Trump Flaunts $350B S. Korean Deal, then Raids Hyundai-LG Site, David Cay Johnston Joins 9/9/25

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, thank you everyone. Wow, I'm I'm humbled. I'm humbled
and it's not easy to find humbled in make and
I am that today. Thank you for your recorded applause.
It is a pleasure to be with Kim. Of course,
as you know, most people are familiar with Kim who

(00:22):
monitor our show step through from time to time. She
used our newsperson or stalwart also producer and Tony and
Tony will be coordinating a number of different media related
inputs today and it's going to be uh what I meant,
media related uh material content today, So that's what Tony

(00:47):
will be doing. And Tony, you know, occasionally walks through
the shot at Stephanie Miller's show, and once in a
while I'll get a comment like I think I saw
Tony on Stephanie Miller's show, So yeah, he built that
studio that Stephanie Miller is. It's been a while. I
am excited for a show that includes Polisher winner David K. Johnston.

(01:12):
That's our two and we've got a lot to get
to before David even gets here. So one thing I
wanted to do is recognize something I've been sitting on
for a while, and that's from the Mark Thompson Show
mail back. I've received a lot of positive letters. I
got Susie from Pittsburgh who sent an old school Oh yeah,

(01:36):
real letter, real letter. Let's hear it for Kim, Albert
and Tony, she said, all right, Mark t a few
bucks for the show, she said, along and this sadly,
you know, I got this earlier in the summer, but

(01:57):
I am really appreciate it. And we, as you know,
we have a challenge to get to all the letters
and share everything that we get. But I'm so very
grateful in this case to our Pittsburgh pal. The she

(02:18):
points out, this is from June. The Peaceful Descent is
what she's sent along this clipping. By the way, speaking
of that, Born to Peacefully Resist is the T shirt
that's flying off the shelves at Getmarkmarch dot com. There

(02:41):
are other T shirts like it that sort of represent
the same message. They're kind of female oriented t shirts,
and then the male oriented t shirts, and then that
the unisex but you should check it out. There are
some great designs. A Courtney resle for those designs. Grateful

(03:02):
to her. Make Love Not Fascism is one of them,
and as you can see we've got them up. You
can get them at Getmarkmarch dot com. Born to Peacefully
Resist is what I'm wearing right now. I just like
the globe and I don't know, I just like the
configuration on that. Back to the letter from Susie and

(03:26):
she says, saved a lot of positive letters. Yes, I
believe Trump is trading our national secrets for favors with
other countries. She says, we have a few ice raids here,
but not like other areas of the country. Keep up
the very informative podcast with excellent guest peace out brother

(03:46):
Susie from Pittsburgh right on, and then this old school
as well. Dear Mark, thank you for the great show.
It got better when you went to YouTube. Wow. I
like to read the chat remarks from the Peanut Gallery.

(04:10):
This is from Rudy. I also enjoy how Kim don't
take no crap, which keeps you grounded. Well, I don't
know about that. That's the one part of the show
I'd like to change, all right. I also hope that

(04:31):
you might think of letting John Rothman host the show
when Michael Shore is not available. Oh, just tell Kim
to screw for the what is it screw screen I'm starting.

(04:52):
I didn't know where there was going since I read it.
Just show Kim to screen for the MAGA callers. That
made me turn off the radio. So this is somebody
from the old radio show who came over Rudy, and
thank you Rudy for your letter. Thank you Susie for

(05:12):
your letter. If you're looking to drop us a line,
you can do it. You send us an email and
I'll send you the snail mail address. The email is
the Mark Thompson Show at gmail dot com. The Mark
Thompson Show at gmail dot com. Some of you have
you know, reached out and said, hey, I'm more comfortable
sending a check to the show. I want to support
the show. I watch it all the time, and so
that's how you do it, The Mark Thompson Show at

(05:34):
gmail dot com. So anyway, thank you. Wanted to get
to that. It's really really cool that you took the
time to reach out to us, and I very much
appreciate it. There is a ton going on. I thought,
before we got into the heavy politics of Trump, I've

(05:56):
got some major Epstein stuff. It just seems to me
it's gonna be hard to swim away from this Epstein stuff.
But you know, if you're a Maga true believer, then
there's no evidence that is going to be produced. It's
going to get you to let go of the lock
grip you have on you're trumpy in love, I get it.

(06:18):
But for the rest of the world and even some
in Magaaland who are sort of on the outskirts, the
Jeffrey Epstein thing is a big deal. And so the
latest stuff that was just released to the House Subcommittee,
I think that is it was released from the Epstein estate.
I think it's pretty damning, but we'll get to it
in a second. I thought the other story that is

(06:38):
just sort of the it affects American media in such
a dramatic way, but it's not directly on that note
when it comes to the the Epstein stuff and trump
et cetera. But it's sort of an adjunct Mark Thompson show.
It's what's happening in the world of the murder. I

(07:00):
don't know if anybody saw, but there's really and we
detailed it here. For some time there was really a knockdown,
drag out sort of succession style fight about the legacy
and ownership and control of the Murdoch empire, and there

(07:20):
are a whole lot of different Murdoch holdings and Murdoch
media outlets, maybe chief among them from a propaganda standpoint
is Fox News Channel. So now, and there was a
lawsuit around this, as you know, I mean, family members
suing Papa Murdoch about control. So this has been going
on for years and I mean I'll say I think

(07:43):
three years now, and we've talked about it as saying,
covered it here on the show. But under the new
deal that was made, Lachlan Murdoch, who is the son
of Rupert Murdoch, he'll retain control over outlets like Fox
News and The New York Post, also the Wall Street Journal,
and of course he is seen Lachlan is as probably

(08:06):
the most conservative of all the Murdochs, so you've got
a conservative bent that will continue to be manifested in
those various media holdings. It's a three point three billion
dollar deal, and again there was all this legal infighting
and siblings fighting over who was going to get control.

(08:32):
So this is probably a win for Rupert because he
likes Lachlan, I think, and Lachlan's been the chosen successor
for years and he's got the same right wing ideology
that Rupert has. So it's even suggested the Hollywood Reporter
had something. Here's a quote. It's important to note that

(08:55):
Lachlan's politics are far more conservative than his father's. Wow.
So you have all of these different Murdoch kids who
would have voting shares, and they would begin to tear
each other apart after Rupert's passing. But Elizabeth and James Murdoch,

(09:20):
they're the two of the three from Rupert and Elizabeth,
and they are much more moderate politically. But five, well,
he has he has two from Wendy. I believe Wendy

(09:40):
dang the is that is that her name? I believe
his his wife. You may have more notes on this
than do I, but uh. And then he has three
from his was it first wife.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
And uh.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
His ex wife and the three have control. So that's
kind of where that sits. More than knowing where all
the chess pieces show up on the board, just know
that the primary control over these right wing institutions there
they are Lachland, James Grace. I didn't know, oh, look

(10:21):
at all of this. So I was aware of Lachland,
James and Elizabeth Grace, Chloe and prudence. You'll have to
explain to me who everybody is. But they were all
involved in this, and you know, the three Murdochs who
were most active. You know, I used to work at Fox,

(10:41):
as you're aware, and so I knew the Murdoch kids
because he did a thing where he made his kids
sort of learn the business, like actually work in the business. Now.
I'm not suggesting that they had the same kind of
you know, uh, pushing the rock up the hill that

(11:05):
the rest of the staff did. But it was again Elizabeth,
James and Lachlan who were those kids who learned the
sort of media empire from the inside. I used to
see Elizabeth all the time. And the more moderate Murdocks

(11:26):
are not going to be a part of Fox News Channel.
There they are. Those are the three, thank you, Tony.
That's and that's Elizabeth Murdoch, right, and uh, those are
the three who were really involved in the most tenacious
legal struggle as to the future of Rupert's company. But

(11:47):
it will be the most conservative of them that will
control those entities I mentioned Wall Street Journal, New York
Post and Fox News Channel.

Speaker 3 (11:55):
That's fun.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah, So when you talk about the editor Oriol Bent
I mean, Lachlan will have a very strong editorial bent
toward the direction that we have seen right right wing.
Although what's interesting to me and just this must, I suppose,
on some level dovetail there he is with Daddy Murdoch.

(12:18):
Must dovetail with a bit of what we're seeing from Epstein.
The Wall Street Journal is the paper that took on
this entire Epstein case. The Wall Street Journal, the Murdoch
right wing. Wall Street Journal took on Trump on Epstein,
and they are the ones who spoke to and then

(12:38):
demonstrated knowledge of that birthday card, the fiftieth birthday card
that Epstein had. It was a kind of compendium of
all of these birthday wishes from all of these people,
everybody from Bill Clinton to Alan Dershowitz to Donald Trump,
and it was quite substantial. We'll get into it a
little bit in a few minutes, but I just wanted

(13:01):
to explain for a moment before we get Oh, the
Wall Street Journal out their right wing it's certainly true,
and it's certainly owned by the Murdochs, but Donald Trump
soon suing the Wall Street Journal saying that that's not
a real letter, claiming that's not my signature. Well, the
Wall Street Journal again is controlled by the Murdochs, who

(13:21):
are historically on the conservative right and have been supporters
in the past of Trump, but have recoiled from some
of Trump's policies. You saw that in Wall Street Journal editorials.
But in any case, he's in this awkward position with
the Wall Street Journal now because now there and we'll

(13:42):
get to it as a saint just a second. There is
more on this Epstein thing coming forward, and it seems
demonstrably clear that that is not a hoax. I mean
that the letter he said it didn't exist, and obviously
it does exist. It was just released by the Epstein State,
and his signature does appear on the bottom of hiss.
I say, we'll get more on that in a moment,

(14:03):
but I just want to give you an update on
the real life succession of what's happening with the Murdochs.
And so Vilma says with a four ninety nine super
chat old as dirty, oh, old as dirt. Today it's
my birthday, Happy birthday, Vilma. Spending part of my day
with you, Mark and Kim and all the wonderful remarkables.

(14:26):
What about you, Vilma? Vilma is an og from the
earliest days of this show. Bravo Vilma, and thank you
for the shout and we give you a shout back.
Happy birthday. Yeah, what happened to my balloons? Yeah? Did
you know Mark that the arch villain in mcgiver was

(14:47):
called Yes, Murdoch says in the moment with Paul Sisler. Wow,
good knowledge, good Murdoch and good mcgiver knowledge. Yeah, very
very cool. A lot of love for Vilma and her
birth day in the Mark Thompson Show. All right, let
me get to a story that troubles me immensely, and uh,

(15:13):
I will get to Epstein a little bit later in
this half hour. But the the story that troubles me
immensely is the one that we covered as breaking news
on Friday. It just happened, I think late Thursday, when
the crew from Ice moved into that huge plant, the

(15:36):
Kia plant, and it's Hyunday. Sorry, I said, k that's
a different Are they Are they different?

Speaker 3 (15:46):
I think so?

Speaker 1 (15:46):
I mean they are different cars. But are they related
as a company or is it I look, uh it
would be. Yeah, it's still a mistake that they said Kia.
But I was just curious. I think it was Hyundai
and then l G does the the battery.

Speaker 3 (16:02):
Two different they're two different brands, two different companies.

Speaker 1 (16:05):
Yeah, I mean I know the different brands. I was
just curious if they're if they're held by the same company,
but Hyundai and apparently you say it Hyundai. Like Sunday,
their battery plant was rated. Hyundai's battery plant was rated
last week. Nearly five hundred workers taken this quiet Georgia town.
This is part of a huge investment on the part

(16:29):
of Hyundai in this country. This is the first fully
electrified vehicle and battery manufacturing camp in the US. It's
a huge camp campus. I was, I was reading about
it last week. They promised eighty five hundred jobs. They
were going to transform this rural economy, and it was,

(16:51):
in a sense the very narrative that Donald Trump speaks
of all the time, right, you were going to get
all of this business that was now going to infuse
an economic vibrance into a community that really didn't have
it well. The largest immigration raid of Donald Trump's second term,

(17:13):
nearly five hundred federal, state and local officers hit that plant,
the Hyundai LG battery plant. They arrested four hundred and
seventy five people. The majority of the people that they
arrested were Korean nationals, some others from other countries. Some

(17:36):
official set had crossed into the US unlawfully, others had
overstayed visas, and others were on visa waivers allowing entry
for tourism or business. But they're not allowed to work.
So the masked officers, you know the deal, carrying rifles,
they move in, they fan out across this immense site.

(17:56):
They ordered construction workers to line up against the walls.
They demand dates of birth, social security numbers, and workers
described the scene as a war zone. One hit in
an air duct to avoid capture. Others tried to flee
into a sewage pond. Agents used a boat to fish

(18:18):
them out, Prosecutors saying that one man tried to flip
the vessel. He'll be hit with additional charges. Hundreds were gone.
Construction at this twenty nine hundred acre site stopped completely,
and the rest of this community in Georgia is just astounded, chilled.

(18:44):
So this is by definition a transient workforce. They're building something, right,
and these visas or contract work that is temporary is
just sort of built into the boiler plate. It's baked

(19:04):
into what this plant is all about. So what's troubling,
I think beyond the fact that this immigration policy is
carried out with such great aggression, is that when you're
trying to strategize economically and trying to figure exactly how

(19:27):
this immigrant population fits into your economy, it's important to
know that the right hand knows what the left hand
is doing. So in this case, you have a president
of the United States is insistent on these plants being built,
celebrating this South Korean influx of money. I mean, it

(19:49):
was a tremendous amount of money, and this was, in
a sense the realization of of the articulated Trump dream.
The President of South Korea and Donald Trump met in
the Oval Office and Trump was crowing about this three

(20:12):
hundred and fifty billion dollar commitment that Soul has made
to expanding manufacturing operations on American soil.

Speaker 3 (20:22):
That's which still is not finalized. They're still having trouble
with that.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
But yeah, so you think there's trouble now.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
I think AGA's still going to give it to us
because I don't know.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
And companies want to do business with the United States
of America because we have this consumer economy that's so robust.
But what you're really facing is a country that makes
a deal and then makes you own what is a

(20:58):
humiliating revelation about the work in the deal. So it
ends up essentially turning on its side the deal that
was made originally. Here you have this plant again. It's
part of this huge influx of money and infusion of
money into the American economy. It's the very thing that

(21:20):
Trump talks about wanting things to be built and sold here.
And you have Korea South Korea, major trading partner for
the United States, and you see them essentially getting slapped
in the face with this very high profile immigration rate.

(21:41):
So for Korean conglomerates, it's noted here doing the less
than above board visa work is kind of an open secret.
It's a necessity. One senior Korean official said. The companies
are in an impossible position after multiple administrations have pushed

(22:02):
them to invest in American industry while refusing to facilitate
short term visas that would allow projects to be completed
on time. American authorities and Georgia in particular, had long
turned a blind eye to workers coming in from Korea
without with this questionable documentation without the kind of documents

(22:24):
that would have permitted work here. These are short term bursts,
as it's referred to here of construction activity. Brian Kemp's
office after this raid, issuing a statement, we will always
enforce the law, including all state and federal immigration laws.

Speaker 3 (22:46):
Did you hear Trump's response when he realized that this
would shut the plant down the surrounding up of workers
at Hyundai LG. He said, they need they need to
get those people to try and American workers how to
do the job. So he wants to bring the Koreans
back to have the Americans be trained by the Koreans

(23:07):
to work at the factory.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
Yeah. I mean, I feel as though he's he's kind
of missed missed the plot here a bit. I mean,
first of all, there is some of that going on. Secondly,
this is about building out that plant. You know, there's
a lot of sort of construction being done. This is
a really a construction project. But the reality is that

(23:35):
I see this and this is the way the South
Koreans see it as a real slap in the face.
I mean, this wasn't done subtly the way they look
the other way on illegal immigrants doing this construction work
at that plant and elsewhere. To begin with, this was
done in the new Christy Nome Pete hegseth America first

(23:58):
Tom Homan way, with the you know, with the machismo
and the intensity of a huge raid. They shackled the arrestees.
They shackled the detainees, shackled at the wrists and ankles,
loaded onto buses. The Koreans see this, The South Koreans

(24:20):
see this. The former Vice Foreign Minister saying, I'm really speechless.
We are there to help boost up American industries, and
once they are set up, there will be good infrastructure
for increasing American employment. But what we saw was those
Koreans chained with handcuffs and treated as if they were
terrorists or a bunch of thugs. I mean, it is,

(24:49):
it's pretty awful. As I say, from the standpoint of policy,
it could have been handled in so many different ways.
But also I would say from the standpoint of the
ultimate economic damage that's done. It's yet another way in
which this administration and this regime it governs with this

(25:13):
intense whip. But the whip hand doesn't know what the
other hand is doing, and so you end up with
what you had here. This could have been handled in
a far more diplomatic way, assuming you wanted to run
it out and actually get rid of these workers, these
temporary workers. But you can also increase the number of

(25:34):
temporary workers and programs for temporary workers in America. That's
not being done. So you see that there's no kind
of holistic immigration policy being pursued here. It's all about purge,
it's all about National Guard, it's all about ice and
a now turbocharged ice budget enabling so many of these

(25:54):
immigration rates that don't really factor in all of these
other things. So I think the developing story with South
Korea is a significant one. They're a significant trading partner,
and yeah, South Korean officials are pissed off, says Obi
Wan exactly, and I think what you're going to see
is a little less cooperation. And you're also understanding that

(26:19):
the original deal they made the South Koreans was done
sort of a gunpoint. You know, it's either you make
this deal for huge investment in America or you get
these withering tariffs placed upon your country. That's the way
Donald Trump has been doing business. So I see the
South Korea situation as just a part of a sort,

(26:42):
and the sort is these tariffs that are extraordinarily high,
and of course they have a lot of unintended consequences.
The Indian tariff is the craziest. The terrorists tariff on
India for fifty percent as well as Brazil just seems
completely personal. Trump imposed those tariffs, not out of any

(27:05):
sort of underpinning economic policy. He imposed the tariff on
India because Mody wouldn't recommend him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Look it up. That's the reason. And the reason for
Brazil is that his friend Bolsonaro is being tried there.
Look it up. It's an indictment. Trump feels his tariff

(27:29):
on the Brazilian justice system and he wants to send
a message to Brazil. Hyundai raid shows the corrupt system,
says Donna. If it was about undocumented workers, the management
should be the ones hauled off. The company should be fine.
The workers are the least of the problem. Of course,
that's true, and that's always been true. For a brief
time in the eighties there was an immigration bill, and

(27:51):
that's how long. I mean. Immigration has been an issue,
of course, since the beginning of the Republic. But the
eighties brought an idea. It was called employer sanctions, and
employer sanctions are the way to reduce this entire flow
of a workforce anyway into the American economy, an illegal workforce.

(28:16):
So if you want to stop undocumented slash illegal workers
from being parts of plants, agriculture, slaughterhouses, restaurants, et cetera,
you impose employees sanctions. They don't and that never really
got off the launch pad.

Speaker 3 (28:37):
That's like condoning it.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
Then sure, so you're you know, you're arresting the wrong people,
you're penalizing the wrong people. So but the reality is
that all of these industries are helped enormously by immigrants,
legal or illegal. They're helped so enormously that the economy

(28:59):
is going to sh massive ripple effects from this storm
trooper filled Chicago Los Angeles that will all be swept up.
All of them will be swept up. When I say
all of them, obviously not literally each and every last one,
but so many workers that are critical to so many

(29:20):
industries are going to be gone, and you'll see the
effect on the American economy. Fix this immigration system so
that it works for people trying to become an American citizen,
says Mindy. Yeah, you always hear like, well, they should
take their place in line. And wait, I mean it's
nine ten years before you can become even anywhere close
to an American citizen. It's crazy. So there's a look.

(29:45):
This guy ran on this and he won on this,
and the border was his big thing. They're flowing through
the border and the conflation of the border story with
the story of what's happening now in America cities and
American industries. As I mentioned, those are two different stories, right,
the story at the border and the story in the cities,

(30:07):
and there's been a conflation of the two. But to
be fair, he also said, I'm going to deport ten
million people. He said it, so I said, I don't
see how you deport ten million people. I don't see
if you have the money or the infrastructure to do it.
So I never really took it as seriously. I thought

(30:27):
there'd be a lot of these performative deportations, very high profile.
You know, you get doctor Philed and Dean Kine out
there and they show you how they're deporting you know,
some guy from Home depot, but they make him seem
like he's got a long track record and violent history
or whatever. But the reality is you're not really deporting

(30:48):
that many people, and you're not touching what you know
to be an important part of the American economy. Well
that's wrong. He is touching what he knows to be
part of the American economy. I mean, this is a jiha.
And what he's going to do in Chicago, this is,
you know, yet another bit of insanity. So on the

(31:09):
heels of ice, he's talking about moving into Chicago, Tony.
Do you have that He sent a couple of these
social media posts out that are really disgusting. I mean,
you know, one was you know, sort of like it
was a lot of sort of get ready, Chicago, We're

(31:31):
going to be you know, we're coming to get you here.

Speaker 3 (31:34):
This is the one Chippacalypse.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
Now, Yeah, chapacalypse now exactly. And I love the smell
of deportations in the morning. Chicago about to find out
why it's called the Apartment of War, And there is
Trump looking like Robert Duval in Apocalypse Now. And the
line in Apocalypse Now is I love the smell of

(32:00):
a palm in the morning. And then there's a pause,
and he delivers the line so chillingly says, it smells
like victory. And what is despicable here is, well, there's
so many things that are despicable it's almost hard to know,
you know where to start. I mean that you have

(32:22):
a president, you know, declaring war on an American city
department of war. That's why it's called an apartment of war.
That's something we can talk about in a minute or two.
But the other thing that really is despicable is that,
you know, he is invoking a movie. There was an
anti war movie, the Vietnam War, depicted in Apocalypse Now.

(32:46):
Is the Vietnam War that American veterans who fought that war?
No where you don't know where your enemy is, is
your enemy really your enemy? What are we doing here?
There's just the carnage and horror of war. It was
all played out in Apocalypse Now, and yet he brings
it in like it was it's some kind of brag,

(33:07):
you know, the choppers and the red sky and that
cavalry hat. It's it's such a masculine, stupid like stupid masculine,
like the stereotypical frat boy flex and they're real people involved.

(33:32):
I mean, Chicago has real people and real people who
are you know, Americans who deserve the respect of the president,
and they don't get it. So I think Pritzker has
been brilliant, as has the mayor of Chicago. But we'll
have to see how things work because it'll be both

(33:53):
Chicago and Los Angeles that are targeted first by this president.
So that's a state of the state on the immigration stuff,
at least at least a bit, and it's and it's troubling.
Thompson Show, All right, smash the like button if you
would please, David K. Johnston coming up, I am. I

(34:16):
just want to go to my hymnal here to see
what I'm leaving out the By the way, just as
a coda to that, apparently Trump is going to South
Korea next month. Yes, yeah, he'll be busy and he.

Speaker 3 (34:34):
Needs them because he's supposed to. The rumor has it
this is where he'll meet with she from China. Yeah,
so you know, they kind of facilitate this meeting between
these two major powers, and I don't think he can
afford to piss them off like that.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
By the way, there's been a lot of comments in
the chat that yes, Hyundai and Kia are related related companies.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
Thank you very the f much. Everybody as Kim hitting me.
Weren't you Chip hitting me? Kim? You were?

Speaker 3 (35:12):
I didn't know, but.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
You know they're not the same company. It's not it's
it's Hyndai, not Kia. Mark You're right. Actually Kim was right.
I'm mocking her right now, but she was right. It
was the Hyundai plant. But when I said Kia, I
still had some high ground. But in fact, I'm going
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(35:37):
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(36:00):
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if you use the discount called mark t. Markt at
checkout for ten percent off for recovery, shipping and stuff
like that. So it's a good thing. On the South
Korea thing. I just would you know, he's got some

(36:25):
I think some damage control to be doing now. I
don't know how much. You know, he's so full of
bravado and he's so full of smack talk. I don't
know how it's gonna work, but he he needs a
good relationship with the South Korean president and the South Koreans.
You know, we have three thousand troops there in South Korea.

(36:47):
So that's just what I've been talking about the economics,
the the militarization of the Korean peninsula is that that's
a that's an important point too. So maybe some of
someone can explain that to Trump and then re explain
it and use his name a lot so that he,
you know, retains some attention toward it.

Speaker 3 (37:07):
You have to say, you have to give compliments. It's
like the the s sandwich, right, something good, the meat
and then something good again. So you have to it
has to be bathed in compliments.

Speaker 1 (37:18):
No, yeah, uh, the oh, this is interesting.

Speaker 4 (37:22):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
Inlay says this is a punishment by Trump to South
Korea because South Korea will not commit to that three
hundred and fifty billion. The way Trump wants to get it.
Maybe that could be a take. Why so you're going
to tear down and hobble their massive infusion of money
into America in the form of that that Georgia plant. Really,

(37:46):
I mean cutting off your nose despite your facement. Maybe
USA is not a trustworthy global partner. And I guess
that is what I come around to, is that these
deals that are made are not worth the paper that
printed on. It would appear that these deals are utterly

(38:06):
without sort of the backing and faith of anything beyond
the word at the moment, and the word at the
moment could change in the next moment. It's just not
a trustworthy crew. You can't have confidence in any deal
made with this regime. Hi, Mark Kim Albert Antoni says,
chaplain Fred missed you yesterday. Mark. It's always a pleasure

(38:27):
to listen and be part of your show. Thank you
for your guest and your team. Yes, yeah, yesterday. Jamie
Mustard was terrific and I encourage people to go back
and share that. It was quite the quite the story
that he's got of escaping the world of scientology. Wasn't

(38:49):
that wild that he was talking about at age twenty
when he finally got out he couldn't write. He could
read at a high level because they make you study
the writings of l Ron Hubbard, but he couldn't write,

(39:10):
so I didn't know how to where to put a
comma or a period. Now he's a published author. Yeah,
he's a graduate of the London London School of Economics.
It's an amazing tale. If you missed it, of find it.
It's on our channel. Jamie Mustard, like the mustard you
put on a hot dog. That's his last name. And
his story is and Child X is his book and

(39:33):
it walks through not only his story, but the context
of the growth of this cult and the power of
this cult. So anyway, that's uh, that was yesterday. Thanks
for thanks for checking it out. By the way, on
the Chicago thing, I'm just seeing that Chicago is warning

(39:56):
residents there that the FEDS are coming and they are
supposed to They're being urged to sort of report sightings
of the Feds. Isn't that what's happening, Kim. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (40:07):
And also they're canceling all these festivities. They had these
festivals that were set for Mexican independence celebrations and they're
now all being canceled and people are being told to
stay away.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
It's you know, I just the ceiling of the border.
I get. But what's happening now seems a bit on
the chaotic. And just as I say, frat boy, nightclub
bouncer side, let's put on our masks, let's go kick

(40:40):
some as it's bogus. And of course the Supreme Court
ruling that green lights all of this, it is alarming
because once again they can basically detain you for any
reason at all. I know you're thinking, well, I'm white
and I don't speak Span. It doesn't matter, dude. If
you're stand and they're in the home Depot parking lot

(41:03):
with some two by fours, they can throw you in.
And I mean there are plenty of people who are
being thrown in, already legitimate American citizens. They're jailing them
for days at a time, and again they're just swept
up in the raid because they look Latino.

Speaker 3 (41:25):
So according to the Supreme Court, that's fine.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
Right, you need the Supreme Court has green lit a
racial profiling. So again those who think, well I don't
like it, but you know, I'm probably okay, you're half
a click off from not being Okay, anymore, this is
a different country right now. Grady Judd, he is the

(41:54):
famous Florida sheriff. We Judd, Grady Judd is the got going.
Here is a situation that's Grady Jutt. He is saying
that the use of these law enforcement officers to be

(42:14):
part of ICE. He doesn't like it. He doesn't like
the recruitment process.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
Now. ICE is luring these law enforcement officers, police sheriffs,
whatever away from their departments with all of the promises
of fifty thousand dollars bonuses and benefits and whatever else
and leaving these sheriff's apartments around the country high and dry.

Speaker 1 (42:35):
Yeah. So the idea is that if you come from
a law enforcement agency that you'll get a fifty thousand
dollars signing bonus if you come over to ICE. And
that's what Grady Judge fields is just here's the reason
that this place is fun. Okay. The aggressive push to
higher federal immigration agents is causing friction with local sheriffs,

(42:58):
among them Grudd or Grady Judd. It is unprofessional and unethical.
Grady Judge said, he's the sheriff in Polk County, Florida.
ICE utilizing an email, and this email list is generated
from the sheriff that was provided as part of his
partnership supporting Trump's deportations. The messages noted that recruits could

(43:23):
get fifty thousand dollars as a hiring bonus. Grady Judge
said it's town amount to us going to police departments
and putting up a recruitment booth in their lobby. Judd
and other sheriffs have spoken out as the Trump administration
has launched its massive recruitment effort to hire ten thousand
new ice officers and three thousand border agents. They have

(43:46):
one hundred and seventy billion dollars in new funding for
immigration enforcement activities.

Speaker 3 (43:52):
So that is very sneaky. Using the email that the
sheriff's department provides you.

Speaker 1 (43:58):
Exactly they ask for Jud's help. He said, Okay, I
don't want to be one of those people who don't
help you. Here you go, and now they are undermining
him completely and they're poaching. They're poaching people from his
his world. I Kim have a fork in the road,
and I'm leaning toward Epstein. The I have a really

(44:24):
here's a choice. Okay, I can do Epstein now, and
I'll reference it still with David K. Johnston, but the
latest revelations or I can not do Epstein. Now do
all of Epstein with David K. Johnston, And then if
I did that, I would do some JD vance stuff

(44:47):
and a little bit about the Venezuelan boat. I'll get
to both in the show. You know, neither one will
be orphaned.

Speaker 3 (44:55):
But can we talk about the farmers?

Speaker 1 (44:58):
The farmers that now, the farmers thing is incredible. Okay,
smash the like button. I'm not going to do anything
until you smash the like Then I'm going to share
an incredible story. Just smash that like button like a boss.
The thumbs up iron stupid, but the thumbs up does matter,
and it keeps us in the feed and puts us

(45:19):
in the feed of others who don't even know that
we exist. So if you would please smash the like button. No,
I will turn to a story that was inevitable, and
it's the story of Arkansas farmers. Aren't they in Arkansas?

Speaker 3 (45:38):
They are in Arkansas?

Speaker 1 (45:41):
And is an Arkansas part of Kia that was Georgia?
All right? All right? The Arkansas farmers, Arkansas farmers, hundreds
of them, are asking the FED to come save them.

(46:01):
They are struggling right now, and they're struggling for a
bunch of different reasons. Almost everything that could go wrong
for Arkansas farmers has gone wrong this year. There's a
lot of bankruptcies and even the closing of many farms
that have been in families for generations. It's a dismal

(46:22):
global market, plunging commodity prices, and so even the hope
of breaking even is starting to fade. They've had bad
weather and I don't need to tell you soaring inflation
and tariffs. This time last year, the price of rice

(46:46):
was about forty percent higher than it is now, forty
percent higher. Input costs have gone up, fertilizer has gone up,
Commodity prices have gotten worse. So after a horrible year
last year where most farmers in Arkansas lost money, this
year is going to be even worse. Set a farmer.
They're in Arkansas from Independence and also from Jackson County.

Speaker 3 (47:09):
See that picture Tony showed with a lot of them
with their head in their hands. Just can't believe it.
They got together yesterday. There they all are, hundreds of them.
They gathered to talk to the congressional representatives from Arkansas
asking these state representatives and the governor to convince the
president to provide emergency aid to see them through to

(47:30):
next year, or these farms are gonna go. Yeah, see
the guy with the head in his hands, and they're
all looking down and they're downtrodden because money that would
help them in the so called big Beautiful Bill won't
be available in the time that they would need to
be saved. So they've got their hands out. What's crazy
is I believe Arkansas is a red state. Correct me

(47:52):
if I'm wrong. And a lot of these people are
the ones that voted for Trump.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
Oh yeah, oh yeah. I mean this is your you know,
the daddy you voted for busting up the House. And
as Kim said, the federal dollars don't get released until
late next year, and the reality is that a lot
of these people you're seeing in that picture will be
forced out of business before that.

Speaker 3 (48:15):
One of the farmers said, if there's no emergency funding
this year, there will be one out of three farmers
who will file bankruptcy. That's what one of the farmers
is saying. One out of three of us is going
to lose it.

Speaker 1 (48:26):
Well, I mean the suicides among farmers are reaching sort
of epic proportion. There is, as I say, more and
more people getting out of the farming business. These are
people who've had, you know, generational aspects to the business
have been like you know, sixth and seventh generation farmers.
And they met with these congressional delegations that are there

(48:49):
from Arkansas. They're state representatives on Capitol Hill, and the
plea is ask Papa Trump to release this money. And
I don't know that they're going to get relief. I mean,
I do think that Trump historically has been sympathetic to farmers.

(49:13):
I mean, you'll remember in Trump season one when he
was president after twenty sixteen, he imposed tariffs on a
lot of the soybean crop, and a lot of the
soybean farmers were really screwed. It wasn't just them, but
I remember them or they were kind of head of
the parade. And all the farmers affected, Many Midwestern farmers

(49:37):
and farmers across the Plaine States were going under and
what Trump did was he had checks issued to cover
the shortfall created by his policy, and that chilled them
out in terms of them being angry about the policy,
and it made them whole Now most of them didn't

(49:57):
want to check. They want to actually run a busines
and a farming business that generates an income. But nonetheless
that was a way to take care of them. Here,
they're going to have to urgently cut some checks otherwise
there will be people going under, particularly in these communities
in Arkansas. So I mean, these were like urgent pleas

(50:21):
at this meeting that Kim is talking about. They were told,
we're going to take your message, We're going to get
it back up to DC. We're going to do everything
we can to get you the help you need. That
was the district director for Congressman Rick Crawford who made
those statements. But you know, will that be enough? I

(50:44):
don't know. I think it's a it's a true sign
that an already distressed industry is very much affected by
public policy, and public policy has shifted dramatically, and so
many of them, those who voted for Trump are going
to be horribly affected and maybe driven out of business.

Speaker 3 (51:08):
And we're talking about farmers in Arkansas because they gathered
yesterday and they said, listen, we need help or we're
going to be put out of business right now. But
this is going on in multiple states, so Arkansas farmers
are not the only ones affected. I'm looking at an
article about Massachusetts farmers having the same problem. There are
farms in other states as well, so it's not a

(51:30):
specific to Arkansas.

Speaker 1 (51:32):
Yeah, and look, I mentioned in the first half hour
that story about the Georgia plant, the Hyundai plant, that
also was a transformation of a community that needed to
be transformed. These are rural communities that need an infusion
of industry, and here you had it in such a
big way. It was going to be employment for so

(51:54):
many people. Not to mention all the restaurants and service
industries that were going to go up in town around
this Pundai plant, and instead Trump administration moves in with
the ICE agents and they clean it up. It's absolutely
been stopped. Not to mention, you have like a diplomatic

(52:14):
five alarm fire on your hands because you've demanded all
of these concessions from Korea. They've given you a bunch
of them, even though they don't haven't signed on the
dotted line for the three hundred and fifty billion, and
then you screw them this way. So everybody's a loser
in that game, except I suppose Ice, Tom Homan and
Christy no So.

Speaker 3 (52:36):
Reading the story in the Atlanta Black Star, they say
the problem spans nationwide, this farming issue. During the twenty
twenty four presidential election, farming dependent counties overwhelmingly voted for Trump,
with almost seventy eight percent supporting his candidacy, and similar
support in twenty twenty. And now it's Trump's policies that
are punishing these very communities. Yeah, how do you cheap

(53:00):
a base when you're you know, obliterating that base?

Speaker 1 (53:04):
Now speaking of that, it's odd, but he Mark Thompson show,
he has maintained a base, like it or not. I mean,
you can get into the middle to left echo chamber
and think, oh my god, this guy is so underwater.
It's forget it. He's you know, he's so done. And

(53:25):
there is some truth to that on certain issues. But
take a look at this polling, Tony, show them a
little bit of a Karnaky and these polling numbers and
see if you don't kind of scratch your head and go, wow, okay.

Speaker 4 (53:41):
Hey, thanks Christy, good morning. So take a look our
Decision Desk poll. And again we're looking at all adults here.
This is voters and potential voters casting a wide net.
We ask about President Trump's job performance, a forty three
percent approval rating, that's what we find in this poll.
Of course, that number, that's about the level we've seen
Trump at in this second termin It's about the level
we saw Trump at two back during his first term.

(54:04):
So it's sort of a bit low historically, but this
is very much par for the course as far as
President Trump is concerned. On some specific issues, he continues
to get his lowest.

Speaker 2 (54:12):
Marks right here.

Speaker 4 (54:13):
This is inflation, the cost of living, just thirty nine
percent approof of Trump's job performance there. We've seen that
throughout his second term as well. He does better when
it comes to the border, border security and immigration forty
seven percent job approval. We did something interesting here, though,
christ and we also asked about a different facet of
this topic, not just the border, but deportations. When we

(54:35):
ask about deportations, it falls a little bit forty three
percent approval right there, So small but potentially significant. And
we say, again numbers we saw during Trump's first term
as well. One of the things we saw in Trump's
first term, Republicans had.

Speaker 1 (54:49):
A bad mid term.

Speaker 4 (54:50):
They lost control of the House in twenty eighteen they're
trying to avoid that next year. One of the things
they're hoping will be different this time, and our poll
confirms it continues to be the case. Right here, Democratic
Party is less popular than the Republican Party. Neither's doing great,
but the Democrats more unpopular. We did not see that
during Trump's first term. We are seeing that during Trump's

(55:11):
second term. And we asked about some other specific areas here,
how about vaccine use in the news this week, Florida
relaxing that mandate. What do you think about the use
of vaccines? You see broad support here, though it is
notable in our poll. Under fifty percent now identify themselves
as strongly supporting the use of vaccines. And we asked
about this topic of jerrymandering, the redrawing of congressional districts

(55:35):
partisan advantage. Eighty two percent in this survey said they
would rather have a non partisan commission than the party
in power in a state draw the lines. Now, we
don't know how deep this sentiment actually is, but one
thing worth keeping in mind is this is played out.
Republicans just did this in Texas. They didn't need voter
approval in Texas, they could just do it in the legislature.

(55:55):
California Democrats trying to counter Texas. They're going to need
voter approval this November. This is sort of the baseline
sentiment that they're up against out there. Doesn't mean the
polling looks like this on that topic in California, but
this is something to keep an eye on, maybe affecting
that race. Yes, certainly one of the biggest flashpoints ahead
of the midterm.

Speaker 2 (56:13):
Steve kernacky greet.

Speaker 1 (56:14):
Okay, that's but what you get from that is that
on individual issues, Trump does seem to be taking on
water Trump policies, But on the other hand, his base
is unshakable. I mean, you can say, well, a president
with forty three and I'll ask dav K. Johnson about this.
He has a better sense of this history than do I.

(56:35):
But I would say the days of big approval ratings
for a president, they're really pretty well gone. I mean,
America is a hyperpartisan political environment such that forty three
percent might get it done. I mean, again, we live
in the horror of these policies. I mean, I think

(56:55):
what's happening in America is absolutely horrifying. I mean, this
latest Supreme Court decision, which essentially permits a kind of
racial profiling, and you can they can just pick you
up for any reason at all. I mean, you know,
pick you up first, and you know concoct the reasons later.
This isn't the America that we have known. And yet

(57:17):
on many of these policies where he's perceived as a
tough guy, it works with his supporters, and his supporters
are sufficient in number that he may not drop much
below that forty theen Now, I would say, the one
thing that's in the offing is some real, real whitewater
rafting when it comes to the economy and the economics

(57:40):
of America. I mean, the economy is not going to
shake off these tariffs for much longer. They're starting now
to really weigh the economy down, and the employment numbers
are troubling. So I think once all of this stuff
really begins month after month to have a hold the
American economy, then I think in terms of his popularity,

(58:03):
you could see things drop off on allege. But I
note just quickly, and then I'll get to David uh
the fact that the Democrats they pull way underwater, they
pull under what Trump pulls. Even the bad polls on
Trump pull ahead of the Democrats. So the Democrats need
to find voices, the Pritzkers of the world who can

(58:25):
really perhaps lead us out of this, all right, David K.
Johnston Next, This man is a Pullecher Prize winner, best
selling author, co founder of DC Report dot orgon now
professor at rit the Great David K. Johnston. Everyone, good

(58:47):
to see you. How are you, sir? Nice to see
you always. Uh so uh you know, David H. So
much on the table this time. I want to start
just with the Supreme decision to allow these Ice agents
to pretty much round up whomever they suspect is in

(59:08):
the country illegally, and the net can be cast almost
as widely as they want.

Speaker 2 (59:14):
I was surprised when I taught my law class today
at how upset my students were over this. We only
talked about it very briefly at the very end of
the class, and a couple of them, you know, made
rather angry comments. And so there was a clear understanding

(59:36):
among at least my students that being able to pick
someone up off the streets doing it with goons, right
masked people with no idea, insignia and who won't identify
themselves just because of the color of your skin because
you're speaking Spanish, is so vile and in pre civil

(59:59):
war or in its outlook, And I tweeted, when are
not Musk's form but the others a blue sky and
threads and elsewhere. That what we saw in this six
to three vote, and this is on the shadow docket,
it's on in the formal case files, is that we
have a six member Supreme Court who are white supremacists,

(01:00:21):
one of whom is black, Clarence Thomas. But this is
clearly white supremacy. And there's a Kaavanas statement that's out
that's very disturbing. It's basically, well, they're just detaining you
for a few moments, excuse me. Republicans have complained about
police detaining people for forever as an infringement on liberty,

(01:00:45):
and many of these people aren't detained for a few minutes.
And the indiscriminate nature of this, because you're speaking Spanish,
they're going to grab you. There's no official language in
this country that is not an appropriate marker that you
are a criminal threat. And to think that this won't
be grabbed on by the Proud Boys and the Oathkeepers

(01:01:08):
and others of their ILK is is it's naive.

Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
Well, the Proud Boys and Oathkeepers are a part of
ICE now slowly being absorbed in that organization as they
you know the other thing. And I'm so glad you
mentioned it because the Kavanaugh specifics we're particularly troubling. You know,
he mentioned Spanish. He mentions, you know, you can pick
people up and at workplaces that you feel likely might

(01:01:34):
involve illegal immigrants. I mean, it's just a it's really
open season.

Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
Well, and you know what, the definition of detain is
also being changed now. Arrest in formal legal language means
that you are booked, fingerprinted, maybe swabed, and photographed and
held in custody. Detain is supposed to be very brief.

(01:02:01):
And yet we know that a number of people ICE
has quote detained simply haven't been seen since they were detained.

Speaker 1 (01:02:08):
So detained Americans, not a few, some larger number our
American citizens.

Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
And a number of American citizens have been removed from
the country. You know. Cheech Merine did a movie years ago,
maybe forty years ago, about being an American citizen in
East LA who gets picked up in a sweep and
sent to Mexico and trying to get back into the US.
And this is no longer some farce. This is real life.

(01:02:37):
And what's to prevent them from expanding this to saying, well,
we think we've found some cases of middle aged men
with reddish hair who wear eyeglasses and we're going to
pick them up, or you know, old guys with gray
beards like me. And this is ridiculous. This is not
reasonable suspicion or probable cause. This is just granting this

(01:03:02):
unfettered power. And I'm very glad that Justice Soto Mayor
you know who wants to retire and can't because of Trump.
He would just get him another vote right now on
the Supreme Court that Sodomyor just said. You know, I'm
not going to play along with this. I'm not going
to go along with what we're doing here. So you know,
we're completely undoing the whole civil rights era. We're undoing feminism,

(01:03:24):
civil rights. And enough people have seen there's a short
video of Clarence Thomas and his wife talking and she
raises the issue of interracial marriage, the Loving Decision of
the mid nineteen sixties, and he says, what about interracial marriage?
And he says, well, basically he says, I don't have

(01:03:46):
an interracial marriage. There's a level of denial of reality there,
and the distortions in his anger at the way he
was treated because he's black. It's astonishing, but his way
of coping with that is bizarre. And of course that's
what we're finding about more and more of the Trump
people in India, and I do, as I mentioned to you,

(01:04:07):
a lot of TV in India, they refer to Peter
Navarro as Peter Bizarro, and we're seeing more and more
bizarre people say, you know Pete Hegseth, who doesn't wash
his hands for ten years, Robert F. Kennedy, who thinks
vaccines kill and ignore science, and who's upset about foods,
having ribe of flavin because he doesn't know that's vitamin

(01:04:30):
B two. We have a government of dunces.

Speaker 1 (01:04:35):
Well, the scientists have been swept out of these organizations,
from the CDC to HHS, and there's been, of course,
a population of the Trump White House and administration with
nothing but loyalists. I want to get to the Epstein
revelations and we can get back to some of this
other stuff. But the Epstein revelations do involve a lot

(01:04:59):
of this of these loyalists pushing back on the narrative
that somehow Donald Trump was tight with Jeffrey Epstein. You
saw Mike Johnson say that. You know, it only lasted
for about a day and a half before he realized
the absurdity of what he'd said. But that Trump had
actually worked with the FBI as an undercover informant to

(01:05:20):
describe what was going on with Jeffrey Epstein. He had no,
he was not a countenance saying Jeffrey Epstein at all.
But the big thing, David, was the fact that Trump
was suing the Wall Street Journal saying that that note
that was included in that included in the compilation of
notes for Epstein's fiftieth birthday, that that wasn't legitimate, That
the Wall Street Journal was publishing something that wasn't legitimate.

(01:05:43):
And so now the subcommittee has released what was sent
to them by the Epstein estate, and we see the
legitimacy of it. You can see, Tony, you have it right.

Speaker 2 (01:05:55):
Trump is still denying it. Let's be clear. He said,
I didn't do that. That's not me.

Speaker 1 (01:06:00):
The I thought there was a These are a couple
of the of the things that showed up in this
fiftieth birthday letter, and it was everything from this to
a note from Alan Dershwoods and Bill Clinton to the
this is kind of the You can see Jeffrey Epstein

(01:06:22):
on the left. There it's nineteen eighty three, he's playing
kids in balloons, he's in jeans. And now on the
right and two thousand and three with the caption what
a great country. He's there private jet upper left, these women,
you know, putting suntan oil on him. Again, this is
a caricature for those who were just listening or not watching.
This is a cartoon in effect, but this is again

(01:06:44):
a rendition of what his life was like. Go ahead,
Tory one more, if you would get can you get
me to the And then then there's a compilation of
all the Then there's this big check that was sent.
This check was I believe for twenty two thousand dollars
and it's noted and you can just see it Jeffrey
showing early talents with money and women selling a fully

(01:07:11):
depreciated woman. This is a woman whose name has been
redacted to for twenty two thousand, five hundred dollars. So
again this is all of a kind, right, And then
if you continue on down Tony, do you have finally
the last I want to just show David and the

(01:07:32):
audience the Wall Street Journal. That's the one with the
you know him signing the bottom. I don't know if
it's there, if it's.

Speaker 2 (01:07:39):
The outline of a woman with yeah it is, thank you,
I'm not special secrets.

Speaker 1 (01:07:45):
Yeah the specials, so tell me. And again this is
a woman's body. And by now it's been talked about,
and Donald just signs his first name Donald there at
the bottom. He claims it's not his signature, and then
he never sent that. It just it seems as though
these headwinds associated with Epstein are getting stronger and stronger
in this today with the release of this stuff. I

(01:08:07):
just think makes it a really rough day to try
to swim away from it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:11):
If there are in the Epstein records, as I suspect,
photographic evidence of Donald and compromising positions, he'll deny them.
He will say that it was AI, even though there
was no AI when these things took place. He's never
ever going to admit. I mean, think about the only
public admission of error he has ever made was earlier

(01:08:36):
this year when he said I never should have left
in January of twenty twenty one. Donald believes that he's perfect,
you know, perfect phone call, perfect conversation, perfect point. It's
the delusional mechanism he developed to deal with his monstrous
father and to become the favored child so his father

(01:08:58):
would keep pouring money into his failed enterprises. So we
shouldn't be surprised by his conduct this way, but it
makes it even more important that we find ways to
keep the story alive and listen, liseners and viewers. You
should say to your congressman, where are the trading records

(01:09:18):
and the monthly statements? Because if there aren't trading records
and monthly statements, we're in made off territory. Except made
off simply conned people. It was a Ponzi scheme. The
evidence is very strong that, you know, if you've got
billions of dollars, you'd turn over enormous hundreds of millions

(01:09:39):
of dollars just to avoid going to prison if you
were similarly caught in some compromising position. And you know,
Bill Clinton says, yeah, I flew in his airplane, but
I had nothing to do with this stuff. Well, then
let's Bill Clinton should be demanding the release of these files,
and if they showed that, in fact Bill Clinton was
having sex with the thirteen year old girls, which means

(01:10:01):
he's a rapist of children, then he should live with
the consequences of that, whoever was involved. And we also
shouldn't think that this is a complete anomaly. Mark, My
wife and I just finished watching season two of the
British police procedural Unforgotten, which was a PBS show. We

(01:10:22):
watched it through Amazon Prime, and it's a complicated that.
All of the Unforgotten are complicated stories. You have to
pay attention to them to know what's going on. But
episode two will explain to people if you do not
understand this, why would these girls go the first time
they got pulled out of their clothes or persuaded to
get out of their clothes the first time they got

(01:10:44):
raped when they were thirteen fourteen, why didn't they run flee? Well,
there's perfectly valid logical reasons why they wouldn't do that.
They're not grown ups, for starters, and they have nowhere
to go. And why would anyone believe a runaway thirteen
year old girl who says this very powerful rich man
over here raped me. You know, So people really need

(01:11:07):
to understand this was not a unique case. We have
a lot of this sexual abuse of thirteen, fourteen and
younger boys and girls in America, mostly girls, but boys too,
And it's not an area where we focus law enforcement attention.
It's not something we want to think about, but we

(01:11:29):
need to. And this has brought it right to the forefront.

Speaker 1 (01:11:32):
Yeah. I mean, you make the case so wonderfully that
when you're surrounded by all these powerful people, it's just,
you know, you feel overmatched. I mean, look at what's
happened with the Catholic Church, you know, over the many,
many decades. I mean, these many of these kids did
complain to their parents. The parents said, you know, don't
make up stuff like that about father Murphy. That's just
not you know, how dare you suggest that.

Speaker 2 (01:11:54):
I was also pretty shocked about twenty five years ago
when a journalist, a very very good journalist who's goes
to Mass Catholic said to me, oh, we all knew
what the priests were doing. That's ridiculous. And I said,
then why were you you know, because that's so we
were raised. You go to Mass, and I mean the

(01:12:18):
sort of just embrace of well, that's the way the
world is I found shocking. And after speaking with her,
I spoke to several other people, women who said the
same thing that I have a very hard time dealing
with as a grown up.

Speaker 1 (01:12:35):
Well, it's funny because I also know a good friend
of mine in Chicago, and he grew up with what
they He was an altar boy, and they talked about
the fact that they had a guy, Happy Hands Holloway
I think was his name. He was the priest, and
they called him Happy Ends because they knew that he
was always fielding up the boys. And he had a
house by the lake, and he had this system by

(01:12:57):
which they had to change clothes all the time, and
was in there changing clothes with them. And so again,
as you say, it was sort of an open secret,
I feel as though the open secret here is pretty
well laid bare. This fiftieth birthday thing is pretty damning.
And then, as you say, when you look at the money,
the money trail actually involves a lot of American institutions,

(01:13:22):
and I'm wondering to what extent those institutions are being
allowed to slide.

Speaker 2 (01:13:26):
Well, you know, roughly thirty five years ago, the New
York Times did this big project about City Bank and
the one of the corrupt political leaders in Mexico and
how he had stolen millions, maybe billions of dollars from
the Mexican government with the help of City Bank. And
it was a real eye opener that we're not talking

(01:13:47):
about Deutsche Bank, well known for being corrupt, or the
Bank of Cyprus, which is just basically a Russian money
laundering operation, or some sleazy bank you never heard of.
We're talking about one of the biggest brand names in
the world. To mean, you go all over the world,
you'll see City Citi. And the problem is that we

(01:14:08):
are not serious about banking regulation and loan Behold, what
is the Trump administration doing? And this goes to your
economics point earlier. The reason the economy collapsed in two
thousand and seven eight nine in that era was in
large part that the Bush administration, the second President Bush,
stopped requiring banks to underwrite loans, that is, to establish

(01:14:31):
do you have the income and the history of debt
repayments that you can take out this mortgage loan that
you qualify for it. One in three of the real
estate appraisers in America signed onto a letter that said, hey,
we won't give inflated appraisals and we're not getting any work.
And what did the government do to investigate the bankers. No,

(01:14:53):
the FBI announced that there were two kinds of bank
fraud in America, and they were both being done by
consumers who were ripping on off the banks. They went
after the wrong people in the Deutsche Bank scandals and
in the well maybe the best example is the Madeoff scandal,
the biggest Ponzi scheme by far of ball. The compliance

(01:15:15):
officer didn't know he had any illegal duties. He thought
his job was to take Bernie made Off to lunch
every now and then. He had no idea, at least
that's what he testified to. And so what they're doing now,
they're backing off regulations everywhere. They're backing off banking regulations.
Jesse Drucker, my friend, has an excellent story in the

(01:15:37):
New York Times today about how they're stopping investigations into
corporate tax shelters, the stuff I was exposing twenty five
years ago. I am told that the current IRS budget
for experts to testify in civil tax frauds is one

(01:15:57):
dollar per case, which means there is no to bring
in an economist, a historian, whatever it is you need.
And if you don't know this, the IRS has to
hire and has a whole staff on people on staff
who are engineers, chemists, biologists' historians, et cetera. And they're
wiping all of that out, and they're turning the income

(01:16:19):
tax system into a tax on labor. It's on people
who know your pension account is a labor account. You're
withdrawals from your retirement account that I have to make.
Now that's labor income, that's not capital income by and large,
and they're just turning away from that and they can
turn into a system to just tax labor, which means,

(01:16:41):
of course, the oligarchs get to live great life at
the subsidy provided by the rest of us.

Speaker 1 (01:16:47):
And the great ripoff is the crypto world, which has
been hyper funded now by the Trump administration. I mean,
it's crazy to see even the regulators just shud with
crypto have been dismissed and you have unfettered. It would
appear investment in crypto and meme coins is a new

(01:17:09):
and Trump just had to put out a new meme coin.
And this is a way in which he's you know,
legitimately made billions of dollars. You pointed out, you know, no.

Speaker 2 (01:17:16):
Illegitimately, yes, absolute, this is a way for him to
collect extortion money. You know, he didn't pardon many of
the people he's pardoned, including people who were so also
make restitution to their victims and now do not have
to out of the warmth of his heart. He did

(01:17:37):
it after they either made campaign contributions through relatives, or
bought meme coins or did other things. I mean, Donald Trump,
plain and simple, is selling pardons and clemency. And by
the way, you're never going to see him pardon Gallaine Maxwell.
He may let her out of prison under clemency, but
he won't Pardner. The reason is, once pardoned, she can

(01:17:58):
be forced to testify under both about what really went on,
and if she refuses, she can be jailed for contempt.
But if she gets clemency, then she is at risk
under the Fifth Amendment of things, and that's the most
she's ever going to get, and she'll get it. They're
just gonna They're not going to do it right now,
but it's going.

Speaker 1 (01:18:18):
To happen when she's already gotten a huge gift in
the moving to a minimum security prison. You know, I
wanted to ask you because I really haven't had a
chance to ask you about this Venezuelan boat with eleven
people on board that's blown out of the water by
the US. It seems not our style in the past

(01:18:40):
to pull something like this, although there might be some
examples of this kind of thing, but very much our
style these days, as we have the Department of War
now involved in what would appear to be, you know,
a lot of the I would say, the preamble to
some kind of military confrontation with Venezuela. But the boat,

(01:19:01):
it was defended as a move to knock out these
drug runners. JD. Van said, I don't give an ass
if you know if this is if they weren't, I
mean it was. It was kind of here the here's
the shot, this video is.

Speaker 2 (01:19:17):
This is the incoming missile killing these people. Uh, plain
and simple, Mark, this was murder. This was there's eleven people.
This was mass murder ordered by Donald Trump. We are
not at war. In wartime, you can kill enemy combatants
or people you reasonably think are enemy combatants. You can't
round up a bunch of civilians and kill them. Uh,

(01:19:40):
that's illegal. It doesn't mean it doesn't happen. It does,
But this was just flat out murder. There is no
reason to h in the case of a boat like this,
take these people out with a missile. If you want
to stop what you think is drug trafficking, we have
and we had it that moment on number of assets

(01:20:02):
in the area. We had ships, we had planes, we
had helicopters. You interdict, you stop that boat, you go
on it. If you find drugs, you arrest these people.
But what Donald Trump did in our names was commit murder.
And if it turns out that they were wrong, that
the intelligence the administration claims to have was wrong, these

(01:20:25):
were not drug dealers. If they were, for example, people
fleeing the Maduro regime in Venezuela, then it's absolutely murder.
And if you are a US military officer or related
to one, I would caution you you follow an illegal
order of the president. We get a new administration that

(01:20:46):
assumes that our democracy gets revived and we don't sink into,
as it looks worse and worse into a dictatorship. You
will be subject to trial all the way up to
execution for.

Speaker 1 (01:20:59):
A well, It's interesting because when that was pointed out,
the Vice president, had it pointed out on social media.
Killing the citizens of another nation who are civilians without
any due process is called a war crime. Vance responded,
I don't give an s what you call it.

Speaker 2 (01:21:19):
I wonder if Yale should revoke his law, his done,
his law license, his law degree.

Speaker 1 (01:21:24):
I mean, this is.

Speaker 2 (01:21:26):
This is such basic law. It's astonishing. And what you're
seeing is a lack of regard for others and a
lack of regard for law. And that's what makes things work.
You know, civilization is in all of its imperfections, so
beyond the law of the jungle, where right might makes right.

(01:21:50):
And yet that's what we're seeing. And this is what
dictatorships do. And you've heard me say on the show.
Eventually down that road lie firing squad.

Speaker 1 (01:22:02):
Yeah, that seems like it might be a bad look
for them, but definitely offing their their critics. It seems
as though we were half a click off from that
right now. I was talking about that in relation to
the ice rates. I mean, how long before these thugs
are picking up you know, people who are enemies of
the state for whatever reason you want to consider them

(01:22:22):
enemies of the state.

Speaker 2 (01:22:23):
And given the actions of the Supreme Court. They've got
to feel very emboldened about doing this. There are people saying, well,
you know, the National Guard was called in. Yeah, yeah,
it gets called in all the time at the request
of governors, at the request of governors. This is governors
and mayor saying don't do this. Chicago is about to
be hit. And of course Trump said, you know, they're

(01:22:44):
going to discover, you know, what war is like in Chicago,
and Boston is next on the list as well. They
have been shipping Connas boxes. Those are twenty foot Yeah.
I love that picture of it's Donald Trump as Robert
de Ball playing the lieutenant colonel.

Speaker 1 (01:23:02):
I don't think you got the memo that was that's
an anti war movie, David. I don't think you know.
I got you know again, it's one of the most
loathsome lines in the film, right, yeah, many, yeah, right exactly.
I mean the message was, you know, this is war
is a horror and this is awful, and somehow that
it could be in any way repurposed in it like

(01:23:24):
Trump has done. It is just extraordinary. Before I lose you,
I just want to ask you about, because you mentioned Scotus,
whether you think that this concierge Scotus Court is also
going to rule in defense of his tariff policy.

Speaker 2 (01:23:40):
Well, you know, I've been trying to figure out how
the Court could do that, because the reason we live
in the second American Republic is this very issue. The
first American government, the Articles of Confederation government, had no
power to tax and no power to regulate business, and
so that the initial American experiment in democracy was failing

(01:24:02):
after seven years. And in the powers that we grant Congress,
Article one, Section eight, Clause one, the Congress shall have
the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, and imposts.
A tariff is a duty, It's ultimately a retail sales
tax on the consumer. It's exclusively the power of Congress.

(01:24:23):
The President has no such power. There's this little fin
area that was never used at all to allow temporary
emergency tariffs. There's nothing that's temporary emergency. Thing's been going
on for fifty years, as with China trade. That's not
an acute emergency, that's a chronic condition. And I can't

(01:24:46):
fathom how the Court could come up with this. What
I expect is more likely is the Court will find
some way to punt push this back down to lower
courts and allow Trump to keep collecting so that eventually
they can say, well, well, there's no way to undo
this mess. You can't put the egg that's fallen onto
the floor back together again, which by the way, would

(01:25:09):
be untrue. In this day and age. We have detailed
computer records everybody who is business. The tariff is actually
paid by the importer at the point that that's released
the materials released to them. So like, I ordered some
shoes from overseas and they're being held up because they
haven't paid the tariff at the importer's office. And so

(01:25:35):
I don't I can't see the court outright saying he
can do this. There's no If they do, then it's
open season on anything in the constitution. That's the end.
That is the beginning of the end, if not the
outright end of our constitution. And you know, damn those
people who said it was okay to appoint to the court,

(01:25:58):
people like John Glover Roberts, whose first job in the
government as a Reagan administration person was to find ways
to prevent black people from voting. It's as simple as that.
This was a man was brought in to carry out
the racist policies of Ronald Reagan's administration. Clarence Thomas a
man who is unfit. I mean every time I say,

(01:26:20):
you know, he should be a traffic court judge, I
literally get contacted by traffic court judges saying why are
you insulting us? But he has no business being on
the court. We have all of the uninvestigated claims that
Brett Kavanaugh is a serial rapist, going all the way
back to high school where the White House took all

(01:26:41):
the tips and kept them from being investigated. We have
Justice Gorsch, who is deeply thoughtful, but who is so
much on the rule is this, And it doesn't matter
if you're given a choice, if you're an employee between
dying or following your employer's directions, you have to die

(01:27:01):
or you have no rights to deal with your employer
statute as I have and say, okay, I see where
you got that. But that's inhumane. I mean, how these
people got on the court. And you know, damn Joe
Biden and the late Ted Kennedy that they didn't believe

(01:27:21):
Anita Hill and they wouldn't listen to any of the
other women who wanted to testify.

Speaker 1 (01:27:28):
Yeah, that's a great point. I mean, I suppose we'd
end up with some other conservative justice, but perhaps not
this idea.

Speaker 2 (01:27:36):
In retrospect, I'd rather have had Robert Bork, little bit,
who was a friend of my father in law. I'd
rather have had him, because at least Robert Bork was
a principled individual. I don't like his principles, but he
was a principled individual. For those who don't know, Robert
Bork was the person who win Richard Nixon fired Archibald Cox,

(01:27:58):
the special prosecutor. The Attorney General and the deputy Attorney
General both resigned, and they agreed with Bork that Bork
would be the fellow who would carry out Nixon's illegal
order to fire Cox, which is what led soon to
Nixon not being in office. So, in some ways Bork
is unfairly treated by people who think that he was

(01:28:20):
a toady. No, they decided that at some point they
had to stop the resignations for principles so the Justice
Department could operate, and that Bork would bear that burden.

Speaker 1 (01:28:33):
The concierge nature of the Supreme Court now a great phrase.
It's just so alarming to me, you know, David, and
so That's why I ask you about the troists, because
it feels like that's the that's the they gave him
the immunity. They okay, these these raids, I mean, you know,
with this broad allowance for them to pick up pretty

(01:28:54):
much anybody they want on a look, on a suspicion,
on whatever end. Now with the terrofsts, if they let
that go, as you say, then it's open season.

Speaker 2 (01:29:02):
Yeah, yeah, it's I mean, our constitution is surprisingly the
Supreme Court and courts generally are always behind. The curve
is a principle I teach my students. Law grows from
human experience. Nobody thought up aviation law when Leonard DaVinci
figured out how to build an airplane because there was
no way to build one and there was no business there.

(01:29:23):
Once the Wright brothers got an airplane, and pretty soon
we had people being packages of mail being flown, and
then people. Then you need aviation law. The law will
always be behind. But the Supreme Court, in being behind,
is supposed to defend the constitution. It's not supposed to
warp and remove and do what it did in the

(01:29:44):
immunity presidential immunity case. It took not the question presented.
Every Supreme Court case begins with the question or questions presented,
and they just ran with that and said, you know,
any official act as immunity and by the way, murdering
a lot people on a boat that is not, by
any reasonable definition and official act. So if we manage

(01:30:08):
to get past Donald Trump, one of the things I'm
going to say on your show is we should immediately
get a grand jury. There's no statute of limitations on murder.
We need to indict Donald Trump and arrest him for
mass murder.

Speaker 1 (01:30:21):
Wow, David, I look forward to next Tuesday and we
can talk politics and the political future for the Democrats
as well. Maybe when we get to that.

Speaker 2 (01:30:30):
All right, take care and do get some other people
on this. Why are the Democrats so unpopular? If that's
accurately what's being shown, and what does it mean about
the inability of the Democrats to market their message?

Speaker 1 (01:30:44):
Well, it's marketing a message, it's also who's marketing it.
I mean, I really believe. I mean sadly we're about that,
particularly in sort of the celebrity landscape that has been created,
these deals with social media, et cetera. But this is
to be continued. Thanks David K. Joonathan here, all right,
so well.

Speaker 2 (01:31:01):
Marks.

Speaker 1 (01:31:10):
So much there, you know, it's so much to talk
to David K. Johnston about Mark. Will you be so
concass David? What is the deal with Marjorie Taylor Green
supporting the victims of Epstein? Is Marjorie Taylor Green turned
against Trump? What say you? David? Chaplain? Fred asks for
the five dollars super chat. You know, I have two
thoughts on this. The first is, boy, it would be

(01:31:30):
short helpful if we put these comments about. Would you
please ask David K. Johnston during the segment. That's David K. Johnston.
I know, I mean, I I don't understand how you
even have the balls to put that up there, given
the fact that we did end I mean, I don't.
I'm just saying it would be helpful to get these

(01:31:53):
And secondly, I would say she is a trumpy she's
still a Trumpie, but she's found her thing and Epstein.
And so you're right, MTG is she's all about Epstein
right now. You know, let the details be damned. Harry
Magnan five dollars with his super Chat saying show me

(01:32:14):
your papers cost Sheriff Joe or Pio his job sort
of did. But back to that in a second, I
hope it has the same impact on MAGA candidates, Sheriff
Joel Pio. Without getting too much off on into this, Harry,
he became a figure of controversy. It might have cost

(01:32:37):
him his job, but then he regained his job, as
I recall it. I mean, I'd have to go back
and look, I think, but my arithmetic on Joe or
Pile is that he's a horrible guy. I mean, just
an awful awful policies sort of that have been embodied
by the latest Ice strategies. I mean, Christy Noman, Joe

(01:32:57):
or Pio, you know they would be you know, carpool
partners together. But I don't believe that ultimately it cost
him his job. I mean, I think he he cruised
over to another job, is my recollection. But maybe Kim
can just because you've mentioned Joe Orpio, but he was
a papers please guy, you're right about that. Yeah, you

(01:33:19):
should check it out. I did want to mention also
with Kim's news upcoming, that here's something for everybody. I know,
you guys are going to love this. This is a
marsh Trump is saying that the Department of Education is

(01:33:41):
going to issue guidance about prayer in public schools. I
know you can't get enough prayer, and now your kids
can get it in the public schools. The Department of
Education is going to issue new guidance. And President Trump
making this announcement at a speech at the Bible Museum.
I'm pleased to announce this morning that the Department of

(01:34:04):
Education will soon issue new guidance protecting the right to
prayer in our public schools. And it's total protection, he said.
Talk about playing to the crowd, I mean, come on,
I mean, you're at the Bible Museum and you're I mean, dude,
it's a little over the top, but all right. In
a speech focused on religious liberty and his administration's work
to protect the interests of religious conservatives, he said, it's

(01:34:27):
quote ridiculous that today's students are indoctrinated with anti religious
propaganda and some are even punished for their religious beliefs. Really,
where is that happening? I don't know, So, the President said,
the new guidance is going to support students like Hannah Allen,
who was in the audience Monday. According to the First

(01:34:50):
Liberty Incident, I'm sure this is somebody who was jacked
up for her views. Let's read on. According to the
First Liberty Institute, which represent Alan, Alan was praying for
an injured peer in the cafeteria at honey Grove Middle
School in twenty eighteen. The school required the students to
instead pray behind a curtain, move to an empty gym,

(01:35:12):
or go outside. Under pressure from religious liberty groups, the
honey Grove, Texas Independent School District eventually reversed that decision.
You could pray right there in the lunch room, Kim Well,
makes sense.

Speaker 3 (01:35:25):
Zerious prerogative, right, It's not a school sanctioned event, but
you can. Anyone can pray anywhere.

Speaker 1 (01:35:30):
Sure you, sure can. I know what you went through.
I know what you went through. The president totalm. Yeah.
It's an interesting thing, as Donald Trump, you can see
there the picture of him talking to to her. It's

(01:35:50):
interesting thing that they're at the Bible Museum, concerned with
the Bible, and I'm guessing that the prayer that's being
sanctioned in the schools, in fact even encouraged in the schools,
is also associated with the Bible. I'm no religious ninja,

(01:36:10):
but my understanding is that the Bible. Isn't the only
kind of religion that is out there. That there are
religions that worship from different holy books. The Quran comes
to mind. There are a lot of holy scriptures. And
I'm just saying, are we opening religious liberty to all
of that, or are we putting the Ten Commandments up

(01:36:33):
the way I've seen the Ten Commandments, I mean, they
don't apply to everybody. I mean, in terms of religious belief.
I'm just I think religion is a little tricky, you know.
I kind of like the fact that it's not in
the schools, doesn't belong in the schools. You've got all
these churches everywhere. That's where religion can really you can

(01:36:54):
let your religious freak fly right there in all of
those wonderful church and synagogues.

Speaker 3 (01:37:01):
If I wanted to give my kids religion, I would
send them to a religious school.

Speaker 1 (01:37:06):
Sure, they're religious schools too. I mean, why send your
kid to a religious school if you can get to
all that religion in a public school for free. I
really see this whole religious thing as a slippery slope.
And I would say this when it comes to ultimate obeyance,

(01:37:32):
when it comes to obeying a leader, when it comes
to the kind of supplicants that we've seen in the
Trump administration, I think you look at, oftentimes people with
deep religious backgrounds. Why do I say that this is
not a ding on religion Again, I think religion has
provided comfort, provided coherence, provided any number of important things

(01:37:58):
to help people through life, which can have all sorts
of challenges. But the reason I mentioned it, you may
remember I mentioned this on the radio when Mike Pence
became vice president for Trump in his first term. I
was suggesting that the supplicants with which Mike Pence offers
himself to Trump, it's almost a worship to Trump. That

(01:38:22):
that comes easily to someone like Mike Punt Pence because
he's such a fundamentalist Christian. He's such a believer and
a loyalist when it comes to religious icons, that it's
easy to go from oh my God, Yes, you are
my God. You are my God. I can't worship enough

(01:38:43):
to you. I can't. I have no other God but you.
It's easy jump from there to yes, sir. I'll do
whatever you say, sir. Of course, you're the president and
you should have the decision making, and I will back
your decision no matter what it is. Sorry, but that's
an easy, easy jump to make. If you were used

(01:39:03):
to completely giving yourself over to a created image in
your mind of what God is, then it's not so
hard to give yourself over to a created image of
what the president, in his wisdom is. And so I'd
suggest that oftentimes religion can be a high speed freeway

(01:39:31):
to the worship of an individual. Look at how all
the cults come together. I mean, there's a powerful charismatic
leader at the end of this cultish mission. Scientology has
l Ron Hubbard. He's not even alive anymore, but he's
there leading that cult with his writings, with his teachings.

(01:39:54):
Donald Trump is alive, and his pronouncements that he makes
strongly his vision, which he has with utter clarity, that's
landing with so many people. And many of those people
are those who platform off of a strong but I
mean really strong religious background. And you know, religion is

(01:40:15):
one of those things also which you get a lot
of credit for. You know, if I told you, well,
at in church every Sunday and you know we have
a strong faith that we raise our kids with, you go, wow,
that's a that's good. That's really good. Those are good people.
They go to church every Sunday, they raise their kids
in the faith, get in other words, you get some

(01:40:37):
social currency from that. Right, you see the ways in
which belief can be bent and can oftentimes lead to
unintended aspects of this entire enterprise. So when it comes
to teaching religion and having religion and school, I don't

(01:41:03):
think this country is about that. I don't think we
should countenance it. But I also think if you want
to pray, sure, pray, But if you're going to make
a big production of your prayer, I mean, then you
get into the workings of the school. You know what
I mean. If I go Kim, I want to get
to your class, but right now we're involved in prayer,

(01:41:26):
and the prayer is going to run a little longer,
and so then we'll get to your social studies class.
I mean, it's like, no, the academics come first, you
can work the prayer in between. So again I don't
steamroll prayer out of anywhere, but in school it shouldn't be.

(01:41:50):
It shouldn't be taking on the kind of presence that
can oftentimes blunt the learning experience and oftentimes lead to
I think unintended consequences. So those are my thoughts on it. Anyway,
The Mark Thompson Show. All right, I want to get
to Jim's News, a little news and commentary, and then
we will wrap up around here. Smash the like button

(01:42:13):
if you would. It's one of those things that we
will forever remember your iron Radash. If you're a patriot,
you will hit the thumbs up with your iron Rod
Kim's News and we continue Mark Thompson Show, The Mark
Thompson Show.

Speaker 3 (01:42:37):
On The Mark Thompson Show, I'm Kim McCallister. This report
is sponsored by Coachella Valleycoffee dot Com. The White House
is again trying to downplay any reported connections between the
President and Jeffrey Epstein. Press Secretary of Caroline Levitt was
asked about the photo of Epstein holding an oversized novelty

(01:42:57):
check for twenty two thousand dollars designed by Donald Trump.
Don't know if that was really his signature, but Levitt
did not comment further, quickly moving on to the next question.
Doesn't want to talk about that. The photo was shared
by the House Oversight Committee investigating the late sex defender Epstein.
Levitt again said the Epstein issue was a hoax being

(01:43:18):
pushed by the liberal media and the Democrats. Borders are
Tom Homan defending the Trump Administration's use of military force
to stop drug trafficking. During an interview, Homan said cartels
have killed more Americans than any war and asserted the
nation is at war with them. Homan's comments come days
after a US fighter jet fighter jets plural attacked and

(01:43:41):
alleged drug vessel, killing eleven people, which the administration claimed
were terrorists from the Venezuela based trend de Agua organization.

Speaker 1 (01:43:51):
Yeah. I mean that, by the way, I'd really have
to see some kind of evidence on that. I mean terrorists.
I mean, God, they've called Narco terrorists is what they
call them.

Speaker 3 (01:44:03):
You know, they've designated Cartel's terrorist groups.

Speaker 1 (01:44:07):
Right, Yeah, So there you go. I mean, by the way,
I'll just mention this, and because I think it really
is important. You'll remember that after nine to eleven, the
war on terror became the thing that was constantly talked about,
and it became the door through which Bush and the
Bush administration was able to take all kinds of civil

(01:44:31):
rights aware from Americans. It was the war on terror.
Are you're against the War on terror. No, I'm for
the war on terror. Well, then why are you? Why
do you have a problem with this kind of surveillance.
We need to we need to root out this terrorism
before it happens. We need the warrant, this wiretapping, We
need any number of ways that we can surveil different

(01:44:51):
communities if we think there might be terrorism going on there.
So now again, terror is extending itself into this narco
terrorist And if you stand in the way, what are
you against turning back these terrorists and eliminating these terrorists.

Speaker 3 (01:45:08):
Speaking of terrorists or terror, President Trump says Democrat led
cities have let loose savage, bloodthirsty criminals to prey on
innocent people. During an unexpected address from the Oval Office Tuesday,
Trump then highlighted the murder of a Ukrainian refugee on
a Charlotte light rail train. The president said the woman

(01:45:28):
was murdered by a savage monster who was allowed to
roam free after fourteen arrests. Trump said twenty four of
the top twenty five dangerous cities are run by what
he said are Democrat mayors. The president added its time
to stop this madness, without giving any more specifics, and
this comes as, of course, the Trump administration deploys ICE

(01:45:49):
agents to some big cities around America.

Speaker 1 (01:45:52):
Well, by the way, that was ridiculous that that person
is clearly, you know, insanely mentally unstable, was out there.
But I think it's a distinctly different issue than the
one that he's pointing.

Speaker 3 (01:46:07):
Two now, speaking of that murder of a Ukrainian refugee
on a light rail train, the man accused and the
crime is being federally charged. Di Carlos Brown Junior already
facing a first degree murder charge in North Carolina state
court for allegedly stabbing this twenty three year old woman
on August twenty second. The FBI says this man has

(01:46:29):
been federally charged with one count of committing an act
causing a death on a mass transportation system. The Israel
Defense Forces say they carried out a precision attack against
Hamas leadership and cutter, the IDF, claiming the members targeted
were responsible for the deadly October seventh attack of twenty
twenty three on Israel. Israeli officials also say they gave

(01:46:52):
the US a heads up, but they carried out today's
attack completely on their own. We talked about this earlier,
but any of the South Korean workers detained during an
ice raid in Georgia last week were brought to the
United States for specialized work. Officials say the raid targeted
Hyundai Motor Corporation's manufacturing site, and nearly five hundred workers

(01:47:15):
were detained, including more than three hundred South Korean nationals.
According to an Atlanta based attorney representing some of the employees,
the vast majority of the South Korean detainees are either
here as engineers or involved in after sales service and installation.
The Trump administration claims the workers were in the US illegally.

(01:47:35):
They argued for Americans to receive proper training to do
that specialized work. When it comes to battery manufacturing, Trump
administration is suing illegal immigrants or undocumented immigrants with deportation
orders who do not self deport. Apparently, there's a law
from nineteen ninety six that allows the government to issue

(01:47:58):
fines to migrants who received orders to leave but ignore them.
ABC News reports to fines can be as high as
one point eight million dollars. They include between one hundred
and five hundred dollars for each unlawful entry or attempted
entry and up to nine hundred ninety eight dollars per
day for up to five years. The finds were reportedly

(01:48:20):
first used during Trump's first term and then were rescinded
under President Biden. Data from the National Assessment of Education
Progress found the twelfth grade reading scores dropped to the
lowest in the history of the exam, which started in
nineteen ninety two. It also showed math scores for high
school seniors falling to their lowest level since two thousand

(01:48:43):
and five. The results of what's commonly known as the
Nation's report Card are the first for these groups since
before the pandemic.

Speaker 1 (01:48:51):
Good times, We're getting smarter.

Speaker 3 (01:48:54):
Wait a minute, what police are investigating after human remains
were found in a tesla parked in a tow yard
in Hollywood. The decomposing remains were found Monday inside of
a bag in the trunk. That car had Texas license plates.
It had been towed from the Hollywood Hills after it

(01:49:14):
was reported abandoned last week. This is the plot of
a movie. No, it's a real story. KABCTV reporting the
tesla is registered to an award winning pop singer whose
name I've not heard of before. It's d four VD
almost looks like David, but with a four. The person's

(01:49:35):
real name, according to KABC TV, is David Anthony Burke.
Scheduled to perform in Minneapolis today, so I'm sure he'll
be getting a call from the police. San Francisco forty
nine Ers superstar George Kittle is now being placed on
injured reserve. Multiple sources report Kittle, who plays tight end,

(01:49:55):
will miss at least four games. He heard his hamstring
during the team's season open or against the Seattle Seahawks.

Speaker 1 (01:50:02):
Just can't that is sport of football. You just can't
start healthy.

Speaker 3 (01:50:06):
In Orange County, a woman, you tell me, Mark, you
think this is indicative of a problem or this is
indicative of a system that works. In Orange County, a
woman is facing felony charges after allegedly registering her dog
to vote and having the animal cast a ballot in
a California election. The LA Time says this woman in

(01:50:28):
Costa Mesa registered her dog Maya to vote in California
during the pandemic and voted for the dog through the
mail during the twenty twenty one recall election of Governor
Gavin Newsom, and while that ballot was accepted She was
caught the next year trying to vote in the twenty
twenty two federal election, and now is facing felony charges

(01:50:50):
that could lead to six years in prison. The woman
had posted on social media about her dog voting in
twenty twenty one, with pictures of Maya and the ballot
along with an eye voted sticker. Then, after the dog
passed away, she posted again saying Maya was still receiving
a ballot.

Speaker 1 (01:51:08):
Yeah, I mean, it's wrong. It's also there's a degree
of trolling associated with this. If you've got the actual
post of the dog with the voter ballot registration. I mean,
to me, it's just, yeah, it's not cool. It's not funny.

(01:51:30):
Voting isn't funny. Voting is serious. That's why the fact
that they're taking away the vote, that they're repressing the
vote in so many ways, that's why that's horrible. And
that's why this is horrible too, because it essentially makes
fun of the entire thing. No, she should, Yeah, you know,
it used to be that if you ft with the
vote at all, it was serious. I don't know what

(01:51:52):
it's like now because.

Speaker 3 (01:51:53):
She's facing felony charges, and they quickly caught her. So
it seems to me that this would be as that works,
Like you do something like.

Speaker 1 (01:52:01):
This and you do get caught. Good, Yeah she should
be she should be the prosecuted for a felony. Agreed.

Speaker 3 (01:52:09):
Lastly, the Emmy Award winning crime drama Law and Order
is getting its very own dedicated channel on streaming services,
going to be all Law and Order all the time.
The free ad supported channel now available on Amazon Prime,
the Roku Channel, Pluto TV, and other streaming services, and
fans will be able to enjoy seasons five through ten

(01:52:32):
on the channel. Additional seasons are expected to be added
later this year. Series creator Dick Wolfe said he hopes
the channel will lead to a new generation of viewers
discovering the show.

Speaker 1 (01:52:43):
It is a good show. It is a really good show.
And they're all these different I like the classic Law and.

Speaker 3 (01:52:48):
Order you know on regular TV. Before you know, we
all kind of canceled that and went to streaming. There
used to be Law and Order, like you knew that.
Channels that just had it, they were like it was
like a rotation of constantly, you know, they were showing it.

Speaker 1 (01:53:05):
Yeah, well law and Order. That's even the two people
you're seeing on screen are not even in the classic,
although they're now you would say that they're they're classic,
But I'm thinking the earth the early days of Jerry
or Bach, you know who's you know passed away now
remember the it was, and he always had that smart
ass line or whatever. They'd always find the body at

(01:53:28):
the beginning of Law and Order, yeah, you know, and
Jerry Orbach would you know, he'd show up there with
his partner and there they are, yeah, yeah, yeah, and
they'd say, you know something like what can you tell me? Well,
you know, he's clean, he can't find a whallet. Looks
like found this in the pocket. It's a you know,

(01:53:50):
it's a receipt for some dry cleaning, and or Back
would say, yeah, well that's one dry cleaning. He won't
need to stick around and pick up you know, or
something worse than that. I mean, it was so great.
It was the part of the show that I look
forward to the most. In fact, knowing actors, I always thought,

(01:54:13):
what a great brag I was on at the beginning
of Law and Order. And you know, I play the
construction worker that finds the body. It's like wholl whoa whoa, right, right, Ray,
what's that? That's somebody's arm, you know like that that that? Yeah,
Munch there you go. Yeah, wasn't much. I thought Munch
is Belzer. Isn't Munch Belzer?

Speaker 3 (01:54:34):
Oh yeah, I think that is true.

Speaker 1 (01:54:35):
Yeah. Yeah. You know who's a huge Law and Order fan.
But I mean, like massive Law and Order fan is
Josh Mankowitz from Dateline NBC. Loves Law and Order. He
just can't get enough Law and Order. He'll watch the marathons.
There's Munch. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:54:51):
One of our viewers and former KGO colleagues knowe Marie
is also a huge Law and Order fan.

Speaker 1 (01:54:56):
Yeah, I mean it's a it's a. And the other
thing about Law and Order is is that you know
they've had some Yeah it was SVU. The other thing
about Law and Orders they've had some turnover and cast
And one of the things that Dick Wolfe, apparently So
It Goes does in contract negotiations if things get too tough,

(01:55:19):
they make the point to the agent that they can
write the character out of the show. And usually if
there's any blowback, they will send a script with the
character written out of the show to the agent. And
I've heard this in more than one instance. Wow, and

(01:55:40):
that's the way they go. Hey, dude, that's the offer.
You know, accept it today because we're writing your character,
your your clients out of the show and full stop.
It's done. That's harsh, Yeah, it's harsh, but it's also
you know, when you're dick wolf, you can do that.

Speaker 3 (01:55:58):
We have the control. This report is sponsored by Coachella
Valleycoffee dot Com.

Speaker 1 (01:56:04):
It's no way has ever put something like this together
that I've ever seen. I agree special.

Speaker 3 (01:56:09):
So super good stuff. That's right. Drive the Clarity Blend
coffee or the Tumor Chai tea. They have the mushrooms included,
which are supposed to improve your ability to remember your
mental uh as you say, clarity or outlook, this is

(01:56:30):
amazing the Yeah, my husband's loving the Clarity Blend. I
know you are too. I'm I've got my vanilla Coachella
Valley iced tea that I just love every day. If
you find something you like on this website, please use
our special code. I'll get you ten percent off. It's

(01:56:52):
market with no spaces mark t and the website is
Coachella Valleycoffee dot com and you trust me, won't be
sorry that you ordered something from this website. I'm Kim McAllister.
This is the Mark Thompson Show.

Speaker 1 (01:57:07):
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Shadow Studiers. This is the Mark
Thompson Show. I want to give it to yourself. Yeah,
well share it. I mean, you know, what can I
tell you? I truly believe we covered a lot and
yet there's way more to cover. Yeah, what do we do?

(01:57:28):
Constantly a battle? Constantly a battle. I want to do
one thing today, Tony, and I need your help for it.
I want to do one story, possibly two, but definitely one,
and it's going to be a legal story. And for

(01:57:49):
that reason, because we did just talk about law and order,
I want to do our version. This is law and
disorder in the criminal justice system.

Speaker 5 (01:58:00):
Will gimps, addicts, thieves, bums, lineups, girls who can't keep
on address, and men who don't care.

Speaker 4 (01:58:05):
Are represented by two separate and equally important groups.

Speaker 5 (01:58:08):
Copp a flat foot, a bullet, Dick John Law, You're
the fuzz, the heat, You're poison, your trouble, your bad news.

Speaker 1 (01:58:13):
These are their stories. Remember all of those people who
were fake collectors for Trump in twenty twenty. It was
all part of the scheme to get Donald Trump over
the finish line. They had their own electors well. A
Michigan judge is now tossing the case against fifteen of

(01:58:34):
those accused fake electors for Trump in twenty twenty. They
were accused of attempting to falsely certify President Donald Trump
as the winner of the election in the battleground state
of Michigan. This is a major blow to prosecutors, as
similar cases in four other states have been muddled with setbacks.

(01:58:57):
District Court Judge Christen D. D. Simmons said in a
court hearing that the fifteen Republicans accused will not face trial.
The case is dragged through the court since Michigan Attorney
General Dana Nessels, a Democrat, announced the charges over two
years ago. Each member of the group, which included a
few high profile members of the Republican Party in Michigan,

(01:59:20):
faced eight charges of forgery and conspiracy to commit election forgery.
The top felony charges carried a maximum penalty of fourteen
years in prison. Investigators saying the group met at the
Michigan GOP headquarters in December of twenty twenty. They signed
a document falsely stating they were the states duly elected

(01:59:42):
and qualified electors. They were not. President Joe Biden won
Michigan by nearly one hundred and fifty five thousand votes.
That was the result confirmed by a gop led Senate
investigation in twenty twenty one. So this entire thing is

(02:00:05):
such a sign of a diseased judicial system. But yeah,
go ahead.

Speaker 3 (02:00:13):
You would think that this is such flagrant and blatant
attempts to cheat and to steal the vote. How can
that not be taken seriously?

Speaker 1 (02:00:26):
One man had the charges dropped after he agreed to
cooperate with the state attorney General's office. That was in
October of twenty twenty three. There is not a lot
of good explanation except that there are preliminary hearings that
went on for a long time, and it's possible that

(02:00:50):
on some level they just feel as though they can't
bring this case forward. I mean, they they have a
lot of the I didn't know how the electoral process worked.
I never intended to make a false public record. There's
a lot of that. And so one way or another,

(02:01:14):
it looks as though this which should be a and
as was threatened, a judgment of guilty that could produce
a fourteen year prison sentence. It looks as though that
will never happen for these people who were part of
the fake elector scheme. And it's not just Michigan, as

(02:01:35):
you know, Nevada, Arizona. There were others and those two
seem to be foundering. A former LA postal worker sentenced
to prison for stealing millions from the mail he gets justice.
Rashad stoled in thirty four of Huntington Beach, sentenced to
sixty six months in prison in order to pay more

(02:01:56):
than one point six million dollars in restitution for this
massive scheme. He admitted to one count of conspiracy to
commit bank fraud while working at the bi Centennial post
Office in LA's Fairfax District. Over a four year period,
while working in a letter carry as a letter carrier
for the US Postal Service, he stole pieces of mail

(02:02:20):
containing large value checks, treasury notes, unemployment debit cards. A
friend and co worker of Stoldon, Charlie Green thirty seven,
of East LA, was also involved in the scheme. According
to the DOJ, Together the two sold the stolen checks
to multiple co conspirators who would then use counterfeit documents

(02:02:41):
in stolen personal information to turn the checks and debit
cards into cash in June stolen stolen check from the
US Treasury worth seven point three million dollars. He then
sold the check to a co conspirator who took it
to a bank in Tennessee and was able to withdraw
more than a million dollars from the deposit.

Speaker 3 (02:03:05):
I mean, if you're gonna go down, you might as
well go down big right.

Speaker 1 (02:03:09):
Yeah. Well he did go down, though, and so did
his co conspirators. And that is law and disorder.

Speaker 2 (02:03:17):
Tune in again next time. Four more law and disorder.
I'm a Mark Thompson show. All right, that's it. Let's roll.

Speaker 1 (02:03:24):
Hey, let's beak careful out there. I'd love to stay,
but I can't. We've got to get it on. Got
to recognize a few people, Randy said. In Lay says

(02:03:46):
a five dollars superchat. We need to hear maga in
the chat so we can hear how uninformed and misguided
their thinking. Is it spurs us to fight back with
real information and even protest. Yeah, well we get a
bit of maga here, you know. Lahana singer a five
dollars super Chat? Are you kidding? Lahana? First of all,

(02:04:06):
I love that name, and secondly, thank you, big shout
out to you. Lahana Singer says Hi, Mark, kim McAllister
and Albert. The day KGO dumped all of their talk
show hosts and listeners stands out in a day in
my life that I will ever forget. I had listened
to KGO since nineteen seventy seven. It stands out as
a day that we will never forget. You know who

(02:04:27):
sent me a note though, Lahana Singer and kim McAllister
and everybody watching and listening who remembers Kgo. Brett Burkhart
just sent me a note late last night. I'll share
it with you tomorrow. So many evil pebbles cast into
our pond, says Richard Delemator. Yeah, very well. Put look
at that, Richard Dolmator. Kind of poetic with that evil pebbles. Yo, bro,

(02:04:48):
that shirt goes great with that coat. Thank you, brother, Yeah,
thank you, my bro. Born to Peacefully Resist is the
is the shirt. I'll just move it over here. It's available.
It's available to get like merch dot com designed by
Courtney Yeah you henny o they arnal. How about a
five dollars superstick or in a big shafe no, thank you.

(02:05:10):
We really can use the support. Thank you. Yay, David, Kay, thanks.
Mark Stephen Weeks says, and Inlay says, my version of
God is Mark Thompson getting ready for sleep, thinking what
can I say to Inlays tomorrow to motivate him in
these trying times. Well, that's everybody needs a narrative. So
there you go, glad you have one. Yeah, that was

(02:05:33):
in relation to the God in school, my little Randy,
says Levitt, who is the White House spokesperson, also dismissing
the Trump birthday card to Epstein and that picture of
the oversized check both dismissed as false because signature is
a fake. According to Lovitt, well, the signature looks awfully familiar.
And I don't know how you know how you claim

(02:05:56):
it's a fake, But you can rally to believe any
thing you want. And that's essentially what magnation does. So
very very good. Well, I could stay all day, but
you'd tire of me. Let's be honest, you would some
of you already tired of me. And we have him

(02:06:17):
ben on all day. And so tomorrow the return of
the Professor John Rothman. I need themar Thompson who are
twenty four hours of day, says zero sum, and I
love that avatar, zero Sum. Thank you. I am grateful
to all the support and to everybody who made contributions

(02:06:38):
to the chat and to sharing the show today. If
you find anything like W K. Johnson you want to
share across social media, that is always helpful and it
you know, it keeps the show alive across many platforms,
so it is great. I love good. I'm looking forward
to the after party live. You know it's going to
be great and that's not fake. Now the great Shadow,

(02:07:02):
I'm the shadow of Stephen's father, Mark Johnson Show. Bye,
by good day, sir, Thanks everybody all the time, Bye bye,
Thanks Tony, have a good week. Thank you, Kim until tomorrow,
bye bye

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