:47):
That's not the issue now. The issue is that he
had one great political insight, and only one. I think
he's the most overrated intellect of all time. But he
had one great insight. He knew that he could go
to the Republican rank and file and say, the people
running your party are morons, and that not only would

(36:08):
the rank and file say, oh my god, he's right,
but the people running the party would say, you're right,
we are morons, and they all got on his back. Okay,
In twenty twenty seven, some Democratic leader is going to
come to the rank and file of this party and say,
the people running your party have led you off a cliff.

(36:29):
Get on my back. That's the mountain we're climbing. I
know how to get over it. And that person will
be a messianic figure. No question in my mind that
person will be elected president in twenty twenty eight.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
Wow, what a great way to stick the landing, so
that optimism informs a lot of your activism. Now and well,
wait a minute.

Speaker 9 (36:54):
First of all, right, now, sixty nine percent of Independence
say their income does not meet their expenses. Sixty four
percent of Republicans say the same thing. Okay, there have
been more farm bankruptcies in the first three months of
this year than there were there were an all of
twenty twenty four and ps Farmers take their own lives

(37:18):
at a rate that is three and a half times
the general population. Okay, Trump is completely underwater. As I
said on immigration, nobody thinks this is going in the
right direction. Nobody likes the chaos of tariffs are in.
They're out there happening. They're higher, they're lower, They're not,
They're Canada, they're China. People need consistency from their government

(37:40):
and they do not support what is happening with Ice.
And this is before Epstein has blown up. Okay, take
all of this into account. By November of twenty twenty six,
this economy is going to be in a ditch because
he's run it inempty and at the end of the day,

(38:02):
in twenty twenty four, we were trying to sell joy
to people who couldn't afford X. That turned out to
be a bad idea. Wait until November of twenty twenty six,
when people can't do anything. In nineteen sixty, the average
age of a first time home buyer in America was
twenty three years of all years of age. Today, the

(38:25):
average age of a first time home buyer is thirty eight.
That is a seismic difference, and you can't run an
economy for long on that. And by November of twenty
twenty six, the world will realize and America will realize
what trumpnomics look like. Oh yes, they looked like a

(38:46):
two hundred million dollar ballroom in the White House while
everybody else.

Speaker 8 (38:49):
Is authmatic aid.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
Yeah wow, I mean that's exactly right. He has no
business acumen. And it's a shame, though, Billy Ray, that
it'll have to be in the ashes of that economy
that the Democrats again rise to power and have to
do a cleanup job that is far in excess of
any kind of cleanup job they've had to do in
the past. I mean the in the recent past anyway.
You know it is true, But.

Speaker 9 (39:11):
I believe that by then the American public will understand
the full dynamics of the economic disaster that is being
voisted up on real quick.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
You're still so instrumental in launching relevant show business projects
film television. What's in the mix right now, what's in
the pipeline, what's in the Billy Ray world? From that standpoint,
I have you.

Speaker 9 (39:40):
To ask really excited about a movie on which I
was one of the writers, called Animals, that Van Affleck
dis directed for Netflix, and I wrote the next Hunger Games,
which is shooting right now.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
That's right. Billy was the writer on the first Hunger Games.
I know it went through some mi.

Speaker 8 (40:01):
And during the writersical strike two years ago.

Speaker 9 (40:03):
I wrote a novel for the first time, and that
will be published March.

Speaker 4 (40:06):
Third next Oh my god, that's just awesome.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
I love it.

Speaker 4 (40:11):
I love it.

Speaker 8 (40:11):
Wish I had a copy of it in my lap.
I would hold it up for you, all right, Well,
a dance reader's copy.

Speaker 4 (40:16):
You'll you'll come back and we'll talk just about that.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
And we'll talk about Animals and another stuff, the.

Speaker 8 (40:22):
Water, and you can pre buy it on Amazon.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
What's it called? Say it again? The title burn the Water,
Burn the Water. I love it. We'll find it. I'll
tell you what, Tony. We can put a link to it,
maybe to the pre order underneath this video. Okay, we'll
do that. Yeah. Well, and as I said, you'll come
back and we'll do a whole conversation with you. Yeah,
and right back at you. Really enjoy it, Billy Ray.
Everybody thanks Billy. Good to see you talk again soon. Yeah. Yeah, Yeah.

(40:50):
The Mark Thompson Show, it is great.

Speaker 12 (40:54):
I loved How would you have this?

Speaker 8 (40:58):
We could try ignoring.

Speaker 2 (40:59):
It, sir Timing.

Speaker 4 (41:02):
You cannot say you love your country?

Speaker 2 (41:04):
Where amre weed? Smokers at?

Speaker 4 (41:06):
Stay at home and get baked?

Speaker 8 (41:09):
Wow?

Speaker 1 (41:09):
Love that guy. He is just so smart. And I'm
telling you, when you come to politics, We've talked about
this for years, messaging is critical. I mean, look at
the way the Republicans sees the message. They successfully seized
a message and established a brand for the Democrats about

(41:30):
the Democrats. They sold a fraud about the Democrats, that
they were all about trans that that they were a
bunch of abortionists, whatever it might be. And so the
idea that messaging has to change is critical to any
kind of political success, and that's the guy you want
in that conversation. So we'll catch up with some chats

(41:52):
and comments as we continue. But I'm so grateful for
Billy Ray making time and visiting with us. Smash the
like button if you would. It's a thing on YouTube.
I know it's crazy. It's free though, and it costs
you that thing.

Speaker 12 (42:07):
Yeah, with your iron rods.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
Smash you with your iron rod do it like a boss.
And it's a really great day because I've got another
guest to introduce.

Speaker 8 (42:15):
You to Mark Thompson show.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
You know him. He's been a visitor here once before.
I think he's a regular on the Tom Hartman Show.
And he's a powerhouse in the fight to protect and
expand social Security and Medicare. These are tough times for him,
but he's executive director of Social Security Works. He leads
a coalition of three hundred and forty plus organizations that
collectively represent over fifty million Americans. In plain talk, he

(42:43):
digs into the trenches of policy and media, and he
pens passionate op eds on seniors, prescription drugs, government accountability.
The work he does is so very valuable and I'm
so grateful that he made time for us today. Alex
Loss and everyone.

Speaker 12 (43:03):
Thanks so much for having me.

Speaker 4 (43:04):
Mark.

Speaker 1 (43:05):
Yes, I'm just always delighted when you come through our world,
and I'm also so very troubled about what's happening with
Social Security and Medicaid and these things and services that
people depend on, and they come so cleanly through your
world regularly. I mean, this is a fight you've been

(43:26):
in for some time. But I wonder if you can
kind of recalibrate for us where we are, what is happening,
what's really threatened, what is just a headline? Prioritize it
for us.

Speaker 12 (43:40):
I wish that this conversation we're going to go better
than it is.

Speaker 4 (43:45):
But it won't.

Speaker 12 (43:47):
What's happened is the most destruction that we've ever seen
in the history of this country against our critical systems
and earned bas befits. So sort of start off at
the beginning of the year, and you brought in this
billionaire Elon Musk. This is a guy who's driven by

(44:08):
the fact that he doesn't want to pay the same
rate into Social Security as all of the rest of us. Right,
we all pay in on all of our income, but
you only pay in on the first one hundred and
seventy six thousand dollars of income. So Elon Musk, you know,
he hits that on the first minute of the first
day of every year. Now, if billionaires paid in on

(44:29):
all of their income, social Security would be not only
fine for another century, it would we be able to
expand benefits. Right, it's its ninetieth anniversary this year. Through
war and peace, through boom and bust, through health and pandemic,
social securities never missed a single payment until now. And

(44:51):
why because Elon Musk and his Doze crew took a
chainsaw and just ran it right through the heart of
the Social Security the administration. They pushed out seven to
ten thousand workers. This is an agency that was already
way understaffed. You have ten thousand baby boomers retiring every day.

(45:12):
We need more offices and more workers. But also critically,
they targeted the critical infrastructure, the it infrastructure that's necessary
for Social Security to function, for checks to go out.
And what we've seen not everybody's seen it, right, So

(45:33):
some people are like, well, my checks are fine so far,
and you're like, that's good for you. But let me
tell you if you're me. You're just getting inundated with
messages about service disruptions, not being able to go into
the offices to try to clear up why is my
check late? Why can't I get my benefits? They're told, oh,

(45:54):
just go online. The website's down now, not only for
the people on the outside citizens who are trying to
access it, but for the workers on the inside, they
can't use it either. Then they say, well, just call
the phone number, five hour wait time, and then the
calls dropped. That's not me that Senator Elizabeth Warren did

(46:14):
a study. She found that it drops the calls more
than it answers them. And now the slap in the faces.
You have an AI recording lying to you about the
Republican budget. So social Security is in danger, folks, that's
the truth. It's in danger. Our checks are in danger,

(46:36):
and we need to protect our checks. We need to
stand up against this. But that AI is lying also
about the Republican budget. Because what you know, Mark, what
we talk about is all of these systems are interrelated.
So when you cut one trillion dollars out of Medicaid

(46:56):
and healthcare, and hospitals are closing across the country, and
nursing homes are closing across the country, fifty thousand people
dying a year because of this bill. Most of those
deaths are occurring with poor seniors with the Medicare savings program,
and in nursing homes, seniors, people with disabilities. Now you

(47:19):
put all of that together, and this is a catastrophe
the size of which this country has never seen before.

Speaker 1 (47:28):
Well, you're right about me not being happy with what
I was going to hear. I mean, it is really depressing.
And I always have felt as though they've gone after
Social Security, and, by the way, the third rail of
American politics, social Security. It's always sort of felt the

(47:48):
sacristan quality that social Security has had. It's always felt
protected to me, you know, like even as all the
mailstream of craziness is going to go down, even in magaland,
they're not going to touch social Security, is your But
of course they not only touched it, but as you said,
they put the chainsaw through the heart. To use your words,
is your ongoing concern that this is just the beginning

(48:10):
of an attempt to privatize it, to so hobble it
even further, that private industry will move in and it
will no longer be a government program if it exists
at all.

Speaker 12 (48:22):
That's exactly I mean, they're openly talking about that now,
but that's exactly what's going on. So Elon Musk doesn't
want to pay the same rate into it as the
rest of us. Right, the billionaires hate this system because
it's an engine of equality. It fights against income inequality,
wealth inequality. So they hate it. But they know the

(48:44):
American people love this program. And that's not liberals love it.
Progressives love it. No, you know, like your maga uncle
loves it. You're independent on loves it. Everybody loves it.
So what they're trying to do is wreck it so
that they can rob it. They want to undermine the system,
to make it not work, so that it's not beloved.

(49:07):
And then you have the billionaire Treasury Secretary go on
TV I think three days ago or just a few
days ago, and he talked openly, smilingly about their attempts
of a backdoor privatization of Social Security. The end goal
of the Republican experiment or ideology, or you know, armed cartel,

(49:32):
just robbing us as fast as possible. It's always the same, right,
they mecap the mailman then they complain that the mail
is late, and then they oh, just happen to remember
that they've got a cousin in the private parcel delivery sector, right,
and he's going to charge four times as much and
deliver half the quality services. Privatization is a ripoff. That's

(49:57):
just a transfer of welst from the pe people, from
us into the pockets of billionaires. You know who profits
off of Social security Nobody. That's why the billionaires hate it.
It works and they don't make any money. You know
who profits off of public education? Nobody. That's why the

(50:17):
billionaires hate it and they try to wreck it so
that they can rob it. It's the same story over
and over and over again. And where we are is
actually just the scariest place that I've seen. So, yes,
we've seen these attacks before, but in my fifteen years
working on this, and Nancy Altman, the president of Social

(50:38):
Security Works, is fifty years of working on this, both
of us have never seen anything like this before. And
I don't want to there's you know, we can we
can move to the now what do we do? But
I do want to just highlight this one thing. Are
it experts the people who we talk to who are

(50:59):
just please get them to reverse these cuts, you know,
do everything you can. They're telling us that these disruptions,
it's like a warning system, these red flashing lights, and
they're saying, once it reaches far enough down into the system,
the Cobel system that this whole thing is built on,

(51:20):
which actually sends the checks out, that's when we're gonna
see a stoppage or massive disruption of checks going out.
And when that happens, because it's a win, no one
is reversing course right now, right, it's full steam ahead ahead.
When that happens, that's not one check being disrupted. What

(51:42):
the experts that we talk to are telling us is
once that starts, they're not sure at all that you
can reverse that.

Speaker 4 (51:50):
Right.

Speaker 12 (51:50):
It's a cascading failure. So as you go to fix
one thing, another thing will break. So we're talking about,
you know, months of disruption, and that's like best case scenario.
And studies have found that millions of Americans they can't
miss one Social Security check, right, one social Security check

(52:12):
in they're homeless, or one Social Security check and they
can't pay their skilled nursing facility and they die. Right,
That's what we're talking about.

Speaker 4 (52:21):
That is what the.

Speaker 12 (52:23):
Republicans are just careeming as fast as possible towards this cliff.
And it's like I think your previous guest was saying, like, yes,
they want to wreck it so they can rob it,
But don't overestimate these guys's intelligence either. They're not supermen.
They believe they are because they were born into wealth

(52:44):
and privilege, but they're unleashing forces that they don't control,
and when it starts, they're not going to be able
to rein it back in.

Speaker 4 (52:54):
Wow, there's a lot there.

Speaker 1 (52:57):
I am thinking about the political gaming of it all.
I imagine they'll be the blaming of the Biden administration. They
did a bunch of things that we know. There'll be
a concoction of falsehoods that sort of populate the explanation
for white social securities falling apart, and they'll be potentially

(53:19):
political damage associated with it. For the reasons that you suggested.
I do want to get to what we can do,
but I just want to follow up on that with
you quickly and ask you how do they avert the
clear political damage This third rail of American politics as
we've always understood it to be, will actually rot I

(53:41):
mean it is. If you mess with social Security on
your watch, it is politically damaging, don't you.

Speaker 12 (53:48):
Think absolutely, it's a death sentence politically. So I will
also point out that Medicaid is held in as high
esteem but just a teeny bit yes, Medicaid. Medicare is
held in just as extreme esteem as Social Security, just
a teeny bit less. So all three of them are

(54:09):
really the third rail. And they didn't just touch them, right,
and they took the chainsaw through them, or they're licking them,
whatever it is. But they're certainly acting like they will
not actually have to face their voters in the future,
because you can't be someone like Representative Miller Meeks in

(54:29):
Iowa's first congressional district, right, she won by eight hundred votes.
Eight hundred votes. Sixty seven thousand people in that district
are going to lose healthcare because of her vote, right, Like,
you can't do that and believe that you have a
political future. So you know, you do the math, you

(54:51):
connect the dots. But that's why they're trying to cheat
as fast as they can. That's why I think that
they are trying to push an authoritarian destruction or disruption
of our democratic process because they know they know that
the people will throw them out on their ear if

(55:11):
they get the chance. And you know Vice President JD. Vance,
he often holds up this guy, Yarvin, this just white nationalist,
neo Nazi style tech pro as.

Speaker 2 (55:25):
This as this.

Speaker 12 (55:26):
Great thinker you should google like them talking about it,
both him and Peter Thiel. They say their ideas are
deeply unpopular and they know they can't push them through democratically,
so they're going to use technology and whatever else they
can to get around the will of the people. So

(55:47):
the surveillance state and everything else that they've built, right,
that palanteer is this giant corporation that now has eyes
on everything in huge contracts with the US government. So
I don't think that it is a conspiracy theory at all.
I think you have to concoct a wilder conspiracy to

(56:10):
explain their behavior. Other than they don't believe that they'll
face the will of the people. They think that they
are actually entering into an age where you only do
what the billionaires want, and then the billionaires keep you
in power.

Speaker 1 (56:28):
First, Cassandra says, thank you, Alex for finding things so
clearly it is true that you are just wonderful when
you break this step down. That's why it's such a
luxury to have you here. And I'm also seeing in
the chat the question that we were getting to, which
is about what can we do? What's your action statement
for today? Anyway, when it comes to trying to message

(56:51):
to leadership that this is not acceptable, I think.

Speaker 12 (56:55):
What we're seeing is that, you know, as great philosopher
one said, you can fool some people some of the time,
but you can't fool all the people.

Speaker 8 (57:03):
All of the time.

Speaker 12 (57:04):
Right, we're starting to see that. You're seeing the man
of Sphere, the bro Sphere, the Joe Rogan. They're starting
to be like, wait, these guys are a bunch of liars.
You're starting to see parts of the country wake up.
And you know, as the hospitals start closing around this country,
and that's not in the future, that's now, there's going
to be more and more people waking up. You're seeing

(57:26):
that in foreign policy domestic policy, one of the first
things is to welcome people in. You don't want to
actually be antagonistic if somebody was wrong. But now the
scales are off their eyes and they're seeing the way
things are welcome them in and that is on us
to do. Second, we have to be organized because the

(57:49):
authoritarian power structure exists to isolate us, to slice and
dice us up into little silos so that we never
work together. And the bosses have learned that, you know,
over millennia here. So the key is when the people
are united, we never lose. So we have to continue

(58:10):
building power together. Electoral power is one part of the equation,
a critical part of the equation, So the midterms are
going to be critical. Representative Miller Meeks is one of
you know, thirty Ish Republicans who are deeply vulnerable. If
that's something that you are interested in, get involved in

(58:32):
electoral politics. But let me tell you it's not going
to be enough. Electoral politics is not going to be enough.
We also need just a mass mobilization of the people,
and that requires everyone to get organized in whatever network
you're in, right, your house of worship, your church, your

(58:52):
book group, your neighborhood, wherever you have the ability to
talk to people, do so and invite them in. But
also you plug in right you can put there's so
many amazing organizations across this country. Social Security Works. We're
running a campaign called Protectourchecks dot com. That's on August sixteenth.

(59:14):
We'll have events all across the country at Social Security offices,
getting in the field with your neighbors, shoulder to shoulder,
feeling the power of us standing together Protect ourchecks dot Com.
But also you've got Indivisible, and you've got all these
other groups. Don't try to do it alone. When you're alone,

(59:36):
you do have power, but it can be ignored by
the state. When we all stand together, we can't be ignored.
And never let them fool you that you don't have power.
We've seen it time and time again. In fact, the
only way to stop autocracy, the only way to stand

(59:56):
up to fascists is by regular, every day people standing
up and saying no. And then the politicians follow, but
the people have to lead.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
Alex, I want to ask if we can. I want
to link to Social Security works and I assume there
there is the list of places soci Security officers where
you'll be mobilizing, where this is the kind of organized
protest that really we'd all I think like to be
part of. So that's there on the website.

Speaker 12 (01:00:27):
Yes, Yes, and the direct website is protect our Checks dot.

Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
Org, Protect our Checks dot Org. A lot of people
just listen to the show and are not on YouTube
and Spotify and elsewhere, so again we'll have links to
that in the description under this, and that'll also show
up on Spotify. You know, I'm just a mad fanboy
for you. I think you're just great, and i think
you do such a great job, and I'm so sorry

(01:00:53):
that we need you so desperately at this moment, but
I'm really grateful that you're here.

Speaker 4 (01:00:58):
Thank you right back at you.

Speaker 12 (01:01:00):
Without truth tellers, the fascists will always win. So we
need you more than ever right now. So thank you
for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:01:08):
On Protect our checks dot org. Alex Lawson, thanks my friend.
Talk to you soon, Mason. He is so great. He
is so great. Really grateful for him. Boy, what a
first hour. A couple of real heavy hitters for you.
Mike Extrom, thank you you're a heavy hitter as a

(01:01:30):
supersticker deliverer. Big shout out to you, big shout out
right on, Mike Extrom twenty dollars supersticker that snapped my
head around yay. And then Romania Animal Rescue, Big shot out,
big shout out. Also the twenty dollars supersticker, a super chat. Actually,
it says Sheriff Grady was on MSNBC. Ice is taking

(01:01:55):
away Sheriff Grady's officers.

Speaker 3 (01:01:58):
Yeah, what trying to poach officers from local communities and
people are mad because there's a police officer shortage as
it is.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
Wow, Yeah, that's wild. Did not know that, Richard Delamator,
who is rocking the merch today, We shared it with
you at the top of the show.

Speaker 4 (01:02:16):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:02:17):
Thanks Mark, he says the five dollar superchat. If I
might make a comment, you were quite a handsome devil yourself.
My new bucket hat has given me a new look,
which the ladies love. Yes, it's quite exciting. Well, thank you,
Manda Man. I appreciate the compliment. Louis, the Master of sarcasm, says,

(01:02:40):
firing thousands of government workers, destroying small businesses with tariffs
and cratering other industries with ice capades equals poor jobs
report hashtag no way. Exactly what did you think was
going to happen? Right? Thanks for the five dollars super chat? Exactly,
Luis is one hundred percent right. So you fire thousands
of government work, you destroy small businesses, the tariffs, continue

(01:03:03):
to crater industry, and then you and ice is a
big part of this, you know, deportations big part of this.
And then you wonder why you have a tepid slash
poor jobs report. And cc Ryder on the Democratic message,
she says, Dems stand for climate change, voting rights, EPA,

(01:03:25):
animal welfare, LGBTQ rights, democracy, do not allow MAGA to
define Democrats. Yeah, but you're calling card, you control and
i'd say, if you're leading with climate change, it's sadly.
I mean, you know, I'm a massive tree hugger. I
maybe be the biggest tree hugger in the show. We've
got thousands of people watching. I could be a bigger

(01:03:46):
tree hugger than any of them. I think the trees
need hugging. But I wouldn't lead with I'm a climate
activist and we're the Party of climate activism.

Speaker 4 (01:03:59):
It's sad.

Speaker 1 (01:04:01):
It's just that I don't see it as an effective
political weapon from a messaging standpoint. Obviously, I've just said
I think at the core it's important, beyond important, it's
an existential priority. But I'm just saying from a calling
card standpoint, you know, which is really what you're doing
with your messaging politically, It's not the strongest calling card.

(01:04:22):
What's that, Kim?

Speaker 3 (01:04:23):
We were just talking about social Security and speaking of messaging,
I have a relative who is very happy because she says,
Trump in this new, big, beautiful bill is taking away
taxes on Social Security, that her social Security won't get taxed,
and so she's going to have more money to spend

(01:04:43):
because you're more of a safety net for herself because
she won't have to pay taxes on Social Security. That's
the message she's getting, and that's a lie that is
not true. Trump took away he gave a six thous
tax credit to Social Security recipients until twenty twenty eight.

Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
That's it.

Speaker 3 (01:05:06):
Two years. He didn't forever strip away the possibility that
you'll have to pay taxes on your Social Security. They
are very good at spreading these lies, and they have
all these media outlets that are shoveling falsehoods onto people.
So you hear the truth from Alex Lawson on the
Mark Thompson Show. What you don't hear on the Mark

(01:05:29):
Thompson Show is you know the lies. And I think,
how do we get the message to people like my
relative that what she's being fed is a load of crap?

Speaker 1 (01:05:41):
Sadly, you're right. The propaganda machine is big and real.
I think she was gonna have to find out the
hard way. That's that's the sad truth, and we all
the hard way puts a lot of pressure on all
of us because the economy becomes more and more encumbered

(01:06:01):
by all of this mess. Trump has no business acumen.
He is a mess chaotic, tariffs and all the rest.
And then as you say, he messages with tax breaks,
no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security. These
are things that land with people, and then ultimately they're
going to have to find out the hard way that
this stuff isn't real.

Speaker 3 (01:06:22):
Well, here's the question. Do you think in two years,
right in time for the presidential election in two years,
when everyone realizes, oh, I do have to pay taxes
on my Social Security after all, that's not what Trump said,
do they then all turn around and retaliate by not
voting for the MAGA Republican people.

Speaker 1 (01:06:41):
I think it's all a question of alternatives too, And
you hear them run down the MAGA agenda in some ways,
but then they vote for MAGA anyway, because I never
want to vote for those liberal commie etc. Again, this
is why messaging is so critical. I think I did

(01:07:03):
want to mention, you know, Friday favors Florida has moved.
We do it now after our conversation with these guys
who are so good to come in on a busy
week and to talk about the week in politics. So
we'll get to that right now. Mark Thompson put it
together for two guys who are so very impressive, award
winning journalists. Jim Avel, of course, a long time ABC

(01:07:27):
News correspondent, covered the White House as the league correspondent
there for eight years I believe it was. He's won
the Murow Pea Buddy Emmys, etc. How about it for
Jim Awla. And this guy has forgotten more about politics
than most of us will ever know. He's covered I
heard just last night something on the order of thirty
MAGA rallies in the ramp up to the Trump presidency

(01:07:52):
during the campaign, and he's also covered many other issues
from COVID wards to Central American voting systems for Michael Shore.
Everyone great to have you.

Speaker 14 (01:08:04):
Well, A little upset. I'm a little upset about Friday
Fabulous Florida moving.

Speaker 1 (01:08:08):
Oh really, I'll tell you what what I'm not upset about.
What is a clean shaven Michael, sure, come on, well
it takes like ten years off of you.

Speaker 14 (01:08:19):
Well, thank you's I hope that's the case.

Speaker 1 (01:08:22):
I hope you were looking like the elder in the
tribe for a while and now you're now you look
like this young buck. I love it.

Speaker 14 (01:08:29):
Yeah, you know what to send the check to my
Where my mother should send the check to you?

Speaker 8 (01:08:33):
Is that?

Speaker 1 (01:08:35):
I'm so glad you guys are both here on such
a busy week. I'll get to Galline Maxwell because it
seems to be something that is of immense political relevance,
which is why I think it would be interesting to
hear from you guys. But I want to talk first
about tariffs. This is the kind of mini liberation day

(01:08:56):
where the tariffs have gone in and the markets worldwide
are roying. The tariffs obviously have a chaotic quality to them,
and you know, Jim Awla, I think you can talk
about the economic chaos created since there really isn't a
coherence to it. But the one tariff that really stands

(01:09:17):
out to me as a truly bizarre in its own
category of bizarre is the fifty percent tariff on Brazil
and the taxation of Brazilian imports because of Trump's personal
feud with the justice system that is going after Bolsonaro,

(01:09:37):
his friend, the president in Brazil. This is someone who
engineered a coup in a kind of Trumpian way, denying
the results of the election, saying that the machines that
were associated with voting were fixed, and then actually leading
the violent coup. I mean, it's like an American parallel
that it's to say, you know, storming the capitol. I

(01:09:59):
wonder if you could speak to this because to me
and then I'll shut up and let you speak. But
to me, it seems as though this is a personal
thing that doesn't in any way help the American public
balance trade. Whatever Bizarro justification of rationale he has for
the other tariffs, this one set of tariffs on Brazil

(01:10:20):
exists just out of personal animus. It doesn't help the
American people in the least.

Speaker 2 (01:10:25):
Yeah, I think you're right, Mark, and I think it's.

Speaker 14 (01:10:27):
The thing is is there still time in this How
dare you?

Speaker 1 (01:10:31):
I was laying out a specific question, how dare you?
I'm sorry, we got there, all right, Go ahead, Jim Avola, Well, so.

Speaker 15 (01:10:43):
Here to this is the product of an unbridled dictator. Okay,
this is a guy who has really had his way
in the United States, and surprisingly so to some of us,
but there's no doubt that he has changed our institutions.

(01:11:03):
And now he's feeling his oat so much that he's
going to try to change Brazil, of all places, and
try to meddle in their politics. So, yes, fifty percent tariff.
Should there be a tariff perhaps in Brazil on beef
because they're a main competitor where the United States.

Speaker 2 (01:11:23):
In that area, and there.

Speaker 15 (01:11:26):
Could should be some kind of way to even that
competition out. Okay, economically you can figure that out. But
as far as changing a verdict or a political verdict
by the people in Brazil, what are we doing with that?

Speaker 2 (01:11:43):
You know, this guy.

Speaker 15 (01:11:45):
Is because he's been unchecked by his own party and
so far by the voters in our country, he has
decided that he.

Speaker 2 (01:11:56):
Can do whatever he wants right now.

Speaker 15 (01:11:58):
I mean, I know it's you've probably already spoken about this,
but right now he's ordering submarines, nuclear submarines next to Russia,
are closer to Russia. You know that these type of
things are you know, it's beyond in a danger to

(01:12:19):
our democracy. It's become just plain dangerous to our health
and to everything else besides what your previous guest was
talking about about Social security.

Speaker 1 (01:12:28):
Yeah, reckless for sure, Go ahead, Michael, Yeah.

Speaker 14 (01:12:31):
I mean, you know, Jim kind of said it all
when it comes to the overreach and going into other
countries and wanting to run the world and wanting constantly
to run distraction as well. I mean, when there's bad news,
he always wants to distract. And we talked about it
a little bit last week on this show. The notion
that that Mike Johnson was saying, Oh, we're gonna we're

(01:12:54):
going to go out on recess a little early this year,
clearly because he didn't want to have Maxwell here, that
Jeffrey Epstein hearing. It's a story that isn't going away,
and the White House is starting to realize it's not
going away, so they're looking to other places right now.
And as far as the tariffs, that's again muddy water.
It's muddy and water in a place that relies on

(01:13:16):
very clear water. And those are the markets. And I'm
not an economist, but I know that the thing that
they hate most is uncertainty. And I can't remember a
more uncertain time economically, with these sort of haphazard tariffs.
Now you get jobs numbers that are abysmal according to
the people who rate those and do so without any bias,

(01:13:39):
and then you're able, if you're the White House, to
blame other people. Right, So who do they do? What
do they do? They blame the Fed, They blame the
fact that interest rates haven't changed. And look, that may
be economically right, but it's also it is so part
of the stereotype the way this administration operates is blame
everybody else. It's always somebody else's fault, and then embrace

(01:14:01):
the people who cause all of that chaos, the Bolscenaro's,
the J six people, whomever it is that some of
the sort of loudest and haphazard voices on Capitol Hill.
It's really a It's something that we've come to live
with now, and we have three and a half more
years of it.

Speaker 2 (01:14:20):
I'm not sure.

Speaker 1 (01:14:21):
I'm not sure.

Speaker 15 (01:14:22):
Let me just say one thing about the tariff situation,
which is beyond my scope of expertise as well. But
when it's going to come home politically, which I can
speak to, is when these prices do go up and people,
the businesses can no longer absorb them, because it is
going to be the American people who are going to

(01:14:42):
pay for these tariffs eventually, and they may happen in
six months, may happen just before the midterms. But when
that happens, that's when Donald Trump is going to feel
some pain.

Speaker 14 (01:14:52):
And to add to that, Jim, it's not just when
prices go up, it's when prices don't go down. Because
the people that elected this guy elect them because the
prices were already too high, and they said, and Trump promised,
the prices are going to go down. So not only
are they going to go up, according again to the
most expert people in their field, but they're certainly not

(01:15:14):
going to go down. And that is what was promised.
So I think that's also a real political sort of
dagger to himself and to his party going into a
midterm election.

Speaker 15 (01:15:24):
That's true, yes, because and because Mark just went, I'm sorry,
but what just to building what Michael is saying.

Speaker 2 (01:15:32):
Yes, there are all kinds of problems.

Speaker 15 (01:15:34):
The biggest problem we have is the is the climate
change situation, which you've spoken about a little while ago.
In the fact that he's just throwing all that stuff
out the deportation issue. Those are huge issues. But people vote,
as we saw on this last election, on inflation and
on prices, and when he doesn't do what he said

(01:15:55):
he was going to do, as Michael points out, and
when it even goes the opposite direction, that's where he's
going to feel the pain.

Speaker 1 (01:16:02):
I was curious as I was thinking back to World
War II Europe, as the economies of Europe struggled immensely.
All of the policies, you know, all the blaming, all
of the roundups, all of the fascism, all the despotism,
all of the hate and killing. It didn't lead to

(01:16:25):
any kind of flourishing of any economies during this time.
In fact, the war, of course further encumbered European economies.
But I guess it gives an outlet to people to
blame this group. I think of it with the expansion
of ICE. All that money, another forty five billion dollars

(01:16:46):
dumped on ICE. Now they're hiring cops, We're just talking
about it, from departments all across America to join ICE.
They're offering fifty thousand dollars signing bonuses to join ICE.
And it just reminds me that people can become a
different kind of distracted, you know, so about the hate

(01:17:08):
fueled world of that jihad against immigrants, that the economy
just becomes one more irritant. I'm wondering. I'm just trying
to game it all out. I just see I see
us kind of sliding into the same world, into that
same thing in a way.

Speaker 14 (01:17:26):
Yeah, but there's it's an imperfect analog in that, you know,
there something existed in wartime America that doesn't exist now,
which was much more harmony and far less discord.

Speaker 1 (01:17:37):
There was.

Speaker 14 (01:17:37):
It was kind of a there was of course I
didn't live through it, but but and I'm always skeptical
of people who remember things a way that they weren't.
But I think it's pretty well accepted that we were
unified in fighting the enemy abroad, and it was something
that brought the country together in wall.

Speaker 2 (01:17:58):
It took us a while, but yes, once we got
a to it exactly.

Speaker 14 (01:18:01):
And that's true. And this is sort of a broad
brush take on it. But the zeitgeist in America at
that time was very different than it is now, and
it kind of doesn't help what we're talking about now.
It worsens it. So that when you have the idea
of ice and going after people in your own country.
It's a totally different environment now, but it's still scary

(01:18:23):
stuff and distracting stuff that's happened.

Speaker 1 (01:18:25):
Yeah, and I was speaking of just to be pure
about I was speaking of the German economy for example.
The economies of Europe at that time were struggling, and they.

Speaker 14 (01:18:34):
Never really yeah for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:18:36):
Yeah. But now I want to just move to this
incredibly powerful political problem that Donald Trump has, and it's
with Gallaine Maxwell, and it's with Epstein. And even as
he moves these subs close to Russia because of some
post he mentions but doesn't get specific about, and even

(01:19:00):
as these tariffs go and they are on some level
distractions from the Maxwell thing, dangerous though they may be.
I mean, you know, you move nuclear subs into some
kind of provocative position or into I know that the
just I see the super up now Trumpell reposition nuclear

(01:19:21):
submarines after provocative Russian comments. Yeah, but you want to
talk about provocation, moving nuclear subs into positions close to Russia,
that's a provocation of its own. So you can back
into a confrontation pretty easily. But all of that said,
this Kallaine Maxwell. Thing is something else, man, it's they
just moved her to a minimum security prison, and that

(01:19:44):
after her conversation with Todd blanche the former Trump personal
attorney now number two at the Justice Department. You've got
something on that, Tony, I forget. Do we have a Tony?
Do you have something on that?

Speaker 2 (01:19:55):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:19:56):
Here we go. This is a little bit of the
and I want to get your comments on the other side.

Speaker 2 (01:20:00):
How good afternoon.

Speaker 16 (01:20:02):
Chris Maxwell's attorney is confirming to us that the Federal
Bureau of Prisons has transferred her from the minimum security
facility where she was serving in Tallahassee to a federal
prison camp in Bryant, Texas. And they are not saying
why they did that. One way to look at this
is that she's going to a slightly less restrictive facility,

(01:20:22):
from a minimum security prison to a prison camp which
is about half the size in Brian, Texas. The differences
are not large, and she already was, according to the
Tallahassee Democrats, serving in what was called the Honor Dorm
within that minimum security prison in Florida, so she had
the most privileges. She had access to yoga and pilates
classes she was living in a dorm like setting. But

(01:20:43):
it is notable that after speaking for nine hours with
the Deputy Attorney General under circumstances where her lawyers are
suggesting she's providing information to the government that they have
now changed her circumstances within the federal prison system and
they are not saying why again to a slight less
restrictive facility in Texas.

Speaker 1 (01:21:02):
Christ So beyond that, I'm just curious about what I
see as an immensely politically relevant development with the Gallaine
Maxwell back and forth and the demand for the release
of these files. Jim, don't you see him taking on
some political water as a result of this? Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:21:23):
Yeah, then it's daily.

Speaker 15 (01:21:24):
And the best part, of course is is he's taken
most of the heat from the right. You know, the
left has already decided a long time ago that Donald
Trump was messed up with the mixed up with Jeffrey
Epstein in ways that he should not have been.

Speaker 2 (01:21:39):
So it's no surprise but to his followers.

Speaker 15 (01:21:45):
Who now seeing how deeply enmessed he may have been
in the child in child abuse and supporting a child
abuser and now enlisting the help of the pimp of
Jeffrey Epstein and uh and in allowing her to. First

(01:22:07):
of all, they wouldn't have moved her if the you can't.
I don't know who believes that Donald Trump didn't know
anything about the fact that they're going to be a
little softer on her, a little easier on her. He
is worried about this. He is trying to find a
daily excuse to move on, and they're not going to
be able to move on. I don't think it seems

(01:22:29):
to me that the right is bent on seeing those
files and to those till those files come out and
and look, if there was nothing in him, he wouldn't
be hiding them. Let's let's be clear about that. There's
no reason to hide him if there's nothing in him.
But there's something in him that we need to look at.

Speaker 14 (01:22:47):
It's also a balancing app politically, right, I mean, so
he wants to make sure that Maxwell doesn't do anything
that's going to hurt him. The administration does the Republican
Party does that that don't want to hurt the Republicans
doesn't want to hurt don't want to hurt the president.
But in order to do that, you have to kind
of keep her in the news by doing things like this,

(01:23:08):
and what they want is to keep her out of
the news. They don't want anybody talking about Epstein because
the more Epstein thought there is, the worst it is
for the president, the worst it is for his party,
the worst it is for leaders on the hill. John
Thune knows that Mike Johnson ended Congress because of it.
But they're going to come back, and the chorus is

(01:23:28):
going to get louder rather than softer right now. And
Thomas Massey, a Republican in the House, is you know,
has guns blazing for the for the Epstein files, and
this is going to remain a problem for him. So
distraction works, but if you have to kind of it's
an unusual place where you have to soft pedal the
distraction because you want to coddle this person if you're

(01:23:52):
Donald Trump. And the other thing is, you remember he
was asked last week if he would pardon if he's
considered pardoning Glaine Maxwell, and president who's talking about a
twenty year convicted pedophile, sex trafficker. The first thing they
would say is no, of course I wouldn't pardon her.
She's a sex trafficker. And she's been indicted, but he said,
you know, I have the power to do that, you know,

(01:24:14):
which is not what you say about a sex trafficker.
So he's had to toe a line here that is
a very difficult line for any politician have to toe.

Speaker 1 (01:24:23):
I just wonder to what extent there's wiggle room for him.
I mean, there's really only distraction on this Epstein thing,
because we all know he's all over the files like
a bad smell. He was a best friend of Jeffrey
Epstein for years. There's no way he could incredibly say
he didn't know what was going on. He even alluded

(01:24:46):
to it in various remarks that you know by now
been repeated a bunch of times. So he cannot do
anything but the sort of performative thing he did with
BONDI releasing, you know, asked for the grand jury testimony
to be knowing that the grand jury testimony couldn't be released,
and even if it were, you know, his name doesn't

(01:25:07):
appear anything. Like they talked to two witnesses in the
grand jury and they were cops.

Speaker 15 (01:25:16):
And I don't know if you saw how powerful yesterday
on CNN the six o'clock Show with Caitlin had the
family of the victim who committed suicide on and yes,
and she they went after both Trump and uh and

(01:25:38):
Maxwell and wanted to know, you know, why are they
talking to her when she's already lied and and so
the news is not on his side. So you know,
he he is a master spinner. But I think this
one is beyond the spin. And mostly because his supporters
are not with him on this.

Speaker 14 (01:25:59):
That's different part of it. That's what makes it different.
It's also it's good news proof a little bit. So
let's say these jobs numbers were great, that cycle wouldn't
have lasted very long. And it goes right back to this.
So when something is good news proof for a president,
it becomes very very difficult. I think back to Clinton
with the Lewinsky scandal. It didn't matter how much good

(01:26:22):
was saying, and of course he had the support of
his party and the country. In the end, he left
as a popular president, but he didn't get very much
done after that because everything that happened that was good,
it didn't matter. It would steer right back to Kenneth
Starr and to Monica Lewinsky and all that. So I
think there's something good newsproof about this, which is terrible
for any president.

Speaker 1 (01:26:42):
I don't know if there's much good news coming down.

Speaker 14 (01:26:44):
The No, there isn't. But what I'm saying there will be.
I mean, a four year presidency's going to have days
of good news for the president. But I don't think
and ordinarily that those are the things that help a
president turn the tide, even for a finite period of time.
I don't know that there's anything that's going to get
through this that could happen.

Speaker 1 (01:27:03):
Yeah, I take your point. You're saying, Look, this isn't
going away, and it is the elephant in.

Speaker 14 (01:27:08):
The room, and for sure, and for the reason mostly
the Jim just said, which is that there are enough
people that are MAGA skeptics that they're also facilitating and
that will happen too in the lead up to twenty
twenty six. They're making it easier for Republicans who are elected,
who are running for reelection to say I'm not happy
about the president because of this, and I want to
know more.

Speaker 1 (01:27:28):
You know, Jim, bad job numbers, the tariffs, the economy slowing,
it will be encumbered by this tariff situation, and I
think more to the point, or maybe as much to
the point, there was this period of relative calm that
Donald Trump inherited when he came into office. You know,

(01:27:51):
the world was not in this adversarial place, and right
away he started smack talking Canada and Mexico and our allies.
And now we're in this period of true instability. And
I'm wondering if you can just remark on, you know,
how this all plays out. It's a very different place
in just seven months than it was when he took office.

Speaker 15 (01:28:15):
Well, you know, the mid terms of course, the big test,
and you know, he is he's been successful so far
in destroying everything that he wanted to destroy. So, you know,
I'm kind of gone over to talking to Kim about
this last week, is that I've kind of kind of

(01:28:37):
kind of gone over to the mark dark side, and
I'm very concerned about what's going to happen in this country.
I thought that the people would stand up to him,
that the institutions that were left would stand up to him,
and that's not happening. And I think it's very dangerous
for our country, and I think it's leading us into
a very bad place.

Speaker 2 (01:28:58):
And unless.

Speaker 15 (01:29:00):
And even worse in things you bring out all the
time Mark, is that now that he's in control of
the election system, what happens? You know, do we trust
the elections at all anymore? I mean, he can say,
according to the Supreme Court, he can say I'm acting

(01:29:21):
in my official capacity because I see fraud and I'm
going to take over the elections or postpone an election,
and nothing can be done because he was acting in
his official capacity according to the Supreme Court. And that
needs to be tested, of course, But right now that
is ominous for this country.

Speaker 1 (01:29:43):
And Michael on that point, before we get to that
sort of declaration and the postponement of an election and
all the rest of these things, I'm looking at the
gerrymandering and already heavily jerry mandered state of Texas, and
I'm wondering if you can just give us your sense
of that and then the democratic response that has to

(01:30:04):
follow the kind of severe jerrymandering that we're seeing in Texas.

Speaker 4 (01:30:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 14 (01:30:09):
Look, jerrymandering is a very difficult and very legally complicated path,
and states that have tried to fix it have had
a very difficult time doing it because you have to
establish a nonpartisan committee, as some states have tried to
do and have them analyze how congressional districts need to

(01:30:31):
be drawn. Well, there are governors of certain parties and
legislatures in most bicameral legislatures in the country. When you
have both sides with the governor, you're not going to
allow that to happen. It's an ill that afflicts both sides. However,
the way it's done in certain states in absolute defiance

(01:30:52):
of their state constitution, which is what we saw in
North Carolina, we've seen in Texas makes this one of
the biggest weapons that could possibly that a party could use.
So California has created new democratic districts. Texas is saying, well,
if California can do that, why can't we create Republican
districts here, all the while saying how unconstitutional it is

(01:31:15):
for California to do just that. So there's not really
a solution to jerry mandering other than the courts and
the delay tactics and going to state supreme courts. North
Carolina it worked to a degree, and it's still being
worked out, but it's certainly they were able to stem
the tide there. I don't know that Texas has enough
courts that are going to be against and opposed to

(01:31:36):
this that it's going to be friendly to the Democrats
who are going to and are already standing up.

Speaker 1 (01:31:42):
Well before I let you guys go, I just know
that you're probably both pretty excited about the new two
hundred million dollar ballroom that's going into the White House.
It's going to become a finally clashing up the joint,
you know, the golden crusted magic that will be soon
installed there at the White House where you reported for
so long, Jim.

Speaker 15 (01:32:03):
Yeah, and it's you know, I've been to two functions
at the White House where I didn't notice that there
was a problem. It looked pretty fancy to me. And
for it to me need to be upgraded to have
gold fixtures is certainly a waste of money. And I
don't know how he does this stuff. He's spending all

(01:32:25):
this money on the free plane. He's spending this money
on the ballroom, the money that he says that you
know that he wanted eliminated and the debt brought down,
and then he's not even bringing the debt down. Instead,
what he's going to do is give some checks out
for a little bit.

Speaker 11 (01:32:40):
Uh.

Speaker 15 (01:32:40):
And his and his own right wing is upset about
that because they want the debt paid down.

Speaker 4 (01:32:45):
So you know, he.

Speaker 15 (01:32:48):
You know, it's it's such a mess, you know, Mark,
I I religiously and I'm sure you guys both do too.
Read the papers in the morning, to catch up on
the news in the morning. Is getting more and more
difficult to do it every day and to continue to
be vigilant, and that's what we've got to be.

Speaker 14 (01:33:08):
Yeah, it is difficult to do it. And it's interesting
Kamala Harra and I'm just a tie into what Jim saying.
Kamala Harris, when you know, asked to comment, she said
she's not running for governor of California. When asked a comment,
she says, you know, I really haven't paid attention to
what's going on. I see it in her case, but
it's very difficult. I see it because the man she

(01:33:28):
lost to is running the country and she can't do
very much about it because she's not elected and doesn't
really have a station. I don't think is the standard
bearer for the party. No knock against her. I just
don't think the Democrats have that right now. And and
I kind of enjied that.

Speaker 4 (01:33:44):
I end we've got AOC.

Speaker 14 (01:33:46):
Right but AOC is elected and not the not the stand.
I don't think AOC is the standard bearer of the
Democratic Party. She's a good voice and and you know
is is right there on every conversation, but I don't
I wouldn't call it the standard bear.

Speaker 1 (01:34:03):
I know.

Speaker 14 (01:34:03):
I don't think people want to say that there's a
standard bear all the time.

Speaker 2 (01:34:06):
No, there's going to be a fight for that.

Speaker 15 (01:34:08):
There's going to Gavin Newsom is in the running, and
even Bernie Sanders at his age is in the running.

Speaker 1 (01:34:14):
So I'm seeing alshow that I'm not to let you
both go before reminding you that the other thing that's
going on at the White House there's quite a like
you know, pardon our dust type Yeah, yeah, I guess
turning it into a Yeah.

Speaker 15 (01:34:31):
There's a great post by Maria Shriver. I don't know
if you guys saw it, about how how disgusting they
are disgusted they are about both the Rose Garden and
also the Kennedy Senator Kennedy Center. They want to name
they want to rename it the Trump Center.

Speaker 14 (01:34:49):
The guy who wouldn't know, yeh want to give it.
They already want to give it the Mlania have it
be the Millennia Trump Opera House and then named whole
thing the Trump Center.

Speaker 1 (01:35:01):
Yeah yeah, it's it's the marlagoization of Washington. And it
would be astounding to me in the list of other
things that are astounding to me if this actually happened
as well. Maria, here's the Maria Shruber post. This is insane.
It makes my blood boil. It's so ridiculous, so petty,
so small minded. Truly, what is this about? It's always

(01:35:25):
about something. Quote. Let's get rid of the Rose Garden.
Let's rename the Kennedy Center. End quote. What's next?

Speaker 15 (01:35:33):
Yeah, so shameful.

Speaker 1 (01:35:36):
Yeah, boys, appreciate you both. Thank you for making time
on a Friday, always, and we look forward to next week.

Speaker 2 (01:35:44):
Comes right ahead. And one nothing by the way.

Speaker 14 (01:35:46):
In the fifth, condolences to uh to the Ryan Sandberg
and Jim Olo. Yeah yeah, for good good ballplayer, pretty
young sixty I've who died of cancer.

Speaker 1 (01:36:01):
Boom yeah yeah, uh yeah. I hate to see those numbers.

Speaker 2 (01:36:07):
Good to see them, Mark take care, good to.

Speaker 1 (01:36:09):
See him YouTube. Sure, so, I guess I'm excited for
a few things to check off on my crowd, the
people who make this show, the community of people who

(01:36:29):
join this show every day or as many days as
they can manage it. You're part of that crew. And
if you're not, please you know, subscribe. It's free and
we keep it. This is the Coachella Valley Coffee. I
have to tell you something. Counter is something quite great
because I'm drinking a little too much coffee, as you know,

(01:36:53):
and I love this new Clarity Blend so good. I
found the Clarity Blend dec half what yeah baby, Okay
Decalf from Coachella Valley Coffee. You will find it too,
and it is delicioso. As I've said, here are the

(01:37:13):
tasting notes right on there, sweet apricot and cherry notes.

Speaker 3 (01:37:19):
Would it be wrong to put a little bit of
caffeinated and a little bit of decaffeinated so you get
like a half calf Clarity Blend.

Speaker 1 (01:37:28):
Oh? I think not only is it wrong, but I
think that is a it's a really terrific which wild.
I think it is a wild idea that will work.
I love that half and half. Yeah Valleycoffee dot com.
You will be a believer. I'm telling you it is divine, baby.

Speaker 3 (01:37:53):
I have to tell you so good. I know it
seems expensive when you look at the price. But then
you get the bag of coffee, and the Clarity Blend
comes in a two pound bag. It's it's a big,
big amount of coffee. So then you understand why it's
so expensive and it's lasting us for quite a while.

Speaker 1 (01:38:16):
Yeah. I would also say that the if you're looking
for some good values, there's oftentimes value at Coachella Valley
Coffee dot com in getting more like two pounds, even
five pounds or whatever, more than just a one pound bag.
I also understand the one pound bag because you know
you're looking around to see which coffee sparks you. But
I want you to know that it's a boutique roastery.

(01:38:36):
This isn't a discount roastery. This isn't a place where
they sweep up a bunch of beans, put them in
a bag and send them off to you at a discount.
You do see discounted beans or even organic discounted beans
on the internet, but those are typically not a fresh crop.
This is all new, fresh grown coffee, and that they

(01:38:57):
make a big deal of this, and all of the
coffee is hand roasted. Cliff is the roastmaster General. You've
seen him on the show, and he makes such a
big deal of the pride of ownership associated with everything
that comes out of Coachella Valley Coffee, so tea, coffee, spices, everything.
Go check it out Coachella Valley Coffee dot com. Some

(01:39:18):
people are getting their merch. You get ten percent off
everything you want to put merch in there, you get
ten percent off that too, So Coachella Valleycoffee dot com.
Grab it and use our discount called mark t at
checkout for ten percent off Mark Thompson Show Mike in Willow,
Glenn with an eight dollars and ten percent super chat.

(01:39:41):
That a tip of the hat to our old radio
station which was at eight ten And thank you Mike
and Willigran. In memory of what was, he says, thanks
for your show. It makes me aware I am not
alone in my thoughts. Wow, thanks me really really cool man,
such a beautiful sentiment. So thank you for that. Noe Marie,

(01:40:05):
Come on, mental health crisis over here, a mental healthy
crisis over here about inviting Rogan into the tent. We
need some snark from some Friday favorites Jim and Michael.
Yeah I should have. I didn't see your comment until
too late. I'll promise you some snark about Rogan next week.
I mean, you know, Rogan can be an asset. I

(01:40:28):
hate to say it, but he really could be an asset.

Speaker 3 (01:40:32):
That's what Billy Ray was saying. You have to have
the you have to open your hand to these folks,
you know, these folks that have been so instrumental in
doing what's being done to the country right now.

Speaker 1 (01:40:41):
Cindy with a ten dollars super chat, thank you for
having loss in on. I'm sixty. I'm terrified that Medicare,
INCID Security could get privatized and make me homeless if
I can't keep working. Love hearing Avola and sure as well,
big shout out to you, Cindy, thank you for the
ten dollars super Chat. And you want to move that
stuff overwatching cash is right behind you. Maybe just put

(01:41:02):
over on the table there, Michael, Yeah, just put it over.

Speaker 3 (01:41:05):
It is scary, Cindy really say, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:41:07):
It is scary. And I love that conversation with Lawson
as well. He's just so great and we'll have him
back and he'll give us the state of the state
as well. Eileen while she's an OG. Big shout out
to Eileen, and they are two OG's. I think they
live in the South Bay of San Francisco Bay Area.

(01:41:28):
Rfk's aunt Jackie transformed the White House into a celebrated
symbol of American history and culture. Trump's desecration of the
People's House is appalling. Thanks to you, Kim, Tony and Albert.
We love Mark Thompson's show. Thank you, Eileen Finncopp. You
are as I say, an og of the show supporter
from the very beginning, and you're right. The marlagoization of

(01:41:54):
the White House, and I was saying this at the
beginning of the show flies in the face of what
the idea behind the White House has always been, that
it's the People's House. It's not supposed to be a palatial,
golden crusted spot. It's not vers ill.

Speaker 2 (01:42:11):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:42:11):
Yeah, a powerful show today, says Joan Hollywood. I appreciate
the truth telling. I appreciate you with a two dollars
super chat. Thank you, Joan Hollywood. Big shout out, Hollywood,
four one five, Steve, what up in the four one five?
Come on? Can we rename the Oakland Sewage Treatment Center

(01:42:33):
to the Donald J. Trump Sewage Treatment Plant? Like Trump,
it stinks and is.

Speaker 4 (01:42:40):
Full of I love it. There you go Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:42:43):
Thank you for one five Steve at twenty dollars super Chat,
Appreciate that. Yeah, I can't imagine going through this time
without y'alls. Is Amanda Michelle so glad you didn't disappear
after kg O. I'll never forget that day. KGO is
the station from which we came. Amanda is talking to it.
Thank you for the ten dollars super Chat. Appreciate that.

(01:43:05):
In YouTube land, all of the support really matters. And
the chaplain of record, he's the official chaplain for the show.
Chaplain Fred Hi, Mark Kim, Tony and Mark Oh Hi
Mark Kim, Tony, Hi, Mark Kim. I'm cold reading everything,
so it's a little and I can barely see it.
It's on the screen. It's like super tiny. Just to

(01:43:26):
explain why I'm such a I'm I'm exactly Hi, Mark Kim, Tony, Mark,
you could have been a good preacher the way you
preach for Coachella Valley Coffee. I know I'd love to
be a preacher, preach the word baby, the word come on.
Thank you for the five dollars super Chat.

Speaker 3 (01:43:47):
We mentioned people get ten percent off by using the
code mark T no spaces at checkout.

Speaker 1 (01:43:52):
Yeah, I did mention it, but I'm glad you mentioned
it again. It's definitely important. Beth Farmer, twenty dollars super Chat,
Keep on keeping on. All San Francisco Bay Area are
grateful Deadheads this weekend. I love it? How about it
to the dead Heads? I saw the the show at

(01:44:12):
Sear in Las Vegas with John Mayer leading that crew.
Michael Snyder, that's something you would like your you know
you're a music dude.

Speaker 4 (01:44:20):
Yeah. They build themselves as living dead.

Speaker 1 (01:44:26):
That would have been a great that would have been
at That would have been a great name for them.

Speaker 4 (01:44:30):
There's only one of them, Bob. We are still participating. Yeah,
I think it's called Dead and Friends Dead again.

Speaker 1 (01:44:38):
Thank you, Gordon, keep on keeping on with a five
dollars super Chat. I appreciate If you aren't yet, please
consider being part of our show. We do appreciate all
of the ways in which you can support us, and
those on an ongoing basis include Patreon and PayPal. You
saw that, Tony. I sent you a couple of things,
people saying, Hey, I'm contributing and I want to make
sure my name gets on the list or I was

(01:44:59):
on the list and I felt off the list. You're
handling all that, right, buddy.

Speaker 16 (01:45:02):
Yeah, if I missed any names, I mean, I just
go with what's there, so I face something happened.

Speaker 1 (01:45:06):
I'll check it. But yeah, yeah, I forwarded on the
emails from people who said so uh, not a big deal.
But I just want to make sure we do. I
want people to if I miss something, I want to
fix it. Yeah, exactly, all right, I'm going to get
right to him if it's okay with you, Kim.

Speaker 3 (01:45:23):
Is it for a moment, I just wanted to mention
what the Grateful Dead comment is about. Is that Dead
and Company is going to be doing three summer nights
in Golden Gate Park.

Speaker 1 (01:45:38):
That I is I was going to say that I'd
heard about, and that is that's the real Dead venue,
don't you think Golden Gate probably?

Speaker 4 (01:45:46):
Yeah, called back to the b ins of the sixties
where people dance the tarantella or whatever it was, iron
mushrooms or whatever else they could get their hands on.

Speaker 3 (01:45:57):
Yeah, shows sold out and it's apparently it's doing a
lot for tourism in San Francisco. This three days of
Grateful Dead.

Speaker 1 (01:46:05):
You could get a contact high from that concert from
Marin County. I think that is going to be a
wild time. Look at that artwork too, it's very I'm
telling you, man, that Dead Show at Sphere was so
wild with the art and everything, and it's just really
really exciting that they're going to be rocking Golden Gate Park, that.

Speaker 3 (01:46:31):
All the Uni trains. Yeah, he's a big deal.

Speaker 1 (01:46:35):
Hey. You can say what you want about San Francisco,
but it's a fun place. They try to they try
to wrap the fun which is pretty cool. All right.
If yeah Hippie Hill as a golf says, yeah, Hippie Hill,
all right, without any further delay, although I love delaying,
especially before this guy. This man knows the indie films,

(01:46:57):
the main you know what you want to call him,
DC universes at the DC, what's the other Marvel comic
book stuff, the superhero credit, the foreign stuff, Foreign stuff documentary.
Once again, I am humbled by the knowledge of this man.
He is the guy who comes on Fridays, comes and

(01:47:17):
goes on rape. He's a great Michael Snyder, the Culture Blaster.

Speaker 4 (01:47:22):
Hey, hi everybody on this dead weekend, a very much
alive weekend actually, and glad that you're back in the
Captain's chair Mark, Although I love hanging out with Kim
when you're not around, and you weren't here to referee
any argument that might have sprung up between me and
Tony regarding the Fantastic for his use of a female
silver surfer.

Speaker 1 (01:47:42):
This is a sticking point for you met your match
and TONI when it comes to comic book, I don't
know anyway. I heard that Hollywood Reporters the greatest look
of all time.

Speaker 4 (01:47:54):
Hollywood Reporters approached approached Elton John who was sitting poolside
in a sequence spiedo and a rhinestone encrusted sombrero, and
asked his opinion of Trump's plan two hundred million dollar ballroom,
and his response was a much too tacky darling even.

Speaker 1 (01:48:11):
For the diamond and crusted email.

Speaker 9 (01:48:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:48:13):
Right. In a subsequent interview on the subject, the Ghost
of Louis the sixteenth said Sacra Blues, that is even
too much for me.

Speaker 1 (01:48:20):
Yeah, too much for the Versailles architect.

Speaker 2 (01:48:22):
I know.

Speaker 1 (01:48:22):
Crazy.

Speaker 4 (01:48:23):
So it's a fun weekend. The Grateful Dead hysteria is
going on up north. I happen to be in Los
Angeles for a bit, and I'm excited tonight about the
American Cheese Group Art Show at Super Chief this evening
downtown in Los Angeles from seven to eleven. Tomorrow KP
Project Slice Summer Group Art Show from six to nine.
And I'm really thrilled that my friend and colleague, singer,

(01:48:48):
pop music pundit and savant the Mighty Manfred of the
bands The Woggles and the Magnificent, is celebrating his birthday
with the live show at the Barkley in Pasadena that
is Saturday night. I am just on tender hooks about
I'm excited about it, really wow. But we're about movies
right and TV?

Speaker 1 (01:49:07):
Right?

Speaker 4 (01:49:07):
Yeah, So let's get down to it. You know, some
of the Mark Thompson Show audience bemoans my attention to
drama and the horror movies, and that's what they just
get a little bummed down. They would like, I want
a comedy, I want something to lift my spirits. Well,
the Naked Gun open today.

Speaker 1 (01:49:28):
Oh I love that you've seen this.

Speaker 4 (01:49:30):
Well, I have to say, as I've pointed out time
and again, Liam Neeson has a particular set of skills
and one of them is comedy. Wow. He was truly
funny as the befuddled police officer in the Irish sitcom
Derry Girls. He did a hilarious send up of himself
in Life's Too Short, the Ricky Gervais Stephen Merchant sitcom

(01:49:52):
about a little person. Actor Warwick Davis, and now the
serious lead actor of Schindler's List and the aging action
the hero of Taken Fame, takes on his most challenging role,
Lieutenant Frank Dreben, Junior LA police detective, son of Leslie
Nielsen's straight faced and hilariously clueless crime busting cop Frank

(01:50:14):
Dreben from the original smash hit comedy trilogy The Naked Gun.
That was like what nineteen eighty eight to nineteen ninety
four roughly, and that was spun off a short lived
TV comedy sitcom thing he called Police Squad. Those earlier
efforts excelled at comedic idiocy, and the new Naked Gun
holds that banner high market. You know, every film noir

(01:50:38):
needs a femme fatale, and that goes for spoofs of
film noir too. So enter Pamela Anderson, enjoying a career resurgence.
Here she plays Beth, a sexty but off kilter woman
in a jam and she's pretty good with a gag.
I mean, there is a sequence in this where she
essays in a nightclub a performance that is a looney revelation.

(01:51:01):
It takes a lot of guts and it takes a
lot of you know, I don't know confidence to get
up there and do something like this, and she's great.
So the New Naked Gun is a NonStop barrage of
dumb and often gut busting jokes and sight gags. There's
an easter egg references to the earlier Naked Guns and
topical gags that fit right in. So Lieutenant Frank Drevin

(01:51:23):
is accused of a criminal behavior on his part, and
the person behind all of this is sort of an
Elon Musky zillionaire who wants to control the world, and
he's played by Danny Houston, and Houston is clearly having
a ball in this thing. I have to say I
laughed out loud about five times, and I was grinning

(01:51:44):
throughout the rest of the movie. Paul Walter Hauser is
having a moment after his small role in Fantastic four
First Steps as the mallman. Ye had Tony. That movie
was good Tony Anyway, Here he's Frank Junior's partner and
straight man you know, Akiva Schaeffer, one of the Lonely
Island Comedy group with Andy Samberg and Roma Tacone, directed

(01:52:06):
and co wrote the screenplay. Seth MacFarlane produced and must
have kibbitz because some of the comedy had a whiff
of him at his best, like in the case of
his profane Teddy Bear movie Ted. The result here is
a lovingly stupid comedy triumph that comes in at under
ninety minutes, including end credit hydriinks that have to be seen. Look, no,

(01:52:27):
not every joke is going to land, and humor is
so subjective, but you are peppered with so many that
it's hard not to be amused a lot of the time,
which is why we watch comedies. By the way. In
a sweet PostScript, the New Naked Gun Nissan and Anderson
apparently fell in love while making the movie and are
now an official couple.

Speaker 1 (01:52:46):
Are you kidding me?

Speaker 4 (01:52:47):
I am not kidding you. That is unreal. De Nissan
swore off romance after.

Speaker 1 (01:52:55):
His lost wife died. Yeah, yeah, and.

Speaker 4 (01:52:58):
She was a wonderful She was a wonderful actress herself
and part of the Redgrave clan, and you know, I
think it's great. That is unreal, so the naked guns
in theaters. Pam Anderson is now with the Liamnason what
She's wonderful. You know, if you didn't see the Last

(01:53:18):
Show Girl, you should try to rent it or watch
it on streaming. It's a reviewer performance by mss Anderson,
who has got her mojo back after years in the wilderness. Anyway,
let us move on. Speaking of celebrity couples, Dave Franco
and Alison Brie, real life husband and wife, are co
starring in a very good, appropriately creepy horror movie. I

(01:53:42):
couldn't go a week without kind of.

Speaker 1 (01:53:43):
Reviewing a horror player.

Speaker 4 (01:53:45):
Yeah, Pay Your Horror Together is a fine example of
the body horror genre, with chills and more than a
few moments of queasiness and unease. But it's also got
some provocative ideas about how scary it can be to
try and sustain a romantic pairing and how love can
overwhelm you. You kind of lose yourself in somebody in Together,
a long term relationship between teacher Millie and musician Tim

(01:54:08):
is losing steam in the big city, and they hope
it's going to be rejuvenated by a move to a
rural small town where Millie has scored a teaching job
that she thinks is going to be more gratifying than
the one she had in this city, smaller classes, helping
her to connect better with the students. Musician Tim is
not so sure, since he's been offered a gig as
a guitarist with a touring band. So there's a lot

(01:54:31):
of conflict inherent in the relocation, which is exacerbated by
a strange mystical power that lurks in the woods near
their new home in the Boonies.

Speaker 1 (01:54:41):
And what transpires is clever.

Speaker 4 (01:54:44):
It's witty and sometimes grotesque, and it's greatly assisted in
its truth, in its verity by the genuine intimacy of
its two leads. And it's a pretty sharp critique of
people whose individual identities become submerged in a couple.

Speaker 1 (01:55:00):
Oh wow.

Speaker 4 (01:55:01):
So filmmaker Michael Shanks wrote the script and directed together,
which is ruthless in the best possible way. And Franko
w and Brie are the ideal embodiments of shanks Ooey
Guy treatise on relationship drama turned trauma. We're all really
familiar with that QC trope where a tusome is so
close that they finish each other's sentences.

Speaker 1 (01:55:21):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:55:22):
Anyway Together takes the idea of you complete me to
groos mi stroh, my god.

Speaker 1 (01:55:26):
I can kind of figure out what's happening. Well, I
don't want to blow too much of it.

Speaker 4 (01:55:30):
It's getting there is all the fun here sure, and
Together is in theaters all right. And this is two
I recommended. Now here's another one. I can't believe this
is such a fruitful week for decent films. There is
great voice work and kind of antiic manic stylish animation
in The Bad Guys. Those were hallmarks of the movie,

(01:55:53):
a surprisingly fresh cartoon comedy about a thieving gang of
anthropomorphic animals led by a can any dapper wolf voiced
by my one time neighbor on San Francisco's Russian Hill,
the always terrific Sam Rockwell. Loved that guy. He used
to sit in the cafe, the Royal Grounds Cafe, reading
scripts and cool.

Speaker 8 (01:56:12):
Nobody bothered him.

Speaker 4 (01:56:13):
You know, he wasn't all that famous a shot at
the time, but I knew who he was.

Speaker 1 (01:56:17):
I would give him. You know.

Speaker 4 (01:56:18):
The pistol guns are a little nod Now. Anyway, I'm
happy to report that the sequel, The Bad Guys Too,
from DreamWorks Animation is also a lot of fun as
it recounts the adventures of the Bad Guys after they
attempt to go straight. Now, the Bad Guys just FYI
include and I'll tell you their voice actors as well.

(01:56:39):
Mister Snake voiced by Art Powell from San Francisco many
years ago, Mark Maren who's having a bit of a
resurgence as an actor and you know, much deserved. Craig
Robinson as mister Shark, kind of a master of the skies,
big burly, and yet you know he pulls the wool
over people's eyes. Anthony Ramos as mister Piranya Walquafina as Ms. Tarantula,

(01:57:02):
who's kind of a tech genius. And you know, these
guys are out there doing their thing and it's pretty
funny and very enjoyable. And you know, the cops and
the public at large, who by the way, are mostly humans,
don't believe that the bad Guys have reformed. They've done
their time and now they're trying to do good. By

(01:57:24):
the way, the real mysteriants here, the ones who cause
trouble Besides the evil genius guinea pig Rupert Marmalade, the
fourth who was the villain in the first movie and
voiced by Richard Ayoade are the Bad Girls, who are
also criminal anthropomorphic animals. And these bad Girls have a
high tech heist in mind. It's going to be the
greatest robbery in history unless the bad Guys and their

(01:57:47):
one ally, the Governor, can stop them. It's Ocean's eleven
meets Mission Impossible, only in cartoon form. It is fast, furious,
and frenzied fun that kind of like the Fast and
Furious films, does get more outlandish as it koreenes to
a climax, and that's right, an animated movie about talking
animal felons gets more outlandish as it goes along. If

(01:58:10):
that doesn't stop it from being good All ages entertainment
A quick you know cast note. The Bad Girls are
voiced by Danielle Brooks as the Kitty Kat, Natasha Leone,
who also plays another of the animals, and Maria Bakalova
as the Pig, the pig creature. You know, I just

(01:58:31):
got a kick out of it. The Bad Guys too.
Family entertainment that worked for me. I'm loving it, okay.
My sleeper pick of the week is the on the
road thriller She Rides Shotgun, which is about an ex
Cohn and his wary eleven year old daughter who are
on the run from people who want to kill them. Now,

(01:58:52):
you know, I love real film noir, not just comedy.
Film noir like The Naked Gun, and She Rides Shotgun
is noir with big star the well being of an
innocent kid being the central one here. It comes in
at two hours on the nose and I was riveted
to the screen from start to finish. In She Ride's Shotgun,
tarn Edgerton is a force of nature as Nathan, a

(01:59:15):
desperate man trying to reconnect with the daughter he barely
knows while he does everything in his power to keep
her safe. You know, Edgerton is like you've never seen
him in previous movies like the Elton John biopic Rocketman,
where he played you know, mister John.

Speaker 1 (01:59:31):
He's unbelievable in his ability to transform himself into a role,
physically transform himself and of course from an acting standpoint,
just did in habit or role. He's really something else.

Speaker 4 (01:59:40):
And he first broke big in the Spy spoof Kingsman,
where he was a working class jabo who becomes a
suave secret agent. He's so good here, and Anna Sophia
Heger is a revelatory as Nathan's estrange daughter Polly, a
vulnerable child torn from her normal suburban life and thrust
into a life or death situation where she has to
do whatever she can to survive. On top of the

(02:00:03):
excellent work by Edgerton and Hager, who sell their developing
rapport under duress, there is a surprisingly effective performance by
John Carol Lynch, who is so likable as the avuncular
cop on the current TV show Ballard. Here he's playing
a considerably more hard ass law man and you're like,
it's not the same guy, And of course you can't

(02:00:23):
mistake who he is. Big burly guy, very familiar. So
director Nick Rowlands did a film in twenty twenty which
was incredibly impactful. It was called The Shadow of Violence
and it had a similar vibe to this one that
he's done. That one had a story of an Irish
boxer turned mob enforcer who's trying to protect his autistic son. Here,
of course, it's again a parent kid situation. Roland does

(02:00:48):
so well with this adaptation of Jordan Harper's novel, which
is titled She Rides Shotgun. And by the way, Jordan
co wrote the screenplay to this, so one would assume
it's true to his book's vision. Whether it is or not,
I got to say that She Ride Shotgun is among
my favorite movies of the year, and I hope it
doesn't fall through the cracks. It is in select theaters
starting today.

Speaker 1 (02:01:08):
Wow, you really like it. It's amazing. You're really going
You're on a run? What's next?

Speaker 4 (02:01:13):
Okay? I wish I was a little more excited about this.
We're gonna have a few quickies for you. Anyone who
knows me well knows of my affection for the Beat
generation writers and Jack Kerowac's books in particular, especially his
major Opus on the Road. So director Ebbs Bernhau's new
Documentaryak's Road The Beat of a Nation was a particular

(02:01:34):
interest to me, and it does have archival footage. It
has a narration Ofak's words done by Michael Imperioli, who
you may recall from The Sopranos. It's got interviews with
the likes of comedian and pundit w Cam o'bell who
is a Bay Area favorite. Josh Brolin and Matt Dillon,

(02:01:55):
the actors who were heavily influenced by Karwak, Natalie Merchant,
who wrote a song about Jack Kerouac when she was
the lead singer of Ten Thousand Maniacs, and various people
from his life who knew him. The singer songwriter David
amram Oh J. Mcinherney who wrote Bright Lights, Big City,
heavily influenced by Karawak. He weighs in, and there's even

(02:02:17):
an ex of his, Choyce Johnson, who they found her
and they interview her. But all of this stuff, which
is of immense interest to me, is interspersed with I
guess three actual ongoing odysses by you know, modern day
Americans of different strife, and it doesn't really come together clearly.

(02:02:38):
Some of it seemed gratuitous and didn't necessarily relate to
Karrawak per se. I guess they were just showing that
the American spirit is still one that is involved with
people reaching out, finding new frontiers, going on the road,
getting the feel of the country you know themselves by
actually going out there and traveling and meeting new people.

Speaker 1 (02:02:58):
But it just that didn't work for you, not totally.

Speaker 4 (02:03:02):
Aspects of it were good, and if you are like me,
interested in Kerouac and his work, yeah, it's worth a watch.
I just kind of wish that had been the main
thrust of the film, and I guess in ways it was.

Speaker 1 (02:03:13):
But you know, why can we not see it?

Speaker 4 (02:03:16):
You cannot see it in select theaters right now?

Speaker 1 (02:03:20):
What else do you have?

Speaker 4 (02:03:21):
Okay, let me see if I can zip through the
rest of these, because you see it Happy Gilmore, the
second Happy Gilmore.

Speaker 1 (02:03:26):
I'm going to get to that. I'm going to close
out with that.

Speaker 4 (02:03:29):
Okay. So another movie that I was completely enamored of
and unreservedly recommend is Suleman's Story. Heartbreaking, compelling, insightful, and relevant.
Suleyman's story examines one African immigrants, motivations and burdens. It's
an award winning drama that could very well be a

(02:03:49):
documentary itself and probably gets much of its story and
Suleiman's story from real life. The character of Suleiman, powerfully
and believably played by a Boose, is up against a
two day deadline and time is running out. Having made
a perilous journey from his native Guinea to France. He's
sleeping in Parisian shelters and working illegally as a food

(02:04:11):
delivery guy on a bike. So he's short on cash
and under unrelenting pressure, and he needs to prepare for
an impending asylum interview get ID papers which will cost him,
and again he's got next to no money, and he
has to memorize his story in order to convince a
government interviewer that he deserves to be officially allowed into

(02:04:31):
the country. It's directed and written co written by Boris
Ludzhkin and sule Mon's story is a tragedy tinged look
at the refugee experience that may leave you shattered, but
I think it needs to be seen. And for the record,
the movie won the un Sutton Regard Jury Prize and
san Gare won the Unsutton Regard Best Actor Award at

(02:04:53):
the Cannes Film Festival. It is in French, It is
primarily in French, with he won the award in French.
He wins the award. Yeah, I know, I was doing
my Louis the Sixteenth impression again, but no, there you go.
It's in select theaters and I think it's going to
have a good life on streaming. I hope it does.
I hope people see it. And let's wrap up the

(02:05:15):
movies with Happy Gilmore too. I let it go French
Happy Gillmore to no, it is stupid anyway. If anyone
actually thinks of Happy Gilmore two as a comedy hole
in one, as suggested by one pull quote from a reviewer,
possibly on the take, allow me to offer a counter opinion.
It's a low brow, unfunny bogie. It get the golf, oh,

(02:05:38):
I get it okay from start to finish, even if
a few supporting players bring energy to the greens. You know,
the naked gun, the nagad gun is dumb. It's dumb,
but it's genuinely funny. This is just a chore to watch.
Despite Julie Bowen, Christopher McDonald, Ben Stiller, Benny Safty of
the filmmaking Safty Bros, Eminem Bad Bunny, and a slew

(02:06:01):
of real pro golfers and broadcasters, there are a lot
of gratuitous cameos, some literally seconds long but still wearying,
as well as Sandler family members, including his daughter Sonny
who you know, maya Coolpa. She was so good in
the Sweet Comedy You were not invited to my bot
mitzvah a couple of years ago. But this is, like,

(02:06:23):
you know, leagues, less of a movie than that. For
some reason, I have to point this out. No less
than Margaret qually Well on her way to a serious
and respected acting Sure.

Speaker 1 (02:06:34):
She's the daughter of.

Speaker 4 (02:06:36):
Andy McDowell and the talented comedian, actor and writer Eric Andre.
They appear in a couple of short scenes as blithering
Happy Gilmore fans. I'm not sure if they lost a
bet or.

Speaker 1 (02:06:49):
Or watched the What are they doing there?

Speaker 17 (02:06:53):
Yeah, they watched It's okay to say no is what
you're saying, and that's what I'm saying. Maybe when they
were kids they watched the original Happy Gilmore, which was
a better film than this, by the way, and they
were somehow honored to be asked to participate. But I
immediately wanted to see quality and Andre co star in
a smartly written rom com instead of this sand trap
clap trap.

Speaker 4 (02:07:12):
This is particularly lame in the wake of the gratifying
golf themed comedy show Stick. I really cannot endure Sappy
Gilmore too. It's on Netflix, so you know, caveot empter.

Speaker 1 (02:07:23):
Yeah, wow, you've done a lot people wanted to know
what you thought of the Billy Joel documentary. Have you
had a chance to see any of that. I have
not watched it as yet.

Speaker 4 (02:07:31):
I was never a big fan, but he's apparently a
good guy.

Speaker 1 (02:07:34):
And apparently it's a really there's some revelations along the way,
and it's quite good.

Speaker 4 (02:07:38):
I did love his album Allentown. That's the kind of
only thing that I really kind of took a shine
to when it was originally released.

Speaker 1 (02:07:45):
I didn't start the fire mark. I want to just
to catch up, you know. I do the thing where
we just keep track of the words, as opposed to
dinging throughout a sage. Was early on in your conversation
you used it, exacerbated, you used a verity I will
ding it, and miscreants. I will ding so thank you.

(02:08:05):
I might have missed some, but that's what I got.
I do want to review though, the important stuff quickly
happy Gilmore too low brow, un funny. Sure to watch that.

Speaker 4 (02:08:15):
Is a right.

Speaker 1 (02:08:17):
That is a quote you won't see on a movie post.

Speaker 4 (02:08:19):
I said it earlier. Comedy is subject.

Speaker 1 (02:08:21):
This Sulaman's story one African immigrant story. It's an immigrant
story that is important to Abu. Some Ghari Ngaria in
the some Gharia in the starring role. Michael really likes
it and recommends it. It is primarily in French with
subtitles Kroax Road The Beat of a Nation. Uh, Michael

(02:08:41):
liked it. I thought it was thorough. Somehow it just
didn't quite land for you.

Speaker 4 (02:08:49):
They incorporated the modern day, you know, roadsters and people
out there seeing America.

Speaker 1 (02:08:56):
It just didn't congeal congeals a dang word.

Speaker 15 (02:09:00):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (02:09:00):
She rides Shotgun, the ex con and daughter on the
run from bad guys who want to off them. It's
noir baby. It puts the Nda noir. Taron Egerton and
Michael Snyder the Culture Blaster likes it very much. I
would say loved it. I loved that she rides shotgun.
Is in select theaters and uh, check to see if

(02:09:23):
your theater's been selected. So the bad guys too, Sam Rockwell,
Mark Marin, Craig Robertson, Natasha Leone, I mean, my god,
Maria Bakalova, It's uh, it's a good one.

Speaker 4 (02:09:36):
Yeah, we liked this. It's disposable fun, great family entertainment
for those.

Speaker 1 (02:09:40):
Who were families and who want to entertain their family.
Bad guys to go see it. It's in theaters. Together
is the Dave Franco Alison Bree horror movie. It's Body Horror.
Michael Shanks directed this drama turned trauma. It sounded intrigue
it no, it's it's good man, you really liked it together.

(02:10:04):
It's called it's a play on these two, on this couple,
and it sounds as though something quite gross is gonna happen.

Speaker 4 (02:10:13):
Well, it's funny. There are funny, funny moments, and it
also is very very pointed in its criticism of people
that just get so close that you can't differentiate between them.

Speaker 1 (02:10:24):
That's in theaters. And then finally, and firstly, The Naked Gun.
Michael says, all the jokes are coming so fast. You
may not like all of them, but there's one for everybody,
and ultimately you will really enjoy it. He calls it
a lovingly stupid comedy. We need to laugh at this

(02:10:45):
day and age. I just want to wrap up quickly.

Speaker 4 (02:10:47):
I know we don't have much time, but I'm waiting
for Wednesday, the second season the premiere on Netflix. So
in the interim, I did watch the latest episode of
Star Trek Strange New Worlds which is the prequel to
the original nineteen six series on Paramount Plus, and it
was a totally nutty romp. It was titled a Space
Adventure Hour and it featured one of the Enterprise crew.

(02:11:10):
This is before Shatner testing a prototype Holi Deck, which
is the immersive three D virtual reality playroom that was
a regular feature on Star Trek the Next Generation. But
I think that was just an excuse for a Space
Adventure Hour to have a little fun with the franchise's history,
since the program in the Holid Deck in this episode
was a sixties murder mystery set in Hollywood and involving

(02:11:32):
the cast and producers of a fictional network science fiction
show that was very much like the original Star Trek,
with candy colored sets and female crew members in mini skirts,
and Paul Wesley, the guy who plays young Kirk on
Strange New Worlds, portraying the Kirklake, captain of the spaceship.
When the faux Star Trek show with an overheated and

(02:11:54):
halting delivery that was very much like an over the
top takeoff on Shatner himself, was a hoot.

Speaker 1 (02:12:01):
Mister Spock, I don't know how we're going to see
all of these in time to see Wednesday when it's dropped. Yeah,
that's great. I can't wait to look at that. There
is that's a screen grab from it. Tony's so good. Yeah,
nice job. Uh wow, well you covered a lot, Michael Sneiner,

(02:12:22):
you really covered a lot. I'm out of breath market
and I got a compliment. I always like they're so
seldom do I get one. Richard Delamater says, what a
brilliant idea of saving the ding words till the end. Mark,
You're a genius from the future. I mean, finally somebody
realizes I'm a genius in the future. Mark Treck, Michael

(02:12:43):
enjoyed The Grateful Dead in Golden Gate Park. If you
decide to go and all of the other stuff you
check out because you're a big h you're you're a
patron of the arts, You're a culture blaster.

Speaker 4 (02:12:53):
We will see how the giants do the refurbished, retooled
Giants do, starting tonight in New York against the Mets.

Speaker 1 (02:13:01):
I Love That Can't Wait starts at four o'clock Pacific. Hey,
I am hopeful that people will check out your writing
because I think you're a brilliant writer and your brilliance
comes out in the writing at voice of what is it?

Speaker 4 (02:13:14):
Voice? The voice sf dot org Baby, the voice sf
dot org Me and the professor are.

Speaker 1 (02:13:21):
Both Rothman's on there too, the voice sf dot org.
Thank you Michael. He comes and.

Speaker 4 (02:13:27):
Goes on a rainbow, maybe a little late.

Speaker 1 (02:13:30):
The culture Blaster everybody, Bravo Michael thankybody, you are the
real thing. It's terrific when you come in now. A
quick note to all of our stations. We have run
long and in order so as not to completely ko
the after party live, we will postpone Friday, Fabulous Florida.

(02:13:52):
What to next week? I think, wait, I don't people
need I don't know what I'm kind of show is this?
I don't know what to do? And Tony has that
looking is that like, hey man, I got to get
to the Angels game. I got to get to my
other forty jobs. Yeah, let me just get out of here.
I'm not I don't mean to read too much into

(02:14:14):
your look, but it looks like to me like, you know, hey,
hurry it up.

Speaker 4 (02:14:17):
Already be in my in my emails right now.

Speaker 1 (02:14:22):
I got so I know I'm getting a lot of
in the in the chat I'm getting a lot of pushback. Well,
I'm open to suggestions. I don't I can't do a
full Friday fabas Florida. Right now, we run a.

Speaker 3 (02:14:35):
Ten second clip of an alligator stealing a shoe, because
I feel like that will give us just a taste
of Florida.

Speaker 1 (02:14:45):
Yeah, okay, So here's what we'll do this. This is
the segment we typically run on Fridays. It's a thing
that we've done for years from the radio. We brought
it over to the new podcast. Go ahead, Tony, this
is an alligator.

Speaker 4 (02:14:58):
Well, she was trying to scare the alligator away from
the deer.

Speaker 1 (02:15:02):
Yeah, there are a bunch of deer there, and there's
an alligator closing in on the deer. And so is
it a woman. Yes. She throws a shoe at the alligator,
and to her credit, it was a direct hit, and
the alligator does turn and move back toward the body
of water. And then she picks up the shoe again
and she throws it at him again, like to get

(02:15:23):
rid of him, and this time it bounces off of him,
landing in front of him. And then he eats the
shoe that's landing in front of me. He takes it
back to his body of water, and she saved the
deer is the.

Speaker 4 (02:15:40):
Good news, But lost the shoe is the.

Speaker 1 (02:15:46):
Yeah, save the deer, lost the shoe. That's awesome, Bravo, Tony.
Thank you everybody who sends us Florida stuff. And I'm
really apologizing for the fact that we couldn't get an
I thought we had a really great show today. If
you haven't checked it out in its entirety, please do.

(02:16:07):
Great guests in the first hour and great guests in
the second hour that you used to but some special
guests in the first hour. Keep on keeping on, says Gordon.
Thank you Gordon for the super chat five dollars super Chat.
Appreciate that shout and big shout out to Harry Magnant.
Two of the five dollars super Chat. This is for
the Trump Library, says this five dollars. He needs at
least one book that hasn't been colored in. Yeah, he's

(02:16:28):
not a big one for the reading. Kathleen Schmidt, how
about you, Kathleen, big shout out, love your avatar and
I love your contribution to the show. The super sticker
for ten bucks, Thank you. Richard Delemator with five dollars.
We gave Richard to some love at the beginning of
the show. You guys, why wouldn't you put a call
out to me? A resident rock expert the Mark Thompson Show,

(02:16:52):
wheat Smoker is going to the Dead Show tonight. Oh
ask me next time.

Speaker 4 (02:16:57):
He says, where are my weat smokers are?

Speaker 1 (02:16:59):
I'll tell you there's one of them. We know where
one of them is going to be. And he says,
remember I'm the Keith Richards of the mt yes year.
He does love his substances, but he sent me a
picture of him on the pickleball court. He's an active guy.
Happy Friday from the Sweaty, a crack of the South

(02:17:19):
in Florida, says Wes. Wes is our Floridian Thank you there. Yeah,
it's the MTS community really rocking it. Appreciate it. What
a week it has been. There has been all kinds
of news and craziness. Stay cool and be kind, says CBD.

(02:17:42):
You guys are all after me always. When I'm on
radio and I don't tell you about it, I'll just
mention it that I'm on radio in Los Angeles today
on the iHeartRadio app for Conway. So it'll be four
o'clock Pacific time, seven o'clock Eastern. I'm not telling you
to listen. I don't care what you are not. I'd
rather you you make disappointment listening. But I do love Kofi,

(02:18:05):
and I do love Conway, and I love that place.
So it's a very different show than this, but I
really do adore it. So now I've told you about it,
so you're be aware. Thank you for great content. Have
a great weekend, y'all says oh b wan, Thank you everybody.
And now the great Shadows Stephens. Please, I'm a chef
Stephens for the Mark Johnson Show. Bye Ba Cam love you,

(02:18:29):
thank you, Tony love you, and bye all the time.
Bye bye, thank you everyone, and until Monday, have a
good weekend. Bye bye

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