Survivors Press Congress, Hill Republicans Split & New DOJ Video Inflames the Secrecy Fight 9/5/25

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, thank you all very very much. You can imagine
how overwhelmed I am on a Friday to receive that warm,
recorded welcome and it is a great Friday at that.
You can see. Albertson is here as well. We've had
a meeting that we had a meeting about the meeting.
We made notes on both meetings that we had an

(00:21):
additional meeting about those notes. We've met a lot today.
We have a lot of people coming through. There is
a magic to today's show. There is a volume to
today's show. We're going to do a couple of things
that we haven't done. We feel we've neglected a couple
of major franchises, like That's Rich Law and Disorder. You
will hear and see them both in this first hour.

(00:44):
You'll also get Friday Fabulous, Florida, Alba and Shore in
our two, along with Michael Snyder the Culture Blaster as well.
So it's a pretty yeah, I know, it's pretty amazing.
Now there's been one screw up and I don't have
my Coachella Vell coffee with me, and I'm a bit
I'm a bit bothered by that. I don't know how

(01:06):
to get it because there's no one here who can
bring it to me. But I don't know what the
plan will be, but I will get it before the
end of the show. I want a full cup of
Coachella Valley coffee. I made a giant pot of Coachella

(01:28):
Valley coffee this morning. And the reason I make a
giant pot of coffee on Fridays is because Michael Snyder,
the culture blaster, comes through and I, as you know, Kim,
I am naturally drawn to the role of host. I
want my guests to have everything I can possibly provide
to make their landing here at the Mark Thompson Show

(01:51):
Estate as a comfortable as possible. And so the clarity blend,
the magnificence of Coachella Valley coffee, the fresh bru from
the fresh crop, it's all there.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
You might not have your I have mine.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yeah you do have yours, which is not doing me
any good, but it's a very, very special. I do
love that clarity blend. That Albert is showing you coffee
with lions Maine added just so delicioso.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
How many steps away is it? You want me to
do a story while you run and get your coffee.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
I might, I might do that. It might do that. Yeah,
I might do it, but I'm not going to do
it right at the beginning of the show. I just
think it's bad form, you know, come on, then take
a break. So yeah, although I mean, I think most
people will be cool with it, but I don't want
to appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Would be rather Albert of you to, you know, Yeah,
I'll be right back.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Yesterday Albert sent a private message to it, and we
have like a private thing where you go, hey, you know,
I got to step out for a minute or whatever.
Sure sends a message showing I went to go get
a glass of water. I'll be right back.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
That's nice.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
I was thinking I couldn't get a glass of water
before the show started and just have it there if
you need it, you know me, I'm a stern task master.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah, and now who's the guy who needs a drink?

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Right? Exactly right now? And here I am a day
later write.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
This private message for us for you if you need it.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
I am couldn't get your coffee before the show?

Speaker 4 (03:33):
Exactly what happened to be more organized? Right, I blame you. Yeah,
it's true that I blame you. I am to blame
on this one. So I'm I want to apologie.

Speaker 5 (03:45):
Would you like to apologize for what you done?

Speaker 1 (03:47):
I would like to apologize. I am I'm very very sorry,
my man. I'm sorry exactly. Listen, you guys can all
go ahead to hell, and I'm going back to I'm
plenty though I've already had a couple of cups. I've
got some stuff I want to get into. But before
I get right to the news of the day, I
want to welcome everyone. You know, it's a two hour

(04:09):
show live eleven to one on the West Coast, two
to four on the East Coast, and from around the world.
We welcome you in thank you. We'll cover some news,
we'll cover politics, and we have a great relationship with
the community of listeners and viewers. And in that spirit,
I get an email and I got this email from Franco.

Speaker 6 (04:31):
I've received a lot of positive lessons.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
I'm Mark. I got a chance to talk to Spencer
Christian at an event last night. We love our Spencer Christian,
America's weather man. I told him that I enjoy your
show when he's on, and he told me about his
friendship with you and how much he also loves to
be on your show. We need to get book him
back soon. He also takes a good picture and makes

(04:54):
me look dopey. I don't know about that. I mean,
on a different he does take a good picture. I
don't think he look dopey. On different note, any chance
you and Courtney are going to the San Francisco Aid
for Animals event in November. That's a very good We
haven't planned on it, but I would like to go.
But anyway, let's get back to Franco and Spencer both

(05:15):
looking terrific. The way the picture is composed, it looks
like those fixtures, the light fixtures above them are those
old Star Trek you know. Beat me what is that
a what was that the transporter? Yeah, they look like
they're being transported. Franco is a handsome dude, and Spencer's
a handsome guy all also, I mean Spencer is is

(05:40):
a TV guy, though of course it's part of the
reason he's on TV is because he's handsome. Franco's got
the same look. He's got a good look. Great picture.
Thank you for that, and we will discuss the San
Francisco Aid for Animals event in November. That could be
a reason to get to the Bay Area for sure.

(06:02):
So thank you for that I had one other email,
I thought, but I am not sure.

Speaker 6 (06:08):
That I've received a lot of positive.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
My hands on it right this instance, it may have
to wait until later.

Speaker 7 (06:13):
You get five dollars from a Wes.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
What wisdom does Mark have for us today? Wes theory
five dollars super chat. First of all, thank you for
the super chat. I don't know. Richard Delamator sent me
a link to the Grateful Dead performing in Egypt. But

(06:37):
Richard Delamator, for those who don't know sort of our
what resident party boy Stoner Hunter s Thompson type, you know,
and he is recommending this Grateful Dead in eachy oft performance.
But he also said, you know, it's better if you
enjoyed in an altered state. So like, I'm not gonna
you know, I did get this email, Here's the one

(07:01):
I was looking for, and.

Speaker 6 (07:02):
I've received a lot of positive letters.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
Tony says, Hi, Mark, thank you always for your excellent,
very important podcast. Very nice to gets always a good
way to start an email. What hope do we have
that the Epstein files will ever be released in their entirety,
even if Thomas Massey and Roe Conna do manage to
get those last two House Republican votes to pass this
discharge petition, it still has to pass in the Senate,

(07:27):
and then Trump has to sign it, which we know
he will never do. Best Tony from Venice, California. Well,
I think the reality is that there are too many
high profile individuals involved on both sides, is what I
wrote to him, meaning both parties and also around the world,

(07:48):
very popular men involved in this for there to ever
be an unvarnished file released. Just straight up, I'll say it.
I don't think you'll ever get an unbunished, an unredacted,
or even in any way revealing file released. I think
British intelligence. I've made this point on the show, and

(08:10):
I mentioned it in my response to him. I think
British intelligence knows a lot of the details, which is
why Prince Andrew has been ostracized. And obviously the FBI
and Justice Department in this country are well aware of
many of the specifics, and they are damning specifics at
that and they do involve in large measure Donald Trump
adjacent to or participating.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
In, or.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
In his presence, a countenancing of what was going on,
a tacit approval of what was going on, Gallinne Maxwell
recruited and groomed these women. These girls they're thirteen years old,
twelve and thirteen. There were range of ages, but there

(08:57):
are many that were twelve and thirteen. So we know
all of these things, and British intelligence knows it, and
the US Justice Department knows it. The FBI, Cash Betel,
Dan Bongino, all the guys who are demanding that the
files be released, they all know it now. And they know.
Donald Trump's all over those files like a bad smell.
So that's why everybody is all mum now. So I said,

(09:22):
there'll be drips and drabs and wildly redacted versions of
these files released, but I don't believe we'll ever see
anything but a carefully curated version of the Epstein files.
Thanks again to Tony for his support. I thought it
was a good, you know, straight up question about the
Epstein files, and that tried to be as succinct and

(09:44):
straight up in the response. I just feel, you know,
I don't think despite all of these different efforts, and
it's a heavy lift to begin with, that we're going
to see anything.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
To your point about never seeing anything other than a
curated Epstein file, did you hear about this guy caught
on a hidden video.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
This is a terrific revelation what Kim is talking about.
Go ahead, Kim.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
This man was on this dating app called Hinge and
he was, I guess talking to this woman about the
Epstein files. And he's turns out he's an official.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
When he went down to her up. But just when
you say he was talking to this woman, he's on
a date with her. So he is kind of speaking
in a kind of across the fence way, you know,
without like an official kind of thing. But go ahead. Yeah,
So he's he's, I think, had a second date with
this woman. And it's on the second date that he

(10:49):
reveals that d OJ is going to It's sort of like,
don't worry, We're going to redact the names of all
Republicans when we release anything from the Epstein file. Isn't
that what was saying.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
Yeah, his name is Joseph Schnitt and he's an official
at the Department of Justice, and he gets he's on
this dating app with this woman and he says, yeah,
we will never release any Republican names at all. Will
redact all the Republican names before we ever release any
you know, Epstein file will take a blackpen to all

(11:25):
of them. And this far right media group O'Keefe media
was taping the whole thing. So I guess even the
far right people are. You know, it's weird when when
everyone seems to come together for a transparency on a
certain issue, but it doesn't look good for this guy

(11:45):
he said. Oh, you know, he tried to downplay what
he was saying, but when he was speaking and thought
no one else was listening except this O pair that
he was trying to woo. This is what he says.
We're never going to release any names on this Ebstein file.
So there's a you know, another marker for for our

(12:07):
trust in what gets released from the Trump administration.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
Well, you know, and it was. And to be fair,
it's not just the Trump administration, by the administration sat
on it too. This is an incendiary file. There's a
lot in there that's super radioactive. They don't want it
out there. And the Department of Justice now they're pushing back,
you know, they're saying, oh, no, no, no, but this is
this guy is a senior Justice Department official. And this

(12:36):
Project Veritas, which has done this kind of thing before.
They usually are lighting up the Democrats. But in this case,
it's Republican from this administration who gets caught up in
a project veritas sting, if you want to think of
it that way. Yeah, it's but it's a great coda
to what we're talking about, because I don't think that

(12:56):
you're going to see anything from the Epstein files anyway,
you know, see what I just said in terms of
duration of that, and also just dry cleaning the files
as they have. They reassigned supposedly a thousand FBI agents
to go over the files to take out or at

(13:17):
least be aware of any references to Donald Trump and
all of this. So, I mean, David K. Johnson has
referenced that in a conversation earlier this week. So a
bad jobs report and other news of the day leads
us into the mars. Yeah, it's a week jobs report

(13:40):
and as a result, you know, Trump, did you something's
happened to me? Technically?

Speaker 2 (13:46):
No, I just I just wonder the weak jobs report.
Who's getting fired today?

Speaker 8 (13:51):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yes, that's true? Yeah, fire the right, it was, because yeah,
somebody's gonna get fired. Yeah right, who can' been with
the bad news to the mad King? Yeah? Us employers
adding just twenty two thousand jobs last month as the
labor market continues to cool. A lot of this is
uncertainty over the economic policies of this president, which change,

(14:14):
you know, by the hour. That is literally the whims
of the mad King, affecting tariff policy, affecting sweating the Fed,
on interest rates. Hiring decelerator from seventy nine thousand in
July came in below the roughly eighty thousand economists had expected.

(14:35):
For August, the unemployment rate ticked up to four point
three percent. That's also worse than expected, highest level since
twenty twenty one. When the Labor Department put out a
disappointing jobs report a month ago, and enraged, Trump responded
by firing the economist in charge of compiling the numbers
and nominating a loyalist to replace her. The real number

(15:02):
are going to come out a year from now, the
President said, he's big on putting off things. You know.
The two weeks play is a big one. Right In
two weeks I'll have my announcement on Ukraine, and two
weeks I'll have my it's two weeks, two weeks, two weeks.
This is a new one, which is you know, you
really won't know how the economy is for a year,

(15:26):
so this is not good news. Factories getting rid of
twelve thousand jobs in August. It's the fourth straight month
that manufacturers have cut payrolls. Construction companies cut seven thousand jobs,
and the federal government, as you know, got rid of
fifteen thousand workers. Healthcare and social assistance companies. That's a

(15:51):
category that spans hospital to daycare centers. They added forty
seven thousand jobs last month. Now they're eighty seven percent
of the private sector jobs created in twenty twenty five.
So they think that a lot of these job losses
are related to the tariff situation, to a constricting economy.

(16:15):
You haven't really seen this kind of job loss since COVID.
During COVID, you had a tremendous job loss in America, right,
but the I mean the disruption from COVID nineteen at
least you could, you know, say that was a force majure.
You know, that was almost active god type stuff. This
seems like a self inflicted wound. But Trump says no

(16:38):
big deal. And he didn't just say no big deal
to the press. He had this big dinner last night.
The dinner was it was kind of it was funny
for the fact that Trump had all of the captains
of industry in the tech world there, not all of them,
by the way, There were a couple of notablests exceptions, but.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
Musk's invitation got lost in the mail.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
Yeah, you got lot and more on elon Musk's compensation
package in a moment. But Albert, you have a little
bit of Trump with his opening remarks to everybody from
you know, this is the Mark Zuckerberg's there, and these
other sort of titans from the world of technology showed up,
heads of Google and as I mentioned, heads of Meta,

(17:26):
et cetera. So they're all there at the dinner. And
the one thing I'll say these before we let this run,
and you'll just hear Trump's opening remarks, is these tech
CEOs got the memo that the cabinet officials got that
is just over the top, lavished this dude with praise.
There is nothing you can say that is going to

(17:47):
seem too over the top. And they all spoke that
way effusively about Donald Trump and his brilliance and how
he's so good for tech in America. So that was
the vibe of the dinner. But Trump spoke to sort
of just round off the remarks.

Speaker 9 (18:08):
Well, are gathered around this table. This is definitely a
high IQ group, and I'm very proud of them. I
know everybody at the table indirectly through reading about you
and studying knowing a lot about your business. Actually, we're
making it very easy for you in terms of electric

(18:28):
capacity and getting it for you getting your permits.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
Thanks for hosting us. And this is quite a group
to get together.

Speaker 10 (18:33):
And I think you know, all of the companies here
are building just to be making huge investments in the
country in order to build out data centers and infrastructure
to power the next wave of innovation.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
How much are you spending would you say over the
next few years?

Speaker 10 (18:49):
Oh gosh, I mean, I think it's probably going to
be something like, I don't know, at least six hundred
billion dollars through twenty eight in the US US.

Speaker 4 (19:01):
Yeah, significant, Yeah, not bad.

Speaker 1 (19:07):
I do think that Donald Trump is thinking and how
much of that is coming to me? And he's gotten
if you think that's me just being a jerk. He
has a new mean coin, doesn't he, Kim? He hasn't
you know? The mean coin is one of the great
ways in which Donald Trump has flourished during this time

(19:28):
as president. It's way he's really become a legit billionaire.
This way. I believe he has a new one, doesn't he.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
I know that his bitcoin treasury and mining company that
they have, it's called American Bitcoin. It went public yesterday,
which started trading Wednesday rather on the Nasdaq stock market.
So yeah, thinking that you know, it's making a lot
of money for the family, the Trump family.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
Uh, this piece uh suggests that again there is despite
the fact of the coin's falling value, Trump's overall crypto
deal insulates them from the actual value of the coin.
Donald Trump and his family's cryptocurrency ventures continue to be

(20:15):
among the most blatantly corrupt activities of the president's second term,
and they appear to have been structured to insulate the
family brand from the currency's poor performance. The family just
this week began trading their mean coin. It happened on Monday.
It's the World Liberty token, met with a tepid reception.

(20:37):
As Kim was saying, akin to the Trump vodka and
the Trump Stakes, I mean, it's sort of in that
same tepid way in which all these Trump products roll
out But here's how this deal allows the Trump family
to profit anyway. Here's this is from the New York Times.
The Trump family's cryptocurrency venture, known as World Liberty Financial,

(20:58):
had a tepid first day of open market trading on Monday,
surging in value initially before losing most of those gains,
but because of an unusual insider arrangement, the Trump family
was still assured a considerable payday as it's expanding universe
of crypto ventures continue to break norms for business dealings
by presidential family. The idea is that all these meme coins,

(21:25):
buying and selling them are done on the Trump crypto platform.
The Trump crypto platform then makes money on every transaction.
It's just like Charles Schwab or each rade. They make
money on every transaction. So buy or sell, I don't

(21:48):
care what it's worth, because if you sell it, I
make money. If you buy it, I make money. So
this guy who is gutting federal programs and single handedly
taxing American shoppers with this trade war, has a get
rich quick scheme with this meme coin traded on this platform.

(22:16):
So that's the latest with Trump with tech and with
the Dinner among Tech executives. And while we're on tech executives,
the richest man in the world may have the biggest
compensation deal in the world.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
Yeah, don't feel bad that Elon Musk was not invited
to the big tech dinner at the White House. He'll
be fine.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
He seems to be pretty well taken care of. He
is looking to increase the value of the electric car
company Tesla from just over one trillion to eight point
five trillion over ten years. I mean, again, that's not
what's happened. That's what he'll have to do. But if

(23:02):
he does it, if he hits those targets set by Tesla,
and of course he's running Tesla now he's finished gutting
government for the moment. Now he's on to Tesla. He
will have this incentive package unprecedented in corporate history. In
a section of their latest stock market update, and it specifies, yes,

(23:26):
you read that correctly, if you increase the value of
Tesla from just over one trillion now to eight point
five trillion over ten years, he will get shares that
will make him not only the world's richest man, but
give him two trillion dollars in wealth. Estimates of Musk's

(23:53):
current networths vary, but a live ranking of the world's
wealthiest people on the planet compiled by Forbes estimates that
he has a fortune of about four hundred and thirty
point nine billion.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
In second place, he's heading for the trillionaire category.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
Yeah, billion here a billionaire. It turns into real money.
In second place with two hundred and seventy two point
three billion is Oracle co founder Larry Ellison. Again. This
incentive plan, revealed in this filing at the SEC comes
at a time when many observers have questioned whether Musk's
outspoken political views could be holding Tesla back. I had

(24:33):
a conversation with somebody because I dumped my Tesla, you know,
and I really liked Tesla. I love the car. A
couple I had two of them. And somebody said, you
didn't get rid of the Testiny because of politics? Did
you like? You said it like that you didn't get
rid of them politics. Yeah, that's exact why I got

(24:54):
rid of it. I also didn't like it is a
very stiff drive. They have like a twenty what are
those twenty two inch rims on them? Those wheels? Albert,
do you know anything about that stuff or Kim. It's
a very stiff ride, so you feel the road. And
when you're driving on the roads in America, a lot
of the time they're crappy, you know, and so you

(25:17):
feel the entire thing. So the new car doesn't have
that problem. It's a cushier ride, which is good anyway.
That's the update on Elon Musk, So don't sweat him.
He's in pretty good shape in terms of compensation. Kennedy
Center ticket sales take a nose dive. Trump's taken over

(25:38):
the Kennedy Center. You know, He's finally civilized. Get it
away from that wokeism. And Dei, the Big Dei Musical
is not going to happen this fall. I'm really I know.
I was going to Washington for the Dei Musical, but
the reality is pretty grim. Ticket sales at the Caenity

(26:00):
Center continued to plummet. The apparently the houses are going
to be less than twenty percent full. Audiences are voting
with their feet to skip out once these shows would
have been packed in protest the US President inserting himself

(26:23):
into the center's management and operation as its new chairman.
I mean, discussions around the notion of renaming the Kennedy
Center after Trump that's led to an eighty percent drop
off in ticket sales. Eighty percent. Looks like they may

(26:43):
be papering the house, you know, giving away tickets to
fill the house. In weed news.

Speaker 11 (26:53):
Where a weed smokers had, the tycoon who led to
push decriminalization of cannabis has now become the prime minister
in Thailand.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
Isn't that right?

Speaker 2 (27:09):
It's yeah a Newton charn Vera kol.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
Wow, very very well done. Kim A Newton Jean Vera Cool,
a staunch royalist, has been appointed by lawmakers as Thailand's
next Prime minister. Days of heated negotiations and political drama.
He's fifty eight years old. This tycoon turned politician considered
a conservative, but he did make a name for himself

(27:35):
for leading a campaign to decriminalize cannabis. Everyone. Yeah, he
was voted in after a chaotic scramble by parties on
both sides to gain enough support to replace the ousted
prime minister who was removed from office by a court ruling.
So the new guy is a rich guy and a

(27:59):
weed smoker. Keep that in mind if you go to Thailand.
And now some pretty serious stuff when it comes to
Trump smokers at a little late on that drop. But
all right, I'll tell you, Mark Thompson, I don't know

(28:22):
if you were aware of, you know, the situation with
We're going to talk a lot of politics obviously in
the second hour with Michael Shore and Jim Abla, we'll
get into the RFK junior stuff on Capitol Hill. I'll
play you some more that we played that quite a
bit of it yesterday. But I do think it worth

(28:44):
noting that the states we noted this yesterday are getting
together three western states of course, Washington, Oregon, and California
getting together to form their own vaccine policies as the
vaccine politician from the CDCRE pretty well being vacated. But
I thought it was very notable today that on Trump's brutal,

(29:04):
witheringly cruel and completely misguided immigration policy, that was represented
as we're going to close the border, which is everybody
was okay with that, you know, that's one of the
things I think the bootist presidency. And then we're going
to go against violent criminals who are already in this country.
I think everybody was okay with that. You're going with

(29:27):
against violent criminals, you're going to put together these groups
who are there to figure out where these Ms thirteen
dudes are and the trend to Agua whatever is a
trend to Agua thing. Of course, they didn't do that
at all, right, I mean almost none of the people
who have been rounded up, placed in concentration camps, shipped

(29:48):
off to various countries, almost none of them fall into
the category of violent criminals. I mean fewer than one percent.
So today this just broke. At least four hundred and
seventy five workers detained in a major ice raid at
the US Hyundai factory. South Korea is now concerned after

(30:14):
hundreds were arrested at this Georgia work site. They were
making batteries for Hyundai and Kia cars. The facility is
part of what would be the biggest industrial investment in
the state's history, and had been hailed as a huge
boost for the economy by Georgia's Republican governor Brian Kemp.

(30:39):
About four hundred and seventy five workers arrested, according to
US immigration officials, the largest single site enforcement operation in
the history of the US Department of Homeland Security, which
was created, of course, after nine to eleven and now
has swelled to be the biggest government agency there is.

(31:00):
But the Korea Economic Daily earlier reporting about five hundred
and sixty workers at the Hyundai facility and LG Energy
Solutions had been detained. They cited unidentified industry sources. Three
hundred of these people are South Korean nationals. Hyundai Motor
is a South Korean automotive company, has many international plants,

(31:21):
and among them is this plant in Georgia that they
had high hopes for. So this is a huge setback
to the company's project in Georgia, and it's a dramatic
example of what Donald Trump and this administration is doing.
So you're going to a place now you can argue

(31:43):
that we should get immigration status that is squared away
legally for all of these people working at that plant,
and I suggest great, Yes, agreed. But the other thing
I'd suggest is that this plant and many economic engines
like this plant that are in other areas agriculture, healthcare, construction,

(32:09):
they are all being hobbled by this overly aggressive immigration policy.
So you're taking hard working immigrants and you're rounding them up,
putting them in places like Alligator Alcatraz, that place in
Louisiana now, which is now going to be I think
it's eighteen thousand acres is what they're looking at, and
you're going to deport them maybe after a lengthy, awful,

(32:33):
tortuous stay in all of these places. It isn't a
well thought out policy, so they are arresting many of
these workers and detaining all of them.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
You had a story yesterday one point two million immigrants
are now gone from the United States from the workforce
because of Trump's immigration policies. That's one point two million
jobs where people were working and now they are not. Right.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
It's really why the economy will suffer and continues to suffer.
And you know, you really don't need the CSI team
to figure this mystery out. The reality is it's clear
you are hobbling the economy in many ways. The tariffs

(33:25):
and the immigration policy are the two leading ways in
which this economy is going to be hobbled.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
I know that there's a difference when you're talking about
a job's report and a weak jobs report and how
many jobs are open. There's a difference, though, I wonder
if there's a correlation between the one point two million
people who were working in the United States and are
now not and the number of jobs that are dropping

(33:51):
that are open in the United States.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
Yeah, I this is where you get into the jobs
numbers as to whether or not these jobs have been
eliminated or exactly what the status is of these jobs.
That's why I gave you a little sort of super
mini breakdown on where the jobs were coming from where,
you know. But yeah, that's the I mean, the thing

(34:14):
about this is that you're dealing with, in the case
of Hyundai and in the case of this South Korean company,
you're dealing with a demand i'll just call it from
the Trump administration that the plants be built in this country,
that labor be employed in this country. So these are
demands from this administration, and they back it up with,
you know, we're going to teariff the crap out of you,

(34:36):
and we're going to make your life really awful if
you don't build and employ people in this country. And
that puts tremendous pressure on these foreign nations and foreign
companies to build infrastructure and employ people in this country.
So in this case, you have two car companies that

(35:00):
have done that. I mean, this is a huge They
pledged twenty six billion dollars. Hyundai has twenty six billion
dollars to capital commitments in US investments in this you know,
in this New America. But now you greet those commitments.
They just made that twenty six billion dollar commitment in

(35:21):
the last couple of weeks. You greet that with this Again.
It's just so poorly thought out. This crew that's in Washington,
they're basically incompetent. I mean, Christy Nome and the Department
of Homeland Security. They are screwing this up and it
has real world effects. So I'm I'm skeptical as to

(35:46):
you know, how they're going to really build an engine
of growth in the economy if you push stuff like this.
I mean, this is a huge number of people rounded up,
almost six hundred people. They pull them right out of
the plant.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
I mean, I would imagine that the plant won't be
able to function without those workers.

Speaker 1 (36:06):
There are a bunch of subcontractors they think that work
at the site. You know, they're now going through and
trying to figure it out. But by the way, they
should have figured out ahead of time before you bust everybody.
You know, everybody puts on their outfits and their cosplay
and their jackets that say FBI and their jackets that
say DEA and you know US Customs and voter.

Speaker 12 (36:28):
They put on their masks and their dark glasses, their
Oakley's and then they wrap up these people and they
you know, they brutalize them like nightclub bouncers.

Speaker 1 (36:40):
They grab them, they cuff them. Dude, they're working on
the assembly line. They're working building batteries, and you don't
need to treat them like drug lords. But that's what
we do. Anyway, South Korea and the US has been
there have been negotiations, and they're trying to navigate the tariffs. Already,

(37:04):
there's a fifteen percent tariff rate on most imports in
South Korea and that was negotiated in exchange for three
hundred and fifty billion dollars it investment in the US
from South Korea. But I'd say, you know, this is
a joint venture to South Korean companies Hyundai and then

(37:27):
the South Korean energy manufacturer that's that LG Energy Solution,
And you know, this is part of a seven point
six billion dollar Hyundai complex. They're in Georgia. It's the
largest manufacturing project in Georgia's history. So talk to the
Georgians about this. I mean once they get this plant finished,

(37:50):
it's supposed to supply batteries to nearby electric vehicle plants
and for handai motors. Eighty five hundred people were supposed
to be employed by the end of twenty thirty one.
So this is a big project, and you can't keep
hobbling these big projects this way. But that is the

(38:11):
that's the way it's getting done.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
So well, you know who does have a job, Mark
Eric Adams. Whether he wins for Mayor of New York
or not, he will have a job.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
Yes, it's true. And the thing about Eric Adams that
you need to know is that job Mark thumpson show.
The thing you need to know about Eric Adams is
that he made a deal with the Justice Department. Of course,
they made this deal where they said, we're not going
to prosecute you as long as you don't get in
the way of ice in New York. In fact, if

(38:44):
you'll help Ice in New York, we really will look
upon you favorably. But we're not dismissing the charges against you.
We're just deciding we're not going to prosecute you right now.
So he's kind of got this legal sort of damicles
over him. You know. But the latest with Eric Adams

(39:05):
is that they are considering him for a role as
ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Isn't that right, Kim.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
Yes, Saudi Arabian ambassador.

Speaker 1 (39:18):
That looks like what.

Speaker 2 (39:21):
It's all part of Trump trying to meddle in the
election for New York City mayor. He says he wants
this to be a two person race. He's looking for
I think Cuomo and Mum Donnie, and he doesn't want
Eric Adams to I guess take away the chances of
beating Mum Donnie in this race. Yeah, so he wants

(39:44):
Eric Adams to go to Saudi Arabia instead.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
So he's sending just like like Don Junior's ex girlfriend,
Kimberly Gilfoyle Greece. Yeah, you don't need to break up
with her. We'll just send her to Grease so you
don't need to from her in a while.

Speaker 2 (40:02):
Right, she's done.

Speaker 1 (40:04):
I don't want to break up with Kimberly, Beau. Isn't
there a way we could just send her somewhere? I
got it. Don't worry, I'm sending her to Greece. By
the way, I love the new girl. You're nailing she's terrific.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
God.

Speaker 1 (40:16):
So Eric Adams again being considered for an ambassadorship to
Saudi Arabia, and again he's not popular. I mean, he's
got a single digit polling in New York and the
idea that he would even go for a second term
is a bit laughable. But as Kim has said, this

(40:39):
is all electioneering, it's all engineering the election. And the
one thing I can say, because he was accused of
accepting bribes from Turkey Travel Hotel, that kind of thing,
that he won't be bribed at all as an or

(41:00):
a Saudi Arabia. I mean, those Saudi Arabians, they play
it straight. They play it straight, don't they.

Speaker 2 (41:07):
Yeah, he knows how to operate in the in this
these worlds.

Speaker 1 (41:11):
You know, that's a good point. Maybe Kim's right, Yeah, yeah,
maybe this is actually a really good spot for him,
you know.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
So dipped and then deep fried in the world of
bribery and corruption.

Speaker 1 (41:26):
Mayor Adams, how would you like to see some more
gold get in our bagby cash? That's right, cash in
our bag. So we'll see. Trump really doesn't like Mandami
and he wants to stop him in any way he can,

(41:47):
you know, But Cuomo is still, you know, still in
the race running as an independent.

Speaker 5 (41:52):
I do hug and kiss people casually.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
Yes, And for New York, their choices are really limited there.

Speaker 1 (42:01):
It's true. I mean, it's wild because they have a
priest I thought sophisticated crew, I mean of people voting,
but apparently, you know, not as sophisticated as as we thought.
And you know, anyway, it's a lot of unpopular people
running for the mayor of mayorship of New York. And

(42:24):
perhaps Eric Adams will end up as the Saudi as
the Saudi ambassador did. A Venezuelan fighter jet flew over
the US Navy ship in the waters off of Venezuela.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
Venezuela fighter jets.

Speaker 1 (42:43):
To Venezuelan F sixteen fighter jets. Everybody, yeah, you recognize those, Yeah.
According to multiple Defense Department officials, the Venezuelan fighter jets
flew over the US Jason Dunham. It just happened yesterday.

(43:04):
The Dunham is an he just guided missile destroyer. It's
among the flotilla of US warships that were sent to
the region in recent weeks. The Pentagon says they've been
deployed to target criminal organizations and narco terrorism. Venezuelan's not
crazy about the Americans being there. And as you are aware,

(43:29):
the Americans took out a what they said was a
transport vessel for narcotics, right, but that is still a
bit unclear. They said it was carrying drugs from Venezuela,
but it was a bit of a shoot first and

(43:50):
asked questions later. Kind of situation, wasn't it.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
We'll never know because they completely obliterated this boat, the ship,
and they say they're not sorry, and that anybody else
that they think maybe carrying drugs off the coast of
Venezuela or wherever, they'll fire on those boats too. And
they just blew it up.

Speaker 1 (44:10):
Yeah. They claimed that they.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
Didn't try to take anyone into custody, They didn't do
a search of the boat to see how many, you know,
they could seize the drugs. They just blew the holy
hell out of it.

Speaker 1 (44:20):
Yeah. They said it was owned by the Venezuelan gang
trendar Awa. And when queried about this, I watched an
interview with Pete Hegseth and which he was asked about it.
He said, the question was, don't you think that there
should have been some kind of shouldn't have made sure

(44:43):
that there were drugs on board. I mean it was
really you know, it was a judge, jury and executioner
there the way it was done, and he said no,
he said, this is what we're sent to do. This
is what we're going to do. We're here to protect
the American people. Those drugs were headed into America to Americans,
and we're here to protect Americans. This is national security.

(45:03):
Blah blah blah blah blah. But I mean, done and done.
It was probably illegal what was done, I mean, but
too late. I mean, these guys are not really bound
by legalities typically. And look, I'm not shedding any tear
for those who were involved in the drug trade that way,

(45:25):
but I would just say as an aside that we
don't know they were involved in the drug trade. They
could be fishermen. I mean, they could be.

Speaker 2 (45:34):
No idea, we don't know we on that because they
didn't give anybody a chance to check it out. And
that's not usually the way we do things, right, I mean, weird.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
I promised, and uh, young Albert has just reminded me.
I promised. That's rich. We've got a big political segment
coming up with Jim Avola and Michael Schore Friday. Fabulous
Florida is still to come. And we like to keep
an eye once in a while occasionally on the moneyed class.

(46:08):
This is that's rich. Who are they?

Speaker 13 (46:11):
The top one tenth of what are they like?

Speaker 2 (46:15):
Keeping?

Speaker 13 (46:15):
Are soap, posh and snobby?

Speaker 5 (46:17):
They's nassy, that's rich. I'm a Mark Thompson show.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
Well, the uh deal that was made by the Los
Angeles Clippers is supposedly going to pay Kawhi Leonard twenty
eight million dollars, and some of that money is coming
through a job that doesn't exist. Journalist Pablo Torre laid

(46:48):
out these allegations on his podcast. He cited legal documents
claiming that the owner of the LA Clippers employed Kawhi
Leonard for a non existent role in one of his companies,
and that was to get around the NBC NBA salary cap.
The NBA has a salary cap. You can't pay, you know,

(47:10):
too much for player's salaries, otherwise you're punished by the NBA.
Right you can only otherwise people would just spend, spend, spend,
And so there's a salary cap. I mean it's a
high salary cap, but it's there. So apparently the owner
of the Clippers, Steve Baumer, partially funded what is now
a defunct tree planting company called Aspiration.

Speaker 2 (47:33):
Well that's fun.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
That company then supposedly entered into a twenty eight million
dollar agreement with k L two Aspire, which is a
company owned by Kowhi Leonard. Torre says this is the
again the journalist that he could find no evidence that
Leonard ever performed any work for Aspiration. And there's a planning.

Speaker 2 (47:57):
Trees, Mark, how can you prove they weren't planting tree?

Speaker 1 (48:00):
I drove by a few times. They seem like they
had it together. I didn't need to stop.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
Twenty eight million, that's a lot of trees.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
There was a clause in the contract between Kawhi Leonard's company,
Aspire and Aspiration, effectively allowing Leonard to be paid even
if he did no work. Excuse me. Another clause said
that the deal would be voided if Leonard left the Clippers.
One former employee of Aspiration told Tory again the reporter

(48:30):
that he had heard the deal with Leonard had been
set up to circumvent the salary cap. Oh my clippers
and Bomber deny the allegations. The NBA investigating and we
will see commission any word on this. Clippers could be
fined up to four and a half million for their
first attempt to get around the salary cap. I know

(48:53):
that very creative.

Speaker 7 (48:55):
I hope my teams to this.

Speaker 5 (48:57):
I like that.

Speaker 3 (48:59):
I mean a little more milk, a little more slick
about it. But Balmer has been going on ESPN. He's
been very upfront about it against it. So he's he's
not kind of like disappearing in hiding, and so he's
clearly in denial of the allegation.

Speaker 1 (49:15):
Yeah, he's not not a fan, I guess of this
entire but as you say, he's been proactive to use
the word getting out there. I saw something on.

Speaker 7 (49:24):
The national media the past three days, already.

Speaker 1 (49:28):
Ugly as hell is the private plane spotted along the
West coast. This is a private seven thirty seven Max
eight with an unusual tope and black coloring scheme. It
was spotted in Medford, Oregon, and according to aviation enthusiasts

(49:49):
on social media, it may belong to two billionaire brothers
who made a fortune off of the mixed martial arts world.
The FAA website shows that the plane is registered under
a true but other plane tracking websites list this specific
company as the owner, and some online users have floated

(50:09):
the possibility that it specifically belongs to these brothers, who
made a fortune off the UFC in the twenty tens.
According to Plane Lagger in twenty twenty one, the aircraft
was also owned by the brother's father, Frank Furtitta Junior.
The brothers are Frank and Lorenzo for Titta. There's no

(50:31):
flight data recorded for the aircraft. It was parked in
Medford quite some time, and the Medford people don't love
it because they think it looks ugly. Albert is showing
it to you now, and it does look ugly. It
looks lovely colored. Yeah, it looks. It looks very military.

(50:53):
I don't know. It looks like a military plane. The
two billionaire brothers, who were each based in Las Vegas,
acquired their mass sums of wealth after purchasing the UFC
for two million dollars in one they re sold it
for four billion and twenty sixteen, Forbes reporting in twenty sixteen,
they also took their business enterprise, Red Rock Resorts, public,

(51:15):
and sold the remaining UFC stakes for five billion in
twenty seventeen. So you put it all together, it's a
four billion in twenty sixteen, it's five billion in twenty seventeen.
That's real money and.

Speaker 7 (51:27):
An ugly colored plane.

Speaker 1 (51:29):
You know, they have a super yacht, by the way,
that same crue. They have a super yacht, two hundred
and eighty five foot super yacht. And of course when
you have a super yacht that big. Just to finish
the thought, they have a the companionship. That's where staff
is and you know that's where they keep the croissant.
They keep them over on the you know, the supply ship.

Speaker 2 (51:49):
It's a trailing garage, so they have there. They're one.
They are two hundred and eighty five foot long super yacht.
It's called the Launion, and it's a companionship called the Hodor,
and it's a trailing garage. It has all the all
terrain vehicles, a helicopter, several motorcycles and they tow it

(52:11):
behind the super yacht. Bag is so much money that
you have a yacht for your stuff?

Speaker 1 (52:16):
Well, I mean, Kim, you don't want that stuff on
the main ship. I totally get that. I wouldn't expect
that you necessarily understand it. But you know, when you're
mega wealthy, you're going to many different mega wealthy exotic
ports of call, and you want your ATV vehicles and
you want all your stuff like that to be close by.
So you have the trailing ship. So that's what's going

(52:38):
on there, and you're a helicopter. I don't need to
tell you you don't want that on the main ship. No, no, no,
I mean the new brand of billionaire is you know,
is keeping all that stuff on a trailing ship? As
you say that, my friends, is how the moneyed class lives.
And that is that rich more?

Speaker 2 (53:00):
How ab the other have keep on to Fritch crazy rich?

Speaker 5 (53:04):
Next time the Mark Thompson's.

Speaker 1 (53:06):
Show, The Mark Thumpson Show.

Speaker 14 (53:13):
Who's Mark Thompson.

Speaker 1 (53:17):
I am so excited. I've got a full hour of
the show still to go with Michael Shore and Jim
Abbla coming through along with the Culture Blaster, and in
seconds I'll be getting to uh, Friday Fabulous Florida, something
that we brought over from the radio show continues to
be a fan favorite. I am also going to.

Speaker 11 (53:43):
Just previewing Friday Fabulous Florida how do you feel about
it today, Albert?

Speaker 1 (53:49):
I good, very good.

Speaker 3 (53:51):
If you want to get to it now we're at
the bottom of the hour, we could get to some
quick headlines from Kim.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
That's right. I forgot. We moved from the Fabulous Florida
to the bottom of the hour, so it follows Jim
Abla and Michael Shore. That's right. Thank you, Albert. That's
why you do what you do. Albert, thank you.

Speaker 7 (54:13):
Possibly for you.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
I'm going to run just argem but I like to
comment on the news, so I will. There's that smash
the like button like a boss if you will, but
your iron rod do it. Do it for the new
Ambassador of Saudi Arabia, Eric Adams. Everybody, not the Saudi
Arabian Ambassador yet, but that's the talk. But it helps

(54:40):
us in the world of YouTube to get thumbs up.
It's weird, I know, but it costs you nothing, so
appreciate that. And please do share the show, our segments
from the show that helps spread our footprint and grow
the show. So again, thank you all who support the
show in all the different ways that you do. Kim's
News in my comments and then Ablin Shore join next.

(55:03):
Mark Thomson Track.

Speaker 2 (55:06):
Thompson on The Mark Thompson Show. I'm Kim McAllister. This
report is sponsored by Coachella Valleycoffee dot Com. Just steps
away in Mark's kitchen, Don't you want some?

Speaker 1 (55:25):
I do?

Speaker 2 (55:25):
And an ICE immigration enforcement surge is underway right now
in Boston, the acting head of ICE, todd Lyons, confirming
to Fox News officers are rounding up the quote worst
of the worst criminal aliens.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
I guess car washers. They find the worst of the worst.
Or is it working a lot? Yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:49):
When reports of the surge came out earlier this week,
Michelle Wu, the Democratic mayor of Boston, accused the President
Trump of attacking her city to hide his administration's failures
and says it's Wo's sanctuary city laws protecting criminal illegal immigrants.
Reports say ICE may be planning a similar surge in Chicago,

(56:09):
but again, it is underway now in Boston. President Trump
set to make an announcement from the Oval Office this afternoon.
The White House is not providing details about what it's about,
but it comes as he is expected to sign an
executive order to rename the Department of Defense the Department
of War. The President's appearance will follow a weaker than

(56:31):
expected jobs report released this morning as well. So it's
a good thing we're going to have the Department of War.
The president is being sued by Washington, d c. Over
the deployment of National Guard troops on city streets. The
city's Democratic attorney general says federal law bars the military
from acting as local police. Comes as the DC's mayor says,

(56:53):
the troops have brought down crime, but she also called
their presence troubling. A federal judge ruled earlier this week
the Trump administration's deployment of National Guard troops here in
California was illegal. President Trump's plans to mark September eleventh
include a memorial event and a trip to New York

(57:13):
City for a baseball game. The President's scheduled to start
the day at the Pentagon to honor the service members
and civilians killed there on nine to eleven. Vice President JD.
Vance will be at Ground Zero for the twenty fourth
time of the terrorist attack or the anniversary, i should
say of the terrorist attack. Later in the day. There
are multiple reports Trump plans to fly to New York

(57:35):
City to watch the Yankees take on the Detroit Tigers.
CBS News finds itself once again in the crosshairs of
the Trump administration after Homeland Security Chief Christy Nome accused
the network of making selective edits to her interviews on
Sunday's Face the Nation. CBS now says, in response to

(57:56):
audience feedback, it will now only broadcast live or live
to tape interviews on the talk show. The announcement comes
after CBS's parent company, Paramount, agreed to pay Trump eighteen
million dollars to settle a lawsuit over sixty minutes interviews
that it aired with a former Vice president, Kamala Harris.

(58:17):
So now we have no more editing. Apparently on CBS airlines,
we'll have to compensate passengers for flight delays. Last December,
the Biden administration proposed a plan requiring airlines to pay
passengers up to three hundred dollars cold hard cash for
three hour delays, up to seven hundred dollars for longer delays.

(58:38):
On Thursday, the Department of Transportation said it was dropping
the plan, consistent with department and administration administration policies. So again,
now under Trump, the airlines will not have to pay
comp or compensate passengers for flight delays.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
This hered times. Excuse me, but how many times do
consumers need to get ft over by the GOP and
by this administration to realize they are not advocates for you.
They don't care about you. By the way, you can say, well, Mark,
they're all let's face with Democrats and Republicans, it's all
the same. They're working for big business. Again, yes, you're right,

(59:17):
the world of politics is a wash in America with money.
But again, there's a spectrum of corruption. There is a
spectrum of all of these things. There's a spectrum of
advocacy for consumers. It can be performative where I just say,
when i'm Donald Trump, I'm here for you. I'm going
to wash you didn't represent your interest. We're going to

(59:40):
drain the swamp. And then there are others who say
it and then do it in a tepid way and
put up what you might consider sort of a tepid
resistance to the big money of corporations and business. And
then there are others who lean in with a kind
of consumer advocacy that you do find among some even

(01:00:00):
those who you would consider compromised, like I get it,
Elizabeth Warren isn't your dream date in every way she
takes corporate money or whatever your issue is with Elizabeth Warren,
some of which I agree with, but the idea she
set up a Bureau of Government to represent consumers. So
there were those on Capitol Hill that actually responded to

(01:00:22):
their constituents who are angry about the fact that the
airlines were taking advantage of them. There was no recourse
in effect for these lengthy flight delays, and to call
them the lengthy is to be polite. Some of these
flight delays going for ten to eleven hours, and there
was no way You're trapped on a tarmac, the bathrooms
are overflowing, whatever the deal is, there have been some egregious,

(01:00:45):
extreme examples of the abuse that consumers have taken. You
need legitimate politicians to represent the consumers in relation to
this stuff. And what we've just seen, apparently I'm learning
from Kim's news from this administration is Yeah, where now
you'll have no recourse? Isn't that essentially what the what the.

Speaker 2 (01:01:07):
Story is, Yeah, they're not going to give you cash
if your flight's delayed. They used to have to pay
you three to seven hundred dollars and now they don't
have to.

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
And the reality is this is a This disincentivizes the delays,
right because there is a real world and I hate
to say it, but it's money that these businesses and
corporations care about and should care about. I mean, after all,
they're trying to serve a bottom line. Those penalties they're

(01:01:38):
real and they serve too. You can look at it
as disincentivized or incentivize being on time, if you want
to think of it that way. That's how this stuff works.
So to me, it's a again another example of the
performative nature of populism and populist rhetoric in politics. But
when it actually comes out, you know, comes down to

(01:02:01):
repping for the consumer, their mia that's nice.

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
You know, they're not supposed to represent us or anything.
There is a recent poll predicting presidential candidate front runners
in the next election. Emerson College polling showed Democratic California
Governor Gavin Newsom and Republican Vice President JD. Vance are
currently tied for support in the twenty twenty eight presidential

(01:02:29):
election Will it be Newsom v.

Speaker 1 (01:02:32):
Vance?

Speaker 2 (01:02:33):
The poll also finding Newsom Advance were tied at forty
four percent in a hypothetical head to head matchup, with
twelve percent of respondents undecided. Newsom surging as the front
runner of the Democratic Party and appears to be gaining
ground on Vance, who held a three point advantage in
polling from July, A Louisiana senator is calling for better

(01:02:55):
inspections of foreign seafood following the discovery of a radioactive
isotope open containers used to ship shrimp to the United
States from Indonesia. Republican John Kennedy standing in front of
a photo of the alien from the movie Alien as
he made a plea on the Senate floor, saying, even
if it doesn't turn you into the alien, if you

(01:03:16):
eat this stuff, I guarantee you'll grow an extra ear.
Kennedy claims that federal inspectors only look at one percent
of foreign seafood coming into the US on a good
day two percent. In comparison, he says the United Kingdom
inspects at least fifty percent of imported seafood.

Speaker 1 (01:03:34):
I will say this to be fair. Those radio isotopes
are delicious. I mean you have to marinate them, but man,
they can taste terrific.

Speaker 2 (01:03:41):
How Else, Mark Are you going to put the light
inside the body?

Speaker 1 (01:03:44):
Right? Thank you?

Speaker 15 (01:03:48):
Hi?

Speaker 7 (01:03:48):
Albert Michael Shore is standing by.

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
He is here. I see him there, Yes, I see him.

Speaker 2 (01:03:53):
I shall wrap it up.

Speaker 1 (01:03:55):
He looks annoyed. He looks annoyed. I don't know why.

Speaker 2 (01:03:57):
He loves the news, lives for them.

Speaker 1 (01:04:00):
I'm sure he's annoyed with me. He's always annoyed with me.
Not nothing news.

Speaker 2 (01:04:03):
He came in time for you know, the most riveting
stories of the day. This year's MTV VMAs will pay
tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne. The shows that to
feature a tribute to the heavy metal icon with the
performance from aerosmiths Stephen Tyler and Joe Perry, young Blood
and Nuno Bettencourt. The MTV vm As will take place

(01:04:25):
on Sunday in New York.

Speaker 1 (01:04:27):
That's not me, that's really no.

Speaker 2 (01:04:30):
You were you're holding your breath, you were waiting for this.
But Justin Bieber, it's true. He's dropping a surprise album
called Swag two. He dropped a new album in July
called Swag and now he's got Swag too. It's streaming
now and it's got twenty three brand new Justin Bieber songs.

Speaker 1 (01:04:50):
Wow, that's pretty that's pretty impressive. Yeah, it's fantastic.

Speaker 2 (01:04:56):
That's not enough. Boxing icons Mic Tyson and Floyd Mayweather
Junior are set to fight. They are agreeing to an
exhibition match for next spring. Aren't these guys kind of holded?

Speaker 1 (01:05:09):
Yeah? Tyson was like my dad's age, and my dad
died last year.

Speaker 2 (01:05:14):
Oh no. Mayweather said in a press release that if
he's going to do something, it's going to be big
and it's going to be legendary. Details on the number
of rounds and the weight will be revealed at a
later date. But yeah, it's another And haven't we seen
this matchup before?

Speaker 8 (01:05:30):
Like?

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
How many numbers round?

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
The same crap over and over again. Meanwhile, the jackpot
for the Powerball drawing on Saturday night has swelled to
one point eight billion dollars and if you were to
win it, you would walk away with eight hundred twenty
six million dollars if you took the get the cash

(01:05:53):
Now option. Wow, and you're not going to win because
the odds are one and two hundred and ninety two million.

Speaker 1 (01:05:59):
That and people do win again, Well, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:06:04):
You're paying two dollars for a few hours of hope
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Speaker 1 (01:06:14):
Oh yeah, baby, I went all the way to the
kitchen to get my Coachella Valley coffee and it is delicios.
Today I went Toto Espresso, but I grind it for
a drip, So this is a drip coffee. Even though
it says expresso on there, I grind it for trip.
I really like it as a it's a drip coffee.

(01:06:36):
But they're great tasting profiles under all all of our beans,
all the beams that are featured there on say our beams.
I feel almost like ownership in the I'm not an
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(01:07:00):
what's it?

Speaker 2 (01:07:01):
Makes my life better? Honestly, it makes my life better.
I'm not even lying, not gonna die, makes my life better.
Conchellallcoffee dot com is the website, and please take advantage
of the Mark Thompson Show discount. It is Mark T
no spaces. It gets you ten percent off, so get
a little discount as on your way out, and if

(01:07:22):
you check out the website, they have great tasting notes
so you know exactly what you're getting. The website again
is Coachella Valleycoffee dot com. I'm Kim McAllister and this
is the Mark Thompson Show, The Mark Thompson Show.

Speaker 5 (01:07:45):
Who's Mark Thompson?

Speaker 14 (01:07:55):
They rated monologo, y'all didn't like that?

Speaker 1 (01:08:02):
Right on, everybody, thanks for being here. Really excited about
our next guest. He is someone who you have seen
perhaps reporting from many different locations and locales. I think
he covered over fifty Trump rallies, went out there in
the bitter cold, and has covered politics since he was

(01:08:22):
old enough to hold a microphone. And he's amazing. He's
forgotten more about politics than most of us will ever
even know. He is the brilliant Michael Short everybody.

Speaker 16 (01:08:32):
Friday.

Speaker 15 (01:08:33):
Everyone, I'm still lamenting, you know, not coming in on
the heels of Friday fabulous Florida.

Speaker 1 (01:08:40):
Yeah, well, I'm sorry. I mean, you can stick around.
We will do it after you, so if you want
to be as we'll leave some time for sports at
the end of our.

Speaker 16 (01:08:54):
I think it's going to be sports that we both
like Mark.

Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
Yeah, I think so too. I am excited I talk.
I always get excited around this time of year because
of the US Open and UH and football, and it
all comes together in one miraculous package at the end
of this conversation. So look, I want to start with
immigration policy, because there was a huge immigration round up

(01:09:19):
yesterday in Georgia at the Albana I think it was.

Speaker 15 (01:09:23):
At Alabama, at the Hyundai factory. I thought maybe it
is Georgia.

Speaker 16 (01:09:26):
I thought it was Alabama.

Speaker 1 (01:09:27):
Yeah, it was Georgia. But the UH. But this time
of year, george and Alabama very similar. And but it
is true that this is a huge round up. Over
five hundred workers at this Hyundai plant were taken in
this Georgia facility, which was designed to really represent the
investment of foreign companies in America. It's part of the

(01:09:51):
huge commitment that South Korea has made to building plants
for Hyundai and Kia in in a America. Anyway, I
mention it because on the heels of that, there is
a huge roundup of again those who are undocumented here illegally.
That's being done in Boston right now while we're talking,

(01:10:14):
and I want obviously to get your comments just in
general on this. Probably also want to talk about the
politics of this, because this is something that you know
so well, and how this plays over time, because this
sort of thing is ramping up, and these aren't criminals
that are being taken into custody as was represented in
a lot of the campaign rhetoric. You know, the violent criminals.

(01:10:36):
They're eating our dogs, eating our cats. Whatever his deal is,
MS thirteen, et cetera. This seems to be a group
of people who are hard working and contributing to the
American economy, at least to the extent that we've been
able to, you know, learn who these people are.

Speaker 15 (01:10:51):
Yeah, So it's all politics right at its very core.
This is something that he ran on at something that
he won, and it's something that he's had no problem
executing in cities and states around the country. It's where
this administration is choosing to fight in the streets. It's
causing a people. But it also is something that independent voters,

(01:11:15):
maybe not in its execution, but independent voters came to
Trump on issues of the cost of a dozen eggs
and the illegal immigration, and so he's delivering on a
promise here that said how he's doing it the haphazard
way in which he is doing it, and like you said, Mark,
leaving the mission aside and just going after anybody who

(01:11:37):
may happen to be here without papers illegally, and so
to that end, this is a part of the showmanship
of Donald Trump.

Speaker 16 (01:11:48):
The first term was We're going to build a wall.

Speaker 15 (01:11:50):
We couldn't get the wall built. We got a panel
or two up, and we took pictures with it. So
what are we going to do this time. We're going
to go in there and we're going to actually go
after people that are already here, rather than stemming the
tide in the way that we wanted to do it anyway.
And so it is very performative, but you know, as
until we know otherwise, it is politically expedient in certain places.

(01:12:12):
I don't see how it would be in Massachusetts. It
already is in Alabama and Georgia and the Deep South.
And he's doing it in California, and he's also sending
the National Guard into fight crime in big cities. And
that is something that people in Middle America pay attention to.
It doesn't have to happen in your backyard in order
for people to see that happen.

Speaker 1 (01:12:34):
Now when you say, people in Middle America pay attention
to it. So it's a political winner, you're saying.

Speaker 15 (01:12:39):
For until proven otherwise it is. I don't believe that
it endures as to be a political winner. But there
are people, you know, who were in the middle who
were pulled on this issue during the campaign, who said
it's a number one issue for him, and what did
you do? He painted immigrants as people who eat cats
and dogs. He painted immigrants as people who are others

(01:13:00):
and that are lawbreakers, that are rapists and murderers. He
had Lake and Riley's family out there with him, So
he points to everything that is bad about immigration rather
than pointing to what is wonderful about it, which is
the overwhelming majority of people that are in this country
legally and illegally from other countries are fine and tax

(01:13:20):
paying and participatory and legal in terms of the way
they conduct their lives. And so if you go after
and you paint these people who eat cats and dogs
and who kill you know, a girl, unfortunately, that's going
to get your focus. So if you're sitting in Iowa
where you're not in a border state, and you know, yes,
there are lots of New Iowans of Hispanic origin, but

(01:13:44):
they're not, you know, as proximate to the issue of
immigration on a daily basis. And you see this administration
fighting immigration in the way that they are and rooting
out what they say is evil, it's a political winner.

Speaker 1 (01:14:00):
Unfortunately, I'm looking just in the Wall Street journaloid they
suggest that, you know, they have navigated through these tariff
negotiations a fifteen percent tariff that is down from what
was threatened in exchange for South Korea investing three hundred
and fifty billion dollars in the US. And this factory

(01:14:20):
is being built by a joint venture between South Korea's
Hyundai Motor and a South Korean battery manufactured this LG
energy solution. Anyway, it's near Savannah, Georgia. It's part of
a seven point six billion dollar Hyundai complex that the
state has described as the largest manufacturing project in Georgia's history.
So again, this is from the Wall Street journal And
what I'm wondering about is, right now, everything you've just

(01:14:45):
said makes total sense to me politically. But I'm wondering again,
that's not a border state Georgia. To what degree to
does something like this begin to damage the brand of
I'm getting all of these you know, dirty illegals out
of America because it's actually affecting communities that were bullied
by investment by these foreign companies.

Speaker 15 (01:15:07):
You know, it's hard to say, I mean, we don't
know because that's a different play, right, That's not the
immigration play that we saw on the stump in twenty
twenty four, and we'll see it in certain ways in
twenty twenty six. And that's going to be what's so
fascinating about the twenty twenty six race is how do
members of Congress, how to open Senate seats, how to
challenged Senate.

Speaker 16 (01:15:27):
Seats deal with this issue that is very divisive.

Speaker 15 (01:15:31):
It is unquestionably discomfiting for a lot of Americans to
see people just sort of swept up in this way.
It is evocative of other countries, not of the United States.
And there is a difference between saying build a wall
and actually, you know, stopping people on their way to
pick their children up at public school and arresting them,

(01:15:52):
deporting them, not only deporting them, sending them to countries
that they've never been to or have no affiliation with.
So this is a story that has yet to be
written in terms of how it plays out politically, but
it is not without risk, and it's not without risk
in a state like Georgia that has a Senate race
there John Ossof running for re election, there are going

(01:16:13):
to be you know, I think ramifications to this policy
in some cases it may help. But my guess is
that if immigration is on the ballot, then it's not
going to be a winner for Republicans in this way.

Speaker 16 (01:16:28):
But again, I've been wrong.

Speaker 15 (01:16:29):
On the way they do this before, but I've always
thought immigration was a good issue for Republicans. I just
don't know that they're handling it in the way that
they ought to.

Speaker 16 (01:16:38):
This time.

Speaker 15 (01:16:38):
They've done a good job with it, keeping it as
kind of a boogeyman and saying we've got.

Speaker 16 (01:16:43):
To build a wall.

Speaker 15 (01:16:44):
That was sort of excellent politics, as you know, as
unfortunate as they were. But I do think that this
might be a little different.

Speaker 1 (01:16:53):
Yeah. Interesting. I think that the idea somehow that the
growth of Department of Homeland Security, which is of course
a swell to be the biggest agency in Washington, and
the aggressive tactics that are taken again these images of
parents being separated from their kids. Just the brutality which

(01:17:15):
has been deliberate brutality from massed agents and.

Speaker 15 (01:17:19):
Also recruitment, right, I mean we used to see Army,
Air Force marines, you know, all that we do more
of before nine am than most people do in the day.
And now you're seeing ICE customs enforcement on immigration on
football games and tennis matches, and I'm sure other episodic
television you seeing ads recruiting people to ICE saying we're

(01:17:41):
going to pay your student loans. I mean, this is
something like we've never seen before. And I will also
say that it's very important, you know, to criticize this
if you don't like it. But immigration is an issue
in all fifty states, whether Democrats like it or not.
Like crime, democrats politically are going to have to offer

(01:18:04):
a plan. Right, what was the undoing or what helped
Obamacare the most is that opposition wasn't enough. The Republicans
didn't have an alternative. Democrats need to form some kind
of an alternative to that conversation or else it's just
complaining about Trump and we've seen that not work, or
Democrats have seen that not work for quite a while.

Speaker 1 (01:18:25):
Well again, in a foundering economy, which I believe is
going to happen as a result of many of these
policies and others that case may be easier to make.
You know, there are all kinds of worker programs that
exist and can be expanded, the Percero program, and we
have a history of creating programs that could then support
many of these areas of the American economy. They're going
to be hurt by these aggressive policies. I want to

(01:18:46):
take you to what happened yesterday on Capitol Hill Michael
Shore with the RFK Junior testimony. Albert run that it's
kind of a little bit of a clip from his testimony,
and we'll talk on the other side and get your impressions.

Speaker 14 (01:19:04):
Overnight, after a tense grilling of Health and Human Services
Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior on Capitol Hill.

Speaker 6 (01:19:10):
Do you accept the fact that a million Americans died
from COVID?

Speaker 1 (01:19:15):
I don't know how many lives.

Speaker 13 (01:19:16):
Do you think the vaccine did anything to prevent additional deaths?

Speaker 5 (01:19:21):
Again, I would like to see the data and talk
about the data.

Speaker 14 (01:19:26):
I'm you gon had this job for eight months and
you don't know the data about whether the vaccine.

Speaker 6 (01:19:32):
Fay not have a problem. How can you be that ignorant?

Speaker 14 (01:19:35):
President Trump standing behind his handpicked choice to lead the
nation's top health agencies.

Speaker 9 (01:19:40):
It's not your standard talk, I would say that, and
that has to do with medical and vaccines. But if
you look at what's going on in the world with health,
and look at this country also with regard to health,
I like the fact that he's different.

Speaker 14 (01:19:54):
Just last week, Kennedy ousting CDC chief Susan Menoras after
less than a month on the job, as in a
Wall Street Journal op ed, saying she refused to rubber
stamp yet to be written recommendations of a vaccine advisory
panel quote filled with people who have publicly expressed anti
vaccine rhetoric. Kennedy saying she's lying.

Speaker 5 (01:20:14):
So you're saying she's lying, Yes, every conversation I had.

Speaker 14 (01:20:18):
With her there, Oh yes, just straight.

Speaker 5 (01:20:20):
This is the same person that less than a month
earlier you stood next to her and described her as unimpeachable.

Speaker 6 (01:20:29):
In a month, she became a liar.

Speaker 14 (01:20:31):
Yeah, A long time vaccine skeptic. Kennedy has moved quickly
to overhaul the nation's vaccine policy. The FDA, narrowing the
scope of people approved for the COVID vaccine, this fall
to just those over sixty five and adults and children
at high risk across the country, Americans telling us they're
now confused and concerned about vaccine availability.

Speaker 13 (01:20:52):
I don't know what the schedule is, or what you're
allowed to do, or what illness you have to have
in order to get it.

Speaker 14 (01:20:57):
In that fiery hearing, Republican Built Cassidy of Louisiana, a
doctor publicly expressing concern reading Kennedy a letter from a
worried physician.

Speaker 17 (01:21:06):
There's no firm guidance and concerned about liability if vaccines
are given to a patient requested but not on the
current CDC list. Pharmacists are requiring a prescription now, even
for patients over sixty five, creating a huge headache.

Speaker 16 (01:21:18):
I submit these for the record without objection.

Speaker 17 (01:21:20):
I would say, effectively, we're denying people vaccine.

Speaker 5 (01:21:22):
I at Senator Catwill, I, ain't you wrong?

Speaker 14 (01:21:25):
And John Barrosso, a surgeon and the number two Republican
in Senate leadership.

Speaker 8 (01:21:29):
And I've grown deeply concerned. The public has seen measles outbreaks.
Leadership in the National Institute of Health, questioning the use
of mRNA vaccines, the recently confirmed Director of Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention fired, Americans don't know who to rely.

Speaker 14 (01:21:45):
On, Democrats calling on Kennedy to resign, and after that
hearing three Republican Senators, all of whom were critical yes
votes just months ago in Kennedy's confirmation, refusing to say
they still have confidence in the secretary.

Speaker 1 (01:21:59):
Do you still have confidence him? Senator?

Speaker 6 (01:22:02):
His ability to lead HJHS.

Speaker 17 (01:22:07):
Do you have confidence in him?

Speaker 1 (01:22:08):
Senator?

Speaker 6 (01:22:09):
Is there as what the President of the United States
is doing?

Speaker 1 (01:22:15):
Moy The fealty to Donald Trump just Trump's everything else,
doesn't it?

Speaker 15 (01:22:19):
I will not second guess it, right, confidence and I
will not second guess it. You know they're asking you.
The reporter asking barrosof he's got confidence in his leadership
and what does he do with leadership? The second in
charge of Senate leadership gets on an elevator without saying
anything and then says, I have confidence in Donald Trump.

(01:22:40):
You know, it's just this, Like you said, Mark, the
fealty is extraordinary. And Bill Cassidy, Louisiana Senator there his
vote could have kept Kennedy away from that from that
job and he voted for him, and in a way
as a doctor, it was, you know, the biggest dere
election of Senate duty we've seen, you know, and I
don't want to get too hyperbolic, but certainly in the

(01:23:01):
last year, because he could have done that and he
was assured that there would be promised that he was
told that he was promised there wouldn't be a change
in vaccine schedules. Kennedy has changed that and Cassidy, and
Kennedy says he didn't break any promise to Cassidy, and
Cassidy now has this on his hands.

Speaker 1 (01:23:21):
There is an aspect to this that no one that
I've seen is commenting on. And I haven't seen this
written up anywhere, and maybe there's a reason for it.
I'll run it past you. I watched the hearings and
watched a lot of it, and I didn't feel I
think that package that we just saw represents that RFK

(01:23:46):
Junior gets owned pretty much by the committee. But if
you actually watched it, you see how RFK Junior is
effectively evasive. He makes up a lot of stuff in
the moment, and one of the reasons to be frank
that he's effectively evasive has less to do with him
and more to do with the format. They have five

(01:24:06):
minutes to ask questions, and there's a lot of grand
standing and showboating. And you know this better than anyone.
Michael Shover is.

Speaker 16 (01:24:12):
A report different than most Senate hearings, right, I get it.

Speaker 1 (01:24:15):
And so when you're trying, when you're trying to extend
a rope to someone that you know is full of
it and is creating health policies that are killing Americans
and threatening even more, you don't really have the mechanism
by which you can give him that rope and let
him talk, because you're busy show voting yourself.

Speaker 15 (01:24:36):
What is unusual here to the sort of predictable Senate
hearings that we all know, is that you had Tillis
and you had Cassidy, and you had Barrasso really going
after him harder than they ordinarily would, especially in Barrasso's case,
they ordinarily would a secretary serving Donald Trump's cabinet. Yeah,

(01:24:58):
Barrasso was spineless getting on the elevator, but he did
ask questions and he didn't say whether he has faith
in Kennedy, and that matters because you don't usually see
that you see a partisan show, they each get their
five minutes to grant stand and get their points across.
I thought, what Senator of Mark Warner of Virginia did
the Democrat there asking Kennedy about whether or not vaccines

(01:25:20):
were effective and he had no answer for it. And
he said, you've been in this thing for eight months
and you still haven't looked into that, you know, I mean,
that's you.

Speaker 1 (01:25:28):
Know, this is great moments like that, Warner was.

Speaker 16 (01:25:30):
Bro great moments.

Speaker 15 (01:25:31):
And if you're going to lose, if a secretary, a
cabinet secretary is going to be run out of town,
it starts like this doesn't mean it's going to happen,
but this is what it looks like.

Speaker 16 (01:25:41):
This is what it looks like at the beginning.

Speaker 1 (01:25:44):
I want to turn to the meeting between Putin She
and Modi and others. But the degree to which Modi
has been driven into the arms of She is completely,
in my judgment, a result of Donald Trump's policies and

(01:26:06):
the ridiculousness with which he's treated tariff policy and India
and remote right.

Speaker 15 (01:26:14):
And I would add to that, Mark, and maybe you
were about to is what he has said about India
and Pakistan as well, which which matters to Mody maybe
more than tariffs do, because you know.

Speaker 1 (01:26:26):
He oh, that's how we got that's how we got
the tariff. Because he wouldn't say that this India Pakistan
conflict that has gone on for so many years, Trump
wanted to take a victory lap on the cessation of
hostilities and wanted to claim a as I say, a

(01:26:46):
victory there, and he wanted Mody to say it, and
he wanted Mody, the Indian leader, to recommend Donald Trump
for the Nobel Peace Prize. Mody shined him on. I mean, Mody,
knowing what's going what are you talking about? You just
got here an hour ago. This thing's been going on

(01:27:06):
a while. And because of that, again hear me, because
of that, Donald Trump imposed a fifty percent tariff on India,
not because of any sort of economic policy or other,
because Mody wouldn't recommend him for the Nobel Peace Prize.

(01:27:27):
And I might labor to make the point, but I
think it must be made and then I'll shut up.
That the relationship between India and the US has been
one that has been crafted for decades now. It's taken
a long time in a kind of troubled relationship, and

(01:27:47):
I feel as though Donald Trump blew it up in
a week.

Speaker 15 (01:27:52):
Yeah your thoughts, well, I can't disagree with that, and
it has you know, look at as implications.

Speaker 16 (01:27:58):
The first thing we think now.

Speaker 15 (01:28:00):
When we see Putin as we think about Ukraine, we
think about the war, We think about India and China
chumming it up with this person who's waged war on
Ukraine and in a sense Western Europe. And that's a
pretty strong triple.

Speaker 16 (01:28:14):
Alliance right there.

Speaker 15 (01:28:15):
If you look at it doesn't mean that you know,
just because they're hanging out together that Mody and she
are going to start sending in troops and artillery, but
it does make you see that this is a relationship
that is forming, and there are other things besides tariffs
and economy that matter in the world right now. So

(01:28:37):
my first instinct is to look at that is what
is this interpersonal relationship going to lead to as far
as aid to Putin going forward as he wages war
with Ukraine. But on the subject that you're talking about,
you know, you see Mody in the arms of these
two men, and all I can think of is because

(01:28:59):
he was pushed out of the arms of the United
States and Donald Trump.

Speaker 16 (01:29:03):
So it's not just that he found.

Speaker 15 (01:29:05):
His way there, it's that he was led there because
of weak policy. And I would have to say lies
and fiction from Donald Trump that he couldn't believe. I mean,
when people finally hear and realize when it hits home
with them, the stories that Donald Trump makes up. And
I'm talking about world leaders. It happened in Canada, it

(01:29:28):
happened in India. Now there are consequences to that, and
this is a consequence of that, unquestionably, and his kind
of obsession with the Nobel Peace Prize is part of
his obsession with Barack Obama. Barack Obama won the Nobel
Peace Prize, so he wants to go in and make piece.
As a matter of fact, he may have extended wars

(01:29:50):
more than he and I'm not even saying that, but
he certainly hasn't creative peace. I think it's a better
place to stop. But he came in to the office
the second time saying that these wars wouldn't have started
had I been president, but I will end them. And look,
Gaza is still being decimated, Ukraine and Russia are still

(01:30:11):
at it, and everything that he has said about it
hasn't changed. And he put an Upper East Side real
estate executive in charge of Middle East policy. I'm sure
Stephn Witkoff is a smart guy, but you have to
have real people at the table when consequences are this high,
and that's not what Donald Trump does. So this is
not a Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Speaker 1 (01:30:31):
Well, the State Department, as you know, has been cored
out of all of those who have deep understanding and
decades of experienced institutional knowledge of the kind of relationship
that India has had with the US. The politics of India,
the disposition of India, the geography of India is key
to all of this. And none of these things are

(01:30:52):
known by the guy you're seeing on the right, Donald Trump,
who wants this Nobel Peace Prize. And Modi, yeah, just
pushed back on him. And now, as you say, you've
created this situation. And again, this is one in which
Americans have traditionally I'm talking about those in the highest
positions of power, regardless Republicans or Democrats, have tried to prevent,

(01:31:14):
which is India sidling up to China. And that's what
you have. You have India, Russia and China all together
and you've seen it just this week, and you know
that's a very very dangerous position that the US has
put itself in. And honestly, the Americans have destroyed We've

(01:31:35):
destroyed ourselves with Donald Trump. He's created a kind of
and and China I feel sits back and watches it
and goes, yeah, the let's just let the Americans keep
this this moron doing what he's doing, because he's creating
a weaker and weaker America on the world stage.

Speaker 15 (01:31:53):
And I wouldn't want to be a South Asian in
the United States illegally right now because the longer this
goes on with MODI, how is Trump going to exact revenge?
You know through homeland security?

Speaker 1 (01:32:06):
Right? Wow, I hadn't even thought of that. Yeah, let
me quickly take you to Washington, d C. I know
we're running a little bit late, but I just want
to get your thoughts on what's happening there. The district
is a different place now, it's being occupied by these
National Guard troops. In part it's a bizarre thing. It's
been incredibly expensive the I think Newsom smartly pointed to

(01:32:29):
the bill for the National Guard being in Washington, and
it's immense it's millions and millions and millions of dollars times.

Speaker 16 (01:32:37):
It's a big it's not a big, beautiful.

Speaker 1 (01:32:39):
Bill, exactly right. It's the bill that everybody is skating
from paying. And the reality is that, you know, it's
terrific that they're beautifying the city and that they're standing around,
but you could have done that with the people who
are making a lot less than the National Guard is
making and housed and fed and all of the kinds

(01:32:59):
of But beyond that, Washington, DC is being dramatically affected negatively.
Even though Donald Trump's making it sound like it's you know,
it's a bed of roses, the reality is restaurants, the
reservations are way way down. And what's happened in the
park Police area is interesting because the park Police and

(01:33:20):
I grew up in Washington and we always there's so
many different police. They're the Embassy Police, the park Police,
the Secret Service, They're just so many. They all have
different directives. And the one direct in the park Police
has changed. They are now pursuing suspects and going on
chases with There have been ten high speed chases and
six major car recks as a result of these chases.

(01:33:40):
So I guess what I'm saying is this has been
wildly destabilizing to life in the nation's capital. And now
the President has said he wants the option to keep
those National Guard troops there through December.

Speaker 15 (01:33:53):
Yeah, well, he wants it because he wants to fight
more than he wants the principle of it, I would guess,
because he enjoys fight. Look, I haven't been to Washington
in a little bit. I'm going to be there later
this month, and so it's hard to really speak to
what the feeling is like there other than secondhand and
from people that we both know. You've been there recently,

(01:34:15):
and I have lots of friends and colleagues who are
there now. But the point is that this is being
talked about, and Donald Trump believes that this and the
Republicans believe that this issue is a winner for them,
that they are the party going into twenty twenty six
that is fighting crime. As unseemly as their methods may be,

(01:34:36):
they don't care. They want to be able to say
the Democrats are fighting us from wanting to fight crime.
I don't know that that's going to translate well, right,
because I think at a certain point, especially with independent voters,
especially when Donald Trump is not on the ballot officially, right.
I mean, I know he's always on the ballot as
we speak, but when his name isn't a name that's

(01:34:58):
going to get people to the polling place. I don't
know that this is going to be a winner for them.
We will know later, and a lot's going to happen
between now and then. But if he keeps them there
till Christmas, and he's allowed to do it now, DC
is a different place, but he's talking about sending them
to Chicago, talking about sending them to Maryland. Those that's
going to change the way people there look at at

(01:35:21):
this president and his party.

Speaker 16 (01:35:22):
To more than anything.

Speaker 1 (01:35:25):
Yeah. Again, this is why I like talking to you.
You kind of see the politics of it, and it's
a law and order thing you're saying. You know, it
cuts both ways, but there might be a point of
diminishing returns, is what I'm hearing from you.

Speaker 16 (01:35:36):
That's the best way to distill what I just said.

Speaker 1 (01:35:40):
I am out of time. I do have a moment
to touch on sports with you. I know you're a
big tennis fan.

Speaker 16 (01:35:47):
Yeah we both are, we share that, and you you.

Speaker 1 (01:35:50):
Picked Oshaka to win big last night, and she did.

Speaker 16 (01:35:54):
For a little while.

Speaker 15 (01:35:55):
Then it looked like Anissa Mova. So if I were,
let's say, making a bet on it, I would have
probably in the middle of the match bet on Anissimova,
and you probably had an opportunity to make some money
doing that. But just in terms of what a great
match it was with right, I mean, women's tennis is
so scintillating. It's also only maximum of three sets, so

(01:36:16):
you can you can make other plans that night, which
which you can't necessarily do with with men's tennis. As
we speak, Carlos Alcatraz, alcaraz is playing House alcaraz Is
playing Novak Djokovic, the Ageless Wonder, and then later tonight
Ianik Cinner, who just plays the most beautiful tennis I've seen.
Uh will go against Felix o'cee alia seem the Canadian kid,

(01:36:40):
and so it's going to be a good, good weekend
of tennis and US Open tennis.

Speaker 1 (01:36:45):
Which remarkable to me is like you see somebody who's
the American Taylor Fritz, for example, and he just looks
he's playing such a beautiful game and just really mad skills,
and he's up against Center, who of course has even
matters gals apparently all right, and it just I just
can't believe that, for instance, losing because he plays so insanely.

Speaker 16 (01:37:07):
Well, that's the thing.

Speaker 15 (01:37:08):
The difference between the top two players now is that
Center and Alcaaz and you're looking at the Taylor Fritz there.
The difference between those two and everyone beneath them is massive, right,
I mean they everyone else is really good, and these
two are special. And so I don't see without injury

(01:37:31):
or when they sit out tournaments as they did in
since in Canada this year when ben Chalton won a tournament,
I don't see them, you know, getting beaten other than
by each other.

Speaker 1 (01:37:43):
Yeah. It's so it's a perfect world where they they're
on a collision course sort of at the US Open,
and you.

Speaker 15 (01:37:52):
Know, tend it's a funny thing because there are a
lot of people that just root for your countrymen or
country women's, right. I never understood that, right. I just
root for the players that I like the most, either
off the court on the court, their game, the the
way they their their sort of demeanor. I don't care
where they're from. But the US Open, all these announcers

(01:38:12):
and all the fans. They just love pulling for the Americans,
which I you know, it has its place, I guess,
but I never I don't know if that happens to
you with tennis, Mark, where you're like, oh, he's she's
from my country.

Speaker 1 (01:38:22):
No, no, I'm with you. It's sort of I'll tell
you something else. Is sort of feeling awkward when I'm
there and I see the American flag next to someone,
but I'm kind of rooting for the other player, you know,
because it's not the Olympics. Okay, this is where you
have to think.

Speaker 16 (01:38:38):
It's not the Olympics. This is just you know, it's
a tennis tournament and.

Speaker 4 (01:38:41):
The hell is going on in the United States of
America exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:38:45):
I don't know. Michael is so grateful for your participation
every week, and we will look forward to next week
as well, and maybe uh yeah.

Speaker 16 (01:38:56):
What's that, We'll see you next week.

Speaker 1 (01:38:58):
Oh yeah, yeah, see next week. I was going to say,
I hope be in touch with you during some tennis too.
I like to you will text Michael during the during
the matches, So Michael Shore, everybody, thanks Michael. Bravo, Buddy, Bravo.
The Mark Cumpson Show.

Speaker 14 (01:39:16):
Who's Mark Thompson.

Speaker 16 (01:39:20):
Run on?

Speaker 1 (01:39:20):
Everyone right off? No picnic, no summer cat that's right.
Thanks for being here. If you haven't already, maybe check
out our website, the Mark Thompsonshow dot com. There you
can find links to Patreon and PayPal. You can be
among those who support us every show. We post the
names of those who are in that community at the
end of every show, because you guys are the ones

(01:39:41):
who make the show work. I mean, we wouldn't be
on the air without your support, so very much appreciate that.
While Michael Snyder gets settled, we'll get to some Florida
news here. But first, Trevor Starn Hollywood says Mark, I
just bought a car. So here is point zero five

(01:40:02):
percent of the purchase price. Yeah, that seems about right. Well,
let's see what is that purchase price, Albert. If it's
he gave us a ten dollars and ten cents super
chat and he's saying that that is a he's saying

(01:40:24):
it's point oh five percent of the purchase price, can
you figure out what it would be?

Speaker 2 (01:40:29):
Probably not.

Speaker 7 (01:40:30):
Math was not my subject.

Speaker 2 (01:40:32):
I thought there was a house no math on a
Friday on the Thompsons.

Speaker 1 (01:40:36):
Okay, all right, very good. Well Kim, how are you
all right? Albert? Thank you very good. Somebody in the chat.
Twenty K says Phineas. There you go. Two K says
a goll all right, well good. No one can do
math on this show. Terrific supersticker from Kathleen Bryant for
twenty dollars supersticker. Come on, that's a lot of money.
Shout out to me. That is awesome. Thank you Kathleen Bryant.

(01:40:59):
So appreciate you and everybody who throws in really appreciate
the supersticker. Harry Magnuan says in a super chat, here's
one way to make your mark on the world. Thanks
for your show and the community you've created. Now back
to my Coachello Valley coffee. How about on Harry Magniez
shout out, Yeah, that Coachella Valley coffee is delicioso. Tom
Graves attention correction from yesterday. I said Ivanka got copyright

(01:41:23):
protection on voting machines in China. It was trademark protection
on voting machines. Yeah she got Maybe that's I guess
you've looked at it and seen she got twenty different.
I thought it was it's copyright or trademark. One of
them was on voting machine. That's exactly right, because I
looked at it. Also, apparently twenty thousand is the number.

(01:41:47):
Vaware says on the percentage. What was the other thing?
I want to recognize somebody who made a contribution. It's
Candace Worthman, who's an OG. Big shout out, shout out
a twenty dollars supersticker. Wow, Candace, what a great way
to finish the week. Thank you, all of you generous kids.
Two dollars from Richard Delamator. Anybody see the latest episode
of South Park? Wow? I guess it was pretty good. Yeah.

(01:42:09):
Michael Steiner's pretty racy. Yeah, they do racy stuff. You
know that, the South Park kids. You know that, Michael.
You're you're kind of you you like racy, don't you.
You're you're an obscene liberal, aren't you. Yeah, that's a
fair appraise. You're a decadent lib. Richard Delamator nonetheless reminds
us that to South Park is turning our good stuff.

(01:42:29):
Vivian al Shawa, who is an OG of this show,
ten dollars supersticker, and thank you. Vivian al shout, shout out,
big shout out to you. Yeah, well, Albert, the time
has come, the time where were you evaluate your work,
your week? That's right, everything else goes out the window, Albert.
Because we are all about this segment, we like to

(01:42:55):
feature news from the world of Florida. I'll tell you
it is a holdover from our time on the radio.
We call it Friday Fabulous Florida.

Speaker 13 (01:43:07):
It's time for a Friday Fabulous Florida is.

Speaker 14 (01:43:12):
A gigantic alligator.

Speaker 13 (01:43:17):
A look at the weirdest stories from our weirdest state.

Speaker 1 (01:43:24):
And we start like this, a Florida man allegedly running
over a foot model with a car. It was their
first date. What he refused to let him smell of
her feet? Yeah, apparently he was annoyed to the point that,

(01:43:47):
uh well he took away maybe one of her great assets.

Speaker 5 (01:43:51):
Kim oh, baby girl, don't even play.

Speaker 2 (01:43:56):
He ran over her feet.

Speaker 1 (01:43:57):
El Momsey Circle twenty eight allegedly arranged a meeting on
the dating app Seeking with the woman who is described
in all of this. It was to happen in a
room at the Serena Hotel in Aventura. Man, that's a
first date in a hotel room.

Speaker 2 (01:44:20):
No judgment, Mark, no judgment.

Speaker 1 (01:44:23):
I mean okay. When he got there, he asked if
he could smell her feet and buy her used sneakers. Ill, well,
he's really got he knows what he wants. I suppose
we just don't get it. I don't, don't, I don't.
You're right. The model, who requested anonymity in this case,

(01:44:45):
told a Circle that he would have to fork over
one thousand dollars for the shoes and she would have
to retrieve them from her car. He did not agree
to this hefty rate, and the model went to use
the bathroom inside the hotel room. According to the complaint,
when I got there, he just wanted to sniff my feet,

(01:45:07):
she said. And I didn't feel comfortable with that. I mean,
you could have my sneakers all you want, she said.
And you know, they're just stinky old sneakers. But people
like weird things, she said. While in the restroom, the
model heard Circle run out of the room and thought
that he had stolen something from her. She ran into

(01:45:27):
the parking lot, of course, and when she saw him
driving in a red Mercedes SUV, he passed her. Then
he did a three point turn and ran over her
with the SUV.

Speaker 2 (01:45:40):
What No, that's a career ender.

Speaker 1 (01:45:43):
The foot model required immediate medical attention, suffered road rash,
bruising to her back, arms, and chest after she was struck.
The foot lover arrested after he attempted to book another
room in the same hotel.

Speaker 4 (01:46:01):
It's a wild idea, just like, what did he have
back to back dates?

Speaker 2 (01:46:07):
Is there another lady coming up?

Speaker 1 (01:46:08):
You know?

Speaker 5 (01:46:09):
Mark give him a foot and they try to take him.

Speaker 2 (01:46:13):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:46:14):
Circle has been charged with aggravated battery. And Albert has
shared with you the booking photo. And I will say
he's a nice young man. Yeah, let's you know, in
the nicest families, some of the weirdest fetishes. You can
rate him on the booking scale that we employ on
this show. But you know, sometimes the heart wants what

(01:46:36):
it wants, and sometimes it wants feet. I have to.

Speaker 2 (01:46:41):
Doungrade it to a six because of the foot fetish.

Speaker 1 (01:46:43):
Oh, I see, well that's in the bylaws. I don't
really see that.

Speaker 7 (01:46:48):
I don't know where kink she goes into the scloring though, Kim.

Speaker 1 (01:46:51):
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:46:52):
I was thinking of his face and smashed in between toes.

Speaker 5 (01:46:56):
Think about the promotional tie ins with Descina in the lake.
Oh my god, that's that's the foot powder.

Speaker 1 (01:47:03):
Yeah, very good, I like it. Michael's always thinking about
how to monetize Florida man hunting down and eating large
invasive creatures. He says, these things are huge and they
are everywhere. The change in climate, the rising temperatures. I
don't need to tell you how havoc is being wrought
on plants and animals around the world. Species habitats have

(01:47:24):
been threatened by disease and relocation. Climate driven extinctions and
invasive species are especially dangerous, and habitats already threatened are
being affected by the introduction of these foreign species. Here
you can see this guy, Albert is sharing with you

(01:47:45):
the holding up of what is that, Albert.

Speaker 3 (01:47:48):
That's a that's an iguana. And this is a special one.
This is my girlfriend loves TikTok. This guy is all
over her TikTok and he hunts and cooks and eats
all the parts of the iguana, which.

Speaker 1 (01:48:01):
Is Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commissions say that green
iguanas are an invasive species in the state. They're feeding habits,
threatening local vegetation and wildlife. They've been found to eat
endangered tree snails, nicker bean, which is a plant that
holds butterflies, endangered butterflies. So to fight back against the

(01:48:26):
invasive species. You see, he does his thing and he
actually shows you how to stir fry this invasive species.
It looks so cute being held there in the in
his grasp, but apparently not so cute. I go on
to try that though a Florida man is wielding a machete.

(01:48:50):
Don't laugh at that machete.

Speaker 2 (01:48:52):
Can Michael Shore always come to frond of fabulous?

Speaker 1 (01:48:54):
Yeah, because of the new location of having Florida, he can't.

Speaker 5 (01:48:57):
It's Michael Snyder, though, Kim, But I.

Speaker 1 (01:49:02):
Just a machete in a Walmart. There's a lot of
Florida happening here. It's a machete, it's a Walmart, it's
a guy wielding it. He is arrested. Body cam footage
shows officers arresting a Vero beach Man. There were reports

(01:49:23):
of him walking around Walmart with a machete and that
is now illegal in Florida. Wow, showing you that footage.

Speaker 2 (01:49:31):
Now, guns are okay, but machetes aren't that right?

Speaker 1 (01:49:33):
Yeah, that's the deal, got to know what's okay and
what's not in.

Speaker 7 (01:49:37):
All would be so cool at a Walmart.

Speaker 1 (01:49:39):
Kim Lawrence Mansfield Fountain, thirty three years old. He's from
Vero Beach, charged with aggravated battery on an officer. You see,
when they came in, he had the old resisting arresting
going and he did have a you know, the machete.
Else accused of a bunch of other things like disturbing

(01:50:01):
the peace, petty theft. I mean, you don't bring a
machete into Walmart without wanting to pocket some things. So
he is in the Saint Lucie County jail on five
hundred and twelve thousand dollars bond. I'm guessing he's not
going anywhere for a while. But during the interaction, the
cop and the machete wielding man were injured. They were

(01:50:22):
transported to a Florida hospital. So this was an incident
that was no laughing matter. Kim and he there can
be seen on the bodycam footage annoyed that he is
being detained.

Speaker 2 (01:50:36):
He pulled that machete out really fast, and just see
that how quick he you know, was like once it's
in the cart and then all of a sudden, he's
swinging it.

Speaker 1 (01:50:45):
Norm thinks it's a small machete. Look at you, all
about size is a Norman. It's not about the size
of the machete. It's all what you do with it.
So we need to pick a favorite. I don't want
to pick a favorite, but we have to. It's in
the bylaws of Friday. Fabulous Florida. I'll remind you it's
a Florida man running over the foot model's foot and

(01:51:08):
the rest of her body on their first date after
she refused to let him smell her feet. The Florida
man hunting down large invasive creatures and then showing you
how to eat them. And the Florida man wielding the
machete in a Walmart ultimately arrested. Kim your favorite place.

Speaker 2 (01:51:27):
Well, I appreciate a good machete story, and it is
quintessential Florida. I have to go with the foot smeller
this time, and the sad ending to that first date.

Speaker 1 (01:51:40):
Yes, you're right, that was a little curious and he
had enough bizarreness maybe to vault it to the top. Yeah,
how did you have a favorite? Michael Snin, I would
say the.

Speaker 5 (01:51:50):
Foot fetishist by the length of a toe beats out
the machete right. The machete though, could kind of lop
off one of the toes. You could actually find both stories.

Speaker 1 (01:52:00):
Maybe you're always writing, aren't you. H Machete guy says Melafidian,
foot model somebody else said, foot smelling says Lee, cop
Iguana chef says RONDEZV. They're all over the road. Tell
me what leads in the poll, please, Albert.

Speaker 3 (01:52:18):
No time for the poles as we're trying to move along,
But it's pretty split on the foot guy and the
iguana story.

Speaker 1 (01:52:24):
Would you think Mark, I like, I'm sorry, I just
I like a machete of any size, so I go
for the machete and it was at Walmart, which to
me just makes it, you know, too perfect. But you're
right for pure exotic bizarre. I could definitely understand foot guy, like,
I'm not not fighting you on that at all. Albert,
did you have a favorite?

Speaker 3 (01:52:45):
I like the iguana guy. It's it's if you watch it,
it's terrifying. You kind of want to gag the whole time,
but it's at least it's not you doing eating and
partaking in that.

Speaker 7 (01:52:55):
It's someone else.

Speaker 1 (01:52:56):
That is Friday Fabulous Florida for the day.

Speaker 13 (01:52:59):
This has been Friday Fabulous Florida.

Speaker 6 (01:53:03):
Alligator in my kitchen.

Speaker 13 (01:53:09):
Y'all come back now here.

Speaker 1 (01:53:13):
Well, that was really special. It is with the greatest
anticipation that we welcome in someone who has been the
longtime writer on music, on movies, on television, on life,
on culture. He's quite amazing. In fact, culture is part
of his title. He comes and goes what a rainbow.

(01:53:38):
He is the culture blaster. He is Michael Snyder. Everyone, Hi, Michael.

Speaker 5 (01:53:45):
Well, Hello, it's Friday, and I'm happy to be here
on the Mark Thompson Show. And you know you had
your six day last Friday, and I'm glad you're here
with us. I myself could be lounging around on my
super yacht sipping Coachella Valley coffee, but no, I come
to MTSHQ to bring you the word on popular culture
and other detritus. And I do still have the chance

(01:54:05):
to sit Coachella Belly coffee.

Speaker 1 (01:54:07):
Yes, I made a bigger pot so you could have
some times because I recalled.

Speaker 5 (01:54:12):
The green room delight, my friend. You know, I'm all
about superhero comics and I do part time development work
in Hollywood, as you know. Well, I am delighted to
let you know that my latest movie project has been greenlit.
It's all about a teenage boy from a Louisiana coastal
town who is bitten by a radioactive shrimp and gains

(01:54:32):
the proportionate strength and agility of a shrimp.

Speaker 1 (01:54:36):
I'm kind of.

Speaker 5 (01:54:36):
At a loss for a name, but I think it'll
come to me soonerly. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:54:41):
That's that's as a topical of today's headlines, isn't it.

Speaker 5 (01:54:44):
I don't know have you had any of the radio actors?

Speaker 1 (01:54:46):
The radioactor shrimp is delicteners this time of year, particularly,
it's pointed out that detritus or detritus as you said,
is a dang word.

Speaker 5 (01:54:55):
So we do what we can to satisfy the chat.

Speaker 1 (01:54:59):
But let's talk some movies. What do you said, Let's
do it, okay.

Speaker 5 (01:55:03):
The Conjuring Last Rights is the fourth and purportedly final
movie in the Conjuring horror franchise, not counting the Nun
and Annabelle spinoffs. I mean the main movies which have
the Conjuring in their title, as in the previous one,
which was called The Conjuring. The devil made me do it,
you know, like the punchline and the flip Wilson drags sketches. Yeah,

(01:55:25):
these movies are about the real life paranormal investigating married
couple Lorraine and Ed Warren, and they're supposedly based on
real incidents in the life and times of the Warrens.
And the Warrens are played once more in this movie,
Last Rights, by the fine actors via Farmbiga and Patrick Wilson.
I've always thought that casting these performers in these roles

(01:55:49):
was like using a bazooka to kill a fly.

Speaker 1 (01:55:51):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:55:51):
I mean, they're so talented, yet there they are, right anyway,
Last Rights is kind of a rote mash up of
every horror trope us in the previous Conjuring and Conjuring
adjacent movies. I see you, demon possessed Annabel Doll, I
see you there you are in the corner of their
little basement museum. Apparently their daughter, who was born under

(01:56:13):
dicey circumstances still born, but you know, the breath of
life entered her lungs is now a young woman and
she's about to marry a guy. And of course now
is the perfect time for her connection to the spirit
world to manifest as a Pennsylvania family is being terrorized
by what appears to be a ghost or demon from

(01:56:34):
a mirror that they have somehow ended up with in
their you know home, and so the Warrens are brought in,
including the daughter and of course the fiance. And you know,
let's just say that two of the three cardinal rules
for people in horror movies were flat out ignored. You know,
the rules mark don't go in the basement, Yeah, don't

(01:56:56):
go in the attic, and don't go in the woods,
two of the three of the Murgnord, and of course
crazy hauntings and bizarre demonic possessions and sue, there are
jump scares, and you do get okay performances, but all
that aside, this is perfunctory filmmaking, especially when compared to
the first two movies in the series, which I like

(01:57:16):
considerably more. Last Rites is the title Let's hope, So
maybe they could have conjured a better script. I don't know. Anyway,
it is in theaters nationwide, and you know, let's be honest,
James wand the guy who co created this or created
this has you know, directed the Aquaman film for DC's
part of the you know, a very beloved Jigsaw franchise

(01:57:39):
that saw movies. But yeah, God, I don't know. I
don't know, man, I guess I've just had it did
and get you there, and you're a horror guy, so
I am. So Now I want to talk about a
more adult film that actually excited me and was an
absolutely unexpected treat and I actually think it's an early
contender for my twenty twenty five top ten lists. It

(01:58:02):
is called Twinless and it was written and directed by
actor James Sweeney, who appears in the movie in one
of the two main roles. And it's about two guys
that meet in a twins support group for twins who
have lost their twin. Their twin has died. They're aimless,

(01:58:23):
you know, apparently twins are always super connected from birth, yea.
And if you lose that other half of yourself, if
you will, it could be rather traumatic. So these two
guys roman played by Dylan O'Brien, who was initially in
the Mays Runner movies. He's recently in Love and Monsters
and he played Dan Ackroyd in the Saturday Night film.

(01:58:44):
He's a terrific actor and he has a dual performance
as Roman and his late twin Rocky, and Dennis is
the other guy, and they meet. Dennis is played by
James Sweeney, and they meet at this support group and
they connect and clearly Dennis is looking for a friend,

(01:59:04):
a companion. He's you know, unashamedly a gay man. He's
gainfully employed, but for some reason he blombs onto this
guy Roman and Roman who has been shattered by the
loss of his twin, albeit a twin that you know,
he was in conflict with, and a twin incidentally that
was gay, and he himself is straight. He kind of

(01:59:27):
gravitates to this guy, but it turns out that Dennis
is not exactly what he seems. It is incredibly troubling
and sad and sweet and funny. You know what, rate
twinless P for poignant. There are some really lovely moments here,
and again a phenomenal dup performance by Dilan O'Brien as

(01:59:49):
Roman and his now late twin. There's also a coworker
at Dennis's office, Marcy, played by Isiland Franciosi, and she's adorable.
She's like super positive, she's every cheerleader and you know,
supportive young woman. You've ever seen bundled into one person.
And as things become more and more apparent to Roman,

(02:00:11):
things get a little more problematic. I thought Twinless was
something else, and I highly recommend it. It is currently
in select theaters, and I hope that it gets the
attention that it deserves, and I hope more and more
people get a chance.

Speaker 1 (02:00:27):
To see it. Waw, you really liked it? I did.

Speaker 5 (02:00:31):
Okay, here's another movie for grown ups that I really liked.
And it's a lot more comedic and more of a
feel good film. So maybe in these treacherous times, it's
a cure for what ails us, at least in the
short term. It's called The Baltimorons, and as you might
guess from the title, the Baltimorens is set in the

(02:00:51):
great working class metropolis of Baltimore, Maryland. I have one
friend from Baltimore, ginas Shock, the drummer from the Go Gos,
is a such a Baltimorean that she has retained her
Baltimore accent and it's kind of crazy to hear her
talking and saying this, that and the other in Baltimore Ease.
But anyway, if the title The Baltimore On seems like
a silly reference or a smear of the great people

(02:01:13):
of Baltimore. Yes, it does crop up in the course
of the movie, although not in the way you expect
it will.

Speaker 1 (02:01:20):
This is a.

Speaker 5 (02:01:20):
Genuinely funny, uplifting, quirky and earthy comedy about two people
finding one another on Christmas Eve while perambulating around Baltimore
in a sort of gentle knight of the soul with
revelations and realizations. And it's been made by one half
of the comedic Mumble horror filmmaking siblings, the Duplas brothers,
both actors, both writers, both directors, and Jay co wrote

(02:01:44):
the script with the male lead Chris Strassner, who is
a big bear of a man. So Strassner plays a
struggling comedian and recovering alcoholic named the Cliff, who was
accompanying his fiancee to Christmas dinner at her family's house.
He doesn't think her mother is too fond of him,
and that opinion may worsen when he breaks a tooth
right as the festivities are about to begin, such as

(02:02:08):
they are, and now he has to somehow find a
dentist on Christmas Eve, and the only one who will
open her office and treat The tooth is a no
nonsense woman named Dedi played by Liz Larson, and due
to a series of mishaps, Cliff and doctor Dede end
up together for most of Christmas Eve, turning both of
their lives upside down in very amusing and heartwarming ways. Look,

(02:02:29):
it's only September, but I think this will be my
favorite Christmas movie of the year. As a rom com,
The BALTIMORENS is more calm than ram. I really liked it,
and I liked it's two main characters. You know, one
of these one night odyssey through an urban landscape, either
solo like After Dark or a two hander like this.
One could be a stretch or just contrived, but Strassner

(02:02:52):
and Larson gave it kind of this easy, natural vibe,
and the script by Estrassner and Duplas it's the usual
Christmas cliches. One more quick note, the Lively score seems
cribbed from the stylings of the cool jazz pianist and
Bay Area legend Vince Geraldi, who did a Charlie Brown
Christmas course. And that's kind of a.

Speaker 1 (02:03:14):
We've talked about cheat codes before.

Speaker 5 (02:03:16):
It's kind of a musical cheat code if you're looking
to set up a whimsical movie around the holidays and
kind of generate affection for it. Sure, I agree, it
doesn't matter though. This film was delightful. It's in select
theaters and it starts this weeknd in New York City,
opens in Los Angeles next week, and it'll roll out
to San Francisco.

Speaker 1 (02:03:36):
Love the Baltimorons. It's called Yes it is. What else
do you have? Michael Snyder break culture blasts.

Speaker 5 (02:03:42):
Talk about a movie that's more ram than calm, as
opposed to more calm than ram. And it's called The Threesome.
It does some pleasingly unexpected things with its story, and
the story is about a night of fun and sexual
escapades that has unexpected repercussions or three young people. And

(02:04:04):
this is sort of a It was surprising on so
many levels. It stars essentially Zoey Deutsch, who is the
worthy NEPO baby, daughter of actress Lea Thompson and director
Howard Deutsch. And I've loved this woman's performances since I
first saw her in Everybody One Some, which is a
great Richard link Later movie that too few people have seen.

(02:04:26):
Here She plays kind of you know, a well. She
works at a bar and restaurant and this guy played
by Jonah Howard King has had this crush on her forever.
She's Olivia and he's Connor, and you know, for some reason,
the stars are in alignment, as they say, and he
ends up flirting with a young customer named Jenny, and

(02:04:49):
Olivia finds her attractive and they end up in bed together.
It's like one night of Exciting Passion has the title
of the threesome, but again there are repercussions that end
up dogging them, and Zoe Deutsch is like this, there's
a movie. I'm sorry. There's an album by Nine Inch
Nails called Pretty Hate Machine. She's kind of like pretty
snark Machine. She's you know, kind of got a great

(02:05:11):
sense of humor and she's very cynical, but she's incredibly appealing.
And I guess everybody hits their marks and does a
good job here and again, some of the supporting players
are really, you know, people that I've always admired, and
they include, believe it or not, Julia Sweeney, who plays

(02:05:32):
Connor's mom, and we haven't seen her much in films lately,
and not much on TV, and it's nice to see
her face. And again I love Zoey Deutsch. The movie
was directed by Chad Hartigan. The screenwriter Ethan Ogilby. This
is not great filmmaking, but it is very charming and entertaining,
and it does, like I said, unexpected things. It never

(02:05:54):
devolves into something sordid or lurid.

Speaker 1 (02:05:56):
It's much sex as they're in it. Michael, you know
I don't like the sex on the screen. I'm an
old fogy who just made uncomfortable by it.

Speaker 5 (02:06:05):
It's tastefully done. Man, all right, I think I don't
want to upset you by saying I like the old school.

Speaker 1 (02:06:10):
They put a necktie on the band of the banister
or whatever.

Speaker 5 (02:06:15):
No, no, no, this is in select theaters and it's
going to play well at home.

Speaker 1 (02:06:19):
One video.

Speaker 5 (02:06:20):
All right, let's talk about something people can watch you
on Apple Plus right now.

Speaker 1 (02:06:24):
It was in theaters.

Speaker 5 (02:06:25):
I've been in theaters for almost two weeks. If you're
a fan of Akira Kurosawa's taught and Clever nineteen sixty
three police Procedural High and Low, which was a very
different beast than his period Samurai epics, you know Corsa
one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. This movie
High and Low was about a successful Japanese businessman who's

(02:06:45):
trying to control this major shoe company where he's on
the board of directors and he wants to buy out
everybody else. He wants to use all of his money,
but a kidnapper mistakenly abducts his chauffeur's son to ransom
this guy for thirty million yen, and Spike Lee has
decided to do his own version of this. It's an update.

(02:07:08):
It's called Highest to Lowest and you might be wary
of it if you love the Corosawa movie. And this
is not in that ballpark. It's not in that league.
But it's a crime drama which does benefit from the
filmmaker reuniting with Denzel Washington for the fifth time. This
is these guys got together and done Oh my God,
No Better Blues, Malcolm X, he got Game. Inside Man,

(02:07:31):
which is one of the more conventional films by Lee,
but one that I absolutely adore.

Speaker 1 (02:07:35):
What was Inside Man?

Speaker 5 (02:07:37):
It's a bank robbery of Denzel a is a cop.
It's really a terrific film.

Speaker 1 (02:07:41):
I want to check that out too.

Speaker 5 (02:07:42):
Anyway, these are all better movies, to my mind than
Highest to Lowest. But he is one of our best
filmmakers and he's got Denzel and yeah, how do you
go wrong? So Denzel plays a well to do music
business executive hip hop division. He hasn't worked for a
shoe company, you know, Spike Lee to get with the
kerr and culture in what have You? So he has

(02:08:03):
some unexpected financial challenges. There could be a hostile takeover,
and he learns that his son has been kidnapped and
a massive ransom demand is delivered, but complications bring the
executive's chauffeur and confidant played by Jeffrey Wright, by the way,
the great Jeffrey Wright, into the middle of the plot.
There's beautiful cinematography of present day New York City and

(02:08:24):
the Bronx, showing off Lee's beloved metropolis in fab fashion,
But Highest Lowest is replete with Lee's stylistic quirks, which
sometimes seem there for the sake of it, rather than
elevating the narrative. He also insists, and I understand why
it's said in New York in shoehorning certain over familiar
cultural aspects of the area that he cherishes into the movie,

(02:08:48):
for example, the Yankees and their fans on a subway ride.
And I guess that's his prerogative. And it's enhanced quite
a few of his movies. And the score for this
one seems overwhelmingly intrusive, sometimes threatening to drown out the
drama and even the action. But it's Spike Lee and
there are moments that actually snap and crackle, as I

(02:09:09):
like to say, And it's Denzil. I wish it was better.
Maybe I'm in the minority. I thought it was okay.
And you can watch it on Apple TV plus the
if you have the subscription. Sure, I want to wrap
up quickly here with a movie.

Speaker 1 (02:09:24):
I love it when you wrap up quickly. And what's
going on?

Speaker 5 (02:09:26):
A movie based on the life of Are you ready?
Leni Reefinstall. She was the propagandist for the Nazis Right
Hitler's favorite filmmaker, if you will? This movie reef Install
comes in the wake many years later after a documentary
on her life that revealed a lot about her origins,

(02:09:48):
the work, her relationship to the Right. It was called
The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni reef Install. It was
released in nineteen ninety three and This movie brings some
of that footage in, particularly the interview footage, but it
does a bang up job of contextualizing it and giving
it current relevance as regards the rise of fascism and

(02:10:10):
the power of targeted propaganda in our own country. I mean,
you can't help but think about it as you're watching
what she did, and in the context of what she did,
how it affected the populace. It's chilling. And her brilliance
as a filmmaker is undeniable, and it's seen here in
Fits and Starts. She started out as an actress in

(02:10:30):
Germany in mountain movies, which were these very specific films
set generally in the German Alps, and they were exciting,
they were adventures, and she was rather a good climber,
and you know, she did these risky roles and it
transitioned her from that into filmmaking on her own. And

(02:10:52):
it's her self delusion and increasingly obvious lies or prevarication
and her claims of innocence regarding her work for the
Right and her relationship with Hitler and the Nazi high
command that really becomes startling. They focus in on that
using archival interview footage, so this is a documentary. It is, indeed,

(02:11:12):
and it gives us look at her life, sting and
value in modern day America. The movie again, Reef Install
is going to be I guess streaming in October, but
it is in select theaters right now, meeting New York LA.
I think San Francisco next week. And I thought it
was compelling and an important movie and an important.

Speaker 1 (02:11:36):
At an important time for a movie.

Speaker 5 (02:11:38):
Yes, what a time to revisit that. And that's it
in movies.

Speaker 1 (02:11:42):
I'm very impressed with the speed and yet thoroughness with
which you reviewed all reviewed all these films. And I
will even more speedily and with the less thoroughness review
for everyone your reviews. Okay, Reef installa to the Lenny
Reef Install life as a propagandist for the Third Reich.

Speaker 5 (02:12:05):
By the way, her name is Leani. I guess it's
short for Helene.

Speaker 1 (02:12:09):
I see, so it's a Leani Thank you. I never
knew that documentary, and Michael says, in select theaters, although
we'll probably be streaming before long. Highest to lowest is
the Spike Lee film. It's a remake of the Akira
Kurosawa film. It's got Denzel Washington. It's got a whole
hip hop updated kind of feel.

Speaker 5 (02:12:30):
Asap Rocky's in this thing. If you're a fan of that.

Speaker 1 (02:12:33):
I never missing a sap Rocky offering of any kind.
The Modey Tunes heavily scored, but Michael says, it's okay.

Speaker 11 (02:12:41):
It's really okay, but it's just okay. It's not amongst
this best.

Speaker 1 (02:12:46):
The Threesome is more ram than calm. But it's a
night of fun sexual escapades from three young people that
kind of turns wild.

Speaker 5 (02:12:56):
It gets kind of strange. It has lasting repercussions that
are within the film, and I found that to be
exciting and engaging.

Speaker 8 (02:13:03):
Well.

Speaker 1 (02:13:04):
Zoey Deutsch, who is Adorableness, transcends the screen for Mark
Thompson and Jonah Howard King and Julie Sweeney.

Speaker 5 (02:13:13):
Armande Ruby Cruz, the young actress who placed the third
part of.

Speaker 1 (02:13:17):
The Ruby Cruz, is in the Threesome.

Speaker 5 (02:13:20):
Yes she is, and she's really really good too.

Speaker 1 (02:13:23):
Is she more Ruby or she more Cruz?

Speaker 5 (02:13:25):
She was cruising the night they all got together.

Speaker 1 (02:13:28):
The balt to Morons is a comedy. Michael Snyder, the
Culture Blaster says it's uplifting, it's quirky, It's genuinely enjoyable.
It's from the duplace brothers or duplas brothers, as you
may say. And this story takes place with the fiances

(02:13:49):
parents house and the cliff chipping his tooth. He ends
up with Dennis. It's a kind of fun, situational thing.
Vince GERALDI type score or throughout. He says The Culture
Blaster may be his favorite Christmas movie of the year.

Speaker 5 (02:14:07):
You know, we haven't seen any more Christmas right to da.

Speaker 1 (02:14:10):
It's only September, but I'm guessing.

Speaker 5 (02:14:12):
I'm guessing.

Speaker 1 (02:14:12):
Twinnless is directed by actor James Sweeney. The Twins meeting
in a support group for twins who've lost the other twin,
the other brother or sister, Dylan O'Brien. It's poignant. Michael Snyder,
the Culture Blaster likes it. It's in select theater. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:14:31):
And one of the questions is, and it's an important one,
is the character played by Sweeney? Did I say Sweeney?

Speaker 1 (02:14:40):
Yeah? Is that not what it is? No?

Speaker 5 (02:14:42):
No, it's Sweeney. Is that character actually a twin who
lost his twins?

Speaker 1 (02:14:48):
Oh that's a really great twist.

Speaker 5 (02:14:51):
Well, no, I mean, I don't want to get into
too many details.

Speaker 1 (02:14:53):
He might be you know, Oh, I love that twist.

Speaker 5 (02:14:56):
He might be a tragic you know, tragedy.

Speaker 1 (02:15:00):
I love this even more. Michael hopes we all see it.
He likes it, and it's in select theaters. And he
started with The Conjuring. You know, Michael is a fan.
The Culture Blaster is a horror. This is the Conjuring
Last Rites. It's the fourth movie in the main horror franchise,
The Conjuring. Not a great script, but a great cast.

(02:15:23):
But ultimately it didn't really move the Culture Blasters meter.

Speaker 5 (02:15:27):
No, yes, it did not, Michael, Yes, sir.

Speaker 1 (02:15:31):
I so appreciate your input on so many at these projects.
And I want to note that you used a couple
of ding words along the way. Tom Dissonberry is our
keeper of the ding replete. He wants to ding you
for that, and perfunctory certainly is a ding word. He
wanted to ding you for prevarication, which you used. I

(02:15:55):
will not ding you for it, and here is why.
Because I felt that you overran with the use of
for varication, meaning you'd already made the statement about lies,
and you added the word for varication, and I felt
because it was an add on it. No longer deserves

(02:16:17):
a ding. I essentially use it as a synonym, right right,
but look, you more than served up thanks evidence of
your great writing skill. Do what I can, all right?
Quick note?

Speaker 5 (02:16:31):
Yes, I was at an art opening last night Lucky
Cat Labs Downtown Fembo. It was all woman artists and
my god, a local artist who goes by the name
of Art of July did these exquisite campuses. It was
a really wonderful evening. And I will be at La
Louisa Jesus for a group show tonight, at think Space
tomorrow night and the Hive. I'm going to have an

(02:16:53):
art weekend in preparation for Sunday's big showdown between the
Niners and the Seahawk up in Seattle. We kick off
the NFL season forty nine er fans on Sunday. As
a Philadelphia native, I obviously watched the Eagles versus the
Cowboys last night. It was grateful that the Eagles beat
the Evil Empire from Dallas. But I am highly wired

(02:17:16):
for Sunday's big match between the Niners and the Seahawks
and still hoping that the Giants can sneak into the playoffs.
You know, this is my forty seconds of sports.

Speaker 1 (02:17:27):
Well, you've got quite a weekend planned with sports and
all those other artistic endeavors to which you've become accustomed
to including in your life. You are a sophisticate, and
you're still a crazy comic book nerd. That's why we
love you. He comes and goes on a rainbows out
of the culture blast.

Speaker 5 (02:17:48):
Hey, be on the lookout for shrimp Man.

Speaker 1 (02:17:50):
It's coming. Thank you, Michael Snyder. Well, I don't know
what to say, except you want to mention Chaplin fred
I live. I live the Florida segment, but I wonder
what Floridians would find about us here in California. Of course,
you could pick any state and you could have the

(02:18:11):
same fun that we have, But we've chosen Florida. We
chose it long ago, and so it becomes our our world.
On Fridays, I spend my nights thinking, says in lays,
what will Mark's comments be on the news tomorrow? Love
my Mark Thompson. Wow, thank you in layers. Wow, that's

(02:18:31):
extraordinary on a Friday. I don't mind going to the
weekend knowledge like that. I will comment on this next week.
I did see this Trump's doj is considering banning trans
people from buying guns. You know, this is a play
for a cultural wedge issue. They love these cultural wedge usues.
The trans issue is one of their favorites, you know,

(02:18:55):
as you know the latest shooting, the one that took
place in that church at that school, and that was
done by someone who is trans. But the trans part
of it seems like it's almost it's a footnote to everything.
It's not even it was hardly it was not a motivation.
It wasn't a centerpiece of any kind. And more to

(02:19:15):
the point, if you're going to be banning weapons from
those who you know, commit these acts based on profiles
of their lives, trans people don't get into this at all.
I mean this, you know, why don't you go after
young white kids, that's what it is, young white men.
Why do you ban them? I mean, it's there's an

(02:19:39):
absurdity to but as you say, it's all sadly. They
don't care about the loss of life. They care about
the politics of the moment.

Speaker 2 (02:19:48):
What's the name for the people who don't get any
attention from women the in cells?

Speaker 1 (02:19:54):
Yeah, yeah, there you go right right, you don't hear
about that? Yeah, there are a couple of other comments.
I'd like to maybe bounce them to next week, although
I really appreciate them, and you can go through the
chat and find those comments in there, and there's some

(02:20:18):
great comments along the way. Sorry we didn't get a
chance to get to all of them. I do want
to mention that Monday is a special show Gary Dietrich
with the politics of the moment. There's a lot going
on geopolitically internationally, and more to the point, because we're
so lucky that Gary does make regular appearances here on Monday.

(02:20:38):
But this Monday we have a special interview with someone
who's never been on the show before, and his story
is riveting. It's an amazing story of escaping the Church
of Scientology and the bizarre specifics of Jamie Mustard's life.
They are insanely revelatory, both in terms of his life

(02:21:04):
and those details, but also in terms of the Church
of Scientology. I promise you this is nothing you've seen
on Leah REMONI, this is nothing you have read about
in the book Going Clear. You have to see this
interview Monday. It is appointment viewing, So that will be
on Monday's show. Jamie Mustard and he has gone on.

(02:21:26):
His story is not just about scientology, it's what happened
after he left the church, as it's called of scientology
as well. So all of that happens on Monday. And
with that I thank by Alberts for getting things together today.

(02:21:49):
Thank you alb Albert and Kim for getting breaking news
going today as well. Any number of things going on,
a big immigration rate in Boston, and all of that
news related to the crazy Tech dinner where all the
tech bros Are sitting there in the Billionaire boys Club

(02:22:09):
around the table with Milania and Daddy Trump, and they're
paying homage to the great savior that is Donald Trump.
I know we all want a dinner like that where
the whole family lavish, just praise on us. None of
us get it lesser president of the United States. So
After Party Live is happening over the After Party Live channel.

(02:22:29):
Have a great weekend, everyone, and until next week, I'm
shall Stephen's for the Mark Johnson Show. Bye bye, thank
you all Bush Time by out of time. Bye Bonettos.

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