Trump Panics Over Epstein Bombshell WSJ Expose, Asks for Grand Jury Records Release 7/18/25

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I do enjoy Fridays, I really do. I know it's
the only way I can get Albert and Kim to
show ups, to tell them, well, if you only have
to show one more time. And that's where we are
a Friday show, Albert, thank you. Albert is here, Kim
is here. We've been shit shitting as we've been preparing.

(00:21):
Kim does a lot of work behind the scenes. Albert
doesn't do a lot of work behind the scenes, but
he does a lot of work on the scene, which
is kind of one. Can you tell us about the scene?
Albert's doing a lot of work on the scene, Larry one,
can you tell us about the scene? The scene is
that Albert is doing a lot of work on it?

(00:43):
All right, Kim, what do you have today? Do you
have anything big? Any big news been? Any Coldplay concerts
or anything like that.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
No Colplay concerts. A matter of fact, I saw that's
from Wes. He says, random advice. Avoid that kiss cam
at the old Coldplay.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Come, yeah, did you see this is the the poor guy?
I mean, I really feel for the guy. Yeah, you're
trying to have an affair and you get busted like this.
I feel my sympathies are completely with the guy, and
he even Chris part says, oh my god, yeah, you're

(01:22):
at that cold.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Place be pictured. And then that's all over the internet
and then there's this this thing released the statement from
the man pictured there, except it wasn't really him. He
never really, He did not issue an apology. He did
not issue and it was pretty good as far as
apologies go. Uh, you know, we love an apology on

(01:43):
the Mark Thompson Show. But it wasn't from him.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
And that is wrong.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
It was stupid and I'm trying to be a better No.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
No he didn't, No, he did never he know, can
you tell us about the scene? No biology issued yet
there now, so that was a fake apology.

Speaker 4 (01:59):
That was I'm mad, I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
Right.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Wow. So basically he created this incredibly profitable company. I
mean it's a unicorn type company. It's one of these
tech executives that broke through into the jillionaire class and
in an instant, well, I don't want to say it
goes poof because the reality is the it's a private company, right,

(02:29):
so it's not a publicly held company. Company might be
all right, the company may be all right. You probably
have to jiggle and jaggle to somehow make this work.
He's definitely going to write a check to his wife.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
It's not a good look, Mark, it's not a good.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
His marriage is over before the Colbert Show is over,
I'll put it that way. There will not even be
ten months left in his marriage.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
So he's the CEO and the lady pictured as the
head of human resources.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Oh my god, that's a very what.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
I don't know how you stay on as the head
of human resources if you're you.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Know, yeah, you're you know, you're you're putting your human
in the wrong resources on that way, well, I wish
those two kids the very best. I hope that they
Usually the way it all ends up is marriage over
and affair over and you're left. You know, they're watching
late night television and not even Colbert is there. I'm

(03:27):
devastated that we'll be losing Stephen Colbert in ten months.
Is Nella Fiti? Yeah, we have that story. In fact,
I guess we should do it now and then we'll
get into the heavy Epstein stuff and the Trump stuff.
Glad everybody's here. Thank you for being here, those who
are and those who aren't. I'd like a full investigation
as to why you aren't here right now. Smashed elect
button with your iron rods. Smash it like a boss.

(03:49):
It helps us in the YouTube universe and that thumbs up.
By the way, am rocking the Project nineteen eighty four
and a half T shirt, which is available at get
Mark March dot com. Project nineteen eighty four and a
half is an effort to quietly remind people that we
are living. And I don't say this in a smart

(04:12):
ass way. I say this in a real way, in
a kind of Orwellian nineteen eighty four type environment. When
it comes to government, when it comes to there's nothing
to see here. There is a lot that's going down
right now in America that reminds me of nineteen eighty four.

(04:33):
So we call it Project nineteen eighty four and a half.
As we live it, at least we recognize it. And
then they're all the great other merch items. Look at that.
The Mark Thompson show socks are a Ray socks. Yeah, yeah,
they are. I was going to I was going to
get them for Kim. They're fifteen dollars. By the way,
they're not we don't make any money on the.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Marks, are they good quality or the at least thick socks,
because that's the lot for sock.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
You know what, Kim, here's what I have to say
to you. That's exactly it. Why don't you chip chip
chip yourself just too? Are they good quality socks? Because
that's a lot of money. If they socks en Bucks,
they better be great socks. God, I just cannot even
believe it, Albert, I do not understand.

Speaker 5 (05:19):
That make a lot of money for having attitude?

Speaker 2 (05:21):
Do they come with a little Mark Thompson foot tickle?
I mean, it's something that's happening with don't want to
hear you.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
How many who house has the Mark Thompson pair of socks?
You'd be like one, like the very few.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
So it's true. Albert, Thank you, Albert, thank you. Albert
gets it, Kim. As usual, you just don't get it.
You don't, don't You really don't.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
Again, I do too. I mean, imagine that Albert on
a rainy day in front of the fireplace with your
Mark Thompson show cardigan and your your Mark Thompson Show socks,
all cozy, Oh, mister Rogers music playing in the background.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
I love the narrative. Yeah right, what can you tell
us about the scene.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
For the inside shoes, then you'd get the outside cardigan
for the inside cardigan, exactly Like.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
That's exactly it, albur Bravo, well done. I love a
good narrative.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
Taking a sip from your Coachella coffee while wrapped up
in your cartigan.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
All right. Look, I could sit here and wrap with
you kids all day, and I plan to do that,
but we'll be wrapping about some very specific things. Moving on,
and Mark Thompson Show, my favorite Britisher joins us bottom
of the hour. Anthony Davis from the Minors Touch Network. Yeah,
he'll be here bottom of the hour, and of course

(06:46):
it'll be Jim Abla possibly Michael Shore in our two
as we look at this quite eventful week in America
and in the world. Now, uh, what we're going to do?
I've totally lost track.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
First, let's talk about Colbert what.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
I knew or something not Epstein related? Yeah, okay, So Colbert.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
Is anyone surprised because I mean, I know that we
have the retribution to her, and Trump is all celebrating
and saying, you know, Colbert's show was worse than his ratings,
and I'm celebrating this type of thing, and so Trump
is gloating. But I'm and I know we shouldn't be
surprised because sixty minutes, you know, the whole settlement with

(07:27):
CBS and Trump and all of this, it seems like
they were already capitulating to Trump anyway. But it just
feels weird for them not to have a late night show,
because they're not just canceling Colbert. They're canceling that show
right there.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
Will be know late night show. They're getting out of
late night business. I would say that while the first
of all this is I did send you this out,
but if you check your email, I sent you the
ratings for late night television shows. So if you look
at the rating graph, this is really a simple graph too,
and I'll just describe it to you before even you

(08:04):
need to look at it. And Colbert's ratings are ahead
of the other two. Okay, there it is late night
TV rating trends, And you can see this track sit
and all the way from twenty fourteen. The blue line
is Stephen Colbert, the red line is Fallin, and the
green line is Kimmel, and you can see that Colbert

(08:28):
leads them all even as you see them slowly tailing
off in terms of audience. By the way, the audience
viewers numbers pretty impressive. Still, we're still tracking between a
million and a half and three million viewers right most

(08:49):
of these late night shows, just again to describe it
to people listening and not watching, started with somewhere in
the neighborhood of two and a half to three and
a half and even four million shows four million viewers
by twenty nineteen, So still hanging in there. I mean,
that's you can still make money with those numbers, and

(09:11):
then they try they tail it off.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yeah, that's not even accounting for all the people that
watch on YouTube with the clips and the posts and
everything else.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
That's a very good point. I mean, there are a
lot of other ways to monetize the show besides just
the live broadcast that has watched either live or Washington delay.
But anyway, these numbers pretty much tail off, So the
audience trends down to about again where we are now
just under three million, just north of two and a
half million, anywhere between two and a half and three million,

(09:40):
And that's for Colbert. The other shows have dipped below
a million and a half for the Tonight show and
at about two million for Jimmy Kimmel. So why do
we point to this? I just point to this because
when you evaluate what's Yes is saying in the context

(10:01):
of we're getting out of the late night business, you
can say, Okay, certainly the audience is trending down. You've
seen a diminution of audience across television just generally. There
isn't the primetime audience that there used to be. There
isn't the audience in television that there used to be.
You know, linear television is going away. It is being
replaced by digital. It's being replaced by what kim is

(10:24):
sort of suggesting, which is you can watch clips, you
can watch bits, you can watch your show on demand.
It is just a generation growing up without the kind
of appointment television that we grew up with. They are
watching nothing except on demand. I mean, this is really

(10:44):
the case. That's why when shows like American Idol came along,
America's Got Talents another example. These are kind of day
and date shows and if there are enough of a phenomenon,
you end up with you know, did you see this
last night? We want to watch Idle tonight. We want
to But Colbert had an element of that, which was

(11:05):
did you see what Stephen Colbert said last night? There
was a lot of that. I get that in our
emails that are sent to us, people saying, hey, did
you see what Colbert? Colbert did a funny bit about
blah blah blah. But to be fair, I also see
it about Kimmel. Kimmel did a funny thing on this.
I think Kimmel is brilliant, so I mean like him
a lot too. Yeah, But what I'm getting at is

(11:29):
I get it the audience is siphoned off slowly. They're
getting older, they're moving on. The new audience is not
there except for, as I say, video on demand, and
we're just seeing an attenuation of the audience. The audience

(11:50):
is just spread out now across so many other things, gaming, movies, streamers.
I mean, there are just so many things competing with
legacy TV. So that's just a reason to look at
legacy TV as something that is trending down. Now, let's
get to Stephen Colbert just quickly, and then I we'll

(12:11):
move on. Colbert. As we just showed you was really
bucking the trend to a degree. There were enough people
still tuning into Stephen Colbert that he is still a
financially viable offering in late night TV. His unapologetic skewering

(12:34):
of both Trump and his own network. I mean, he
really jacked up his own network about making a deal
with Donald Trump for what they called a nuisance lawsuit
that gave him a kind of rebel quality that was
really cool. But if you're a suit at CBS, I'm

(12:55):
sure you don't like it, and you're having to deal
with pressure from Trump, and you've already settled with Trump,
which speaks to the fact that you essentially don't want
any trouble with Trump because you're trying to get this
sky Dance merger done. It's a whole thing with paramount.
This has nothing to do with anything we've spoken of
except for money. So what I would say is that fundamentally,

(13:20):
it would seem that all roads lead back to that
lead back to CBS saying, hey, we were going to
cancel Colbert and our late night offering anyway, And this
is really about the business, it's not about caving to Trump.
That's what they said, right, Kim, yep. But the truth

(13:43):
is they do it right on the heels of this.
They say it's a purely financial decision against a challenging
backdrop in late night. It is not related in any
way to the show's performance, content, or other matters happening
at paramount. That sounds almost true, and there's nothing to
see here. Who are you going to believe me or

(14:04):
your lying eyes?

Speaker 2 (14:06):
A lot of people in the chat wondering if maybe
this was some type of something to do. Yeah, Becky,
curious if it was part of the settlement with Trump
somehow get rid.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
Of and daring that's a quiet part of it. Yeah.
Many legal experts said the deal was an unnecessary concession
in a frivolous case. Speaking about the lawsuit that would
settle for sixteen million at minimum. It undermined one of
TV journalism's most accomplished independent voices, that's the sixty minutes reference.

(14:38):
Some people called it quote a big fat bribe. Those
were cold Bear's words and a blistering monologue a few
days ago. They also mentioned speculation in that monologue that
CBS's future owners might try to rein him in. So
I'd say it's tough. It's tough to handicap this. The

(15:04):
one thing I would say is the timing feels like
it's a gift to Trump. Yeah, means you could have
made this decision that you're getting out of the late
night business. But the idea somehow that you would make
the announcement at the same time, essentially that you write
this check to Trump on a suit that you know
you can win the lawsuit, but you do it because

(15:27):
as a Cherry Redstone wants to make this deal for
paramount to merge with Skydance. So these are the problems
when you allow medium mergers of this type.

Speaker 2 (15:39):
People are saying Colbert loses forty million a year? Is
that what CBS is saying.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
I don't know is that the number? I mean, how
you'll have to explain that to me.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
I don't know how that's possible when you just showed
us the graph that says he's at the top of
the game.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
Well, I mean, the one thing I would say about
that is I don't see how you get that number
forty million. Show me where that's true. And I'm not
some I'm not leading the parade for keeping Stephen Colbert
on the air because he's so profitable, But what I
would say is, how do you get to forty million?
I mean, the show's not costing forty million, is it?

(16:16):
So how do you lose forty million doing it? I
mean just explained the arithmetic to me.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
When I watched his speech last night. I don't know
how much he gets paid a year. He does say
there are two hundred people that work there, so I
don't know.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
Well, you're right, I mean, maybe you can get to
forty million then, but you could slim down the show.
That's what they did with Conan O'Brien. Conan O'Brien had
many few reviewers than Stephen Colbert when he was doing
his show on TBS, I think it was, and they
just slimmed it down, Slendon down, and finally you know,
it was just Conan. Of course, he found a rich

(16:53):
gold vein of revenue after late night television. He did
his own thing. Now he's making a fortune, that whole
Conan network of podcasts and live events, and I mean
he's he's made a fortune, I mean multiple fortunes doing
stuff after late night television. So Colbert could do the

(17:13):
same thing.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
But Jim and speaking of how much Colbert makes a year,
Jim meet and says Colbert wanted to be paid with
the Mark Thompson Show, Socks and merch.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
Ye, Well, I'm glad somebody wants them. Kim is asking
questions about them, but we by have.

Speaker 3 (17:31):
Some competition on YouTube and Mark with uh. I mean
they already post clips, but he might just be huge
on YouTube.

Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yeah, it's true. His salary is not publicly available, but
it's known that he is the host of Late Night
with Lake Show. Stephen Colbert says AI, and in typical
AI form, AI is trying to bus its way out
of the answer. You know who's the highest paid late
night host? The highest paid late night television hosts are

(18:03):
generally considered to be Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon. Now
you have each earning an estimated Anybody, what does the
internet say the late night hosts are making?

Speaker 4 (18:15):
I asked you.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
Each one. According to the Internet, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy
Fallon are the top compensated late night hosts. How much
do they make? Colbert makes fifteen million a year? Said
Randy has clearly just looked it up. And that's right Colbert.
And thank you John for playing the game without googling it. Yeah,

(18:45):
the highest late night television hosts highest paid are Colbert
and Fallon, each earning and estimated fifteen million a year,
and so when you look at that, maybe it is
possible to lose forty million. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
But Fellon is great with singing and goofing off with guests,
but he doesn't He lacks the political zing, the social
commentary that I think a lot of people tune into
late night for. So for that reason, I'm surprised Fallon
is on the top moneymaker there.

Speaker 1 (19:20):
I think Kim is sort of right about this. I
do think that sort of right.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
I'll take it.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
Yeah, well, I mean I think that you're right. I
think here's why I'm laboring a bit. First of all,
Kim Ol to me, is brilliant and he laps everybody.
I'm sorry, even Colbert. I think Kim Will is just wonderful. Now,
I don't know, I just feel a special connection with
Kim Will. I think he's sort he has almost a
teenage rebellion in him that I really like. And he's

(19:50):
got very funny stuff on Trump, etc. So but let's
put that to the side when it comes to topical
political stuff. I think Kim is sort of right that
Colbert feels like it is the real legit skewering of power,
which is what you really want from these guys. But
Fallon I think is underestimated. I think he's really talented,

(20:12):
and I think his monologue and the writing on Fallon,
even the jokes about Trump, they're good. He just has
a youthful energy and quality that may kind of work
against him when it comes to sort of political commentary,
if you will, or the skewing politically of these people.
But I take your point that Colbert just feels, you know, right,

(20:37):
a little more right maybe than Fallon does.

Speaker 3 (20:40):
Gets the laughs. I feel like, yeah, laughs, Colbert. You
watch Colbert, you get a lot of cheering from the Yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah, that's a really great point, Albert, thank you. Yes,
I think that's exactly right.

Speaker 2 (20:51):
I think Fallon is more I find him to be
more contrived. It feels like made up the whole his
whole overblown life, laughing and throwing himself down on the desk,
you know, like, oh, isn't this all so funny? I
just don't feel the natural talent that I do from
someone like Craig Ferguson or Jimmy Kimmel, where they're just

(21:12):
themselves and also supremely funny at the same time.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yeah, I don't know. I mean again, I adore Jimmy Kimmel,
so I don't you just can't. I mean, I know
everybody's Colbert. I watch Kimmel, so I don't know what
to say, but I do appreciate it. And when I
watch Colbert, I go, wow, this really is good. I
understand why people are into Colbert Stephen a smart, talented,
hard working and a good person. Whatever he does next,

(21:37):
he will succeed with Cindy G from New York City
says yeah, I mean, I think you're right, and that's
kind of what I was saying before. Thank you Cindy
for the super chat. I think that the I think
Cindy's right in that post late night television world that Conan,
for example, did so well with, I think Colbert will
do very well. Is also look at podcast alone, could

(22:00):
pay him millions. The podcast universe is just so lucrative
for so many of these big name people who have
access to big guests and who have a big following.
Maggie with a five dollars super chat, the Mark Thompson Show,
never bending the knee. There you go, baby, Thank you.
I love Colbert, says Kim Kim Rosslyn I love Colbert,

(22:23):
so sad and mad, She says, yeah. Sue says, my
heart will be broken without Colbert. He's the only one
I watch. Do you think Colbert will go over to HBO,
Karen says, if they pick him up like they did
with Bill Maher, I would love to watch him more

(22:44):
than mar that's really provocative. Now he can't go over
to HBO or anywhere else with the kind of huge
organization that he has, as Kim is noted, with two
hundred employer he can't do it. There's just that streaming
universe just won't support that kind of legacy media salary

(23:09):
and battleship filled with employees. But to your point, he
might make a splash over there and if he wants
to continue. Hey, that's what Conan did. Conan went to
this kind of one on one. Do you recall he
had He still brought Richter. He did kind of what
I did from KGO. He brought his sidekick Richter, and

(23:33):
they just did two chairs there and then they bring
on a guest. And that would be with like a
really skinny version of his Late Night show and very successful.
So we'll we'll see.

Speaker 3 (23:47):
Yeah, I think a lot of times, more people will
start watching because they just found out he I'm sure
the ratings tonight or for the rest of the show
will be crazy insane because yeah, I completely agree, he
gave us this here by the way.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
Also, yeah, in fact, we haven't even gotten to the
Epstein story of the day, and we'll do it with
our pals. So Mark Thompson Show. If you watch the
Midas Touch Network, you know they are wildly successful. Great
content and among the greatest parts of that content my

(24:22):
favorite Britisher who does join us when when he has
a moment, he puts out a lot of great content.
So there are not a lot of moments that he's available.
But if you would on your fate for the great
Anthony Davis. Everyone, God, damn it, stand up. I said,

(24:43):
stand up.

Speaker 5 (24:45):
It's too much.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
Sorry, Anthony. I just realized that that person, though, isn't
able to stand up. I apologize, ma'am Anthony. Welcome to
the program or as you say, program program.

Speaker 5 (24:59):
Yes, spelts P R O g R A M M E.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
Anthony is fantastic, says Andrew Gordon. What a great way
to start the segment. Please lavishing and with praise. Look
at Anthony ya with about four hundred thumbs up. Anthony
Davis is my second favorite Britisher after David Bowie, says
Charvis Starr. Wow, that's still pretty good company.

Speaker 5 (25:26):
Might change the lights in here. It's a little bit there,
we go just more intimate, you know.

Speaker 1 (25:31):
Yes, I'm really excited to have you here, and I'm
wondering if we can't address a little bit of the
bombshell news from yesterday, the bombshell news involving the Jeffrey
Epstein controversy and crisis that has engulfed the White House.

(25:54):
Nothing really cuts through the noise. I mean here, we've had,
in my judgment, so many illegalities from the dismantling of government,
the access to government databases given to Elon Musk and
to people who are completely granted this access without security clearance,

(26:14):
with any kind of background check. They're just they run
right into all of these computer databases, scrape them for
personal information from Americans, etc. Make all of these changes
to government, All of these things I think fall into
the illegal category. Then you have tariffs that also I
feel are being the terrorff power is being granted to

(26:35):
the chief executive in America right now without regard to
a real crisis that would give the Chief executive legitimately
that power to institute these tariffs and the immigration policy,
which is additionally full of illegalities, people being rounded up
off the street. They're not given their due process. So
all of these things are happening in the world of

(26:57):
America right now, and they happen quite quickly. But the
only thing that really has cut through and created a
crisis for this president who was part of all these
things I just mentioned, is a sex scandal. Nothing cut
through like a sex scandal.

Speaker 6 (27:11):
One that we already knew about. I mean, it's not
even a new sex scandal, is it. I mean, this
has been going on for years, true. I mean they
lived on the same street as each other. I mean,
this is the other thing. It's like they were neighbors
going around with a cup of sugar when they ran out.
I Mean, the first thing I want to say aout
the Jeffrey Epstein thing is that nobody is talking about

(27:32):
the fact that Virginia Giffrey, who was one of the
girls who was sex trafficked, took her own life. Back
in April, we presumed she took her own life. I
think she took her own life she'd moved to Australia.
She tried to put it behind her, she became an activist,
but it became too much for her. And I was
actually reading what her family were writing about her yesterday
because you know, the excitement about you know, is Trump

(27:58):
a pedophile? Does he like girls younger like Jeffrey Epstein?
I mean, this letter that's you know, been talked about
this morning is certainly kind of alluding to that, with
all sorts of dubileon tandras. But I just think about
the girls and the victims of these crimes. That's where
my head goes first. I'm not interested in salacious stories.

(28:21):
I'm not interested in the you know, the kind of
TMZ version of this, which I think so many people
seem to be jumping on. I just think about the
dozens and dozens of women who are having to live
with the historic trauma associated with you know, escaping Jeffrey Epstein,

(28:41):
if indeed they escaped with their lives, and sadly, Virginia Giffrey,
even at the age I think she's forty one when
she took her life, she just wasn't able to escape
it in the end.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
Well, the grooming of extraordinarily young boys and girls into
this Jeffrey Epstein world world is I suspect all over
these Epstein files and investigative materials that clearly exist. And
there are many many victims. I mean there even by

(29:15):
their own admission, Pam Bondi talks about north of a
thousand victims. So just on the victim level, you're right.
It was more than a decade he did this, and
so you can imagine the numbers when it comes to victims,
it's a pretty high number.

Speaker 6 (29:31):
Meanwhile, Gillaid Maxwell, who's currently in prison, is seemingly trying
to kind of negotiate some kind of deal with the
Justice Department or you know, buying us silence or goodness
knows what so she can kind of get some kind
of early release when she you know, she's on the
far right of this picture, and I mean the far
right in all essence of the words she.

Speaker 5 (29:53):
I don't know if you know much about her.

Speaker 6 (29:55):
She is the daughter of Robert Maxwell, who was basically
Britain's equivalent to not just Trump, but you know any
of these big media moguls.

Speaker 1 (30:05):
Like it's like a Murdacchian kind of guy.

Speaker 5 (30:07):
It was a Murdacchian.

Speaker 6 (30:08):
He you know, he he disappeared strangely off of his
yacht in the middle of the ocean.

Speaker 5 (30:14):
Again, another one of these.

Speaker 6 (30:16):
Did he die or was he pushed or did he
even just maybe he's living in Monaco now.

Speaker 5 (30:21):
Who only knows. But these families, these dynasties.

Speaker 6 (30:25):
These the they are all of the same, They're all
cut from the same cloth. These are the people that
Donald Trump wants to hang around with. If Robert Maxwell
was still alive, he and Gilaine and Trump and Millennia
and Jeffrey, they'd be sitting right now having dinner at
this gilt edged table, eating cheeseburgers from McDonald's because at

(30:47):
least you know where it's come from, and celebrating each
other's successes. Meanwhile, Virginia Deufrey is committing suicide, and as
you say, thousands of young women and boys from decades
ago are having to live with what is left of
their lives. It's just tragic. It's tragic that the media

(31:08):
doesn't know how to cover it. It's tragic that people,
you know, the Democrats, are like, oh, well, is this
a way to get Trump out of office?

Speaker 5 (31:16):
Of course not.

Speaker 6 (31:17):
Trump's going to survive this like he survived everything. The
way to get Trump out of office is to provide
food banks for people, because they're going to need them
in six months time when there's no food on the shelves.
And you know, I was thinking. I was actually recording
an episode of the Weekend Show just before I came
on with you, and I was having the most wonderful
conversation with my guests. But we were coming up with

(31:38):
ideas about what Democrats could be doing right now, and
I was suggesting food banks branded democratic food banks. You
want to eat, go and get and everyone's welcome. You
don't have to be a Democrat to take democratic food
from the food bank, but it's free and it's there
for you because Trump has basically deported all the food pickers.

(31:58):
I mean, we are going to find ourselves. You know,
there's always a lag. We're still in Joe Biden's economy,
just about tail end of it right six months. Inflation
is starting to come up again. Things are going to
get very difficult for people. And this Epstein story, for me,
is just a distraction for the long term problems of

(32:21):
this regime upon the people of America.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
There is no question but that that's true, meaning if
you look at the things that will ale and do
ale America, the Epstein story and the breadth of the
Epstein story, even as it engulfs all of these luminaries,
it doesn't measure up. As we were saying, the tariffs chaotic, ridiculous, inflationary,

(32:48):
they're going to start to be felt. The ice policies,
now supercharged with all that money that was just approved
by the big beautiful bill, thing that will just create
of this wanton chaos in immigrant communities that are critical
to the American economy. So I think you were so right.

(33:09):
That's not to mention the defunding as you've just sort
of suggested, of all of these programs that were critical
to those who needed a lift up. So in all
of these ways, you're right. There are many bigger, more
important stories that will weigh on America besides Epstein. It's interesting, though,
that the only thing that really whips everybody's head around

(33:31):
is the Epstein's story. Because for a i'd suggest, in part,
for a chief executive who seems bulletproof from any other
kind of political taking on any other kind of political water,
this one problem seems to be something that is more

(33:51):
than just vexing for him. He's in a panic over it.
He's trying to grab Pam BONDI what can we do?
Can we release some of these great and juried testimony papers?
What can we There is a there's a panic we
haven't really seen from Donald Trump in his first seven months.

Speaker 5 (34:08):
Well, he's got a lot of things to worry about.

Speaker 6 (34:11):
I came across on Instagram this morning a video of
him talking about the lamps in the boardroom at the
White House and talking about you know, he spent more
time talking about the tassel and how it needed a
medallion instead of the chain going into the ceiling, and
why you can't get paint that looks like real gold
because you know, maybe someone did try and do it,

(34:32):
and maybe they got very rich over it. I don't know,
but maybe they did get rich. But if they didn't
get rich, then they need to find a paint that
is gold that actually looks like God. So you have
to use real gold like we have in the Oval
Office to make it look gold. I swear to you
he was more engaged than I've ever seen him before
because he was talking about painting and decorating. That's who
this guy is. He is a realtor. He flips properties.

(34:56):
That's what this guy does. He can't talk about anything.
He knows nothing of trade, he knows nothing of international
relations or diplomacy. He knows nothing of tariff's. He doesn't
understand the way American culture operates because he's never been
in it. He's lived in a bubble. You know, we
saw the real Trump in this clip with his insane

(35:17):
eyebrows and his comb over, when he's jeering and looking
at women and pointing with a with his you know,
best buddy of fifteen years, Jeffrey Epstein, at which girl
they were going to take upstairs next? The most perverted
sequence that that video that you have there, And that's
who Donald Trump is. He knows being a being a

(35:38):
perv and being a painter and decorator. And we have
him in control of the United States and consequently the
rest of the world. My prediction is that within three
to five years there will be a war, and I'm
not sure whose side Trump will be on. I know
it will be NATO countries versus Russia, but I do
not know which side America will be on.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
Wow, that's a chilling prediction. I mean, it is worth
noting that there's a wag of the dog potential that's
always out there. I even mentioned to Kim when all
of this hit with Epstein, I wonder how long it
will be before Trump, desperate to do something to distract,

(36:22):
unable to concoct distractions sufficiently, may actually launch some military exercise.

Speaker 6 (36:29):
But that's why bum Duran, right, Bom Duran because the
media was not kind to him that week. And you know,
and I mean, in last week's weekend show, I had
Simon Rosenberg on The Democratic Strategist and I was saying
to him that Trump appears to apply more war paint
to his face when when things are going badly for him.
It's no coincidence he is more orange when that's how

(36:53):
insecure he is. He's like, Okay, I'm really going to
be super super tangoeded today, and then two days later
the bombs dropped on Iran and kind of didn't quite
complete the mission. This is who he is. He is impulsive,
and it's that impulsive nature and the fact that we
aren't able to second guess him. I mean, look, the

(37:15):
stock market now has basically given up second guessing Donald Trump.
They're basically ignoring anything that he says because he's only
going to reverse it two days later. It's the same
with the Europeans. Europeans have basically given up on Donald
Trump as well. They're just like, Okay, we're gonna do
our own thing. We're gonna have our own weapons, we're
gonna do our own armies, we're gonna work with Canada,
and we're just ignoring the United States. That is why

(37:38):
we have to be planning for two to five years ahead.
Start stockpiling Campbell's condensed soup because you know, it's going
to become very problematic. And I don't you know, I
don't know if I said this to you or to
somebody else, but the America is not cut out from
an authoritarian takeover of government. Here, everything is just fun.

(38:01):
It's it's in and out burger and it's you know,
and it's picking up donuts on you know, in your
lunch hour, things that I don't have in my culture.

Speaker 5 (38:10):
You know, donuts to be talking about, and I love it.
I love it.

Speaker 6 (38:14):
Donuts are part of the reason why I wanted to
live in the US. The informality and the freedom and
the joy of you know, you're gonna cook. Of course
I'm not gonna cook. I'm gonna pick something up on
the way home. I love that. But the United States
is not cut out for the more serious aspect of
an authoritarian takeover. You know, we look back. Clinton and

(38:35):
Monica Lewinski was like the big scandal. Obviously, Nixon and
Watergate was the big scandal. Those things are like a
drop in the ocean compared to an authoritarian takeover of government.
And when Trump cancels The Late Show or CBS canceled
the Late Show, they're not just canceling Stephen Colbert, They're
canceling popular culture. This is no surprise. It's in the

(38:59):
pages of Project twenty twenty five. Read the document. This
is all part of the plan. It's just going to
become a homogenized, far right Christian nationalist nation. Anybody of
color is going to be deported. Anybody who is not
American born is going to be deported. This is it

(39:19):
is game over. I mean, the story that hit me
the most today. Sorry for this little rant, but I'm
feeling it is that Trump is destroying ten million dollars
worth of contraception rather than send it abroad to women
in need.

Speaker 5 (39:31):
The state Department just announced this.

Speaker 6 (39:33):
It's costing US tax players around one hundred and sixty
seven thousand dollars, you know, in total to even just
destroy it.

Speaker 1 (39:42):
This was part of the clawback, well the clawback of.

Speaker 6 (39:46):
That, I would say it's part of the clawback, but
it's part of the Project twenty twenty five. It's part
of this kind of far right Christian nationalism. No contraception.
Contraception will eventually be banned. They've already talked about doing it,
you know, with the Morning After pill and stuff. It's
you know, gay marriage will be outlawed. I mean this,

(40:07):
We have to be serious about the things that are
in the document. As Kamala Harris said, I can't believe
they wrote this stuff down.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
I love that you mentioned the Project twenty twenty five
so prominently in your little run, because it wasn't just
Project twenty twenty five that was pointed to those who
served in the last Trump administration to a person spoke
about the authoritarian instincts, how that was the thing that
they worried about the most person after personally, and the

(40:40):
letters signed by so many people who worked with him.
So now it's happening. It's right on schedule, there's no
one to stop him.

Speaker 6 (40:49):
And you know the checks and balances, Well, those two
words need to be removed from the American language because
they don't mean anything anymore. They're effectively gone. He controls
all branches of government. Six of the nine Supreme Court
justices are far right Christian nationalists who are also you know,
they are, even the black one. They are all pushing

(41:10):
for the deportations. They're giving him the support, they're giving
him the immunity, they're gonna they've banned people kind of
suing the government. I mean, if you're not taking this seriously,
then you're not paying attention.

Speaker 5 (41:22):
You can't.

Speaker 6 (41:23):
You've got to stop shopping for donuts and focus on this,
or start stockpiling donuts. I'm telling you, because this shit
is going to get seriously real within the next six
to twelve months.

Speaker 1 (41:35):
You mentioned that you kind of come from the British
European experience closer to the kind of deprivation that you
had during war time, and there's a shadow effect of that, right,
I mean in Britain. I think that's what you're saying,
that there's sort of a culture informed by that being

(41:57):
deprived of many of the sort of luxuries of life
that were deprived during the war. You know, World War
two still is something that hangs over Europe and the
British experience.

Speaker 6 (42:10):
I think break especially Britain still operates like it's nineteen
forty six.

Speaker 5 (42:15):
The war has just ended.

Speaker 6 (42:17):
They're celebrating the defeat of Hitler, but there's still you
still can't get eggs, you still can't get meat, you know,
and you're still having to mix milk with powder or
create milk with powder. Not completely, but in some ways
that mentality is there. There are daily reminders of the
fact that the authoritarian was defeated and you know, you'd

(42:39):
so you don't take anything for granted. There's a phrase,
make do and mend. Do you know that phrase? Make
so rather than go out and buy, you know, another
pair of tights, you darn your tights, you sew them up,
You make do and you mend because there isn't money
for luxuries like keeping your legs warm, and so I

(43:00):
just feel like, you know, yes, that is very much
a part of Britain, but also Europe as well, and
you know that's why when JD. Vance went to Europe
and made that speech, and when Pete Hegseth went to
Europe and made that speech talking about embracing fascist parties
and how you know, you need to be more welcoming
of the far right, and America is not going to

(43:23):
be here to defend you in future. They might have
just been words to some Americans, but to the Brits
and to the Europeans it was devastating. It was basically
condoning the rise of the far right and Hitler and
the Third Reich and everything that went with that. And

(43:43):
Europeans live in the shadow of war. There's never been
a war to you know, you imagine a bomb dropping
on the on the in and out burger. People would
be like, where am I going to get my in
and out burger? My double double. I just feel like
we need to wake up in the in the US
and recognize that it can happen here, contrary to the

(44:05):
view that it can't happen here.

Speaker 1 (44:09):
Yeah, this is what I've been saying for a long time,
and that Americans and this is the problem. And as
I saw Trump pick up momentum politically, this is prior
to him winning the second presidency. I think Americans are
fat and happy. We are so fat and happy that
we complain about the Biden economy. I understand that the

(44:29):
Biden economy left people out. But the idea somehow that
the Biden economy was a thing that drove Trump to power.
What are you kidding It was the best economy in
the world.

Speaker 6 (44:40):
Well, there is no Trump economy because the first Trump
economy was Obama's economy and then COVID came right So,
you know.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
We also had restraints on him. I feel like he
wasn't surrounded by the loyalist he is now he now
he called us run amok.

Speaker 6 (44:54):
There isn't a mechanism in that big beautiful bill, or
that fat ugly bill, as I prefer to call it,
that does anything for working people. It puts up their tax.
So if you're earning less than fifty thousand dollars a year,
your tax is going to go up significantly, up to
twenty seven percent more. But if you are earning, you know,
a million dollars plus, you're going to get a massive

(45:16):
tax cut. And if you're into the billions, then you're laughing.
I mean, this is These are the tax cuts that
Trump wanted to do the first time around and was
prevented from doing. Now, it's been ratified. He's going to
get everything that he wants. You know, this is the
saddest part of this story. And I don't want to
be accused of being defeatist or negative, but I am
a realist Mark and bringing some European realism.

Speaker 5 (45:39):
To to to these.

Speaker 6 (45:41):
Airwaves by saying that that, you know, you can't just
keep running forever because we don't have anything to fall
back on in this country. I mean the welfare state
in the UK, the national health and the welfare state
i e. You know, the doll be being paid to
you don't have a job. Those things were born out

(46:02):
of the Second World War. Right, They created those things
because the war devastated the nation and so people needed
to be paid. They didn't have any money and they
certainly couldn't afford healthcare. So that's why we have those things,
and all these years later, they are still there. They're
not perfect, but they are still there. So it's a
social safety net. It's a soft place to land. But

(46:25):
if war came to America, to the mainland, and don't
think there won't be a draft, that's the other thing.
They'll definitely be a draft. You know, Trump will see
that as a great opportunity to you know, get it's socialism,
by the way, the draft just so you know, paying people,
feeding people, clothing people. But let's not mention that you know,
this is what it will come to. And anybody under

(46:46):
the age of thirty will will be asked or invited
or requested to come and fight the enemy. I don't
know who the enemy is going to be right now.
It could be Russia, but it could be Europe, who knows.
But this is you know, this is what people are
talking about, who are planning ahead. This is what political
scientists are looking at. This is what historians are talking about.

(47:07):
And you have to listen to these people because there
is a lot of historical trauma that goes with this.
And anybody who's a minority, whether you're a Jew or
whether you're black, you feel it. You feel it in
your balls. And you know, people who are white and wealthy,
they they're not connected to this stuff. They don't have

(47:29):
that empathy for the fact that we live in this
kind of imperfect world. They're paying their way out of it.
And Trump's one of those people. That's why he doesn't understand,
can't feel anything. He's never had to struggle, and so
many congress people have never had regular jobs. They just
don't know what regular people are going through. So you know,
there isn't a social safety net to land on when

(47:53):
things go wrong in this country, and it means that
people will be destitute and homeless. And then of course
they get tired with the brush that oh, well you
need to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and all
of that stuff. I don't know where that comes from,
but it's just it's so offensive. So the future is
quite bleak unless we all get engaged. You know, this

(48:17):
is all preventable, but everybody has to get engaged, and
voting is the fundamental part of that. It's almost like
the last thing we have left.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
This from Andrew Gordon. Remember, folks, all this stuff makes
us feel hopeless and feelings of perpetual dread. But we
are stronger together and we have to fight to the
ends of the earth to ensure our children's futures. Fight on,
which is kind of what you were just saying. Toward
the end of what you were talking about. I mean
that things are bleak. You found the right show. Because

(48:48):
I'm not a hopium guy. I'm not to blowing sunshine
up everybody's butt. I'm giving. I'm not. People call me
a pestimist. No, I'm a realist. You know, when things
are grim, you got to call him grim.

Speaker 6 (49:00):
I feel like, you know, the culture here is this
is a wake up call for culture, isn't it? And
you know the morning shows, they're all very positive even
when the news is negative, and I think that everybody
needs to get on board. But now that we have
Trump controlling the media because of this deal with Paramount

(49:21):
and CBS and all that stuff, we're gonna get less
and less factual information from our media, so we won't
be able to trust shows that even seem wishy washy
like Good Morning America, like you forget all that stuff.
You cannot wake up with a happy face every day
because it's not happy. You know, it isn't happy. It's serious.

(49:42):
It's really serious. And I just wish people would get serious,
you know. I mean, I would have been in the
opinion that you know that Stephen Colbert cancels the format
of the show before they cancel the show and says, Okay,
there's an authoritarian takeover of government. We're not doing comedy
every night. I'm gonna invite on historian and and serious people,
and we're gonna sit and we're going to talk about

(50:03):
the threat of authoritarianism. Well, it's not even a threat now,
it's it's our it's our present. Can you imagine that
though we convened, Well, I.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
Don't mean, I mean it's it's a it's a hypothetical,
but it's kind of a fun hypothetical. I would say
that he does a lot of skewering of Trump and
of the authoritarian instincts of Trump in a commedy common way.
I mean, in a way. It does serve that purpose
you're talking about it, but it sounds the hand of
the dictatorship. Mark, this is the problem. It softens the edges. Well,

(50:34):
dictatorship is dangerous.

Speaker 6 (50:35):
And the moment you start being comedic about it, people
are like, oh, it's fine because you know there's there's jokes,
but there's nothing funny about it.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
So cancel the show fair enough. I mean, if you
if you, if you cancel the show yourself, though I
can argue that you're like in the Timothy Schneider warning,
you're pre surrendering. You know, you're bigger audienty them. Cancel you.

Speaker 6 (50:56):
I think you get a bigger audience. I honestly think
if that show format when from him standing doing a
monologue to seated at a table with somebody else just
talking about the serious stuff, I think more people would watch.
I mean these shows, you know, even now, obviously these
shows don't get the kind of audiences they used to
when Johnny Carson was doing them, obviously because we're so
divided now and everyone's in their information silo. But this

(51:19):
is something that connects everybody, that the rise of fascism
affects everybody, even Republicans who voted for Trump. They're also
not going to be able to get food. They're also
I mean.

Speaker 1 (51:30):
Maybe the first one is not to be able to
get food, right, Yeah, absolutely, So.

Speaker 6 (51:35):
This is for me, this is the serious and nove it.
I've done it on five minute years. I've basically changed
the programming and it has hit the ratings a little bit.
But I'm convinced that that telling the raw truth is
more important than growing the network.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
Sure, sure, I mean I think that it's a provocative notion.
I sadly feels though Americans are drawn to the things
that entertain them. I mean, if it were really true
that if you just sat down and talked about the
rising fascism and authoritarian instincts that are being played out
across the streets of America and in government, you'd have

(52:16):
huge audiences for all of our YouTube shows. There are
some that have huge audiences. I mean, you have a
really great audience over a minus touch. We have a
growing audience here. But I would say that there's still
within America a sense that this couldn't happen here, like
there's a normalcy bias.

Speaker 6 (52:36):
It's but it's denial, and it's the fact. All we've
really seen in the US in our lifetimes is Pearl
Harbor and nine to eleven and that's it. But you know,
these events kind of come and go. And I don't
know if I said this to you before, but I
never understood how the US was able to make movies

(52:58):
about buildings explode. After nine to eleven, I thought that
that would be the end of it because it became
real and so all these kind of disaster films, it's
game over.

Speaker 5 (53:07):
We can't do that anymore. This is now, this is
now our reality.

Speaker 1 (53:11):
How in the US can you do movies where everybody's
got a gun and shooting each other when people on
the streets of America are shooting each other with massacres
and all the rest. I mean, you explained that disconnect
to me. It's amazing.

Speaker 6 (53:23):
You know, art imitates life and vice versa. So you know,
it's important that you and I, as independent journalists speak
in these kind of raw truths. It's not to scare people.
It's not fear mongering. It's just a reality. Trump is
so he's so scatter gun, he's so untrustworthy, he's so

(53:45):
emotionally sensitive. And this week he's finally realized, thanks to Milania,
supposedly that maybe Vladimir Putin is not such a nice
guy after all. It's like murdering Alexina Valley didn't seem
to bother him, or getting rid of the you know,
getting rid of the director of Transport last week in
a kind of smelting accident. I mean, the reality is that,

(54:09):
you know, the human rights atrocities of these dictators Trump
doesn't even bother with, he didn't care about. But oh well,
Milania says that maybe he's been playing me for the
last few months, and he's like, ah, hang on a second, maybe,
And that's the sad part of this is that we
all know that Trump's been played. It's so obvious. All
the commentary is covering that, and Trump's like the last

(54:32):
person to know.

Speaker 1 (54:34):
Well, He's in the biggest echo chamber there is, and
Fox News Channel, which is the exclusive information source for him.
They are that echo chamber. You know. Fox News Channel
is not in every government building, any place that there's
a television, it has to be tuned to Fox News Channel.
It's a remarkable thing.

Speaker 6 (54:50):
And in all the military bases as well, which means that, unfortunately,
we are breeding armies of far right nationalists.

Speaker 1 (54:56):
Yeah, the propaganda machine is everywhere. Franny says Anthony Davis
is one hundred percent correct. That is the top percentage,
one hundred percent. His five minute news videos are must
see for everybody. We are all on the Titanic people. Wow, uh,
Merry Christmas, Franny, But look all kittting aside. These are

(55:19):
dire circumstances I think that we find our nation in
and I can't believe how completely without any regulatory restraint,
this president has been allowed to act on his impulses.
And The Project twenty twenty five authors Russell Vote, who
runs omb now a critical central almost nucleus of government

(55:45):
funding in Washington. One of the primary authors of Project
twenty twenty five is able to one chapter after another
institute these programs like the clawing back of the nine billion. Yeah,
the calling back of the nine billion again had a
tepid push back from Murkowski and Collins. But apart from that,
this nine billion is nothing. I mean, it's pocket change.

(56:06):
And it's not about the money, though, is it. It's
about shutting down NPR and PPS. It's about getting rid
of any pushback.

Speaker 6 (56:15):
And that is what authoritarianism is. It is silencing any
dissenting voice. And you know, my fear is that it
will eventually happen with YouTube as well, and so that
we're going to have to put our shows behind a
paywall where if you want to see it, you have
you know, it can't be public. And I don't want
to do that, But that's kind of where it's heading

(56:37):
because free speech is over and it's interesting that they
ran on this kind of free speech mantra, But it's
not free speech at all, is it. It's free speech
when you agree with them. And the saddest part of
this story is that you know, none of these policies
are going to benefit any Republican, working Republicans in the

(57:01):
long run at all. You know, it's like Turkey's voting
for Thanksgiving and that I don't know when that will
dawn on them. It's like they're watching it on TV,
like it's a game show, and every night they watch
it and they love it and they think it's great.
Oh yeah, this whole America experiment. This is a great
game show. And then one day they turn and look
out the window and there's a huge mushroom cloud that

(57:23):
comes towards them and they die. The mushroom cloud is
is not as far away as we thought. I mean,
what is it those scientists who do that at the
doomsday clock or something. It's never been as close to
midnight as it is right now.

Speaker 1 (57:40):
Well, you mentioned scientists, the denial associated with science, with
getting rid of all science government science. The greatest threat
apart from that which you've just described, which is sort
of a huge war conflict like that, that we're sleepwalking
into the end of humanity, I mean, into our own extinction,

(58:05):
and we're hastening it with the fossil fuel production. But
just the pollutants alone, leave aside the climate change, just
the tonnage of pollutants into the air, water, soil, and
that's all being and everyone all government websites.

Speaker 6 (58:19):
Right, But the wealthy drink heavy and and bottled water.
They don't drink water from the tap, which regular people
can only afford to do. And so I believe, and
it sounds like a conspiracy, but it isn't that there
is a plan to eradicate the poor, to just eradicate them,
whether it be in you know, whether it be through

(58:41):
COVID as it was where he just didn't seem to
care because you know, he knows that statistically, the poor
are the people who die first. And this is this
is their plan, and it's all in the pages of
the project, so you know, it's.

Speaker 5 (58:56):
Not like we're making this up. It's dark.

Speaker 6 (58:58):
It's so dark, and you know there's the religious aspect
to it, the opus day stuff as well. I mean,
it's complex, it does require a lot of reading and
a lot of critical thought. But on the surface of it,
I believe that there are more of us than there
are of them. And I'm not talking about Republicans and Democrats.
I'm talking about good people and bad people. It's as

(59:21):
simple as that. You can pick whichever side you want,
and everybody is welcome. But they are so bad and
cruel and evil, and to snatch people off the streets
and to deport them to countries that they've never known
is pure cruelty. These people haven't even broken the law.
Notice how they shifted that. Originally it was like, we're
going to take everybody who's a criminal off the streets, right,

(59:43):
that was originally the plan. All the immigrants who were
criminals were going to go. Then that disappeared somehow, like
criminal wasn't really the issue anymore. It was just anybody
who crossed the border. And then we heard Tom home
and go, well, if they're in this country undocumented, then
that that is illegal. So they broke the law. So
suddenly they become criminalized without a court hearing. That is

(01:00:06):
that is how fast things change. And that took two weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
And they are going to the courts where there is
actually a legitimate asylum plea being played out and adjudicated,
and they're picking them up before they can actually make
that asylum plea.

Speaker 6 (01:00:24):
It's they're even doing it at naturalization ceremonies as well.
You know, where people are getting their American citizenship having
filed all the paperwork and lived in the country legally
and done it all the right way. People are about
to swear allegiance to the United States of America. What
handcuffs back of a van, unmarked vehicle off to somewhere else.

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
Yeah, off to Sudan or something. It's a remarkable thing too,
where they're transporting these people. I mean, it's it's pretty grotesque,
you know.

Speaker 6 (01:00:53):
But this is why people don't protest on mass because
there's no social safety there. This is when we look
to Europe and we see these masses in France or
in Britain, it's because there's a social safety net't if
you don't go to work, you're not going to be
on the streets. But here we don't have that, so
people cannot protest in the numbers. And also, the way
criminal damage has been has been criminalized is so great

(01:01:16):
here that if you smash a window then you'll do
prison for ten years, whereas in Europe they'll just give you.

Speaker 5 (01:01:22):
A small fine.

Speaker 6 (01:01:23):
This is the reason why America is not cut out
for an authoritarian dictatorship, because there are systems in place
to prevent an uprising of the people.

Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
Well, we're out of time. But just on that last point,
I think the presence of troops in Los Angeles and
whatever the excuse was, and it was just an excuse,
a concocted excuse to pull the trigger on those troops,
and that presence that sets you up for what you're
talking about, which is beating back any sort of legitimate

(01:01:55):
protest on the part of the people. It's intimidating to
go up against the US Marines.

Speaker 6 (01:02:00):
Well, Trump gave them full authorization last week, didn't he.
That's what he said, that these agents have full authorization
to defend themselves in their ability to do their jobs,
and that means arresting people who get in the way
of a deportation. This is as close to that Nazi
Germany as America has ever been a you know, and

(01:02:21):
this is it. I mean, it's not like we need
to be like watch out there. It could be an
authoritarian takeover. We are marinading in it right now, absolutely,
so we have to be real about that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
The Brown Shirts, the SS, it's all there. The Stasi, Stasi. Yeah,
it is what we're seeing with these unmarked, masked people
plucking people in whatever venue they find themselves. It can
be a high school, graduation or a home depot and
then you don't see them anymore. I mean, this is

(01:02:53):
the disappearing of people the way Pinochet did in Chile.
We're at a time I want to ask you to
please remind people of all your great work on Minus
Touch network. I love five minute news, but you do
way more than.

Speaker 5 (01:03:05):
That five minute news.

Speaker 6 (01:03:06):
Every day new videos explain the videos talking about you know,
the way the world is. Wednesday is uncovered with Ron
philip Kowski on the Miners Touch Network Sundays that we
can show a kind of long form interview with one
of the greatest thinkers I can find of the time.
And you can find me on substack as well, the
Anthony Davis and I'm posting a lot more there as well.

(01:03:29):
So plenty of places to connect and meet up and
get in touch, and I'd just love to hear from people.
It's so motivating to know that we are a community
of like minded people who love the US like we
love this country. I love the United States. I want
it to prosper. And you know, this is why we

(01:03:50):
this is why we critique. It's not criticism, it's critique
for the right reasons. And we can find common ground
on many of these subjects.

Speaker 1 (01:04:00):
Here here good stuff, Anthony. Thank you so much always
giving us a little time. And I know it's it's
hard to get You're so committed to so many different things.
It's great to have you step through and you continue
to be my favorite. British are so all the best,
my friend. Let's talk, so Anthony Davis said day right on.

Speaker 2 (01:04:28):
Let's want to use Mark Thompson, Mark Tompson, Mark Thomason.

Speaker 1 (01:04:37):
Love talking to him, Love talking to him. Anthony Davis
a great mind and a real treat to speak to
him on a Friday. Now, Albert, we have a an
organizational crisis. I have an organization. I know it's not possible.
It was.

Speaker 2 (01:04:54):
It was worth it though. I mean, the things that
Anthony Davis says are so important that you have to
you have to.

Speaker 1 (01:05:01):
Well, we blew through what Kim is hinting. At the
normal time we would do Friday Fabulous Florida. But my
thinking is that we talk to Jim Ala and then
after Ala and before Snyder we do Friday Fabulous Florida.
Are you okay with that? I know you're okay with that, Albert.

Speaker 3 (01:05:22):
I'm okay with that. And we have just one great,
great story, just for.

Speaker 1 (01:05:28):
So terrific. All right, well, I am going to just
quickly have a little Coachella Vali Coffee dot Com is
where you get the coffee of Champions. It is an
all organic, all women owned farms where they source these beans, teas, spices,
the magic that is there Coffee dot Com. Yes, Kim

(01:05:52):
loves the tea so good. She's rocking the Moroccan and
I love the new called it. What is it called again, Kim?

Speaker 2 (01:06:03):
Oh, it's the mushroom coffee. It's the Lion's main, the
uh Lion. It's Lion's main. But it has it's called
is it critical thinking coffee? What's it called?

Speaker 1 (01:06:12):
What is it called a clarity or something?

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
Clarity?

Speaker 4 (01:06:14):
There you go a.

Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
The clarity blend exactly and it's absolute clarity.

Speaker 2 (01:06:19):
Here's your mind. It makes me think it improves your
cognitive functions so you don't get stumped into magabland.

Speaker 1 (01:06:27):
There it is clarity, the clarity blend. You can try
it the way I have tried it, and I'm now
hooked so again. Coachella Belly Coffee dot Com. They have
merch they have teas, they have spices, and they have
great coffees. Once again, there are tasting notes on everything,
so you can see what you're getting. Once you put

(01:06:49):
everything that you want in a perfect world in your
checkout card, Slam that mark T discount code. That's right, baby,
Put mark T in ten percent off everything with your
iron rod. Do it with the same iron row that
you give us a thumbs up. Put mark T in there,
ten percent off. And everything is delicious that comes out

(01:07:15):
of Coachella Valley Coffee. Oh, the half calf that seems
like something I may want to get into.

Speaker 2 (01:07:22):
I've ordered that before and it's really good. We were
trying to cut I was trying to cut my husband's
caffeine down a little bit. He says, it tastes great.

Speaker 1 (01:07:29):
Coachella Valleycoffee dot com. Right on Mark Thompson Show. All right,
let's not delay any further, although we do love delaying
on this show. But this guy is a He's a
MUA Award winner, Peaboddy Award winning journalist. He was the
White House correspondent, lead White House correspondent with Obama from

(01:07:52):
what was so close to a decade. He is an
Emmy winner. A remarkable luxury to be able to talk
to They and get some perspectives every Friday. How about
it for the great Jim Avala. Jim, thank you, good afternoon.

Speaker 4 (01:08:08):
How are you?

Speaker 1 (01:08:09):
Yeah, we are good, and we're anxious to get with
you about the latest scandal to engulf the White House, because,
as I was saying in the first hour, it seems
that a lot of the scandalous policies of chaotic tariff policy,
a bizarre and also equally chaotic ice and immigration policy,

(01:08:31):
these things, and the shoving through of that legislation, the
clawback of the nine billion, the cultural sea change that
has been at the kind of cornerstone of this administration.
I'm talking about going after dei and universities and law firms,
and I mean, as the water rises, you'd think there'd

(01:08:52):
be more panic and something would cut through. But as usual,
it's a sex scandal that really has turned the White
House on its side and has created the panic in
Donald Trump.

Speaker 4 (01:09:04):
Now, well, you can certainly see the panic and his
posts and the way he's been trying to deal with this.
He's he's all over the place on it. First he
wanted it to be to go away, and then and
then he did this fogus announcement yesterday where he's calling
for the grand jury testimony to be released. Having covered

(01:09:25):
courts for many, many years, I can tell you that
they don't release grand jury testimony. The whole idea is
that it's secret. So he called for something he knew
he couldn't have and that would not damage him in
any way. So and what his but what his supporters
want is more than that. And so I don't know
that it's going to do the trick because what his

(01:09:48):
supporters want is they want the files. They want to
see what's in the investigative files, and that's where if
there are names that they're a laundry list of clients,
that's where it'll be found, not in the grand jury testimony.
So I don't I mean, I see what he's doing.

(01:10:10):
It's a delay tactic, which is what he does most
of the time, is delay. But I don't know that
it's going to work.

Speaker 1 (01:10:18):
This is interesting that now you see a lot of
Magaaland and MAGA influencers who are trying to figure out
where they should be to support the president but also
to honor their calls for transparency. And Bannon is now
backing Trump after this Wall Street Journal report because the

(01:10:39):
Wall Street Journal report which has the birthday card that
Trump had authored allegedly, and this is all in materials
from Glen Maxwell. Bannon is one of these high profile
supporters of Trump who now feels Trump is under attack

(01:11:01):
and he wants to back Trump. And I mentioned Laura
Lumer also in that context because she's also seeing this
embattled president. So it's interesting to see them shift from
the demand for transparency to closing ranks behind the president
who they see as taking on water.

Speaker 4 (01:11:23):
Yeah, and I think the solution for that that that
Trump was going to reach for is his Attorney general
Bondi is going to be jettisoned at some point here
as the sacrificial lamb and the one who's going to
take the whole heat for bringing it back. And he'll

(01:11:43):
he'll announce some kind of release of something and then
and then get rid of her. We might get will
be might guess is that, you know, he doesn't take
a fall himself, but he will. He's setting them up
in his minions like Bannon and Laura Luomer, who will

(01:12:07):
back him and will go for her scalp and they're
already kind of going for it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:13):
Yeah, the blame game is something that he's very good at.
It's interesting to watch him try to skate away from
this and he enlists. They don't need to be formally enlisted.
They close ranks. As I say, JD. Vance, Albert, do
you have the ex post or whatever? I just read it?
Forgive my language. This is JD. Van's post. Forgive my language.

(01:12:36):
But this story talking about the w SJ story, the
Wall Street Journal story is complete and utter bullshit. That
Wall Street Journal should be ashamed for publishing it. Where
is this letter? Would you be shocked to learn they
never showed it to us before publishing it. Does anyone
honestly believe this sounds like Donald Trump? To me? It

(01:12:57):
sounds exactly like Donald Trump? Albert, the I mean, as
Kim was pointing out before the show started, grab him
by the p and I hang out in the beauty
pageant dressing room with fourteen year old girls. That's exactly
who Trump was and is.

Speaker 2 (01:13:14):
That's exactly who is, Vance asked. He asked the question,
does does this sound like Donald Trump? That's exactly the
Donald Trump that we know from the very beginning.

Speaker 1 (01:13:24):
Yeah, go ahead, remind us of Trump's own words. You have.

Speaker 7 (01:13:31):
In the purpose whoa, whoa.

Speaker 1 (01:13:34):
I want to give you some ticktacks just in case
it's that kissinger. You know, I'm automatically attracted the beautiful.

Speaker 5 (01:13:40):
I just start kissing them.

Speaker 1 (01:13:41):
It's like a magnet. And when you're a start, they
let you do it.

Speaker 2 (01:13:46):
You can do anything whatever you want to grab them
by the.

Speaker 4 (01:13:50):
I can do any ofthing.

Speaker 1 (01:13:53):
I mean, you know, this was the world of Epstein
for so long, and you know, Jim just on this
Epstein thing, some of the most powerful people on Earth.
I get that there was maybe business to be done
on those private jets in these different places from epstein
Island to his place in New York to his residence.
I think you have a place in the Southwest somewhere Arizona,

(01:14:15):
and also in London. But they seem like the defining characteristic,
based on the birthday card, particularly the defining characteristic of
Jeffrey Epstein, was this sex. And I suggest a lot
of underage women involved in we know with Epstein I'm
not talking about, but I'm just saying in general, surrounded
by a lot of these underage women. I mean, this

(01:14:37):
seems to be a defining aspect of the world of
Jeffrey Epstein.

Speaker 4 (01:14:44):
Yeah, and you know the my dad had two saints.
Number one, nothing good happens after midnight, and number two
was you're judge by not only your friends, but also
your enemies. And you know all these folks Clinton, you know,
Clint Clinton had a a big problem with women and

(01:15:15):
it ruined his presidency. And so he's and he'll continue
to pay the price. And he may pay the price
on this Jeffrey Epstein thing too. We don't know if
he's involved or not.

Speaker 1 (01:15:24):
We know that he went to Epstein Island and he's I.

Speaker 4 (01:15:27):
Mean that he's on the manifest several times indisputable. Uh
and uh, and so is Trump. But you know, and
so was the Prince of England or whatever his name.

Speaker 1 (01:15:39):
Is, Prince Andrew, and and hood Block and a bunch
of Walls readers and the guy who is Victoria's secret
to Wexler or you know, so a lot.

Speaker 4 (01:15:49):
Of Yeah, if you're gonna and if you're gonna have
a little conference about about buying whatever stocks he's recommending
Jeffrey Epstein, you don't have to do it on a
private island, you know, you you'd go to a private
island because there are no rules and and that's you know,

(01:16:12):
he clearly he that's what he did, and and he
lured rich, powerful men to go and and join him.
And now there, you know, and now we're still you know,
Jake Tapper has been saying on his show that he
wants to see the whole whole thing, whole thing as well,

(01:16:33):
but for journalistic reasons, and I and I kind of
agree with that. I think we the public needs to
know who was there, who was involved, and you know,
not not in any conspiracy way, but let's let's do
it in the in a real investigation way. Why isn't
the you know that it should be Congress, you know,

(01:16:54):
they they might have the votes there with the Democrats
and the and the crazy right wingers to get together
on this. Then that might reveal some things that the
public has a right to know.

Speaker 1 (01:17:07):
The idea of a special prosecutor, which I laughed at
when I first heard about it, and I think I
continue to laugh because it is laughable. There's no way
that Donald Trump wants a legitimate investigation into this issue.
It's sort of what Jim Avel is saying, which is,
I want to say something to buy myself time. So
I'm going to ask for the grand jury release and

(01:17:27):
a pertinent materials knowing that there'll be no grand jury
release for the reasons that Jim Ovel has articulated. It's
you know, it's a closed door thing. Trump will not
recommend a special prosecutor in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. In
this coming from the White House, the President, this is
a quote, would not recommend a special prosecutor in the
Epstein case. That's how he feels. The quote from Caroline

(01:17:49):
Levitt Levitt's response following confirming the idea floated by someone
in the media in the back and forth. But you
think that it's possible that the House could make something
happen in the way of an investigation and force a

(01:18:10):
release of information. I mean you kind of saw Mike Johnson, Jim,
didn't you. Mike Johnson kind of wavered on that. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:18:17):
He has not been as strong a behind Trump on
this as he normally is, and has been open, apparently
to listening to having some kind of hearing or having
some release. Here he's calling for the release, you know,
is it the biggest you know, we get stuck in this,

(01:18:40):
Mark and I and I and I do too, But
the you know, this is another distraction. You know, what
really is going on with your previous guest, Anthony Davis,
had to talk about the Nazification of our government, the
fascism taking over is really the most important thing, much

(01:19:00):
more important than than than even the victims unfortunately who
the underage victims in this case. The future of our
democracy is at hand and it's not even the future
as as your guy was. Davis was saying, it's now,

(01:19:21):
you know, and and I am shocked and how quickly
it's happened, how quickly he's taken control, and how quickly
he is bullied the courts, even the Supreme Court. You know,
he's bullied them. He's bullied Congress to do things that

(01:19:41):
they never wanted to do, which was give up some
of their own power. One of the things you never
do in Washington's give up any year power. And they
give up the power on this, on this clawback of
the money for PBS and for NPR. You know, he's
got he's pushing them over with there's know anymore who's

(01:20:03):
left exactly, and you know, and he's going after the media.
He's gone after the media. So it's it's difficult for
the media to say anything. I mean, how long are
you gonna last?

Speaker 1 (01:20:12):
Right?

Speaker 4 (01:20:12):
No, we don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:20:14):
No, you're right, This show and shows like it also
may succumb to it. I will say that here's how
these two things come together, because we, I think appropriately
can label the Epstein thing as absolutely unimportant relative to
the other stuff that's going on without disrespecting the victims

(01:20:36):
of this horror that went on for way too long, and.

Speaker 4 (01:20:39):
It's only important because of there's victims.

Speaker 1 (01:20:42):
But here I would just float this to you. If
this thing, which as I say, it cuts through because
sex scandals do, and this is particularly loathsome because it
involves children and it's just grotesque and im moral and horrifying.
And if the linkage to Trump is such that it

(01:21:05):
undercuts his power politically, if he starts to take on
political water, that's where these two things come together. Now,
the problem, and you've just alluded to it, is even
if Trump hypothetically were to take on political water and
all the charisma and all the accusations and all the
anger wasn't able to unload that political water. There's still

(01:21:28):
so much momentum between what he's done and who he's
appointed and the project twenty twenty five authors like Russell
vote that this thing, this machine, may just function on
its own. The Nazification, the authoritarianism that has already taken
hold in America may just function even without Trump having

(01:21:50):
to be the teflon don that he's been up to
this point.

Speaker 4 (01:21:55):
Well, I just hope that it backfires, you know, I've
that's been my hope. I don't want to give up
all optimism, but I think that the American public will
resist a dictatorship, and at the polls they will resist.
And we'll see what happens in the in the midterms.

(01:22:18):
But even after the midterms and the in the the
next elections, JD. Vance really going to be able to
carry on what Trump has done. I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:22:26):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:22:27):
I mean, I would look for the next over the
not this year, but the next after the next two
years' I'd start looking for, uh, Donald Senior to be
pushing Donald Junior as his successor.

Speaker 1 (01:22:41):
Wow, that's the that's the authority, that's the authoritarian playbook,
that's the you know, that's the dictator's playbook, right, Yeah,
Cousin Eerie shows the question is who will Advance pick
to be his VP. I don't know that's skipping way
ahead in the movie. I don't know that we're going
to even get there. This is interesting. Let me just

(01:23:03):
click you back. But there is a lot of this.
Barry says in a super chat, why didn't Marick Garland
look into the Epstein Trump matter? Well, Hey, Merrick Garland
didn't really do much. He was asleep at the switch.
You know, you had a violent coup attempt, and Merrick
Garland didn't even go after the true perpetrator of that

(01:23:24):
with any kind of real zeal. I think he slept
on the document's case that he had against Trump, which
was clearly the one that you could have really done
something I think quite convincing and quite final with. But anyway,
to Jim Avola, why didn't Merrick Garland look into the
Epstein Trump matter? Let me just say this before you

(01:23:44):
remark on this. The suicide or the suicided part of
the Epstein end happened on Trump's watch. The arrest and
the incarceration while he awaited trial of Epstein happened on
Trump's watch. So it was Bill Barr who was the

(01:24:07):
attorney general, not Merrick Garland. So Barry, all I would
say is I think they're popular. There are high profile
people on both sides, Democrats, Republicans, and leaders all around
the world who were involved with Epstein, and I think
that has a lot to do with the fact that
it was hands off of this Epstein case. But let's
not confuse things. It started under Trump and he covered

(01:24:30):
the suicide. He covered the Epstein situation during his presidency.
The timeline covered that. So now, Jim speak to Berry.
Why didn't Marick Garland look into the Epstein Trump matter.

Speaker 4 (01:24:42):
It wasn't in his jurisdiction at the time. He wasn't
in charge when you know, and don't forget Epstein was
prosecuted or was waiting prosecution when he either was killed
or committed suicide. So it wasn't like the Justice Department

(01:25:02):
wasn't wasn't doing not doing anything. They were, well, it
wasn't Garland at the time, but you know, there were
moves against him. He got up, he got in trouble
in Florida where he got a small handslap and then
you know this case here which his compatriot is now facing.

(01:25:24):
Those are those are bigger cases, and I think some
information could come out of those, But you know, there
was no I don't know where you're asking about the
room to prosecute. I mean he was charged. He was
a waiting trial.

Speaker 1 (01:25:40):
Right, right, he was charged in a waiting trial. I
think the bigger question is, you know, why wasn't there
a more throw investigation into his prison suicide. I think
the answer to that is associated with the cover up,
And that's why I say it happened under Trump's watch.
The cover up was complete, one guard was away. Why

(01:26:00):
was the roommate, you know, or the cellmate taken out
of the cell? I mean, a whole lot of stuff happened,
and then there's a three minute gap on the surveillance tape.
I don't buy the suicide story at all. But all
of these things, I think relate to the way in
which the stink of Epstein was on Trump and also

(01:26:23):
on high profile Democrats as well, high profile Wall Street figures,
et CETERA depressed Canadian says, the midterms are assumed to
be free and fair, Jim, but the GOP is not
yet behaving like it's even scared of the midterms. You
have any anxieties about the way in which the midterms
will be conducted?

Speaker 4 (01:26:43):
Sure? I mean, how are you not he's demonstrated that
he doesn't respect the system and that he will manipulate
as much as he can. And I think that that's
why it needs to be an overwhelming uh resistance to
where he can't just brush it under the rug. Because

(01:27:06):
so he's gonna he's going to fix Texas, right, He's
he's trying to get Texas to have more more congressional districts.

Speaker 8 (01:27:15):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:27:15):
Gavin Newsom says he'll do the same here in California,
just even it out. But there are ways that you know,
as president, he can call for fair elections and claim
that it's not being handled fairly and then go into
some place like Georgia or Florida and change things around.

(01:27:36):
And the Supreme Court has told him that as long
as he's doing it as an active president, and that's
what he's going to say. He said, this is I'm
doing this to protect the elections. I'm doing this as
a president protecting our democracy. He can do anything he wants.
Supreme Court is not to be able to stop him
because they've already given him carte blanche.

Speaker 1 (01:27:55):
I want to ask you, am I worried?

Speaker 4 (01:27:57):
Hell?

Speaker 1 (01:27:57):
Yeah, I'm worried. Yeah, Uh. In our last minute or two,
I want to ask you about immigration, because the immigration
story continues to take on more and more desperate aspects.
Immigration authorities demanding landlords turnover tenant information. Some legal experts

(01:28:17):
and property managers say the demands they reviewed pose serious
legal questions because they're not signed by a judge and
they violate a housing discrimination law. But nonetheless, immigration authorities
are demanding that landlords turn over leases, rental applications, forwarding addresses,
identification cards, and other information on their tenants. This is

(01:28:38):
the Trump administration targeting to assist in mass deportation many
who are living in this country legally in every other way,
but that they are undocumented. This is just one of
the things that's being talked about, Jim. As you know,

(01:28:58):
they just got the green light ICE did to possibly
deport migrants to third countries without assurances that they won't
be tortured. This is according to a memo instructing ICE
employees on how to deport people. So you see this
taking on even darker tones. I wonder if you could comment.

Speaker 4 (01:29:20):
Well, this this third country thing is just absurd that
so you're going to send people to a prison somewhere
in Somalia or Sedan or someplace like that, and that
that virtually has no rule of law as it is,
uh and they're going to house our prisoners. You know,

(01:29:45):
I don't understand what the purpose of it is. He's got.
He's building these places all over the all over the place.
There's one in California, there's one in Florida where you know,
they can hold these folks. And then only that that
he's he's eliminated the judges. So he's mad at them
because they're not the undocumented are not getting through asylum

(01:30:07):
quick enough. Well that's not their fault. The asylum process
takes way too long. And when you cut judges, which
is what he's been doing, then you have, you know,
even a worse problem. So you know what he's done
along with what he's done when there's the same thing
he's done with everything else. He's attacking the institutions and

(01:30:31):
the institutions of a a fair immigration process as being
eliminated as well. You know, we just don't have There
has to be something comprehensive. I keep saying this every time,
and it's not going to happen. We're going to focus

(01:30:54):
on the border. We're going to focus on getting people
out of here who who serve us and who uh
make it so we can eat cheaply and uh and
do all the other things that would that happened that
we use and that nobody else is going to do,
and we're going to get rid of those folks. And
there's been some pushback on him from farmers, which he

(01:31:17):
listened to for a little bit, but then the right
wing went crazy again and and he's pulled back on that.
So you know, he's really gotten himself into a tough
place because you know, the when I was covering immigration
on a daily basis, the biggest, one of the biggest
proponents of some kind of immigration system that allowed workers

(01:31:41):
was the Chamber of Commerce, you know, the United States
Chamber of Commerce. Are these are Republicans, you know, who
need who need people to work for them, who need
their businesses, need these folks, and they were always for
a fair some kind of fair system that would allow
people to come in and work for a certain amount

(01:32:04):
of time, open up the number of people who are
allowed to do that, a pathway to citizenship if you
keep your nose clean. Those type of things need to
be incorporated or for order for US. They have.

Speaker 1 (01:32:19):
Have a system sure, sure and works. Yeah, yeah, it's
interesting just on this. Just to round this off, there
is pushback. Trina rail Muto. She's the executive director of
the National Immigration Litigation Alliance. She's involved in federal lawsuit
challenging the deportations of migrants to countries other than their own.
She says, quote, this policy blatantly disregards the requirements required

(01:32:40):
by statute, regulation and the Constitution. She says that this
ICE memo means that they'll be quote no process whatsoever.
When the government claims to have credible diplomatic assurances for
immigrants who are to be deported to third countries. Those
assurances quote are unlawful because they don't protect deportees from
persecution or torture at the hands of nons state actors,

(01:33:01):
and because they violate legal requirements establishing that they be
individualized and that migrants have the chance to review and
rebut them. She also criticized the government for not publicly
sharing what countries it has obtained diplomatic assurances from and
what those countries got in exchange. The rest of the policy, says,
is quote woefully deficient. Quote It provides a mere between

(01:33:22):
six and twenty four hours notice before deportation to a
third country, which is simply not enough time for any
person to assess whether they would be persecuted or tortured
in that third country, especially if they don't know anything
about the country or don't have a lawyer. You see,
there is pushback on this. That's the legal pushback, but
as you suggested, Jim, there may just be a reality

(01:33:44):
pushback because deporting all of these people who are critical
to the American economy that may not be tolerated even
by his own constituents and his supporters on the GOP side.

Speaker 4 (01:33:55):
Yeah, they've got to rain some of that in. I mean,
you know, one, because he promised to deport criminals, but
that's not what he's doing, you know, And they ran
out of criminals, and so they're they're going after the
people who are here. Some of them are here legally
waiting asylum hearings. Some of them have been had their

(01:34:16):
there's their cases disposed of. So you know, they they
just don't respect the law, and you know, it's it's
it's gonna it's going to I can't say this as
firmly as I used to, but I think it will
bite back in them.

Speaker 1 (01:34:35):
We'll see, Yeah, you have. Somebody asked if you're reconsidering
your thirty to thirty.

Speaker 4 (01:34:40):
Five always been in this country thirty idiots.

Speaker 1 (01:34:45):
Yes, somebody asking if you've recalibrated on that thirty to
thirty five percent idiots.

Speaker 4 (01:34:50):
Oh, I think after the last election. I certainly recalibrated.

Speaker 1 (01:34:53):
Here it is, Trevor says, can we get an update
on Jim's thirty to thirty five percent estimate? Forty nine?

Speaker 4 (01:34:59):
It's like more like forty nine point five percent? Wasn't
what's what he got?

Speaker 1 (01:35:04):
Yeah, the election tells you the percentage. Hey, Jim, feel
better soon, Keep getting better, buddy. We love you, Thank you,
Take care Jim Abbel. Everybody right on, ladies and gentlemen.
I'm a shadows Stevens. This is the Mark Thompson Show.
To be to yourself. What up? Everybody? What a wild show.

(01:35:33):
We've had a lot of stuff going on, a lot
of special people to talk to. Albert. Are we still
on track, sir? To do some Florida? We like to
do it. We have made some adjustments this week because
of the limited time I turned to my rock, my
light in the night. Albert I mean, he's kind of

(01:35:58):
a dim light in the night, but he's a Albert
thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:36:01):
Nonetheless, he's a guidepost, you know, he leads the way.

Speaker 1 (01:36:04):
Yeah. I'm not suggesting that it's a you know, a brilliant,
you know, big candle power or whatever that is light,
but he is our guy, and I feel that he's
made an adjustment here on Florida. Now, Albert, what is
the plan?

Speaker 3 (01:36:20):
Please, We'll just do our one off what I think
is the best Florida story this week, and then we'll
get to the culture Blasters, so we're not ending too
late today.

Speaker 1 (01:36:30):
I love it. This is Friday Fabulous Florida.

Speaker 9 (01:36:34):
It's time for a Friday Fabulous Florida.

Speaker 4 (01:36:39):
All in my kitchen.

Speaker 9 (01:36:45):
Oh look, it's the weirdest stories from our weirdest state.

Speaker 1 (01:36:51):
Florida manic. A Florida manic used of having meth and
taking a key West Conch to train for birthday joy
ride on fourth of July. I mean, oh my god, Yeah,
Florida man celebrating his birthday on the sad Sorry, A

(01:37:12):
Florida man celebrating his birthday and the fourth of July
in jail after cops say he stole a sight seeing train.
What I know it's true. Jonathan Winslow fifty seven, Gosh,
you never age out of stealing sightseeing trains, apparently as
close to sixty years old, and he is accused of

(01:37:34):
driving off on a Conch tour train after he asked
an employee for a tour. There is Jonathan Winslow charged
and we usually have his there's an evaluation as to
what do you think, how would you rate his booking photo?

Speaker 2 (01:37:57):
You have some hair issues. It looks like he's been
pulling up there, but I I'm going to give him
a I agree, I'll go for a seven. He's a
fairly good looking fellow.

Speaker 1 (01:38:08):
Wow. Yeah, I think Kim's got a thing for Jonathan
and Winslow Albert.

Speaker 2 (01:38:13):
Other than the whole meth hair.

Speaker 1 (01:38:15):
You know you just Gordon says a four. Tammy says
a seven.

Speaker 2 (01:38:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:38:20):
IPAYX Studio says five. John Watson gives him an eight.

Speaker 4 (01:38:23):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:38:24):
But officials say that Winslow left his car at the
back of the depot and approached an employee who worked
at the Conch Tour Train company. Winslow asked for a
tour of the trolley and told the employee that he
used to work for the company years ago.

Speaker 2 (01:38:39):
That's why he knows how to drive the train.

Speaker 1 (01:38:41):
Yeah, he deceived the employee and then he got on
the trolley, parked inside a building. That's where the trolley was,
and he drove off with it. Employees tracked down the
trolley told officers that Winslow had picked up two random
passes downtown. While he was driving the trolley, he was

(01:39:03):
giving his own tour on a board. You know, yeah,
I'm one trolley away from giving my own tour.

Speaker 2 (01:39:09):
I wonder how fast that thing goes.

Speaker 1 (01:39:11):
Yeah, I wouldn't think it's a speed demon type offering.

Speaker 4 (01:39:15):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:39:16):
Yeah, his car was still running and rock music was
playing on the radio. Is noted from the arrest report.
When police found it behind the Conch Tour train depot.
When questioned by law enforcement, here's the meth part of
the story, Winslow spoke rapidly and appeared excited. According to authorities,

(01:39:38):
police say they found a small glass smoking pipe that
contains myth. Yeah, it was in his swimming trunks, which
is where you keep a small glass smoking pipe that
contains myth.

Speaker 4 (01:39:53):
My bad.

Speaker 1 (01:39:54):
I'm sorry they didn't discover it until he was taken
to jail, but the reason this place is fun. There
was no damage done to the trolley, and Jonathan Winslow
is in custody. If you're not watching, let me just

(01:40:14):
tell you that this cone train that we're talking about
is like imagine the Disneyland train with all of those
you know, open air kind of cute like fun rides.
Wouldn't you call it? Is that I'm trying to describe
it to people are just listening.

Speaker 2 (01:40:32):
It's kind of more like a kitty carnival train.

Speaker 1 (01:40:34):
But thank you. That's it. Yeah, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:40:36):
If you're going to go to jail for vehicle theft,
this is I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:40:41):
This is a solid choice of thievery.

Speaker 3 (01:40:44):
Yeah, it looks a lot of fun, but it also
looks like you could run it down yourself. Like I
think authorities that people didn't even need to even drive
to try to stop this trolley car. You just need
to run on board and.

Speaker 2 (01:40:55):
Run alongside it. Pull over.

Speaker 1 (01:40:57):
Yeah, I think that's exactly right. Anyway, All's well, that
ends a conch is pronounced. Yeah, Oh I didn't know that.
Why do I need Murphy Rowand to correct me? Did
you know that, Kim? I did know that you did?
Or you did not. I did know that you did,
but you didn't want to correct me. No, why why?

(01:41:20):
Why is that? Because you correct everything?

Speaker 2 (01:41:23):
Because I think it's pronounced both ways, and't you know?

Speaker 1 (01:41:25):
Oh it's pronounced both ways.

Speaker 2 (01:41:27):
Thank you, he's technically correct.

Speaker 1 (01:41:33):
Well, now everybody's jumping on the correction.

Speaker 3 (01:41:36):
I had no idea I would have. I read it
and I sent it as conch.

Speaker 1 (01:41:40):
Well, thank you, I did.

Speaker 5 (01:41:42):
Would you like to apologize for what you know?

Speaker 1 (01:41:44):
I don't. I stand corrected, but I didn't know that
it was.

Speaker 4 (01:41:51):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (01:41:51):
Anyway. That's Friday Fabulous Florida for today.

Speaker 9 (01:41:55):
This has been Friday Fabulous Florida.

Speaker 4 (01:42:00):
Gigantic alligator in my kitchen, y'all.

Speaker 1 (01:42:05):
Come back now here. I have the culture blaster. I've
got to get him settled. In the meantime, smash the
like a button and culture blaster neckt on The Mark
Thompson Show. I know fin excited, Felix and your soul
The Mark Thompson Show, Mark.

Speaker 7 (01:42:28):
Thompson, man with your iron.

Speaker 2 (01:42:43):
Yes, here's the reason this place is fun.

Speaker 8 (01:42:56):
You've never been a man chimes commis party name you
cannot send. You love your country.

Speaker 4 (01:43:07):
There's always been in this country. Thirty idiots. Where are
my weak smokers at angry?

Speaker 1 (01:43:18):
And you a lot them benefits?

Speaker 2 (01:43:20):
Serious, this is no summer.

Speaker 1 (01:43:30):
Right on, right on. Shout out to our Patreon and
PayPal supporters who make this show happen. As noted, the
loss of Colbert, the likely loss of the Daily Show,
loss of a lot of independent media. It will be
followed by the loss of other dissenting voices. We always

(01:43:54):
worry about our ability to keep things going and even
the reality of being suppressed in the algorithms of YouTube.
So I thank you and a big shout out to
our Patreon and PayPal supporters. If you want to join
that crew, you can go to our website, the Mark

(01:44:15):
Thompson Show dot com, and their click through is to
Patreon or PayPal. But you don't even have to go
to the website. Their click through is to Patreon and
PayPal under all of the videos, Albert, diligently, under all videos,
you put that link to our Patreon and PayPal pages,
don't you, Albert.

Speaker 3 (01:44:35):
Everyone it's it's a hard and tedious process.

Speaker 1 (01:44:40):
Albert, thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:44:41):
Where I just have the copy and paste it from yeah,
previous videos, but there they are in all videos and
you could find it in every single one of our videos.

Speaker 1 (01:44:49):
So yeah, we have processes, approach, calls, and standards. We
do not hard to find. Yeah, Michael Snyder, are you now?
You need it louder? Okay, you want it louder. Still, sir,
you might have to leave the studio to go get Snyder.
It puts me in a bad mood. And I don't
understand why you can't just come into the studio without

(01:45:10):
being this diva that you are. We have to go
out and get you in the common area and then
you come in with your coffee and your laptop and
all this stuff. It's not I shouldn't have to do that, Michael.
I wonder if you'd like to say anything in your
defense before we start.

Speaker 8 (01:45:26):
I would have been here sooner, but I was hunning
around for the Coachella Valley coffee in the green room
that I was promised, and I could not find the
cold brew.

Speaker 1 (01:45:34):
He is a wondrous student of all media, music, movies, television, streaming.
Let me tell you the guy has been writing for
major publications for years. He himself a writer of screenplays.
We have him on Fridays with a review of what's

(01:45:54):
going on in the streaming and television and film world.
He comes and goes on a rainbow, the great culture blaster,
Michael Snyder.

Speaker 8 (01:46:07):
Everyone how humbling to follow the trivialities of Friday Fabulous Florida.
All kidding aside, it's an honor to be on the
same program as the likes of the esteem Jim Avola
and the eloquent Anthony Davis.

Speaker 1 (01:46:19):
You know, Mark is a Warriors devotee.

Speaker 8 (01:46:21):
I wasn't a big fan of Anthony Davis when he
was on the Lakers that but ever since he was traded,
I cannot get enough of him.

Speaker 1 (01:46:28):
That is a reference to the great basketball player now
finds himself. He's on the Pelicans, is on there is
that where he is a commission I think he's in
New Orleans.

Speaker 3 (01:46:37):
He was in that infamous Luka Doncics trade. He's in Dallas.

Speaker 8 (01:46:41):
Oh my goodness. Well that confused the hell out of me.
But it's been a rough couple of days. What do
you expect, especially with the news of CBS Paramount's cancelation
of Colbert come next May, it will.

Speaker 1 (01:46:52):
Be the truly Late Show rip.

Speaker 8 (01:46:55):
You know, they don't want any dissenting voices out there.
You're You're so right that Project twenty two twenty five
has got the country and.

Speaker 1 (01:47:02):
A death grip. But I know that that means nothing
to you.

Speaker 8 (01:47:06):
Really, because you're excited about your merchandise. I mean, as
far as I'm concerned, the best thing about it is
that I could now tell someone who annoys me to
put a Mark Thompson Show sock in it.

Speaker 1 (01:47:17):
That's it. The socks are show us the socks. I'll
show you the socks, and I will just say that,
you know, I'm gonna get you if I knew you'd
wear them, I'd get you a pair of them. I mean,
you're kind of in the Kim category. Look, kim Is,
you know she can't say enough disparaging question of all things,
but you're more supportive. But the socks are pretty terrific.

(01:47:37):
They look good.

Speaker 8 (01:47:38):
They look good for those of you who are on
the YouTube feed, yeah, you can see that they are
a high quality product. But I'm all about my Mark
Thompson's show mug. That's all I've ever needed, And as
long as it has Coachella Valley Coffee in it, I'm
a happy camper.

Speaker 1 (01:47:52):
Anyhow, Mark Kim wants to say something, Oh he disparaging.

Speaker 2 (01:47:55):
I did say that I'd like the card again, I
like the zip up featured here.

Speaker 1 (01:48:00):
She wasn't everything a fan of the socks considering the stale.

Speaker 8 (01:48:09):
America this is this is happy talk idiocy.

Speaker 1 (01:48:13):
Let's get on, Let's.

Speaker 4 (01:48:14):
Get only reason I'm here is because you are a friend.

Speaker 8 (01:48:17):
It is so great to be back in Los Angeles,
especially since this weekend has a couple events I'm looking
forward to attending before we get to the movies. One
of these is the latest multi artist opening at Corey
Helford Gallery on Anderson Street in the Warehouse District this
Saturday night from seven to eleven. I love the gallery.
It frequently showcases pop surrealism, and as a pop culture

(01:48:39):
fiend I have, I've been thrilled at their themed group
showed tributes to everything from Hello Kitty and the Mattel
Toy Company to the influential comic book Artistan.

Speaker 1 (01:48:50):
That's kind of an interesting idea that Mattel did. I
see that? Yeah, I did.

Speaker 8 (01:48:56):
A massive anniversary party was great, really big deal though.
Is Sunday the twentieth anniversary of the Grand Old Echo
Concert series at the Echo Nightclub in Echo Park, of course,
on Sunset Boulevard. Grand Old Echo is devoted to Americana,
which is the blend of folk, country and roots rock
music I love so much. It's guest curated by Kim

(01:49:17):
Grant and Liz Garow, a couple of the original producers
and bookers of the Grand Old Echo, and the anniversary
bash will be headlined by the wonderful adulcet voice, Queen
of La Americana. And you've had her on the show,
Mark Leslie Stevens. One was her favorites and Gwendolen smoke
Hollar the heartstring.

Speaker 1 (01:49:36):
It's going to be great.

Speaker 8 (01:49:37):
I did want to get all that in and let's
get down to brass tacks, shall we?

Speaker 1 (01:49:41):
Yeah, I think that's idea.

Speaker 4 (01:49:43):
Everything is going extremely well.

Speaker 8 (01:49:44):
Okay, let's kick it off with you know, I have
the Little Mega Culpa, the new reboot of I Know
What You Did Last Summer is a horror franchise and
it's coming back as of today in theaters. And I
could either see that movie or the new film by Ariast,
the esteemed director, a movie called Eddington, and I went

(01:50:07):
for Eddington because I Know What they did last Summer.

Speaker 1 (01:50:10):
I saw the earlier films.

Speaker 8 (01:50:12):
What do we need to see another one for anyway,
one thing is for certain about filmmaker Ariaster. He is
not afraid to take chances to be bold. Of course,
that can be risky too. His first two major motion pictures,
Hereditary and Midsummer, were stunning examples of what's known as
elevated horror. I mean Astor's ability to generate dread in

(01:50:33):
these films nothing short of bone chilling. But his most
recent movies bo Is Afraid and this new one, Eddington,
are less effective because he just tries to do too much. Interestingly,
both Eddington and bo Is Afraid star Joaquin Phoenix. For
better or worse, I mean, this guy's greatest gift appears
to be playing misfits that can make you squirm by

(01:50:55):
just watching them. Yeah, Eddington is a period film, by
the way. On that period is very recent, the early
days of the COVID pandemic, specifically May twenty twenty, when
masking and social distancing were considered mandatory for people's health.
So Phoenix plays Joe Cross, the sheriff of a small
New Mexico town, Eddington, which is on the verge of

(01:51:18):
having a high tech business open shop there. If everything
falls into place, so Joe hates and defies the COVID pandates. Meanwhile,
his marriage to wife Louise played by Emma Stone, is
a cold affair, which is kind of hard on Joe
since he'd like to have kids. So at a personal crossroads,
he decides to win the mayorship of Eddington from the

(01:51:40):
local Hispanic American businessman and current mayor, ted Garcia, played
by the ubiquitous Pedro Pascal, who's been in every movie
ever in TV show.

Speaker 1 (01:51:53):
You're right, He's pretty much everywhere.

Speaker 8 (01:51:55):
He's about to shine as one of the stars of
the upcoming Fantastic for A movie, which we'll talk about
next week. Joe is clearly in short fuse mode, which
is exacerbated when the local youths take up placards in
the aftermath of George Floyd's death and start demonstrating in
the heart of Eddington. So something's got to give, and
something does. The cast is blue ribbon, including Austin Elvis

(01:52:18):
Butler in a small but notable role. The cinematography is
I got to call it upper echelon, and there are
scenes that are absolute knockouts, with bursts of like sharp satire,
some brutal action, but the disparate elements, the political and
social strife, the personal angst, the takes on, the digerati,
corrupt business practices, black ops, trickery, and religious cults just

(01:52:42):
don't hold together. Nor does Eddington's lead character, this guy
Joe Cross, inspire much empathy. So Eddington is fascinating and
compelling until it gets lost up its own butt. Still,
an ariaster misfire is more interesting than so many other
features out there, attempt to address the schisms and the
bad faith and actors that are.

Speaker 1 (01:53:04):
Tearing America apart.

Speaker 8 (01:53:05):
As we know, is laudable, even if it comes off
as too massive an undertaking. In Eddington, it's in theaters.
His work is always compelling, you know. But I think
maybe he should get back to horror.

Speaker 5 (01:53:19):
I don't know what this is.

Speaker 1 (01:53:21):
A horror of sortsh yeah, you do. It's too bad.
It seems like a lot of the primordial ooze of
a good movie was there. But laudable is a dang word.
It just doesn't it just I'm not gonna not recommend it.
I just feel like it's a missed You thought it
could have been more. Yeah, or maybe it was just
like I said, too much, Okay, let's go from that

(01:53:42):
to something a little more ridiculous. The shockingly enduring little
blue sprites known as the Smurfs, created in the late
nineteen fifties by Belgian cartoonist Peyo for a comic series
and seemingly with us forever. They're back in Smurfs. Very
creative title.

Speaker 8 (01:54:01):
It's yet another animated and I put this in quotes
romp with the venerable, and I use the term advisedly
intellectual property.

Speaker 1 (01:54:09):
I couldn't have been less impressed. Mark.

Speaker 8 (01:54:12):
You know I'm a big animation You are, Dar, you
know all the voice talent and the entertainment business. And
let me just point out that John Goodman voices Papa
Smurf Wow, who is stolen by Razamel and Gargamel, a
couple of evil wizards. Of course, you know there's always
going to be some evil wizards around what And Rihanna,

(01:54:35):
who they've given top billing to, is voicing Smurf It
but Wow, All of the technical expertise brought to bear
in the interest of creating a fantasy world won't save
a lame, relentlessly silly, yet unfunny script that continues to
lean on the word smurf as a prefixer suffix attached
to normal words for laughs. You know, I'm feeling all

(01:54:58):
smurfed up here right now.

Speaker 1 (01:55:00):
I see.

Speaker 8 (01:55:00):
So when it was over, the only truly blue thing
was my mood. It is in theaters I do up
to point out director Chris Miller has done some cool stuff.
I love Rihanna's shut Up and Drive. I mean she's
a fantastic performer.

Speaker 1 (01:55:13):
And so wait a minute, So, like, is this kind
of like in the category of the first film, that
Eddington film where you said, well, you know it's not awful.

Speaker 8 (01:55:20):
But no, no, no, it's kind of crap.

Speaker 1 (01:55:22):
This is Is this worse? Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:55:24):
Absolutely, No, Eddington is you know, the thought provoking. This
is like mind numbing and you know, so this totally
misses free Listen, here's the voice cast. I mean, they figured,
let's throw as many names as possible in here, and
Pixar doesn't really do that. They get the right voice
for the right job even when they fail. But in
addition to Goodman and Rihanna, Kurt Russell, James Gordon, nick

(01:55:44):
Offerman Nick so good in Sovereign, that film that I
waved about last week, Dan Levy, Amy Sedaris and Natasha
Leone kicking butt in poker Face and then like getting
the paycheck to do the voice of Mama Poo in Smurfs.
Our boy Jimmy Kimmel, who has not been canceled quite yet,

(01:56:06):
does a voice Octavia Spencer. Ah God, what a waste
of talent. Anyway, let's move on to something more interesting,
and again this is the week of mediocrity. I think
finally Dawn has its charms for anybody who gets off
on inside show biz chackanery and loves all things Italian
like I do. I love their fashion, their architecture, their history,

(01:56:29):
their cuisine. Anyway, this is just not up to the
lofty standards of the masterful Italian filmmakers Killeni and Desica,
even if it's a period film partially set in and
shot at the legendary Italian movie studio China Chita, which
is where those guys made most of their films.

Speaker 1 (01:56:48):
Wow, you're really disappointed, because you're such a film historian
kind of person. This still has some interest for me. Okay,
go ahead, finally, gone, go ahead.

Speaker 8 (01:56:58):
But the time is nineteen fifties in Rome, and we
have a newcomer, a young actress from Italy named Rebecca Antnaci,
and she is incredibly appealing as a naive Roman girl
named Mimosa whose sister wants to audition as an extra
in a big Sword in Sandals movie being shot at Cinnachita.

Speaker 1 (01:57:19):
So she comes.

Speaker 8 (01:57:20):
Along with her sister and she's the one that gets
tapped for a featured extra role, and she's caught up
while they're in the orbit of two American movie stars
in town to make this Swords in Sandals epic at Cinnachita,
and those actors are played by the noted and versatile
English rose Lily James, who broke through as a younger

(01:57:42):
aristocrat in Downton Abbey and went on to embody Pamela
Anderson and pam and Tommy.

Speaker 1 (01:57:47):
That is versatility. And Joe kiriy best.

Speaker 8 (01:57:51):
Known as one of the older kids on Stranger Things,
the Netflix horror TV favorite. He's grown up, Let's put
it that way, James plays a pampered, privileged, glamorous, demanding,
and shallow Hollywood leading lady Josephine Esperanto. Cirie is Josephine's younger,
kind of obsequious pretty boy. Co star Sean Lockwood hit

(01:58:12):
the bell.

Speaker 1 (01:58:13):
Yeah, secrets is definitely am.

Speaker 8 (01:58:15):
Okay in this costume drama that brings Mimosa in as
the spotlighted extra and she catches the eye of both
Josephine and Sean.

Speaker 1 (01:58:24):
And then how about this.

Speaker 8 (01:58:25):
There's the always welcome Willem Dafoe in the cast as
art curator Rufo Priori, who is Josephine's best friend in Italy.
So it's packed with talented people. And as the movie
raps with the movie within the movie, the two stars,
the art curator and the innocent novice actress head to
a hoyity toy dy party in a villa and Mimosa

(01:58:47):
gets a look at the more sordid side of the
upper crust. So director and screenwriter Saverio Costanza has previously
worked on the wonderful TV series My Brilliant Friend, and
he brought in the wonderful actress and the narrator of
My Brilliant Friend, Albert Rhorwalker, to play an Italian film
star and finally Dawn. So all the pieces are in

(01:59:09):
place right, but it's hard pressed to measure up to
the movies of the aforementioned Felini, who worked in this
mealu the movie business and society in Italy on a
number of occasions. And yet for me it's sung a
little bit, you know, because it's something I was fascinated by.
The performers were all wonderful. It is in select theaters

(01:59:30):
and available this weekend for streaming on demand.

Speaker 1 (01:59:33):
It's called Finally Dawn. I feel as though it falls
into the same category as some of the other stuff
you've talked about, which is kind of like, there's a
lot good here, it just didn't quite live up to
the expectations that you had.

Speaker 8 (01:59:45):
Well, that would be the case for this in Eddington.

Speaker 1 (01:59:47):
And just a throwaway and.

Speaker 8 (01:59:51):
Speaking of throwaways, and there are some interesting moments to it.
Saint Clair is an overly familiar mix of the avenging
angel killer trope and a young adult soap top line
by resolutely B or C level actors, who are led
by the effectless Bella Thorne as a college girl Claire

(02:00:12):
with a troubled past who has taken it upon herself
to eliminate unsavory types, especially sexual predators. Oh watch out,
this is going to be Epstein all over again. And
also there's Rebecca de Mornay as her foxy grandma. It's
right Rebecca de Mornay is playing a grandmother here, a
former actress who is the Girls Guardian. Ryan Phillippi is

(02:00:33):
also here as a local police detective seeking to solve
a very recent murder. Oh no, another serial vigilante on
the loose. Look, it's not Dexter with boobs, but you'd
be forgiven for saying so. It's called Saint Clair. It
has some interesting moments, but it's you know, it's again
below Eddington and finally Dawn in the grand spectrum of

(02:00:58):
good to bad like theaters and also available for streaming
on demand quickly. I do want to mention we haven't
had a chance to talk about it, but it's out
there and it's a disappointment. The Old Guard to on Netflix,
which is an action fantasy mystery drama about a bunch
of immortal I guess you'd call them avengers who have

(02:01:20):
been around putting down the bad guys for years and
years and years. And it stars the always compelling Charlie
Stern and also features Keiki Lane and various others. Chewaitel
Edge offers in this thing, Uma Thurman plays a villainous
and it would seem to be okay, let's check this
out it's on Netflix. Compared to the first of these movies,

(02:01:42):
which was directed by Gina prince Blythewood who did The
Woman King, which was an OSCAR nominated film, this is
pretty weak stuff. The script and no blythe prince Blythwood,
and a walk back of an important plot point of
the first movie. Leave this kind of toothless in my mouth.
Doesn't like the too, No, it just disappointed the hell

(02:02:02):
out of me. Might that there was the Old Guard one.

Speaker 4 (02:02:04):
I kind of liked it.

Speaker 8 (02:02:05):
Again, it's popcorn, you know, it's a chewing gum for
the brain if you will. Okay, but it was kind
of better than this thing.

Speaker 1 (02:02:13):
What else do you have for us? So great culture blaster.
With limited time.

Speaker 8 (02:02:17):
We have put off talking about television programs. I'm going
to do a rapid fire bunch of quickies here. You know,
the fourth season of The Bear on FX Hulu and
what might be the final season or at least you know,
it seems like the Endgame to Squid Game on Netflix
are available for watching, and they're both worth your time,
and you know, we can elaborate at some point, but

(02:02:39):
I'd like to talk briefly about Stick. Stick Is on
Apple TV. Plus and it stars Owen Wilson as Price k.

Speaker 1 (02:02:46):
Hill.

Speaker 8 (02:02:47):
It's almost done its run, so you know it's still
kind of relevant. Price K Hill is a former championship
level pro golfer whose life, including his marriage, goes to
hell after an ugly incident on the greens back in
the day. But he meets this wunderkind Santi, who is
this uncommonly skilled teen golf whiz and decides to coach

(02:03:07):
the boy to greatness. So this results in a road
trip from tournament to tournament to launch Santy's career, and
along for the ride is Santy's pragmatic mother, his cute
and snarky non binary caddy Price, of course, and Price's
one true friend and former caddy Mits since they're traveling
amidst his bobile home. So the interpersonal elements are funny,

(02:03:31):
sometimes sweet, and even poignant, and the golf aspects of
the series are very well done and it is so
great to see former Bay Area comedian turned actor turn
to groundbreaking podcaster Mark Maren as Mits. And the talent
behind the camera includes some of the folks behind Scrubs
and the movie Little Miss Sunshine.

Speaker 1 (02:03:50):
Courtney Loves Stick. I have only seen it, but I
really liked it. Yeah, it's funny, it's funny, it's charming.
I just want to wrap up with one more note.
I am a big sci fi fan and Star Trek
Strange New World's the best Star Trek series probably since
Deep Space Nine, going back to before when Kirk took
over the Enterprise the previous Captain Christopher Pike, who was

(02:04:13):
depicted in flashbacks in the original series. It's on its third.

Speaker 8 (02:04:19):
Season and I have to say that Anson Mount as
Captain Pike is right up there with Picard Wow, Sir
Patrick Stewart as my favorite Star Trek Enterprise captain. This
is great stuff. This is the young Officer Spock played
here by Ethan Peck, grandson of Gregory Peck.

Speaker 1 (02:04:37):
Wow, and he does a lovely job.

Speaker 8 (02:04:39):
And Rebecca Romain, long thought to be, you know, just
sort of a bimbo model type turned actress, is terrific
as Number one Una, who is the second in command
on this and you know, you put a black wig
on a blonde like that and suddenly her IQ goes
up one hundred points.

Speaker 1 (02:04:57):
Now anyway, I'm just kidding. I'm kidding.

Speaker 8 (02:04:59):
Rebecca rome is great and my big TV Crush Lately
Jess Bush as Nurse Chapel, the young Nurse Chapel. She
was also a character on the original series. You have
the young Ahura, you have the young Scottie, and it's
just so much fun to.

Speaker 1 (02:05:14):
Wink I might jump on this one because most of
the other stuff. I'm an originalist on this. You know,
I grew up with Star Trek the original with a
Shatner and Niemour. You know, Mark, you should watch this. Also,
you get a young Jim Kirk. Oh yeah, I think
he shows up as a you know, in training guy.
I'm telling you, it's a bundle of fun. They even

(02:05:36):
added Carol Kane, the Great Comic Actress this year or
last sure as an engineer. It's on Paramount Plus. That's
the only downside. Paramount is on my naughty list now
after what they did to Colbert. That's pretty rough.

Speaker 8 (02:05:49):
Strange New Worlds works for me. Always a pleasure to
come by. Mark and Star Trek Strange New Worlds. You
can stream it on Paramount Plus. He likes it, really
likes it, says get into it on Apple TV plus stick.
He likes it. He really likes it. Courtney really likes it.
Former champion golfer meets the wonderkin that he coaches, and

(02:06:13):
it really is both poignant, funny and a great watch.
He also mentioned squid games.

Speaker 1 (02:06:20):
He says, this is the last iteration probably of Squid
Game three.

Speaker 8 (02:06:25):
They leave a door open by the way mark by
having a little tag that suggests potentially an American squid game.

Speaker 1 (02:06:32):
It's a Korean set show you Yeah, the fourth season
of The Bear, which is likely to be the last
season of The Bear. He likes that too. I think not.

Speaker 8 (02:06:40):
They have all these dangling plot threads. They're coming back
mark the Old Guard.

Speaker 1 (02:06:44):
Too, with Charlie's Theren and Uma Thurman. He says, Nah
should have quit after the Old Guard One Saint Clair,
the Avenging Angel story, Bella Thorne, Rebecca de Mornay as
the grandmother, Ryan Philippe. What could possibly go wrong? Eh, yeah,
Michael said, Well enough goes wrong that it's sort of
like so so finally Dawn. The Italian pedigree that goes

(02:07:11):
into this offering had created hopes in the culture Blaster
Lily James Joe Kerey, Willem Dafoe, he said, and it
doesn't quite live up to the the pedigree, but the expectation.

Speaker 8 (02:07:26):
I enjoyed watching it, but yeah, you know, you got
to be straight up, it doesn't quite live up to
the standards that were set by the greatest.

Speaker 1 (02:07:34):
Suppressed Canadian says with a twenty dollars super chat, Willem
Dafoe is the Pedro Pascal of character actors. That is fair.
We need a weird sixty something. Get me Dafoe, He said,
why is that true? That is really a great take.
I love your I love your audience. Yeah, I want

(02:07:54):
to see if there's anything else related to that before
I move on. Yeah, finally, uh, Smurfs first, Finally a
dawn not up to the Italian film pedigree, as I
was just saying, but you do get a chance to
see all those actors I mentioned Smurfs, but John Goodman
voicing Papa smurf, Rihanna voicing Smurfette, all of the other

(02:08:17):
actors who wanted a big payday voicing all the other
stuff it misses. Don't waste your time, and he started
with Eddington ari Aster written and directed, Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Bascal,
Emma Stone. He said, Nah, there's just again so much
stuff there that could be good that isn't bad and

(02:08:40):
even is a little thought provoking, surely, but you just
you really are. You're doomed by your own expectations. Culture
Blaster in this case, that's that's absolutely true. You really
want a lot and somehow you get it. Sounds to
me like that was a maybe a B minus or B.
I would say C plus B minus. Look, Astor is

(02:09:01):
a true original. I'm glad that he's out there making movies.
Maybe the next one will be up to the standards
of his first two. Michael, I like to read your
stuff in addition to hear your stuff, and I can
read it at the Voice sf dot org. The Voice
sf dot org is where you can read the culture Blaster.
If you like a culture Blaster when he's speaking, you'll

(02:09:23):
love him when he's writing. By the way, if you
hate him when he's speaking, what a great thing that
you can just read without having to listen to himself.
I'll dare you, you know, I can't believe it's go giants.
Oh my god, bye bye. Michael. We adore you, We
adore you. I cannot be ever disabused of my great

(02:09:48):
Mark Thompson Show, Albert kim Let me just quickly acknowledge
a couple of important things to acknowledge in the comments.
Depressed Canadian says depressed Canadian, thank you for all the
super chats today. Colbert being canceled is reminiscent of the

(02:10:10):
Smothers Brothers being canceled during Nixon. Wow, that is a
great reference and I've not heard that reference from anyone.
During the Vietnam War, the Smothers Brothers had a hit
show on CBS. It was canceled. It was largely canceled
because they were just too controversial.

Speaker 2 (02:10:29):
Did they get into politics with that show?

Speaker 1 (02:10:31):
Big time into politics, big anti war. There's a big
anti war movement in America at the time. A friend
of the show and former guest, Carl Gottliebo, also is
the scribe of the movie Jaws. He wrote Jaws back
in the seventies. He was a writer on The Smothers
Brothers show, and he talks about that, and I believe

(02:10:51):
in one of our conversations he spoke about that. The
fact that they were canceled during the Knicks administration. It
was really the thought of as a bow to pressure
from the network. Rest in Peace, La County Sheriff's Department.
There was an explosion at the La County Sheriff's Department
office today. Thank you Jim eating for that. We didn't

(02:11:12):
get to really discuss it.

Speaker 2 (02:11:15):
It was it a training facility and three people died.

Speaker 1 (02:11:19):
Really brutal, really really brutal. And from the brutal to
the wild reference I believe, to the Coldplay concert. That's
probably a chaplain Fred with a five dollars super chat saying,
don't look at me. I didn't marry those people. Happy Friday. Yeah,

(02:11:41):
and a random advice on the kiss cam at Coalplay concerts.
Avoid the kiss cam at Coalplay concerts, as was there
that would have been advice better landing maybe the night
before the Coldplay conscert.

Speaker 3 (02:11:57):
I mean, what are the chances though? There's so many people,
of thousands of people in the crowd, and they choose
that couple, it's got to be.

Speaker 1 (02:12:05):
Yeah, that was a bad luck. But life is filled
with bad luck, you know, Vilma says with a five
dollars super chat, Thank you, Vilma A. But Lincoln always
said quote, if we America falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves so wonderfully said
by an incredible president. Right Barry with a five dollars

(02:12:30):
super Chat, says, after listening to Mark and Anthony, I
think I will get back on prozac from twenty sixteen
to twenty twenty period. Yeah, look, we give it to
you straight man. I don't give you the hopium. I
don't give you the optimists. I'm such an optimist. I
love optimism, but it's much more effective when it's fundamentally

(02:12:51):
tethered to realism west theory. With a five dollars super chat,
ask chat GBT quote, what would happen if billionaires paid
the middle class tax? Now that's a great, great thing
to ask chat GPT Richard Delemator the five dollars super chat. Thanks,
my friend. Anthony always tells the hard truth. That's why
I watch his show. That's why I watch this show. Yeah,

(02:13:14):
I like this show more than his show. Thank you. Well,
you can watch this show and his show. But first
watch this show. Wait a waite, go back to I
wasn't finished with it. So Anthony always tells the hard truth.
That's why I watch this show. What just admit game over?
The end is near. I don't know, Richard, if the

(02:13:36):
end is near, but I still and this will come
maybe as a surprise to you giving him some of
what I've said. I still have some faith in our
ability to push back, but that might be my normalcy bias.
I've told you before. I kind of have that, but
I and I also just have to resist. The end

(02:13:58):
is near is really a dark thought. So I think
the end has already come and gone on like many things.
But when you say the end, that becomes a different question.
Nicholas Buttman, thank you of a two dollars super chat.
Johnny Carson's angry ghost should haunt Trump over the cancelation
of Colbert. Thank you, Nicholas. Laughing got canceled due to

(02:14:20):
an anti war Yeah, oh, somebody else suggesting a laugh
in Smothers Brothers. I don't know if laugh In was.
I didn't remember that. If that's true, I know Smothers
Brothers was canceled because of Vietnam and anti war material
making its way increasingly into the Smothers Brothers comedy sketches

(02:14:40):
and all of their remarks, and that I think was
vexing to the Nixon administration. I don't know about Laughin,
but maybe you're right. Um Let's Midas Touch wrote Colbert
a letter inviting him to do his show on their platform,
says Maggie. That's interesting. I mean again, I don't know
if that that's who knows, that might be the way

(02:15:03):
it goes. I really don't And this on Friday, Fabulous
Florida Catch and Jam says, I remember on Heart to
Heart one episode they had had a chase in golf
carts with the dramatic chase music. I love the idea
of it chasing. I'd love to talk to you Culture
Blaster sometime about the best chase sequences. You know, you

(02:15:25):
could rank, you could give us some examples. Well, you
know one would We don't have the time. But I'm
a San Franciscan bullet bullet, Yeah, I get it. So
but but there are others besides bullet. Yeah, but yo,
Johann says, uh, I just started to look at the
show just arrived. About the socks and Kim and Mark Mark,

(02:15:48):
would you wear underwear with Kim's name on it? You
know we have? I would? Why wouldn't I? Why wouldn't I?
I'm serious, Why wouldn't I? I don't understand Kim on a
lot of levels.

Speaker 2 (02:15:58):
To be perman, that's not your name on the socks.
It's just you know it's.

Speaker 1 (02:16:01):
Not Plus, it's not my name, it's the show we
do together. It says the Mark Thompson Show show. It's
not my name, Mark time, And I get it. The
show's call that, But that's because the only reason the
shows call that is because that's the show we did
in San Francisco, and we took the show over here.
I would love to wear I'll tell you what I'll do.

(02:16:22):
I'll wear underwear with Kim's name on it if she
can just send them.

Speaker 2 (02:16:25):
Kim, all right, that'd like to have the maide or
self embroider them.

Speaker 1 (02:16:30):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (02:16:31):
Plus, I don't think Courtney would like that.

Speaker 1 (02:16:33):
Judy says herbal t is steeping for the after Party Live.
I hope I can stay away. Well, that's great, Kim
does the Afterbardy Live, Bud. Dosn't she send me some
after party live? Mark at the zero.

Speaker 2 (02:16:44):
Would be great?

Speaker 3 (02:16:45):
But also it's is it is like an invitation or something.

Speaker 1 (02:16:50):
For Yeah, yeah, it could be a little it's a
little too provocative, you think. Zero Sum says there'll be
many shows shut down on TV and the internet and
radio as well. The regime is just getting started with
purging decency. Spooky times ahead. Oh, with purging descent, is
what you're saying. I see, okay, so any descent will
be purged. Well, I completely agree with that. So sadly,

(02:17:15):
I'd like to argue with you, and I'd like to
argue for goodness and niceness winning. That's the way it
is in the movies. Goodness and niceness wins. But in
real life, maybe something different. Michael d says, I propose
putting Kim at Albert's name at the toe end of
the socks in the next production.

Speaker 2 (02:17:35):
We're gonna ad.

Speaker 1 (02:17:37):
Yeah, I gotta add Tony. Yeah, Tony would be here. Yeah,
Tony Man. People have big plans for the socks. All right,
Thank everybody. Great week, A lot going on. We try
to get in as much as we could. You know,
we have limited time with some great guests thanks to
Anthony Davis again, the Jim Abbola again to all of
our guests this week. Next week we have more I

(02:17:59):
think some special guest joining us next week and Kim
hosting the show on her own next Thursday and Friday. Yeah,
I believe is it next week or I think I
next show here anyway, after Party Live next and Shadow
If you would please for the weekend.

Speaker 5 (02:18:18):
I'm Shadow of Stevens for the Mark Johnson Show.

Speaker 1 (02:18:21):
Bye Bye, Kim's over only after Putty Live Station by
all the time, Bye bye, Thanks everybody, have a good weekend.

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