Trump says DOJ Owes him $230M — & He’s the One Who Gets to Approve the Payout 10/22/25 - The Mark Thompson Show

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, thank you all for your recorded attulation on this
wonderful episode, which is packed with information that you. I
promise you there's stuff in here, some stuff that you
did not know about. So we will share with you that,
and we'll also share your outrage and discussed as to

(00:22):
what is happening with a government that is completely and
totally in control of one man, and that one man
has some very strong views related to the rest of
the world and related to his own self enrichment, and
we'll detail, we'll detail. Now you're wrong. The self enrichment

(00:44):
is not a ding word. It is enrichment is not
and then you add self to it. Just you know,
is it a hyphen it? I don't know, but my
point is just not dingable. So wherever you are, however
you are, thank you for joining us, Thank you for
taking us in. We are a live show two hours
a day, two to four in the East, yeah and

(01:07):
uh eleven to one in the West. And if you
are as most people are watching in delay or listening
in delay, welcome, Really cool to have you here. We
are an audio podcast as well across iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
anywhere that better podcasts are offered. You will find us,

(01:32):
and we hope that you will subscribe and make us
a part of your routine in some way. I wanted
to quickly recognize. First into the chat was I believe Tammy? Yeah? Nice,
Happy Wednesday, She says, as long as a solid greeting.
Zero sum is very early into the chat with a

(01:53):
lot of stuff, and Dirk Diggity with the news that
P Diddy is scheduled for a free off to christen
the Epstein Ballroom at the White House. Wow, what a
great plan. Thank you Dirk. Again, citizen journalists here providing
us with the information the ballroom. So excited are they there?

(02:16):
That why they started the demolition of the old White House.
You know that dingy dumpy White House. I mean, it's
full of a history. Aren't we over history? We're rewriting
it anyway, Why do we need to worry about it?
You know the historians are gonna kim. Historians pore over
the plans. You can't break this thing because it was

(02:37):
put up by Thomas Jefferson. You can't break this thing
because Abraham Lincoln was involved. You can't you end up
with this. It's like a committee typical probably DEI liberal committee.
Where you have to wait and respect all of these
historical things to this place, the White House, when you

(03:00):
could just tear the damn thing down and build this
effing ballroom that's gonna have a little pop and a
little Las Vegas in it, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
I mean, the next thing, you know, they're going to
be worried about some endangered species that's outside.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, thank you, thank you. You get it. Steer it down.
You got to get this thing finished in time for
that big WWE event or what is it an MMA event? Tony?
What are they holding on the White House lawn for
July fourth? On the UFC looks so cool.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
It's Trump's so cool, Trump's birthday wrestling.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
The UFC event exactly having.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
A party, birthday party, wrestling party.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
The Yeah, the big UFC wrestling party. Thank you. Seal
the Shoemaker had it as well. The last time it
was destroyed this much, says Santi, was when the British
did it in eighteen twelve. Yeah, it does have a
This is the artist conception of what the White House
will look like on is it July fourth? Is that
when they're going to do it, Tony? I thought it

(04:01):
was to coincide with the July fourth festific it was
part of the whole two fifty I think, yeah, okay, yeah,
so that's where you'll have the octagon there and people
collected and the UFC fighters. Wow, it is ain't your
dad's It ain't your father's USA anymore. So that is

(04:23):
a bit of what's happening in Washington, but along the
same lines and kind of in relation to what was
suggested by our one commenter. The White House pushing back
on a report that President Trump is mulling over whether

(04:44):
to pardon Sean Diddy Combs or not. First of all,
he doesn't mull over things. Okay, you're asking a question.
He just reflexively, so we'll make it a decision. I
believe that he's not mulling anything over. I'm sure he's
being advised. But anyway, as you know, Sean Diddy Combs

(05:04):
is right now serving four years in prison on prostitution
related convictions. That's in New York. But TMZ they're reporting
that Trump is considering commuting his sentence. The White House
again denying that report, saying no truth to it. But

(05:26):
TMZ stands by its story.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
So that is high ranking officials say, yep, this is happening.
I wonder if there's anyone telling Trump, listen, stay away
from commuting any sentences or giving any pardons to people
who've been convicted for sex trafficking, like those are those
are those are cases you just want to stay away
from right.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
Now, I don't think that there are too many people
telling Trump to stay away from or to do or
not do anything. Donald Trump, I believe, is pretty well
on his own. He's acting as a maverick actor in
the White House, and he's mostly concerned with grievance. He is,

(06:13):
you know, everything you don't want to be when you
get to be an older man, which is like angry,
full of revenge. Everything is, you know, seen through the
lens of who wronged me and how can I get
back to them? And who wants to be that person?
But that has to find a lot of who he is.
And now that he's in power, he's pursuing all of

(06:36):
his enemies. He's making these decisions on pardons and commutations
without regard to their actual effects. And to your point, he's,
you know, I think on the doorstep of commuting or pardoning,
commuting the sentence or pardoning Glenn Maxwell as well. So
he's already pardoned, and we've talked about this before, but

(06:58):
I'll just remind everyone, and he has pardoned or issued
commutations with the codicil or the addition that there be
no reparations paid to victims. So that's effectively a pardon
major white collar criminals. So we're talking about tens of

(07:19):
millions of dollars even in some cases hundreds of millions
of dollars that have been defrauded from banks, other Americans,
institutions of one sort or another. And George Santos the
latest example. George Santos took the credit card numbers of
those who had donated to either his campaign or to

(07:41):
different efforts in his district. This is while he is
a sitting representative, and he used those credit cards to
pay for various things that he wanted, you know, everything
from you know, I don't know, there were cosmetic a
lot of cosmetic things sciated with you like the botox

(08:01):
injections and fillers and that kind of stuff and clothing
and travel and you know, so, I mean, that's just
out not fraud. Right now, the Trump family is familiar
with this because they so defrauded a charity that they
were barred in the state of New York from ever
doing any kind of charitable work of running a charitable

(08:22):
organization in New York. I mean, that's how much they
defrauded a child's cancer charity. So it's not as though
Donald Trump, I guess, doesn't know how this stuff works.
And he sees another fraudster in the case of George Santos,
and again he was pardoned. That's why, just to mention Trump,
I don't mean to be Trump centric, but he is

(08:43):
the president of the United States, and he's doing a
lot of stuff that's really pretty unprecedented. So pardon me
for spending a second on him. But when Donald Trump says,
I'm suing the government for these witch hunt cases for
two hundred and thirty million dollars, and of course those
who will be deciding on that are all and we'll

(09:05):
talk more about this in a bit, are all connected
to Trump. He has power over them, the Todd Blanches
of the world. People at a justice department, they're going
to decide. So he and he's I'm not going to
keep the money. I'm going to donate it to charity,
or maybe it'll go into paying for the ballroom.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
It's right, that's the new charity.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
That's taxpayer money. You and I now are paying into
Donald Trump's pockets. And I know it's not going to charity,
because nothing goes to charity with Donald Trump. He says
it goes to charity, and then it doesn't. He's done
veterans' organizational charity work and they've never received the check.

(09:45):
And that's been documented in the Washington Post. Google it.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
No shame.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
I told you about the Child's cancer charity. And so
now you're going to tell me he's gonna take this
two hundred and thirty million dollars that's from you and me.
He'll take it because he's got the entire government mobbed
up for him. And then he'll donate that to charity.
That'll be the one outlier. I don't think so. I
think that money's finding its way into the Trump organization,
or it's paying for the ballroom, which in my judgment

(10:11):
is just as bad. You said that the ballroom is
going to be paid with private funds. I don't even
know that the ballroom should have been approved, but there
was no approval process. He's just doing what he wants
in the same way that he's demoing part of the
East Wing after saying that he wasn't going to touch
the White House at all for this ballroom construction, and
that's being done without oversight. This is a historical monument.

(10:35):
It is the White House of the United States of America.
That is the seat of executive power. It is steeped
in history. It is not the prettiest house on the block.
It's old, it's vintage, it's magnificent. It is an absolute metaphor,

(11:00):
total demolition of part of the East Wing alongside this
radical notion that you're gonna have a ninety thousand square
foot ballroom put in.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yeah, I don't know why you're whining, Mark, I mean,
you're getting a free ballroom out of it.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
It's a total metaphor for what's happening in America. It
really is so But I'm loving that UFC fight. Can't wait. Yeah,
that'll be fine. I hope they can get that ballroom
done in time. All right, where is where is Congress?

Speaker 3 (11:37):
Run?

Speaker 1 (11:37):
Cook ass? You know Congress is out. But even if
they were in there, out because when it comes to
what President Trump wants, there is no check on his power.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
You mentioned being a bitter old man. You know that
is just looking at everyone who wronged you. Over time,
there's a new person. Now there's another person, a fresh
target being.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
You know. Yeah, I mean, and this guy knows a
lot of where the bodies are buried. He's a I
think he was former CIA director, wasn't he. I mean,
you should know a lot of what's happening. Here's a
little update on the Newsihad. It's against John Brennan, the
former CIA director. Go ahead to me, all right.

Speaker 4 (12:21):
In the latest push, We'll move on to prosecute President
Trump's perceived political foes. The Republican chair of the House
Judiciary Committee, Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio, is asking the
Justice Department to take legal action against former CIA director
John Brennan for allegedly lying to Congress back in twenty

(12:41):
twenty three. In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondie,
Jordan claims that Brennan, who led the CIA during a
probe of Russian interference in the twenty sixteen election, quote
knowingly and willfully made false statements about the agency's use
of the Steele Dosier that it is the largely discredited

(13:01):
collection of memos that alleged ties between President Trump and Russia.
The President has long spoken out against Brennan for his
role in the Russia investigation and the former CIA director's
continued criticism of Trump and his administration. Brennan is also
reportedly under investigation by the DOJ related to the Russia

(13:23):
probe and has denied any wrongdoing. We should note that
John Brennan is an MSNBC contributor Elizabeth B. Miller yet
another focus of potentially Donald Trump's retribution.

Speaker 5 (13:40):
What do you make of this one?

Speaker 6 (13:41):
Well, the names just keep piling up, the people he's
gone after. It's now how many is this about four
or five he's gone after? And I don't you know, Again,
it's unclear exactly if there's any kind of a strong
case here, but if you're Donald Trump, that doesn't matter.
He's just set himself completely openly that it may not

(14:02):
end up in a, you know, in any kind of
a criminal charge or la or a conviction, but it's
it's just to torture his perceived enemies and to put
them through it. It's it's expensive, it's it's it's it's
it's a torturous for the for the person and that's
what he wants to do. He's going to pay back
all of his enemies after what happened to him.

Speaker 1 (14:25):
And so yeah, that's exactly right. And that's the point
we've made repeatedly on this show. And I made the
point to you that if you're taking on the government,
the government has all that taxpayer money, limitless resources, effectively,
and they can ruin your life. So you can never
even end up in court, and you will be bankrupted,
you will be ruined, your career will be ended. These
are all things that will happen and likely can happen

(14:49):
in any number of these court cases. So the simple
beginnings of an investigation can lead to all those things
I just mentioned. In fact, I know people who have
that happen, so I mean it's it can happen to
anyone these I mentioned that I know people, meaning they're
not not everybody's super high profile who suffers that fate.

(15:11):
So when they say, you know, he's well aware of
the fact that he's going after people, and he doesn't
actually need the case to come to trial of any
kind or to be formally adjudicated, it's very consistent with history,
which is just the notion that you'll be involved in
targeted in any kind of investigation from the Justice Department.

(15:33):
That enough can be ruinous. The and there's that's part
of the much bigger conversation when it comes to freezing
assets and all the rest, and when it quickly check
if I can this is chaplain Fred? Anyone get a
chance to see the Lemon comment? Yeah? Did you see
that last night? Kim?

Speaker 2 (15:53):
I didn't see it. Did you see it?

Speaker 1 (15:57):
Tony? Did you see it? The Lemon com Oh? My god,
you guys. I just can't believe. I don't believe it.
I mean, I can't.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
I don't see it.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
Did anybody else see the Lemon comment? Tonio? Find some
pictures of it? But the answer.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
Have another chance for like a gazillion years.

Speaker 1 (16:20):
And whose fault is that? Kim? That's really your No,
it's not. Yeah you I'm really disappointed, Dallette, Dallette said,
and she is an og I will be seventy five tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
Thank you to Mark, Kim Albert and the Courtney for
and she meant Tony too, for doing such a great
job with the merch. I love you all. Oh isn't
that good?

Speaker 7 (16:48):
Dallette?

Speaker 1 (16:49):
She may have the record of the most merch purchased.
She really goes after the merch, which is so cool.
It's a great way to support the show. A lot
of the merch is a lot of fun. So I
have mad respect and gratitude to to let Siegelman Jackson

(17:09):
seventy five dollars into the show a big shout out
her seventy fifth birthday. I know, I feel like I
feel like crying's appropriate, though, but I'll give you my
little girl, thank you so.

Speaker 5 (17:27):
Much, so much.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
I'm so impressed to let good job seventy five. Wow.
You know the thing about getting older is it just
it happened so quickly, and you know, it's funny. I
went on a I was on a panel of young Turks.
This is a few years ago, and at that time

(17:50):
it really was I really felt like the old guy.
I always used to say, they bring the young I
bring the Turks. I used to say, because they were
the young people and I'm like the older prison. And
I said, you guys don't get it. You're young people.
But it was not a show. They do a show
that's nothing about politics, that we're just talking about other stuff.
So that's what it was in that context. And I

(18:11):
said just what happens when you get older is like
one day you wake up and your knee goes out
on you and it's never coming back. That's where you
don't realize that is what aging is. You go, well,
I've got to rehab and i'll get my No, you
can go to rehab and do all that. You'll get
you know, some functionality, but it's not. It's not. And

(18:31):
all of that's happening on a cellular level inside your body,
and you don't know. It feels like the aging process
is like super fast because all of a sudden you
notice something, but it's not happening suddenly. It's slowly happening
in my body, this great body of mind. Everything's being
degraded by the second. And I just think it's exciting

(18:51):
when you make it to seventy five, and eighty seventy
five is not like an age. You have to make
it too. I mean, I feel like that's still not
that old. But that's something else that's about old day
because from now, from where I sit, seventy five doesn't
look like it's that old. I mean, if you talked
a forty year old about seventy five, Wow, But you
know I'm just I constantly reflect on aging, which is
something else that makes you older. So I congratulate you.

(19:16):
I wish you the best dilette, and you are a
wondrous part of our community. So again a shout out
to Dallette. Uh Jim Slayton for ten bucks, he says,
for the P Diddy freak Off party in the new Ballroom,
please make your reservation early. Congressman George Santos will be
heading it up. Wow, George Santos here, kindly provide him

(19:39):
with your credit card information.

Speaker 8 (19:41):
Yeah, it's a little lie between freds.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
Santos had lied about a bunch of stuff. He did
his resume said he'd worked where he hadn't. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
Gid me a lie about somebody in his family being
a victim of the Holocaust.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
That's right, thank you. That's right. He had some Holocaust
tie that was completely fictitious.

Speaker 2 (20:11):
There's some things that you just don't make up. That
probably is one of them, you know, serving in the
armed forces when you haven't there's some things that are
too sacred to lie about. Just don't do it.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
Uh. Chris Wilson go Mark Thompson Show with a two
dollars super chat. Thank you, Chris. Appreciate that we are
alive with the super chats and superstickers and appreciate you.
Jim Slayton says breaking dunder Mifflin wins massive White House
contract for Trump's retributionalists. Yeah, there you go, an office

(20:46):
reference incoming Congrescemans claimed that his grandparents fled the Holocaust,
contradicted by geneology records. After this, yeah, Daryl Leffler says, sorry,
I haven't donated for quite a while, but here's ten bucks.
I love it. Thank you. Big shot out from Darryl Leffler.
Thank you all of you who contributed during the show
and even after the show, and our Patreon and PayPal folks,

(21:07):
thank you so much. We post your names at the
end of every show and by the way, that scroll
at the end of every show. Tony puts that together
once a month, and it seems like the kind of
thing you just add a name to. But that's not
the way it works, right Tony. You have to like
redo everything every time you add a name. Yeah, well,
I have to just rerender it.

Speaker 9 (21:26):
Basically, have to just redo the list every month because
the case in case people change their tier or something
like that, and just just trying to shoehorn all the
names in the time that I have of that credits music.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
You know, that's right, that the credit music is only
so long. I know Tony is just so wonderful to
do it, and so, but we do appreciate so once
in a while when something happens and you know, we
miss a name, or somebody's name drops off or something,
or they move to a different tier, we need you
to tell us, you know. So the way it works
is at the end of every show, and we do

(21:55):
this and then I want to get into something else.
But we do this because these supporters of the show
financially are the reason we're here. Otherwise we just cannot continue.
And so Patreon and PayPal on a monthly basis support
the show. So we want to recognize everybody at the
end of every show, since you're responsible for every show.
So the bigger names that run kind of at the beginning,

(22:17):
they just contributed a little bit more every month, and
some of the other names on the list and smaller names,
et cetera. We're grateful for every single contribution. So Tony
has to work all those in the bigger names and
the font size and the smaller names. And every time,
and as he says, when people change their and upgrade
or whatever they and they go to contribute more, he
has to move them up, et cetera.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
Started as a joke, It's like, yeah, well we'll change
their font size.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
And the more they give and it's like, yeah, oh no, no,
I know it was he started as I still think
it was a good idea, but anyway, I know it
is complicated. Ames on the Bay area of the two
dollars super Chat says, George said his mom died in
the World Trade Center in nine to eleven. Wow, man,
he really he swings for the fences that George Santos,

(23:02):
you know what I mean? He does, uh, you know,
went for the Holocaust thing, He went for the nine
to eleven really high profile stuff is what he goes for.
And so yeah, Norm says it. Thank you to all
the donors. We so appreciate it here on the show.
Right on, all right, moving on, thank you all for

(23:26):
being here. We did want to in addition to in
addition to what we mentioned, which is the latest kind
of focus of the Trump Justice Department, in the kind
of recriminatory, vengeful way in which Trump is using the

(23:46):
Justice Department. That's the John Brennan Formacia director charge. The
suit that he has begun is an interesting one. I
think he wants to sue the government. This is the
government that he controls. So he's suing his own Justice Department,

(24:09):
controlled by those who are functionaries of Trump. Right, the
hambondis of the world. Todd Blanche's former personal attorney is
now number two at the Justice Department. So and indeed
Trump says that I Trump will have final judgment over
the money that should be paid to me as I

(24:33):
sue the government for these federal investigations into my conduct.
They were witch hunts and they were wrong, and he's
owed a lot of money. And then he says, any
decision on a payout would quote have to go across
my desk.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
Wait, so he can say I want two hundred and
thirty million dollars.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
And yes, I can have it exactly. And that two
hundred and thirty million dollars is taxpayer money. It is
paid by you and me, And the idea is government
programs and various decisions that are made in Washington about
where that money should go. We have indirect control over

(25:15):
because we have representatives in Washington that we vote for
and they are supposed to and the House Representatives is
the appropriations arm of government, right they are supposed to
on some level be able to represent our voice. Well,
of course that has been completely derailed, it would seem,
and the control of government is being done by a
party that's totally in control of the President of the

(25:37):
United States, Donald Trump. I mean, you'll remember Joe Biden
had to plead with various members of his party who
are in Congress to vote for his infrastructure packages for
any number of things during COVID that involved everything from
money to policy. He had to remember the getting mansion

(25:59):
and Zenema over. Does anybody remember that that is the
state of the Democratic Party, Joe Biden having to call
and plead and beg and work the diplomacy of Capitol
Hill to get everything done. Not Now, Donald Trump states
what he wants and he gets it. And so the

(26:21):
latest thing he wants is this two one hundred and
thirty million dollars. Now that's money that he feels he
deserves in damages related to the FBI's twenty twenty two
search of his mar Lago property for classified documents and
for a separate investigation into potential ties between Russia and

(26:42):
his twenty sixteen presidential campaign. It's interesting to me that
just on the mar Lago thing, there was this hue
and cry, you remember that on Fox News channel thing,
how can they do this? It's a raid of this
guy's private home. And I mean, first of all, the
arrival of the FBI agents at the Marlago property to

(27:05):
get those documents was preceded by a year and a
half of his receiving letters, emails, communications from archivists from
the Justice Department saying we need these documents back. You
must have taken them in error. They need to be
back in Washington, so you know, please don't make us,

(27:28):
you know, get a subpoena. This is all stuff that
was included in the communications to Trump his lawyers down
there at Marlago, and it was made clear, you know,
if you continue to ignore this, we're going to have
to subpoena to actually take the documents. Then Trump gave

(27:48):
the documents up, but as it turned out, it wasn't
the documents. It wasn't to all of them. Even though Trump,
through his attorneys said I've surrendered all the documents. He
had return so many that it was just clear that
he hadn't surrendered all of them. That was that whole thing.
And there's video to back this up. The Justice Department

(28:09):
has all of this. And then now the Justice Department
isn't the Justice Department now now it is just a
again an arm and an instrument of Donald Trump's wishes.
But all of that was there evidence that he had
moved documents, hidden documents, even had colluded with those who
were involved with the Marlago property to move those documents

(28:30):
to places where the FEDS couldn't find them. So surrenders
the documents, says I've given them all up, hadn't given
them all up. FBI is sent down there after a
subpoena is served saying we know you still retain documents,
we must get them back. And they didn't come in heavy.

(28:51):
I mean they showed up, but they didn't come in
like the way the new administration comes in and does things.
You know, the new administration would have sent repelled out
of black Hawk helicopters in this new Trump world, because
it's all about performative stuff. Heg sets would have been
down there with BONDI we couldn't be sure what's here,

(29:16):
so we're doing the work of the American people all
this sort of thing instead. I mean, to be fair,
these FBI agents went in and there are documents everywhere,
Documents in the bathroom, documents in the bedroom, documents in
the ballroom.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
Didn't Trump know they were coming because he allegedly asked
his staff to move them from.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
The Yeah, yes, exactly. So anyway, that's my recollection of
this entire thing. And you end up now with the
control of all these levers of power. From a Justice
Department standpoint, they're all in Trump's hands, and he is

(29:57):
exercising that power with the kind of I think, a
wilfulness that will likely make it possible for him to
write whatever check he wants to himself. They owe me
a lot of money, that's all I know, he said.
Though the Justice Department has a protocol for reviewing claims

(30:17):
like this, Trump has asserted it's interesting because I'm the
one who makes the decision, right, that decision would have
to go across my desk, he said, And the status
of the claims and any negotiations over them within the
Justice Department not immediately clear. One of Trump's lead defense
lawyers in the mar Lago investigation, Todd Blanche, is now

(30:39):
the Deputy Attorney General of the Justice Department. The current
Associate Attorney General, Stanley Woodward, represented Trump's valet and co
defendant Walt Na in the same case. Remember that's the
guy who was told to move stuff that Kim was
talking about. See if nothing but lawyers who are mobbed
up with the Trump organization and with Trump, they're going

(31:00):
to be the ones deciding on whether he should get
this money. I'm gonna make crazy.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
He's going to get quite a taste for this. Right
first it's two hundred and thirty million, and the next
time he needs money for some you know, pet project,
he'll be like, huh, well, I think the government also
owes me five hundred million for thing X. Sure, guess what,
who's going to say no to me? Nobody work last time,
work again. Might as well just empty out the accounts,

(31:26):
just hand it all over.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
I mean to look the other way on this kind
of corruption while this guy wrecks the economy. It's incredible. Yeah,
in any circumstance, all officials of the Department of Justice
follow the guidance of career ethics officials. A Justice Department
spokesman said, uh, and I will remind you, but I'm
going to ask you those career ethics officials, can you

(31:50):
tell me what happened to that? I mean, if it's
all going to go through career ethics officials, we're okay, right.
Those are objective parties. They're at the Justice Department built
in to evaluate something like this two hundred and thirty
million dollar payout to a sitting president. So those ethics
officials are going to review it all. Apparently anyone know

(32:15):
where they are. They're not in government. They were fired,
of course, when the Justice Department purged itself of those
ethics Department's officials, most of them are gone, along with
the inspectors general, etc. Trump a signals interest and compensation

(32:36):
during a White House appearance with Todd Blanche, FBI Director
Cash Hotel, and Attorney General Pam Bondi. And that was
a press conference and an appearance from the White House
that we showed you a bunch of last week. He said,
I have a lawsuit that was doing very well, and
when I became president, I said, I'm suing myself. I

(32:59):
don't know, how do you settle the lawsuit. He said,
I'll say give me X dollars, and I don't know
what to do with the lawsuit. It's a great lawsuit,
and now I won, it looks bad. I'm suing myself.
So I don't know. The great thing about Trump is
he's kind of working it out in front of you,
you know what I mean, He's sharing it with you.
But he's doing essentially what you just talked about, Kim.

(33:19):
I don't know X dollars over X. Yeah. The Times
guests reported on this The New York Times that saying
that to two claims were filed with the Justice Department
as part of this process. One of the claims, filed
in twenty twenty four, seeks compensatory impunitive damages over the
search of his Marlago estate and the resulting case, alleging

(33:42):
that he'd hoarded classified documents and thwarted government efforts to
retrieve them. All that seemed demonstrably true. I mean, he's
suing complaining that is a harassment, and that also claiming
that that was the malicious prosecution. His lawyer filed the
claim making those allegations and saying that the Biden administration
did all of this to hurt Trump's bid to reclaim

(34:05):
the White House, forcing Trump to spend tens of million
dollars of dollars in his defense, and the investigation producing
criminal charges that the Justice Department Special counsel Jack Smith
abandoned because the department policy is not to indict a
sitting president. So once Trump won in November, Smith had

(34:25):
no choice but to drop those charges. So that's kind
of the history of those charges, and that's sort of
where we sit on this. But I mean, two hundred
and thirty million dollars, it is, it's an obvious ethical violation.
It I think may be lost in the sea of

(34:46):
other ethical violations. But you know, this is a chance
to sack the Treasury, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
Just too totally. Amy says, will the money be given
to Trump in a kava bag?

Speaker 1 (34:57):
Yeah, thank you, thank you very much. Night. Yeah, that's
the Tom Homan payoff methodology. Yeah. The I mean, the
top ethics officials are gone, so the Justice Department doesn't
have any objective parties. You have Pam Bondi and Todd

(35:18):
Blanche deciding over this absolute craziness. I mean, and there
is I mean, you know, you get a sche mask
and a gun and just it's a hold up. But
it's just one of the things that's happening in Washington
that Trump is doing that to me, are just too

(35:39):
so reprehensible, be on the pale, and no one is
calling this out in the ways it needs to be
called and even in his own party, and people are
completely cowed. These are the same senators who, with righteous indignation,
go on all these cable shows and you know, bark
at is happening during the Biden administration. The same congress

(36:05):
people who do similarly, remember all the stuff about Hunter Biden.
I was disgusted by Hunter Biden. I'm not a fan
of Hunter Biden. I said that a bunch of times,
the legal way, the legal way that there can be grift.
Your dad is president and so you get appointed to

(36:25):
the board of some energy company, that's a grift. It
was disgusting. Well, the Trump family makes that look like
mister Rogers neighborhood. The Trump family, they are exacting direct
payoffs and direct payouts for resorts and for other Trump

(36:46):
related projects and properties across the Middle East and into Asia.
This is while Trump is the president. Just the other
day we have the audio and the video where Trump
is leaning over to the Indonesian It wasn't is the
Indonesian Prime minister.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
I believe right he wants a meeting with Eric Trump,
and he's like, he's a great kid. Yeah, we'll get
you guys together. Yeah, come on, Mark, Why are you
so upset about it? It's in the best interest of America.
I mean organization that is about. I mean, Eric doesn't
work for the government. Eric works for Trump. It's not
about the best interest in America. It's about the best
interest of the Trump of Trump Inc. Yep, this again

(37:29):
makes whatever Hunter Biden got, What do you get ten
million dollars or being on the board of that energy company.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
It's like a rounding error to these people. Ten million dollars.
How quaint that much money falls out of our pants
every night. These guys are in for billions of dollars.
They've already gotten billions in crypto money. They've created all
these ways for the dark tributaries of money to run

(37:55):
in and flow into the Trump world. And now, I
mean I have to say, buddy, Donald, this is too
in your face. Stick with the other stuff you're doing,
all that other grift and self enrichment. That's what you
should be doing. Suing the government for two hundred and

(38:17):
thirty million dollars, I mean, that's so that's a grift,
meets a kind of righteous indignation, that's all theater. I mean,
he knows he had those documents, and he also knows
that he did collude with Russians. They took that meeting
in Trump Tower. But more to the point, I mean,

(38:37):
that's just the beginning. You can then talk about Russian
bots and Russian involvement, et cetera. But I'm just saying
that that seemed as though we know that happened. So
all of this is to say that I guess there's
just nothing beyond the pale. Is too weird to have

(38:57):
to steal from your own safe, says do you. Yeah, Yeah,
it's true. It's his own safe, but it's not his
own safe. He doesn't see himself as America in a
weird way, even with the America first thing, you know
what I mean, he sees that taxpayer money as his
money or Democrats money. You see, that's the saddest part.

(39:18):
He's I mean, I can take a little corruption. I
kind of expected that with Donald Trump, but were he
not completely destroying those things that would help elevate Americans
and an American life. I mean, the idea somehow that
you stop almost twenty billion dollars in infrastructure projects in
blue states. I mean, those are affecting not just people

(39:41):
who are Democratic voters, those are Republican voters as well.
But it shouldn't matter. You're supposed to be the president
for all. Dl Wong says, Trump has already drained the
treasury us the people. He's stealing our food costs, health costs,
research costs, education, legal costs, protection costs. His hand is

(40:02):
in our lives. I completely agree, and this shutdown actually
speaks to some of the things on that list. Trump
Whopper says, remember back in February when he said that
he and Doge we're going to audit Fort Knox cricket
since then, but he did say it would be a
real shame if we opened the vault and the gold

(40:23):
was missing, real shame. Yeah, you've seen what's happening with gold.
By the way, Kim, take a look at where gold
prices are right now, and gold and precious metals. I mean,
it's a pretty interesting flight to precious metals that people
are making because they're concerned about the economy, isn't it.
I think it's gone, it's up. I don't know you

(40:44):
can tell me, but or Tony maybe you can find it.
But the I mean, I think you can look at
gold and silver prices as a bell weather for the
economy on some level. Here it is. Tony's got it.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
It's a brutal sell off.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
It's a sell off right now? Is that what you said?

Speaker 2 (41:06):
October twenty second, Barons says gold falls further. There's a
brutal sell off underway.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
No, but that's let me just see what the prices are.
What what is that? That's six months so look at
look at August through September and October. I mean it's
an incredible high. I mean, I get it that just
in the last two days it's sold off. But that's
not what I'm looking at. I mean, even if you

(41:34):
look at where it is today, it's it's incredible, it's
all you know, what is it up? That would be
it's about thirty five percent, wow, from from where it
was just a month ago.

Speaker 2 (41:47):
According to this article, despite the drop, gold means remains
up nearly sixty in twenty twenty five. Yeah, that's position
for a softer federal reserve policy, continued central bank diverseification
away from the dollar, and demand for hedges against fiscal
and geopolitical risk.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
Right exactly. So, if you want to think of it
another way, the less stable the American economy becomes, the
more people flee to gold and silver precious metals. So
there is a real concern that a couple of things
are happening. One is that there is an inflationary spiral

(42:28):
that's fed by tariffs. Two in the tariffs are chaotic
and unpredictable, and they just, you know, depending on what
side of the bed Trump wakes up on or who
looks at him the wrong way or whatever. Number Two,
you're not actually getting dependable data from the government anymore. Now.
The data might have always been questionable in the sense

(42:49):
that it begins to be filled in projections begin to
be filled in by additional data points after even the
governmental announcements come forward. But nonetheless you're not getting any
data now because the government is well, A, the government's
closed now, but B it's stated policy. You know, I

(43:12):
fired the last guy with bad news. We don't want
any bad news. And in fact, we're going to work
on the way in which that is all calculated, and
so you're not going to have to worry about seeing
any of that anymore. We're going to get it right
before we get it out. Okay, so you're not even
getting any governmental information about the economy in large measure
I mean dependable. And then lastly, i'd say that you're

(43:37):
your policies associated with the immigrant community are completely at
odds with any sort of sensible economic policy, meaning get
rid of all those people, and what happens. You don't
have as much of the produce that you want. You

(43:58):
don't have as many people who are working in the
head healthcare industry as they used to. You don't have
as many people working in the restaurant business, the slaughterhouse business.
So what happens you have to pay more to get
those people who you can get to work in those places.
They're all now people with the who who are with
the American citizens, A bunch of white people now working

(44:20):
for the car wash right down the street. There's nobody
there anymore, I mean no patrons. It's empty. I used
to have to wait an hour to get your car
because there's so many cars. You know, they did big
business now they're teetering on bankruptcy. The same will happen
with many of these agricultural concerns, and so you're paying
everybody more and the price of those products goes up,

(44:43):
and that is inflationary. So tariffs that which i've just described,
labor force, that's inflationary, and you've just fired thousands and
thousands and thousands of federal workers too, and that contributes
to an unemployment number that's going to be a problem
as well. There's a real issue in America's economy when

(45:05):
it comes to the way it's being managed. It's not
being managed soundly. And then there's pressure on the Feds
to lower interest rates the price of money, right, and
so if you lower interest rates even a little bit,
and they have they've responded to some of this pressure,
the price of money is lower, So that means money
is more available. More money into the system means what

(45:27):
it means that money that's in the system, the money
you have is worth less just by works of the
fact that there is more money in the system. So
all of those things are inflationary and we stand to
see some real hits. And that brings me back to
gold and silver and We'll see if people in large

(45:50):
enough numbers go to those traditional safe havens priorities mark
new ballroom and cool military parades over health. Karen Food,
welcome to Trump's America, where if you're not doing well,
it's your fault. Yes, thank you, Louise of big big
shout out. Louise is really funny, really funny. So if

(46:14):
they got the Voting Rights Act and we can actually
vote and get a Democrat Senate but lose the House,
then what says starch Manning, Well, I don't know that
you'll get a Democratic Senate. You might. I I'm hesitant,
but I'll just say this on the House side, and Kim,

(46:37):
you can maybe google this and give me a couple
of particulars if you want. But on the redistricting question,
it really does look like the Scotis folk are gonna
turn back the kind of racial Jerry marrindering that was
mandated as part of the Voting Rights Act that essentially,
black districts in many states need to get representation and

(46:58):
they weren't getting representation, and so there was a law
that said, hey, you've got to draw these lines so
that these people who have been an aggrieved minority actually
have a voice, and so they will be able to
have a fair place at the table. Now Scotus is
saying that not really. Nope, So you're ending up squeezing

(47:19):
out a lot of those typically Democratic representatives who were
favored by that racial jerrymandering by the Voting Rights Act redrawing.
So at the end of all of that, which is
now you end up or it's you know, close to
now you're going to end up with. Let's assume California

(47:41):
answers Texas with their five other states are moving in
red states, and they are redistricting now to squeeze out
more Republican representatives. And when all of that arithmetic is done,
more Republican representatives are squeezed out than are Demo crad
representative squeezed out. Isn't that right?

Speaker 2 (48:02):
Kim Well, I'm reading an article from NPR that says
that if the Supreme Court overturns the Voting Right Rights
Act Section two, which is this provision that bans racial
discrimination in voting, GOP controlled states could redraw at least
nineteen more voting districts for the House in favor of Republicans. That,

(48:22):
according to a recent report, by the voting rights advocacy
group Black Voters Matter Fund and the Fair Fight Action.

Speaker 1 (48:29):
Right, So at nineteen is the number, but it leaves
you with just to the comment, I think it leads
you to the fact that you will likely not win
the House because of this really clever, you know, kind
of devious way in which you can redraw, not in

(48:49):
conjunction with a new census, which is typically the way
districts are redrawn, but just with this new plan to
retain power, because we're going to draw the line such
that one person, one vote just doesn't work anymore. So
you end up in their red states where they're Democratic
governors and everybody else is a Republican because the Democratic

(49:14):
votes are not counted essentially in all of these districts
they've drawn around them. There are many examples of that,
and Kim, if you want to, you can google a
few of them. But and the Democratic governors, like I
don't know what I can do, you know, don't really
have any control there. It is Washington posts as North
Carolina lawmakers vote to add a GOP House seat in

(49:37):
a win for Trump. Yeah, thank you for that. CC. Right,
That's exactly what I'm talking about. Exactly what I'm talking about.
Richard Delamator brings us back to reality. He says, I'm
sixty nine years old and I've never used an essential oil?
Are they really that essential? Just wondering, Well, apparently they're

(49:59):
not a essential to you. Maybe what is an essential
oil as opposed to regular oil infused?

Speaker 2 (50:07):
Aren't they supposed to, you know, have some type of
healing property.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
No, maybe, Richard Elevator seems very healed, very well, doing
coming very well. But I don't know. I'm not a
I am going to have some of my confused coffee
with Clarity black. Yes, it might peacefully resist mug. This
is Coachella Valley Coffee. If you've known it is, literally

(50:35):
it's the best coffee on earth. You can have it
and you're thinking, Hey, Mark, could I actually be drinking
the best coffee on earth? Yes, you can go to
Coachella Valley Coffee dot com. It's a boutique roastery. All
of the coffee beans are hand roasted. This is a
curated inventory of coffee and tea. These people, you know,

(50:55):
this is not just some you know, discount roastery where
they're selling you something that has has been lying around
on the floor for three or four months. This is
a really special place, all organic and from women owned
farms and as I say, the best coffee on earth.
Coachella Valleycoffee dot Com. There are tasting profiles under all

(51:16):
of the beans, so you know what you're getting. Also
the teas, the spices, the merch. It's all a great,
great addition to your routine. Everyone who has sampled it
has fallen in love with it, and I know you
will too. Coachella Valleycoffee dot Com. Use our discount code though.
You'll want to get a discount anything on the site.

(51:37):
You want to lit up on the merch you wanted,
the coffee, the tea, the spices, put it all in
and then take ten percent off with MARKT at checkout.
Mark t is fantastic. Yeah, that's it Coachella Valley Coffee
dot Com.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
And says he's enjoying at a moment, the moment in
the week of try ignoring it, sir, mug some delicious
okato espressa.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
Oh yeah, enjoying it at the moment in my we
could try ignoring it.

Speaker 3 (52:04):
That you could try ignoring it, sir, I love that.

Speaker 1 (52:07):
Well, cheers to you, Nan, I will give you an
additional I love this mug. It's got the big as
you say, Kim, it's got the big what does that handle? Yeah,
and then it's got the it's peacefully resist. On one side,
do you have them white and black? This is a
white one. I kind of like the white one with
the black lettering. And then on the other side is
our logo. They're very shiny, shiny and delicious, just like you,

(52:32):
Kim Y Right on, girl, right on, get get mark
merch dot com is where you get that. Get mark
merch dot com. Mark, keep your attention on the Epstein files.
That's the Trump Achilles heel Yeah, and you Heney Odearn, Now,
thank you for that. You're right about that. It's certainly

(52:53):
something that he doesn't want brought up. He doesn't want
to talk about it. And that's the reason that hasn't
been sworn in by Mike Johnson, the new representative who
is suing. She's not suing. I think someone's else is
suing on her behalf. Isn't that right, Kim?

Speaker 2 (53:10):
Yeah, that would be the Attorney General for the Great
State of Arizona.

Speaker 1 (53:14):
Saying, hey, we elected this person, right, Yeah, why aren't
you swaring them in. In fact, I think we have
a we've got to wrap package on that. But this
person is the lynchpin to a vote to force a vote,
if you want to think of it that way, on
the release of the Epstein files. So this is a

(53:36):
motion somewhat rare to force the vote for the release
of the Epstein files, and she would be the representative
to put that motion into play. And that's why Mike
Johnson is protecting it. They want nothing to do with it.
Here's a little bit of the lawsuit though that's resulted
because she hasn't been sworn in.

Speaker 10 (53:57):
Arizona Attorney General Chris Mays filed a lot law suit
to try to force how Speaker Mike Johnson to swear
in Adelita Grijalva. She's a Democrat who was elected in
a special election nearly one month ago to fill her
late father's seat. Here's the thing, Speaker Johnson is totally
dismissive of the lawsuit. You repeatedly said he was swearing
Grhalva once this Senate Democrats agree to reopen the government.

(54:19):
Those are his words. But as we've discussed, there was
no end in sight for the government shut down. Now
on day twenty two Forrajalva meanwhile saying there's so much
she can't do, including having resources to help the constituents.

Speaker 1 (54:31):
Yeah, of course that's true. She can't do anything. So
and that's the idea. There's a it's a pretty underhanded,
brutal way in which politics is being handled in Washington,
I would say, and I think this is the right word.
And I wish Democrats would really understand this word, because
I don't think they did. And even if you look
at the way the four year Biden administration went down,

(54:56):
and they did get a lot of things done, but
I don't think they understand how ruthless things are. They
are ruthless, and I don't know that you'll ever retain power.
You'll ever regain power Democrats, I don't know that'll ever happen.
I think there is a sea change going on in

(55:16):
America and we're seeing the systems and institutions in which
you put so much faith when you talk to the
John Rothman's of the world. Well, I'm calling on the
American people to realize that this is the abrogation of
responsibility and a violation of ethics. And they want to
and we will do it in the midterms, and we'll

(55:39):
do it in the general election. We will vote these
people up. Good luck. They have hobbled those institutions that
you're counting on, the institutions and systems, as I've said
from the beginning, and now more and more people have
come over to where again this kind of grim place

(56:00):
I've inhabited for a while. Where I've been, those institutions
and systems are people. It's a system you've set up,
but it's populated by people. And if the people are
determined to undermine those systems and institutions, then the systems
and institutions on which you're counting no longer exist. And

(56:21):
that's where we are in America. You say, well, it'll
work out in the Supreme Court. Now look at the
Supreme Court. I mean, that's a system, an institution that
you can't count on. It's been completely rigged. So as well,
what about the rest of the Justice Department. It's even worse.

(56:45):
Go institution to institution, and see the way in which
this administration has rapidly under the control really of Russell Vote,
who we talked about before they even took power. We
talked about Russell Vote at and how powerful the OMB
director is Office of Management and Budgets where all the
money comes through. Look at what they're doing. He came

(57:08):
up with the scheme to cut off money to blue
states and blue cities. That's a Russell Vote move. To
fire a bunch of government employees during the government shutdown,
that's a Russell Vote move. Russell Vote and Stephen Miller
are running this administration, is my sense of it, with

(57:29):
some help from Bessant, who worked the Argentinian bailout for
his friends who are hedge fund managers who had heavily
invested in Argentina and couldn't afford to see that economy
founder the way it was. And then you have Trump
concerned with essentially, I'll say two things. One is recriminatory

(57:56):
judicial proceedings against his perceived enemy. Everything is real. It's revenge, revenge, revenge.
I'm going after these people. I'm going after that people.
I'm going to the Democrats. Everyone I can go after,
I will with my Justice Department. So he's concerned with that.
And as a subset of that, I'd say with concealing
the Epstein files, he'll have that same Justice Department, FBI

(58:18):
Bondie control of DOJ to help him prevent those files
from being released. Johnson is clearly you know, he's hip
deep in MAGA. So he'll do his thing on the
House side. And the other thing that Donald Trump seems
concerned with is building structures that are monuments to himself,
So the ballroom, the art, the way in which he's

(58:42):
transformed the White House so it really looks more and
feels more like a palace like Marlago. And so that's
really the way the government structures exist now. So if
you're looking for institutions and systems to help you win Democrats,
remember you're dealing with a ruthless group.

Speaker 2 (59:07):
Can we go to the video back to the Adelita
Grihalva thing, because it really showcases what you just said
about ruthless and blaming the Democrats for things that absolutely
have no bearing, as evidenced by this video where Speaker
Johnson is saying, no, listen, I'm going by the Nancy
Pelosi mode of doing things, and even the anchor reporter

(59:31):
calls him out like saying, no, that's not exactly true.

Speaker 11 (59:34):
Here's the video, but specifically, one person is not working
and I want to talk to you about this because
Speaker Mike Johnson continues to defend his decision not to
swear in Democratic Congresswoman elect at Alita Griholva of Arizona
following her special election victory nearly a month ago. The
Republican Speaker was pressed about it once again over the weekend.

Speaker 1 (59:55):
When are you going to swear.

Speaker 8 (59:56):
In Representative elect Adalita Akrahama is soon as.

Speaker 9 (01:00:00):
We get back to the legislative session when Chuck Sheermer
allows us to turn the LECs back on.

Speaker 1 (01:00:03):
Well, why haven't you done already?

Speaker 9 (01:00:04):
Because this is the way the institution works too, I'm
following the Pelosi president. By the way, my dear friend
from Louisiana, Julia Letlowe, was elected to fill the seat
of her deceased husband because of COVID Nancy Pelosi took
twenty five days to square her in.

Speaker 8 (01:00:17):
By the way, are you saying going let me stop you?
Are you saying that Nancy Pelosi refused to swear her
in earlier?

Speaker 9 (01:00:21):
No, I'm saying that's my very point is this.

Speaker 8 (01:00:24):
Is my understanding, is that was the date that actually
the representative elects letlow at the time requested you know,
she had obviously.

Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
Heard her Okay, here's some more examples. Okay, no, no,
but wait a minute.

Speaker 8 (01:00:34):
No, no, for the Pelosi precedent, but Pelosi didn't delay that.

Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
No, let me give you more than Pelosi. President.

Speaker 8 (01:00:39):
Okay, and I'm about the Johnston president. I mean, you
swore into Republicans the day after their election.

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
I'm happy to answer.

Speaker 9 (01:00:44):
I'm happy to answer, Pelosi President pat Ryan Joe Simplenski.
They were elected during an August recess, so twenty one
days later, when the House returned to regular legislative session,
they were administered the oath. That's what we're doing. We're
not in session right now. Repgahava was elected after the
House was out of session. As soon as we return
the legisave session, as soon as the Democrats decide to
turn the lights back.

Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
On so we can all get back here.

Speaker 9 (01:01:06):
I mean, I will administer the authors.

Speaker 8 (01:01:07):
You could swear in tomorrow, right, I mean, no, not tomorrow.

Speaker 9 (01:01:10):
No, we couldn't, We wouldn't. There was an exception for
two Floridians earlier in this Congress, but the reason was
they were duly elected. They had a date set, they
flew in all their friends and family, and the House went.

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
Out of session.

Speaker 8 (01:01:20):
So if she flies in the friends and family, then
we don't have a date set.

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
It's ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
Yeah, that really is ridiculous. I mean, the more he talks,
the you know, the more vapid. The entire argument is
clearly reflective. I don't know, the vapidness is on full display.
I mean, you know, he's a smart guy. Don't get
me wrong, I'm not suggesting that he's vapid, but I'm
just saying that the the bob and weave that he's

(01:01:49):
doing with it is just you know, it's just on
full display. Right. You know, this reminds me of historically
when you talk about any kind of argument about, you know,
how come this isn't happening. I'm thinking of how come
Puerto Rico has no voting rights? How come the District
of Columbia isn't a state or at least a district

(01:02:09):
with the rights of statehood. You know, you can go
to American Samoa and make the same argument. And the
reason is because of politics, pure politics. The reason that
Ghalva's not being sworn in is politics. It's not because
we don't have a date, because oh my god, you
know we would, but nobody sent out the evites.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
You know, I mean, come on, don't you know?

Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
Yeah, it's ridiculed. We're just doing what Nzi Belosi did. Yeah,
it's so politics. Politics, politics. Votes that you calculate would
be associated with Grihava's swearing in. No, you don't want
those votes. So this continues. Make Argentina great again, says

(01:02:55):
Jim Slaton. Yes, the country to where Chill flee for asylum.
That says Jim Slayton. I don't think he'll ever need asylum,
but maybe chaplain front with a five dollars super chat said.
It is said that Trump saw the Lemon commet as
a sign to keep cashing in the green Wow. I

(01:03:16):
mean you got to look for the heavens for messages
once in a while. It's been a good year for
Trump and Trump the Trump Organization. They've made some serious dough.
So I I've got a very big story I wanted
to share with you, but before I got to it,
I had a and I like to check in with

(01:03:38):
the Pentagon occasionally, so let me just give you a
quick quick note from the Pentagon Thompson Show. I love
it when the head of the Pentagon, you know, the
Department of Defense, a huge budget, never questioned by either party.
It just grows and grows and grows because America's got
to be secure. I love it when we get an

(01:03:59):
insight into what they are thinking and what Pete Hegseth
is doing when he puts that gen and tonic down.
A federal judge ordering the Department of Defense to return
these six hundred books taken away by Hegseth and his

(01:04:19):
folk at several US military school libraries. Six hundred books
on anybody race and gender is the answer. Yeah, the
books were pulled, the race and gender books from libraries
at several US military schools. The ruling is that the

(01:04:39):
Trump executive orders that led to purging of those books
likely violated the First Amendment. It was US District Judge
Patricia Tolliver Patricia Tolliver Giles ordering the books to be
restored to the libraries of five schools on US military
installations in Virginia, can Tell, Italy and Japan and barring

(01:05:03):
the Trump administration from further altering their curriculum. You know,
the idea is to get rid of all of that
race reference and any questions around race.

Speaker 2 (01:05:16):
That's a surprise that it was a Pentagon with military schools,
because I thought the military could really do make any
decision like that that they wanted.

Speaker 1 (01:05:26):
I guess they have to follow First Amendment. Oh you know, yeah,
what am I trying to say? Laws? Yeah, right, exactly,
rights and laws. Three executive orders issued by Trump in
January directed the removal and prohibition of material concerning gender ideology,

(01:05:47):
so called divisive concepts on race and sex and anything
considered un American. Pull these books from K through twelve
schools and so like a book called ABC of Equality
and you call this democracy. It was pulled. Those books

(01:06:10):
were from one hundred and sixty one schools in eleven
foreign countries, seven states, and two territories. We're talking about
a lot of books. Six families of twelve students ranging
an age from pre k to high school then sued
the federal government to stop this administration from banning books

(01:06:31):
and material that it finds politically incorrect and arguing against
this system wide censorship, and they argued that that was
a violation of their First Amendment rights. So that's what's
going on. Pentagon going to have to add those books back.
I mean, at least that's what the court has said.
As you know, there's a lot of general disposition toward

(01:06:52):
court rulings with this administration, which is sort of like, ah,
we'll get to it when we get to it, you know,
thank you for the ruling. Didn't really go the way
we wanted. So a Minnesota woman who cast her dead
mom's ballot for Trump is given unusual homework by the
judge but not much more a supervised probation and a fine.

(01:07:19):
Her mom died and she submitted the vote anyway for
Donald Trump in the twenty twenty four presidential election. Right.

Speaker 2 (01:07:26):
I thought we were taking voter fraud very seriously. I
mean I thought this was the crime of all crimes.

Speaker 1 (01:07:33):
Well, when it's democratic voter fraud, we take it. So
but this was for Trump. So at least she's doing,
you know, sure the holy work of the Lord. And
the judge ordered her to write an essay and read
a book about voting's importance to democracy, and that was it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:54):
A deterrent to try to not, you know, fraudulently vote.

Speaker 1 (01:07:58):
Yeah, if you think you've got an essay in you,
you can vote and you know, throw in an extra vote.
Maybe that's all that will have to happen. You'll just
write that essay.

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
I mean I could crank out an essay.

Speaker 1 (01:08:10):
Sure, yeah, exactly. I've got news of ICE which I
really wanted to relate to you. There was a major
a couple of incidents, one involving a guy who said
he was an ICE agent worked for the Feds, and
another in which there were actual ICE agents and federal

(01:08:34):
deputies involved, and I wanted to do them both. Tony,
if I can in a law and disorder, if you
can rock that for me, we will get that organized.
I think you'll find this both interesting, shocking, and a
sign of the times. This is law and disorder in
the criminal justice system.

Speaker 12 (01:08:53):
The people gives addicts, thieves, bumbs, lineups, girls who can't
keep on address, and men who.

Speaker 9 (01:08:58):
Don't care are represented by two separate and equally important groups.

Speaker 12 (01:09:02):
Copp of flat Foot, a bullet, Dick John Law, You're
the buzz, the heat, you're poisoning, your trouble, your bad news.

Speaker 1 (01:09:07):
These are their stories. You may remember the guy who
was pulled over in Florida. He was a guy from
Miami claiming to be an ICE agent, and he was
pulled over by a black police officer. That's important, which

(01:09:29):
is the reason I mention it because later in this
entire narrative this becomes a central theme. But he reeked
of alcohol. Scott Thomas Desruth. He's forty two years old
and he had two kids in the car in the
back seat as he was driving. Indeed, he was arrested

(01:09:55):
for DUI two counts of child endangerment after this traffic stop.
They saw him driving into oncoming traffic and swerving heavily.
He didn't even know where he was. Strong odor of
alcohol emanating from Deseroath misidentified his location, gave an erroneous

(01:10:18):
direction of travel, and bodycam video shows the moment that
cops approached Deseroth's car on a bridge to question him,
and then he says, Hey, I'm a fed. You know
I'm fed. I'm DHS and Tony go ahead and run
a little bit of it, if you would please gotten
the white shirt.

Speaker 2 (01:10:37):
That's the colonel. Colonel, I'm shit be okay, I'm federal, Okay,
I'm trying to get home. I got my boys with me.
Who do you work for? DJs? Do you have your
idea with you?

Speaker 1 (01:10:54):
Okay?

Speaker 7 (01:10:55):
But if I called them, they verify that you're a
You don't have any type of credentials or anything and
say your DHS not on me?

Speaker 2 (01:11:04):
No, okay, all right, I'm gonna bring my weapon with
me if i'm if I'm O good, But you don't
have any weapons on you right now?

Speaker 7 (01:11:13):
Okay, So what I want to do I want to
talk to away from the kids. I'm gonna actually step
out of the car and we're gonna walk back to
the back.

Speaker 12 (01:11:17):
Of your car.

Speaker 2 (01:11:18):
Okay, are you funking serious right now? Yes, sir, I am.
Do you know what hold on?

Speaker 7 (01:11:27):
Supervision?

Speaker 2 (01:11:28):
Hell? Goad?

Speaker 7 (01:11:30):
Do you want to do the exercises or no?

Speaker 5 (01:11:31):
I'll do it, but you don't.

Speaker 12 (01:11:33):
What's homeboy doing down there?

Speaker 2 (01:11:35):
You know?

Speaker 5 (01:11:35):
Guys? Come on?

Speaker 2 (01:11:36):
Makes it be want to sell a couple?

Speaker 5 (01:11:38):
Don't get you to get me.

Speaker 13 (01:11:40):
That's what I'm trying to do.

Speaker 2 (01:11:40):
The exercise that would get Are you Hatian? That's not
typically Mars, But my question is are you Hatian?

Speaker 7 (01:11:48):
It doesn't matter, It doesn't matter where he's from. Okay, look, man,
I really need you to do the exercise if you don't.
If you don't do it, then I'm gonna say that
you're refusing to do the exercise.

Speaker 1 (01:11:57):
I get it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:57):
You need a minute. I gave you a few minutes.

Speaker 5 (01:11:59):
Okay, but we talked to your supervisor.

Speaker 7 (01:12:02):
Not right now, sir.

Speaker 2 (01:12:04):
If you're a cop, whatever, yeah, I'm fucking law enforce O.

Speaker 7 (01:12:07):
Hey, dude, then stop talking and sitting the back of
the car and stop.

Speaker 2 (01:12:11):
No this, let's stop. What about my kids?

Speaker 12 (01:12:14):
We're gonna we're gonna take care. No, but I'm not
going in there. Let me talk to your supervisor again.
You can talk to him in the snow. Not going
in there without my supervisor.

Speaker 2 (01:12:24):
Okay, let's go.

Speaker 7 (01:12:25):
To the other side. Come on, then, no pull against me.

Speaker 2 (01:12:29):
Let's go on, not moving, bro, go fucking do this.

Speaker 12 (01:12:33):
Check up the lane. Yeah, I'm gonna hey, come.

Speaker 2 (01:12:37):
On, so you got shut up?

Speaker 1 (01:12:46):
Come on? What's your feet in?

Speaker 2 (01:12:47):
Stand up? Stand up? Come on, stand up? What's your
feet in that?

Speaker 1 (01:12:50):
No?

Speaker 2 (01:12:50):
Man can come on? Were my kids stand up? What's
your feet in?

Speaker 7 (01:12:54):
What?

Speaker 2 (01:12:55):
What's your feet what?

Speaker 11 (01:12:57):
We don't want to make this punch all right?

Speaker 2 (01:12:58):
Come on, come on, man, let's go us in the cart.
I wanted you for Why would you say miss for
me there? If you don't go operate, you go to
jailp resistance the only makes a portion.

Speaker 1 (01:13:06):
Come on, put your feet.

Speaker 2 (01:13:08):
Kids'll be fine, there's past. Listen to me, we gotta
sit down stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:13:16):
God seeing you guys. All right, So they finally make
the arrest and uh, it's you know, I'm federal, I'm DHS.
He delayed the exercises as you saw, and they get
him into the police cruiser and uh, what has happened

(01:13:38):
to him?

Speaker 2 (01:13:39):
Kim Well, Uh, the Department of Homeland Security is not
confirming whether or not mister Deezeroth is an employee. They
say they are investigating this arrest. But he finally is
put into the police cruiser. I was struck watching that
video about how likely it would be anyone else would

(01:13:59):
have been shoved to that police cruiser and how he's
able to delay and delay and finally they arrest him
and get him in there. But yeah, he was put
in He was placed under arrest for driving under the influence.
And at this point no confirmation from DHS as to
whether he really is ice or not. But if he is,

(01:14:19):
what a low standard they're setting now the bar for
who they're taking in.

Speaker 1 (01:14:24):
His kids are seven and nine years old. By the way,
for those who were curious. Meantime, there is another incident.
This one is in southern California. A very high profile
TikToker and social media person was hit by a ricocheting

(01:14:47):
bullet during this operation in South la And I just
want to again, I guess, describe this guy. This is
a guy who chronicles a lot of ICE events when
he can, so he'll show up with his and he'll
chronicle these things and then distribute them. His social media
platform is really powerful, as they say, he's on TikTok

(01:15:08):
and has a very very strong following and large following.
And the reason I mentioned that is it suggested sort
of that ICE is well aware of him, doesn't like
him because he, you know, documents all of their various
maneuvers and so now here he is hit by bullets
in this latest incident, Tony, we have some I think

(01:15:33):
these stills that we have or video. This is the video,
now kim here in this case, Yeah, go ahead, Tony,
I'm sorry. Let's sit here with the sure.

Speaker 13 (01:15:41):
And a suspector both in the hospital after gunfire erupted
during a chaotic immigration enforcement operation in South Los Angeles.
That's according to investigators. The Department of Homeland Security sent
out a statement that reads, in part, ice law enforcement
officers assisted by US marshals, pulled the illegal alien over
in a stand law enforcement procedure. The illegal alien weaponized

(01:16:03):
his vehicle and began ramming the law enforcement vehicle in
an attempt to flee. While trying to ground the suspect,
authority say officers fired defensive shots, striking both the suspect
and a deputy US marshal. The DHS said the illegal
alien was shot in the elbow and one law enforcement
officer was shot in the hand by a ricochet bullet.
Sources TELCNN. The FBI is investigating this incident.

Speaker 1 (01:16:27):
So this started, as they say, a targeted enforcement traffic
stop on an undocumented immigrant who had previously avoided capture.
These are all words and phraseology or it's phraseology that's
from the government, right okay. Witness is saying the man

(01:16:47):
involved well known TikToker. I regularly mentioned that he goes
by Richard la online. Acting US Attorney Bill Assley identified
him as a forty four year old man whose name
is Carlito Ricardo Barrias. He charged with assault on a
federal officers. Suspected you to appear in court today. He
could get eight years in federal prison. I mean, this

(01:17:09):
is serious stuff. I was talking to the other day
about the way in which everything just gets amped up
when it's federal, first of all, and secondly when it's
adjacent to or implying a bit of something that could
be characterized as terrorism. This is the thing I was
talking about the other day. But I think in this case,
just the notion that you are interfering with federal officers,

(01:17:31):
assault on a federal officer, these are things that just
vaulted to another level of concern. So but what happened
here is in dispute, isn't it, Kim. I mean they're
saying that he had this Toyota Camry that was rammed
into law enforcement and they boxed him in, and then

(01:17:54):
he tried still to get away. Isn't that more or
less what said? And then the agent broke into his
side window or tried to break in with his gun.
And I mean, again, this is where you're getting different stories.
But in one account that I read, Kim, and you
can tell me, the gun went off inadvertently as the

(01:18:19):
agent tried to break the window with the gun, and
that's when the ricocheting bullet actually injured. I believe an associate,
that is to say, a law enforcement associate involved in
this stop, and the victim as well, was this guy

(01:18:40):
who's now been charged. Isn't that more or less reflective
of at least narrative.

Speaker 2 (01:18:45):
Though it's in dispute as to whether the gun went
off inadvertently or whether the agent actually opened fire. And
the people that are backing up the mister Parias, who
was the you know, the person arrested in this case.
They they're saying the level of violence from federal agents
is unacceptable, that it's a type of violence that they denounce,

(01:19:09):
the type of violence that will only create more violence.
So meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Securities say vehicles that
are used as weapons are treated as such, and that
anyone who does that risks arrest, imprisonment, and life threatening injuries.
They will continue to use every tool in their legal

(01:19:29):
arsenal to protect agents and enforce immigration laws passed by Congress.
So that's what you have.

Speaker 1 (01:19:36):
So unclear then, and I think there'll be multiple kinds
of reports on all of this. I don't know how
dependable they'll be as to why the weapon was discharged,
how it was discharged, but I think you're going to
see more of this. I mean, I was this where
he was getting a was he recognized as in some

(01:19:57):
way it looks like he's getting some kind of plaque
or what is what is the This is a yeah,
so this is one of his I have to blow
this up so I can see it, because I can't.
Everything's so small. He got recognition by the Deputy Chief
of Staff in the city of la.

Speaker 2 (01:20:17):
For serving the community by doing these reports.

Speaker 1 (01:20:20):
A fearless citizen journalist whose authentic storytelling has consistently uplifted
the unheard voices of south central Los Angeles. His unfiltered
portrayal of real life has fostered a loyal following both
on TikTok and throughout our city. Richard La, as he's called,
exemplifies what it means to serve your community with courage

(01:20:41):
and heart. So again, this is a certificate of recognition
the Deputy chief of Staff to the mayor. I suppose
that is is standing by Jose Ugarte. And I mean
they say, at least at the moment that this is posted,
they stand in solidarity with him. We'll see. I mean,

(01:21:04):
now's a question as to whether you'll have people standing
in solidarity with you. I mean, it's all great until
shots are fired and charges are offered. We'll see. I
don't know about his citizenship. It's asked Penny is asking
that Kim can maybe check on it. I'm presuming he's

(01:21:26):
here legally. And again I mentioned his following in social
media because it suggested in the shadows that he was
being targeted by ICE because he was documenting so many
of their activities. But you can check Richard la TikToker
is he you know? Is he a legal resident?

Speaker 2 (01:21:45):
According to the New York Post, their headline is that
he's an undocumented immigrant. Will they say illegal immigrant?

Speaker 1 (01:21:51):
But that's what Yeah, I'd love to maybe just double
check that. Not that I don't believe in the New
York Post, but I'm just as possible that could be
misconstrued by some one of their editors, and I use
editors in quotes.

Speaker 2 (01:22:08):
He is a Mexican national, Okay. So but as far
as his current citizenship, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:22:16):
Unclear Okay, Yeah, well I guess that will be uh,
that'll all come out in the wash anyway. That is
the latest. It does seem as though some of these
ICE raids and some of these pullovers are ending up
in places that are a little uglier than they used
to be. Protests erupting in New York City after ice

(01:22:37):
raids in Chinatown over counterfeit goods. Demonstrators were seen near
a federal building after an unknown number of detainees were
taken in This is in New York's Chinatown, already quite controversial.
Hours after federal agents descended on Lower Manhattan, demonstrators seen

(01:23:01):
assembling near the Federal Plaza Immigration building where they believe
the dayteen detainees were taken, many shouting things like ice
out of New York, no Ice, no KKK, no fascist USA.
Videos of the raid showing multiple massed and armed federal
agents zip tying and detaining a man and shoving away onlookers.

(01:23:23):
Throngs of New Yorkers follow the agents through the streets
and down the sidewalks. An armored military vehicle was also
seen rolling through the city streets. Is this worth the paycheck?
Selling your soul? One woman was heard yelling at ICE
agents the raid, and this I think speaks to you.

(01:23:47):
Want to talk about waste, fraud and abuse. Look at this.
We're showing you pictures of it on YouTube. The raid
involved what onlookers said was more than fifty federal agents
taking place in a well known area of Manhattan where
counterfeit handbags and accessories, jewelry, and other goods are sold,

(01:24:10):
often to tourists. Unclear how many people were detained in
the raid, but a witness said that he saw at
least seven individuals taken into custody. And I just think
this is an extraordinary show of force, which is part
of the game, but also a waste. You bring in

(01:24:33):
fifty guys and military vehicaus I went to arrest seven
people who are selling illegal handbags and you are you kidding?
You're selling knockoff wallets and belts in New York and
you bring in fifty. The Department of Homeland Security may
be in a photo finish with the Pedagon for the

(01:24:55):
biggest waste of money now in America. The problem is
we're pouring other contestants into that same race, like the
bailout of Argentina and the building of the ballroom and
all this other ways in which money's being wasted. But
I'm telling you, on an institutional level, the Department of

(01:25:15):
Homeland Security that sends fifty people to arrest maybe seven
who are illegally selling knockoff purses. That is a colossal
waste of money. And you can put in the same
category as all these television and radio commercials that Christine

(01:25:36):
Nome is doing about if you'll come to America, you
better be prepared. This is the kind of treatment you'll receive.
You could end up in one of these detention centers.
I encourage you to self deport I mean these, and
then they buy Christy Nome two huge jets for her
use flying all over the place to shoot those commercials.

(01:25:58):
I just describe. I get it. She needs a mode
of transportation. Christy Nome does great. Get her one, get
her a used one, get her a repurposed one. You've
got tons of stuff lying around. Talk to Pete Hegseth,

(01:26:18):
if you can sober him up for a minute, ask
him whether there's something there at the Pentagon that she
can fly around or buy her the damn plane. But
she's got two planes now and again, I just put
it in the pile that is waste at the Department
of Homeland Security, the same pile that they pull money
from to send fifty DHS officers and ICE officers to

(01:26:43):
bust guys in Midtown Manhattan, who are selling stinkin' knockoff
Chanel bags? Are you serious? This is to distract us
from the from the horror show that's going on with
the economy, the decision making that's being made at the
Department of Justice about all the money that will now

(01:27:07):
be siphoned into Trump coffers. Man, We've really, we're really
scraping bottom brutal. That's long disorder. Tune in again next
time for more law and disorder. I'm a Mark Thompson show.
All right, that's it.

Speaker 12 (01:27:26):
Let's roll, Hey, let's speak.

Speaker 1 (01:27:28):
Can't flout there, ladies and gentlemen, I'm shadow of Steers.
This is the Mark Thompson Show. To yourself. I love
any announcement that starts with ladies and gentlemen. I think
it's very it's very old schools show business. Somehow ladies
and gentlemen has survived as a way to announce something,

(01:27:50):
you know what I mean. I think it's funny because
you know, so many other ways, like hey, bro, all
the kind of conversations you guys, Good to see you guys.
That's become kind of a way that people addressed and
it's not like too informal to be used. But somehow
through the years to the decades, through vaudeville, you know
the vaudeville you got ladies and gentlemen. Let me tell you,
you're about to see something that will mystify you. You know,

(01:28:12):
this sort of ladies and gentlemen. And so when I
hear it, when Shadows says, uh, ladies and gentlemen, you're listening,
this is Shadows Stevens. It is. It is wonderful. I
don't know. I love old you know, big show business
like that, and it's really something special. I'm counting on

(01:28:33):
you to get whatever Belinda needs for her segment.

Speaker 2 (01:28:36):
Uh you uh you under control?

Speaker 1 (01:28:40):
Yeah we got it, Yeah, Albert uh not now working Wednesdays. Now,
we've got Tony Monday Tuesday Wednesdays. Very exciting to have
Tony around as much as we do. We love Tony.
Tony hustles video and make stuff happen faster than anybody
else that I've ever worked with. So pretty cool, pal.

(01:29:00):
Nice to have you on board. And I've lost track
of what I was talking about. I got into that
ladies and gentlemen thing, and I just I've lost tracking.
Mark Thompson Show before I get to Belinda? Is there
anything else I need to get to? Kim? I sent
you Tony. I don't want to make Belinda wait more

(01:29:23):
than a couple of minutes more, but well we get
all everything she needs together. Uh, I sent you Tony.
I thought something from it wasn't There a posting from
Senator Mark Warner. I think that was pretty good. Also,
there was a questioning of some Yeah, let's let's watch
the Warner thing. This is Mark Warner on Instagram, I
think or YouTube.

Speaker 3 (01:29:43):
He posted this short in the continuing you can't make
this ship up. Donald Trumps now off threatening New York
voters don't vote for who he wants. He's threatening to
take money. He's threatened to take a World Cup game
away from Boston, even though the stadium thirty miles outside
of Boston, in Foxboro. This is not the way things
work in America. People have a right to vote for
who they want. But the notion that Trump's spreading authoritarianism

(01:30:07):
is going to intimidate voters. Or he can pick and
choose what to fund and who to fund. That's why
we've got to continue to stand up. We've got to
make sure that we don't destroy the healthcare system. It's
already got enough problems. Did we get our federal workers
back to work? But that's only going to take all
of us standing up and stepping up.

Speaker 1 (01:30:24):
Yeah, So I think that's just worth noting, and I
just want to make sure that we played it. I
like the fact that Warner's using social media to make
that message clear. The election you're talking about is the
one in New York from mayor, and it's very controversial
because Momdami is a Mamdanni is a really skilled politician,

(01:30:45):
and the Democrats generally and people generally everywhere could learn
a lot from Momdanni. Now he does come with the receipts.
He's very impressive. I watched the entire New York mayor debate,
even though I'm not in New York. I just thought
this mayoral candidate is so transformative potentially in the history
of New York that I wanted to see it. And
he just mopped the floor with the other candidates on stage.

(01:31:08):
It was incredible. I mean, I mean, Cuomo was just
I mean, he was a deer in the headlights, and
that's really what you were looking at. Was a kind
of a guy who's a hug and kiss people casually.
But Mamdanni didn't even mention the sexual harassment stuff, at
least that I recall. It was mostly about his incompetence.

(01:31:29):
And so what you're talking about is Cuomo saying you
don't know what you're doing. This is a kind of
a way of reducto on it, but a you don't
know what you're doing because you've never really served or
in office, and you've never really managed anything the way
you have to manage the city of New York. And
Mamdanni's very effective response was, Hey, we live through a

(01:31:53):
decade of you, and you were a mess, and you
handle COVID poorly. You killed a bunch of senior citizens
by allowing infected people, actually putting infected people, redirecting infected
COVID patients into nursing homes in New York, and Cuomo

(01:32:15):
had no place to go. And then this was repeated
with his relationship with the Islamic community and the Muslim
community in New York, et cetera. So that election in
New York is one that has really captured Trump's attention
because Mom Damie is you know, probably going to win,
and he is a socialist type candidate, and he wants

(01:32:37):
to tax the rich in New York to help pay
for free transportation, and he makes very articulate arguments. But
what Trump is doing, and was pointed out by Warner,
is really illegal to say if you vote this way,
I will shut off funding to New York. I mean
it's you know, when you start messing with the vote,

(01:32:58):
you are absolutely involved in a business of illegality. That's
indisputably something that has been protected legally in the US.
I mean, we'll protect the vote and the people's voice
more probably than we protect anything else.

Speaker 2 (01:33:15):
Typically, what law would that break to penalize citizenry for
the way they vote.

Speaker 1 (01:33:22):
Well, google it. I mean intimidating someone so you're trying
to extract a vote out of them, that's illegal. I
don't have We can ask David Katch tomorrow, in fact,
make sure that I do. But I promise you that
there are when it comes to the vote and your
ability to vote freely and for whomever you want, that

(01:33:45):
is a protection in the US that is to be protected.
And the idea somehow that the chief executive is sitting
there going no, you vote for that person, I'm going
to cut off funding it's if it's not illegal, it's
you know, well it's Hatch Act. Thank you, of course
who said that. Laura. Absolutely, you can't use the you

(01:34:08):
can't use the bully pulpit in this case the presidency
to say vote this way and not that way. I mean,
but even as we say that, I'm thinking you do
see sitting members of a political party. I'm thinking of
even past presidents who will campaign for a candidate on

(01:34:32):
their tickets. So I don't know that it's necessarily a
Hatch Act violation, but it might be. I'd love to
ask David Katz, but I promise you the idea that
you're intimidating of a group of voters that way, threatening
a group of voters, that's illegal.

Speaker 2 (01:34:46):
Yeah, there's a federal federal criminal laws prohibiting interference with voting.
So you're right.

Speaker 1 (01:34:51):
I mean, you know when you say, if you do this,
I will punish you. There's a I mean, he didn't
imply it's set it. So that's what's happening with it.
So good for Mark Warner for calling it out. That's
a I think the bottom line on that, we'll see
what happens in New York. I don't think it's gonna

(01:35:12):
matter what Donald Trump says. I think Mondannie's on final
approach to win that election. And that's really the frustration
of New Yorkers with their city, you know. And that
same thing would happen again maybe in America, you know.
But that's a conversation we can have after we talk
to Berlinda Shaw the Thompson It is Wednesday. On Wednesday,

(01:35:33):
we like to look at the planet and the environment
at large. We do it in a segment called It's
the Planet Stupid. The Planet Earth.

Speaker 2 (01:35:41):
Some call me nature.

Speaker 5 (01:35:43):
I am very passionate about the plan Earth, a.

Speaker 9 (01:35:46):
Living, breathing planet capable of sustaining whatever life forms we
see fit to deposit on it spot.

Speaker 1 (01:35:52):
Judging by the pollution content of the atmosphere, I believe
we have her arm. It's the planet stupid. No, no, no,
it's the planet Stupid. Our guide for it's a planet stupid.
Eco journalist Belinda Weymouth, Hi, Belinda, thank you for being here.
You give generously of your time. You are not compensated,
and if we had money to give you, I would

(01:36:12):
give it to you. Right. All we have is love, Belinda,
and we give you that as much as we can.

Speaker 5 (01:36:18):
Well, I'll take the love. Thanks.

Speaker 1 (01:36:20):
Thanks, you have good news of a short right.

Speaker 5 (01:36:24):
It's both of the stories are good news. So yeah, sorry, Mark,
I'm not I'm not taking us down today. I'm taking
us up. That's where we need to go. We need
to go up. So, because we were talking about the
right whales and what's happening with the Marine Mammal Protection
Act last week, Kim and I. So you know, you've
got Republicans who want to reduce and you know, minimize

(01:36:47):
the protections that our big mammals out in the ocean
are getting. So this is whales, polar bears, seals, all
these guys pull you know, dolphins, and and the right whale,
the North Atlanta right whale. So this is a beleaguered species.
I mean, this is one of the rarest whales in
the world and it's already you know, been on the

(01:37:08):
brink of extinction when it was being hunted that stopped.
We these protections that we have to protect the animals
have actually been working. You know, during the decade from
twenty ten to twenty twenty, the population was really dropping.
You know, there are collisions with great big ocean liners

(01:37:30):
with you know, cargo ships, there's fishing nets, there's overfishing
of the you know, the sea creatures that they need
to eat, and there was a turnaround.

Speaker 1 (01:37:43):
Don't forget plastic garbage jump out.

Speaker 5 (01:37:45):
Well, that's what fishing nets are. Fishing nets are made
of plastic, and if you see what they do to
a whale, it is ghastly, absolutely ghastly. You know, they
get entangled, they get taken to the bottom of the
ocean and they drown. They drown, and then when the
animal has decomposed and the net can go up again,
it floats up again and entangles more animals and it's
like a killing machine. So these fishing trawlers that go

(01:38:07):
out into the ocean and just dump their fishing nets
once because they don't want to take the weight at
the fishing neck back to port. They want to just
have the whole boat filled with fish. You know, this
is a you know, this is a crime. Anyway, that's
a different thing. But the story about the right whales,
so you know, we talk about the population being at
four hundred, which is minimal, but it's actually three eighty

(01:38:27):
four to only three hundred and eighty four. But what
happened over the last four years there has been the
seven percent increase and last year there were around eight
new calves that survived. And what's happened is females have
come to reproductive age, so there are more females who
are reproducing females, and they need to be healthy to

(01:38:49):
do this. You know, if they've been hit by a ship,
they're not going to be you know, having a baby
that year. They've got a wound to recover from. So
these protections are really important and Canada has really up
to their game. Is what the right worldes do is
they go from Florida all the way up to the
Saint Lawrence Bay area in Canada, and Canada's really taking
care of them. So we really have to stop the Republicans,

(01:39:13):
you know, going back on the Marine Protection Act, the
Marine Mammal Protection at the m MPa, and the fact
that we have these good you know that we are
increasing that we're seeing more babies, you know, more calves,
this is yeah, and they're just you know, they're like
I said, they're one of the most you know, rare

(01:39:35):
of the whale species and they're right on our coast.
So we really it just we just have to take
care of them.

Speaker 1 (01:39:43):
We just what I also take away is that they're
the beneficiaries of a lot of these policies that have
now helped them. So these protection protections that are in
place have indeed yielded some positive results, and now we're
seeing all of these marine protections being taken away. That's
where you get to my department and the you know,
the righteous indignation associated with the fact that they are

(01:40:04):
just rolling back every kind of environmental protection and this
protection is one of those that may be targeted.

Speaker 5 (01:40:11):
Yeah, my get sanctimonious, Mark, get sanctimonious, get mad about it,
of course. I mean, you know, self, fragiss anger, you
know about something like this, absolutely warranted, completely valid. You
have bud permission. I don't think you needed it. Actually,
I think you can. I think it really well on

(01:40:31):
your own.

Speaker 1 (01:40:32):
So tell me about that. Tell me about the solar
power story. I think this is this.

Speaker 5 (01:40:38):
Is really so, this is amazing, and this is I'm
really happy about this. So this is transfrom transformational. So
solar power right now, as far as global electricity production,
you know they say it's anywhere between seven to ten
percent is coming from solar panels. It's super, super important.
And we've been discussing on the show recently. You know

(01:40:58):
that that now you can get solar panel if you
live in an apartment, you can put it on your balcony.
You know, you can put it on a you know,
a hut in Sub Saharan Africa. I mean, they they're
so applicable to you know, decentralized power basically is what
it is, decentralized power. And I really love it that,

(01:41:20):
you know, people can go, hey, I'm just going to
put it on my balcony and you know, start generating
my own electricity. So the thing that's I think, I
remember you were really shocked when I told you this one.
So silicon panels the ones that we use right now,
So the traditional photo voltaic, they're incredibly inefficient. This is
this is China with their new one. So China is boasting,

(01:41:43):
like you know that they're up to being able to
capture up to thirty four percent of the Sun's you
know power that it's sending down and what it's all about,
it's about the spectrum of light. So right now, with
a traditional photo voltaic just made from silicon, they're not
very efficient. They need the shortwave high energy part of

(01:42:06):
the spectrum, which limits it just to UV and blue light.
So what they're doing at their best is they can
absorb twenty one to twenty three percent of the solar
energy they're being hit with. That's not huge, you know,
huge number twenty three percent, that's a lot of light
that's not being used. At their peak, they theoretically, they say,
we could get it up to thirty three percent. But

(01:42:30):
there are startups all over the world, and you'll be
pleased to hear that they're also in operation here at
MIT in Stanford. I maybe shouldn't say that out loud,
but the one that is really cool right now is
so Oxford PV So that's a part of Oxford University.
They've been working on this. They're called tandem cells, and
the miracle mineral is called perovskite. Parovskite was discovered back

(01:42:55):
in eighteen thirty nine and the Ural mountains and we
can now meet it. Yeah. There they are making these
new fabulous they're called tandem so they use the technology
we already use. They use the silicon, but then they
put perovskite on as well, and parovskite can be made
from very readily available so from bromine, chlorine, tin, and

(01:43:19):
lead and you put these together and you make perovskite.
It's very thin and it is going to take the
efficiency and how much of the Sun's rays because it
can get infrared. So theoretically what it will be able
to do is absorb up to forty seven percent of

(01:43:39):
the light that is hitting it at the solar radiation
and this is going to be a game change it.

Speaker 1 (01:43:45):
Yeah, that's transformative. I mean that's a huge number.

Speaker 5 (01:43:48):
It's huge, it's huge, it's really it's amazing. Now it
hasn't had the real world tests that are traditional photovoltaic
which have been out in the world for years and
we know that you know, they last about thirty years,
and how long will these guys last? And then Oxford
they're really testing them in the sort of you know, uh,

(01:44:10):
not real world, but you know inside the lad they're
really you know, pushing the aging process on them, like
how long can you you know, can you last? Out there?
They're also working and this is really important, Mark. This
is really different to traditional you know coal and gas. Uh,
how do we recycle these? You know, how do we
make them so that they're optimal, optimally opt to say

(01:44:32):
it for me please, yetim optimally thank you. They're optimally
recyclable that we can take you know, all the products out,
we can separate them and we can really recycle them
and not produce, you know, just more waste. You know,
the world is already dealing with you know, too much waste.
So it's really exciting. And that one that you showed

(01:44:53):
the picture of before. You know, China is saying that
they've already got their tandems, their favor skite and silicon
and solar panels producing you know, thirty four or absorbing
thirty four percent. Everyone else is saying, you know, we're
around the you know, twenty four twenty five percent, but
what we're aiming for is the forty seven. And what

(01:45:14):
the math shows, which is really important, is if you
can make a solar panel that is that efficient, you're
going to take the cost of energy down by ten
percent the cost of electricity. And this is really important
for the UK because they pay so much for their
heating in the winter, you know, they're using oil. You

(01:45:34):
go to a house, you know in the UK in
the winter, it's freezing because they don't turn on their
heating because it costs too much money, you know, really
it's a it's a health problem for their elderly. I
have a stepmother who lives in London, and I have
to say, have you got the heating turned on? Please
turn it on, you know, because they don't because they're
nervous about, you know, how much the bills are.

Speaker 1 (01:45:56):
Well, maybe you send the stepmother some money. Blind did
you ever think of that? I mean hard you can
you can afford the heat? I mean, I don't know.
Sounds like you just hector the poor lady and she
doesn't have any money.

Speaker 5 (01:46:05):
She does have money. That's a problem, she just doesn't
know it. So yeah, it's you know, there are a
few things. There are a few factors there that I'm
dealing with, Mark, But.

Speaker 1 (01:46:18):
It's just I'll tell you just as an aside, I
would say, it's just interesting to see environmentalists generally are
those who are concerned with producing a kind of sustainable
energy through in this case, solar power. It's interesting to
see them also worry about the refuse. You don't find that,
I think, and a lot of other kind of mining

(01:46:39):
for energy. I mean certainly don't find it in coal
as the slurry just goes down from coal plants into
rivers and streams and poisons and toxifies entire environments downstream.
You don't find it with oil rigs. You don't find
it with fracking, where the discharge from it and the
refuse from the various exercises and various instruments that are

(01:47:03):
used in all of these ways to get energy, the
refuse just there's no concern for it. So you have
contaminated water that's toxifying other water supplies, toxifying soil. So
it's wild. Then, though, when you turn to the sustainable
people when they're about the solar they're all concerned about, well,

(01:47:24):
what's going to happen to those solar panels? I get
that this is revolutionary, but we have to you know,
the downstream part of this, where we actually have to
replace the solar panels. What's going to happen to that stuff?
I love that that's part of the equation. Ideally, you'd
love to see the human race think, because we have
been given this amazing instrument to be able to reason

(01:47:48):
and think ahead. You'd like to be able to think
out and game out the sustainability so you'd be able
to actually have limitless energy and you could do it sustainably,
and that's kind of what the environmentalists are doing.

Speaker 5 (01:48:01):
Yeah, well, this is this is what it's sort of
like the polar opposite of what traditional energy sources do.
I mean, as you just described, you know, very eloquently. Yeah, no,
it's it's yeah, it's this is what's so great about it.
And the other thing is, you know, because these you know,
these the people who are working on this, you know,
they're super driven, and and and the thing that's amazing

(01:48:23):
about perovskite as well as it's very thin little cells,
and and what they say is they're going to be
able to spray it on surfaces. So spray it onto windows,
so your windows will you know that are in the
sun will be creating solar energy. And then they had
this other thing, which I thought was so cool. You
spray it on the roof of an electric car. Now,

(01:48:43):
an electric car, you know, has a great big battery,
and it couldn't run just on panels on the roof.
That wouldn't produce enough energy for it. But say you're
running your battery run is running low, but you've got
parovskite cells on the top. They could be that little
bit of energy that you need to get you to
the charging station or get you over the you know,
the little hump that you're you're facing. So it's just clever.

(01:49:06):
And the applications of all these things, I mean, it's
it's so much more sophisticated than you know, drill a
hole in the ground and take out as many of
the old dinosaurs or you know what, you know, dinosaurs
and the plants and all those things that you know,
decomposed and turned into coal and you know gas and oil.

Speaker 1 (01:49:23):
You know, Yeah, fossil fuel harvesting is just a much,
much much dirtier business.

Speaker 11 (01:49:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:49:31):
Yeah. And the thing about is it's completely linear. And
this is the problem with a lot of things in capitalism.
They're completely linear. You know, you extract, you manufacture, you sell,
and you make a profit and you and the end
of the line, I'm trying to keep my finger on
the screen is the mess. But the mess is in
your problem. And what we're trying to do here is
go circular, which is more sustainable on a planet which

(01:49:54):
is finite. And I used this quote last week. It's
he's an Australian writer and he talks about capitalism. He
calls it Western modern and that what a promise is
is infinite theft on a finite world. And we can't
do this anymore, you know, we can't just keep extracting, extracting,

(01:50:15):
extracting and thinking that we can live this way. And
so it is really encouraging, and I hope our audience
take hope from this that in spite of what's happening
at the White House, and in spite of Trump basically
rewarding his the fossil fuel industry, you know, which donated
I think upwards of seventy five million dollars to help
him get reelected this time. So what he's doing during

(01:50:36):
the shutdown is all these federal workers aren't at work,
except for the ones who give out oil and gas permits.
They're looking at opening up twenty five thousand acres in
Wyoming to some sort of extractive whatever I mean, They're
looking at, you know, a copper mine in Utah, are
expanding that all these things that are happening, you know,

(01:50:57):
while you know, federal employees who actually really need to
take care of our health and well being aren't at work,
aren't being paid. The oil and the fossil fuel companies
are being rewarded right now.

Speaker 1 (01:51:10):
Yeah, I mean that's certainly true, and that's always been
the strategy, is that those who gave to the campaign
he had a relationship with, you know that pre existed
him becoming president, they'd be taken care of. I will
say one thing, just because you mentioned fossil fuel and
fossil fuel production and the leasing of oil, so it
kind of gets me onto something and I'll just mention
this super quickly, and that is that there's also a

(01:51:32):
at the urging of Donald Trump and these new kind
of super warm relations with the oil producing nations of
the Middle East, there has been an increase in production
of oil and that's designed to lower oil prices and
you know, lower prices at the pump, this kind of thing.
But what has been the result of that as well,

(01:51:54):
The desire to pump more oil and the desire to
do more oil exploration has been reduced. So you have
a lot of these companies that would be in the
business of drilling and wyoming that are going now thanks
for the leases, but we may wait on the drilling
to see where the market is. There has to be

(01:52:16):
enough of an economic incentive for these companies to begin
their drilling, and so you may actually see oil wells
capped during the Trump administration because of these other policies.
This is the way this stuff all works together. But
whatever the situation, Wow, the only way to live is

(01:52:36):
the sustainable energy route and the sustainable life route. Everything
should be sustainable. And even as you say we take
two steps back in the US, it's great to see
the research continue. I know Europe, I know Asia, even
as they do involve themselves in less than clean energy,
they really involve themselves in sustainable energy. I feel like

(01:52:57):
they really see the path far better than we do well.

Speaker 5 (01:53:01):
Because it's cheaper, you know, and it makes economic sense.
And also the thing that Trump talks about here, this
energy crisis, it's a fiction, you know. There's not an
energy crisis, you know, and we were already producing more
oil and gas than everyone else.

Speaker 1 (01:53:15):
It's one of many fictions that's.

Speaker 5 (01:53:16):
Been don't get us status, don't get us started. We
were on such a good note.

Speaker 1 (01:53:21):
Mark, you did have good news though, the whales and
this new breakthrough in solar energy. That is really good news,
so thank you for sharing it. You can find Belinda
Weymouth across social media. Belinda Weymouth is w A Y
M O U t H. She's here on Wednesdays so
generously and I just love seeing you. Thank you for

(01:53:41):
being here.

Speaker 5 (01:53:42):
It's totally my pleasure.

Speaker 3 (01:53:43):
Mark.

Speaker 5 (01:53:44):
You have a great rest of the week.

Speaker 1 (01:53:45):
Back too, Belinda Weymouth. Everybody that's it's the planet stupid. More,
it's the planet stupid. No, no, no, it's the planet stupid.
Next time only I'm a Mark Thompson show. Which one
to use?

Speaker 11 (01:53:59):
Mark Martinos?

Speaker 1 (01:54:08):
We have to wrap it. I want to take notes
of a couple of commenters. Deborah May say, Trump is
a tenant, not the landlord and land owner of the
White House. No bidding, no approval by the White House
Historical Committee, no contractors from the approved list, no input
from Congress. Yes, exactly, Deborah, that is the new America. Uh,

(01:54:30):
you know you have to I told you when when
he started this thing, there was gonna be a no
bid contact anything like that. It's gonna be something contractor
did my logo to me does great work. I mean
there's no need. Why bring in other contractors that we
don't know. I know these I know the best people.

(01:54:52):
Brian Wright says, how much would it cost me to
rent the new ballroom for my grandson's bar Mitzvah party. Well,
I'm sure there'll be a priceless out soon. I told
you when I took a I had a private tour
of the Vatican. I told the story before. Yeah, but
we were at the Sistine Chapel and I'm looking at

(01:55:15):
Assistine Chapel, so just me, imagine me and I had
two buddies with me. So the three of us in
the Sistine Chapel and the guy who's showing it, and
I said, wow, it's so incredible, just extraordinary to see
it without all these people are normally here. And he said, yeah,
we're doing the special events here or too, they have
special events. I said, really, like, so if I wanted
to have, let's say something that's super not Catholic here,

(01:55:38):
Let's say a bar Mitzvah reception, just like Ryan was saying. Uh.
He said, Marca, you have the money that I can
I give you the space.

Speaker 2 (01:55:47):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:55:49):
I was so impressed with how honest he was remodeling
the White House to be more like the Kremlin says
spank flaps. Wow. Yeah, maybe that's it for the four
hundred thousand that Trump says he forgave in his salary.
He is making more from the quote bribes he is
taking to get countries to agree to his trade deals
end quote peace deals. Yeah, I think you can take

(01:56:10):
the quotes off of bribes. Del long, thank you for that. Yeah,
the quote should be around peace deals though. Enjoying the
show from Ecuador, says Rob.

Speaker 2 (01:56:19):
Welcome, Rob.

Speaker 1 (01:56:22):
Has notchious. Yeah, bien veneto my friend. That's cool. Abby
Normal X says that's a Virginia Jeffree is how she
says her last name. Her book is out and Jeffrey
I think Jeffrey and spelling spelling the the info. Yeah, yeah,
the Jeffrey or Jeffrey book will keep the Epstein files

(01:56:43):
in people's minds, says both Abbey Normal and Karen Cooper. Yeah,
it's something that's going to be hard for him to
swim away from. But there's gonna be a lot more
going on.

Speaker 2 (01:56:53):
There's all kinds of news, by the way, related to
Epstein and Virginia Jeffrey's case and the what is it
Prince Andrew, Oh yes, and what he's done over time
with the threatening of Virginia when she was alive and
the alleged hiring of trolls to track her down. I mean,

(01:57:15):
just horrible, horrible things.

Speaker 1 (01:57:17):
Well, I'd love to talk more about that tomorrow. Can
we can we get into tomorrow? I really would like to.
I'm gonna wrap for the thing. I've got to get
my uh my partner, Tony to one of his fourteen jobs.

Speaker 2 (01:57:31):
Yeah, he's got to go.

Speaker 1 (01:57:33):
Yeah, so blame Tony if otherwise you would be on
the air a little bit longer. I do want to.
So you see how I thank him and blame him
all in the same show. I mean, it's kind of yeah,
it's just it's our way. Don't get too don't get
too comfortable. Yeah, we could turn on you like a
rabbit animal. I can decend this now, but he has

(01:57:55):
the he has the real power. That's a tomorrow. Rick
Kenzie or joins us, Yes, and David Katz joins us tomorrow.
It's a big show tomorrow. Hope you all join. Oh
that's right. What am I talking about? We'll talk about
the Florida election returns. It's insane, that conversation. So until tomorrow,

(01:58:18):
it's the Great Shadow. I'm a shadow of Stevens for
the Mark Johnson Show. Bye Bye, After Party Lives going
out of the after Party live channel and out of time.
Bye bye,

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Trump says DOJ Owes him $230M — & He’s the One Who Gets to Approve the Payout 10/22/25

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Trump says DOJ Owes him $230M — & He’s the One Who Gets to Approve the Payout 10/22/25