Trump & Vought Plan Mass Fed Worker Firings in Event of Shutdown 9/25/25

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I am excited. Oh this could be could be one
of the best shows we've ever done. So glad you
could join us. I know it's an incredible prediction to
make at the beginning of a program, but there I've
just made it. We'll start the show with an apology.
Actually I know Mark's man, No, no, no, no, it

(00:23):
is really it is maddening, but is there will be
an apology to one of our listeners and viewers. In fact,
I actually wrote teacher Laurie an apology. I'm sorry, yeah,
I wrote her an email last night. I mean, unprompted.
She didn't write to me. But we had an incident
yesterday and I want to own it, and so we'll

(00:45):
do that first. But then the thing that is the
most very exciting thing in the first hour, Sarah kenzi
Or joins the bottom of the hour. And Sarah is
a brilliant mind. And her reporting and her writings on Trump,
on America, on the law, on our legacy, on history,

(01:11):
they are profound, and I'm so looking forward to her
joining at the bottom of our first hour. And in
the second hour, the noted former federal prosecutor now he's
a defense attorney. He's one of the great legal analysts
in the English speaking world, and there's a lot to
talk about, especially with the you know, the clear weaponization

(01:33):
of the DOJ, the expressed desire to go after those
that the President of the United States considers his adversaries,
his enemies, and there is as it's like a jihatism
that's coming out of the White House now and it
involves the former head of the FBI, James Comey, Letitia James,

(01:55):
that these people, Adam Schiff, who Donald Trump considers his foes,
he wants to vanquish them, and he wants to vanquish
them by bringing the law down on them, even though
it would appear that there is no legal basis to
do it. And so he's literally firing prosecutors and hiring

(02:17):
people who've never prosecuted a case before to get there
and start attacking. So we'll get to David Kat's chatting
about that, and Sarah, I'm sure we'll want to comment
on that as well. So all of that still to come.
I've got a law and disorder, so there's a lot

(02:38):
to it. First into the chat today again zero Sum
get them Ronda at nine oh five that came in,
and then Ronda, this is quite this is quite appropriate,
Ronda says, even gaslighting at Teacher Laurie g On what
fifty percent is? I was watching live, says Rondo. Well,

(03:00):
this is indeed where we are going to start, because
yesterday on the show something happened that we need to
account for.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Mark Thompson's show.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
This falls into the category, Albert, we haven't used it
a lot, but this is an official correction and apology. Yes,
I'm going to remind those who are here yesterday or
listen to the show, and those who may not have

(03:33):
seen or listened to the show yesterday what happened Teacher Laurie,
who is a regular in our chat. She is a
real teacher, She's been in our meetups. She is an
important contributor to the show. Very smart person, obviously. She
noted that Hulu was taking its price a subscription price

(03:55):
of seven ninety nine and increasing it to eleven ninety nine. Yeah,
she said, fifty percent increase. And I said, with the
smirk and snide way that I say things, Uh yeah,
that is awful, but it's not fifty percent. I mean,
come on, and I shouldn't agreed with me, by the way,

(04:22):
Albert Kim agreed with.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
Me, how are you?

Speaker 1 (04:24):
I should have sided with Teacher Laurie. Yes, better, And
the chit chit chit person agreed with me. She chit
chit chit did Teacher Laurie. And then I blame you,
I'm and I and then I leaned in. Then Teacher
Laurie comes into the chat. And here is the screen grab.
Percentage increase equals new value minus old value over old value,

(04:50):
So twelve minus eight, okay, so it's seven ninety nine
to eleven ninety nine, So it's twelve minus effectively eight, right,
just rounding up the penny, twelve eight over eight equals
point five, which is fifty percent. Taught this to sixth grader.
She said, why yelly, you morons at the Mark Thompson Show.

(05:13):
You can't even And so I then realized, of course
we were off the air by the time I realized
it that the chat blew up. Here's JP Hollywood from
eight to twelve is fifty percent. Yea one point five
times eight is twelve fifty percent increase, said Jennifer Dollars

(05:38):
four dollars is fifty percent of eight dollars, said Heather Kennedy,
Dona Holmes said, teacher Laurie is right.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Why Yelly?

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Daniel Martin said, Mark, fifty percent of eight is four?
Do the math again. And now even today people are saying,
how is this not even painfully obvious? So it is
indeed the case that Laurie was right and we were wrong.
And I think I go full Tuba on this. Albert

(06:09):
was wrong. It was stupid, and I'm trying to be
a better person. Exactly, I apologize for uh, exactly, I
really do. Would you like to apologize for what you've done?
I am apologizing. I sucond math, and teacher Laurie was correct.
I sucond math, and I knew the teacher was credit.

(06:30):
I done it. Okay, don't feel bad, Mark, I was
with you. Thank you, sal the shoemaker. Finally, so Hulu's
new rate fifty percent higher? Yeah, that is our our official.

Speaker 4 (06:50):
That if it had been another seven dollars or another
eight dollars, you know, it would have been half as
you know, take half of it and add half, that
would have been fifty percent higher. That was our what
which really would have been one hundred percent increase. Yeah,
we were wrong, we got it wrong.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
Right, So teacher Laurie, accept our correction and apologize. Mark
Thompson show Meantime Life cranks on. I do want to
mention that the peacefully Resist shirts. This is the one

(07:30):
of the T shirts. Can you see peacefully Resist nice,
it's really great. This is in our new merch line.
It's at get mark merch dot com. You can get
a peacefully Resist shirt and a lot of other shirts
like it, sort of with different kinds of configurations. Born
to peacefully Resist as another. And there are mugs. I'm
drinking the Coachella Vali coffee from one of these mugs.

(07:51):
You can see the peacefully Resist mug, which is a
really cool. I just like the font. I like the design.
It was designed by Courtney and then our logo tastefully
appears on the backside. Yeah, Albert has it up now.
Thank you Albert. That's the yeah. So if you want
to grab one, get mark merch dot com. The mugs

(08:13):
are they have. The dark mugs are really cool, the
white mugs are really cool peacefully Resist, and the other
one is born to Peacefully Resist. And then their T
shirts in the same kind of style. You can see
the different logo too. So there's a bunch of stuff
to knock around and see on our merch side, get
mark merch dot com. I think you might have fun

(08:35):
with it. I think you might want to add it
to your collection. And I would say that beyond these
there's just our regular merch stuff, Like there's all this
fun stuff. There are aprons and you know, like barbecue aprons,
all this different stuff. So anyway, to the extent you
want to support the show and do it in the
creative way, these are great opportunities to do it. You
get it at get mark merch dot com.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
So and show.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
Now, I have a lot to get to today, and
as I mentioned that, we've got guests at the bottom
of the hour, so I want to first get into
something that's pretty disturbing. I mean, and I shouldn't even
say pretty disturbing. I'm profoundly disturbed by this, and I'll
share the story with you, along with some other stories

(09:21):
that you will find interesting. This is law and disorder in.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
The criminal justice system. The people helps Addix, thieves, bumbs linus,
girls who can't keep on address, and men who don't care.

Speaker 5 (09:35):
Are represented by two separate and equally important groups.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
A copp a flat foot, a bullet Dick John Law,
You're the fuzz, the heat, You're poison, your trouble, your
bad news.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
These are their stories.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
This is one of those stories that I am second
by the DACA recipient, only thirty nine years old, died
in ice custody at a facility in Adelanto. He was
approved for DACA protection in twenty twelve. He wanted to

(10:06):
renew that DACA protection. That protection was denied in twenty sixteen,
and about two weeks after arriving at the immigration detention center,
he complained that he felt sick. His name is Ismael
Ayala Uribe, and at first he said he had a cough,

(10:30):
then a fever, and by Thursday, some days later, he
was shaking and complaining of pain, and a staff member
flagged his condition as potentially life threatening. According to internal emails,
he was rushed to a detention medical center in a wheelchair. Ultimately,

(10:51):
but an hour and a half later, medical staffers cleared
him to go back to the facility. The detention facility,
he was not taken to a hospital, and he was
scheduled for surgery for an abscess on his buttock. Ultimately,
three days later, he was complaining of pain on his Buttock,

(11:17):
but by two thirty two in the morning he was dead.
This is something that spotlights a concern with these facilities.
These immigration detention centers across the nation are again they're
basically giant dorms. They set them up, as you know,

(11:41):
with oftentimes, as has reported, these despicable conditions, and with
minimal to no medical care. This guy came to the
United States when he was four years old. He'd been
protected from deportation because of DHAKA, the Deferred Action Childhood
Arrivals program, and his renewal application was denied. It was

(12:03):
nearly a decade ago that he was convicted of a dui,
and that's the reason that his conviction led to him
not getting approval for renewal. In any case, the unsafe,
unsanitary way in which these people have to live inside

(12:26):
these detention facilities is now being exposed, and it's a terrible,
terrible fact that we've so othered these people. This administration,
in my judgment, has just created a sense of an
othering such that we don't focus on these many of

(12:49):
these people who are such sweet souls, who have been
here for long periods of time and been productive members
of society and American culture that this doesn't even make
most people's radar. There's a lot to this story, and
a lot is wrapped up in this story that's wrong

(13:10):
with our system of immigration and detention. And again, this facility,
which is run by a for profit corrections firm called
the Geogroup, they run a bunch of them. They were
unprepared to handle this number of detainees. They had a

(13:33):
shortage of experienced staffers. This has now been documented and
many staffers are saying that they didn't want to complain
and they have limited experience, but they could lose their
job if they said anything. In the case of a
Yala ribe that might have been a factor. This is

(13:56):
the fourteenth person to die in federal immigration custody since
January eleven. Died in custody in twenty twenty four, seven
in twenty twenty three, three in twenty twenty two, and again.
It was the COVID pandemic that led to the death
of many of these people early on in twenty twenty

(14:18):
twenty twenty one. Now there's really no excuse except for
the fact that it's pack them in. It's build these facilities,
pack more in because we're a for profit prison corporation,
and so another that's awful. Man dies at age thirty
nine in a situation was treatable. I mean, it's completely

(14:41):
he had a condition that was completely treatable. Meantime, we'll
talk to both Sarah kenzie Or and David Katz about
the fact that US prosecutors are likely going to seek
an indictment a former FBI director James Comy in Virginia
is where they'll seek it. And by the way, that's
because they're trying to avoid Washington d C. Courts. I

(15:02):
believe we'll talk to David Moore about this. But if
you're wondering why Virginia, it's right across the bridge, you know,
from Washington. Prosecutors are expected to ask a grand jury
to indict former FBI director James call Me in the
Eastern District of Virginia in the coming days. The exact
charges remain unclear.

Speaker 4 (15:21):
It doesn't matter what the charges are.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
Now, just get him.

Speaker 4 (15:24):
He's just being whatever the charges are, it's just because
he went against Trump, right, just because he's a Trump enemy,
that's all.

Speaker 2 (15:30):
It's all.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
He did exactly right. And I would say that when
it comes to the law in this case. You have
a prosecutor who pushed away from the case said, there's
nothing here. There's nothing here with Adam Shift, there's nothing
here with Letitia James. There is just no evidence. Mister President,
there is nothing I can do.

Speaker 4 (15:51):
That's unacceptable. You're all fired. Bring in the next guy
who will do what.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
I want exactly. The Eastern District of Virginia US attorney
Eric Siebert designed under Trump pressure, and Trump called for
him to be removed because he couldn't bring these charges.
And when again we talk about these charges, like what charges?
Can you find me? Find me some charges against these people?

(16:17):
And so they've replaced Eric Sebert with this insurance attorney.
She's never even prosecuted a case, but she's there to
do one thing, and she understands she's there to do
one thing. She was literally there I think a day,
and she had to figure out a way to begin
a process of prosecution against James Coney call me. Lindsey

(16:40):
Halligan is her name. And so even as she's getting
memoranda that say, hey, there's no evidentiary cause here for
us to put a case together, they are pursuing it.
And we'll talk to David Katz about it later in
the show. Amma's on is going to pay two and

(17:02):
a half billion dollars to settle the lawsuit brought from
the FTC. It was brought because apparently it is very
difficult to back out of the Prime subscription that many
of you have. The FTC Federal Trade Commission saying that

(17:23):
the company enrolled millions of customers without their consent and
made it difficult to cancel. And Kim was noting yesterday
that it takes like ten clicks just to get even
close to cancelation, isn't it right?

Speaker 4 (17:36):
Is eight pages and at least fifteen clicks. Yeah, I mean,
they make it nearly impossible to get rid of it.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
So they're agreeing to pay two and a half billion
dollars in fines and to redress to Prime subscribers some monies.
This is all to settle this lawsuit by the US
Federal Trade Commission. And again I'll point to this just
as something of an example of what government right now
and government advocacy on the part of the people can

(18:03):
look like. Right this is how it works. But there
is less and less regulation, and there's less and less
advocacy on the part of the people. Each hour as
this administration undoes all of that. The administration is being pushed,
that is to say, the DOJ to investigate George Soros's foundation. Again,

(18:28):
this is all of a kind. We'll talk more about
that with the David Katz. This is a directive from
the Justice Department attorneys to draft plans to investigate a
group funded by George Soros. He's, of course, the billionaire
Democratic donor, and President Trump has demanded that he be

(18:48):
thrown in jail. Again. Don't bother me with details, just
throw him in jail.

Speaker 4 (18:54):
Find me a reason.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
The statue of Jeffrey Epps and Donald Trump holding hands,
it was in the National Mall, and by the way,
it was legally there in the National Mall. They got
a permit for this statue. It has now been taken
down now. The permit actually was for the statue to

(19:17):
remain there through Sunday, but I guess because of an
irritation to the current administration, it was taken down early.
The artwork entitled Best Friends Forever installed near the Capitol
Tuesday morning. It became a tourist attraction almost immediately. It

(19:39):
shows them holding hands and skipping both the Donald Trump
and disgraced financier and a pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The plaque said,
in honor of Friendship Month, we celebrate the long standing
bond between President Donald J. Trump and his closest friend,
Jeffrey Epstein. Yeah, it's sweet when these coaches things are memorialized.

(20:01):
But sadly it didn't last long.

Speaker 4 (20:05):
And now the Department of Interior says, wait a minute,
the permit didn't say you were going to do that.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
Yeah, and the permit didn't say that. It was very
cleverly put apparently, But and so the statue goes away that,
my friends is law and disorder. Tune in again next
time for more law and disorder. I'm a Mark Thompson show.

Speaker 3 (20:31):
All right, that's it, let's roll, Hey, let's be can't
full out there.

Speaker 1 (20:40):
I guess Jimmy Kimmel did some major numbers. He did
that was barely predictable. Jimmy even did a joke about it,
of course, but it's quite impressive when you consider that
the next star in Sinclair's stations that still aren't airing
a show. This is an interesting thing. I can get
into it more in conversations that we can have in

(21:03):
the next day. Or so. But the interesting part is,
first of all, you know, huge huge ratings of course
for Jimmy and for his return there was a.

Speaker 4 (21:14):
Yeah, normal night, he gets about one point eight million viewers,
like that's just a normal how many people tune in?
And the night he came back there were six point
three million people watching ABC, but ABC says more than
twenty six million people watched the return on social media,

(21:35):
So that's those are some big numbers.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
Well yeah, yeah, on YouTube alone, fifteen million people watched.
So yeah, that twenty six million doesn't surprise me. And
again I mentioned the Next Star and Sinclair having blacked
out Jimmy show. It's one of those things where you go, yeah,
his numbers would have even been higher. The one thing
I will say about this and this, and then we'll
pick up on this another time. But you can't just

(22:01):
as an affiliate just decide not to run a bunch
of network programming over and over again. They're penalties associated
with you have certain contractual obligations, and so they can
do this for a little while. But if Disney wants
to lean in, they're actually penalties associated with it, and
they can even offer Jimmy Kimmel's show to other affiliates

(22:22):
in the market, and so it can be you'll both
be financially penalized and the programming will still run on
another station in the market. So at some point it
seems as though Sinclara Nextar have a lot of leverage
because they do. They control so much. We've talked about
this not in the context of Jimmy Kimmel, but just
in the context of right wing dominance of media. But

(22:43):
the reality here is you can't just start blacking out
a bunch of shows. This happened with the Smothers Brothers
in the sixties, and I want to say some Norman
Lear shows might have suffered the same faith in the seventies.
So it's not the first time affiliates have pushed back,
but it's a really dangerous move to push back for
any extended length of time. And of course, Jimmy Kimmel

(23:04):
shows on five nights a week, so that's a little
bit of that. I'm just so happy that he's on,
and I just thought it was a tour de force.
His return was quite brilliant. So anyway, congratulations at Jimmy
Kimmel and that whole crew, and as Jimmy noted, you
know a lot of people depend on that show. That
people who work on the show, it's a huge production.

(23:27):
The restaurants, the businesses that are in Hollywood and in
southern California that all kind of connect to that show
and interact with that show. So in other words, it's
an economic engine on some level for a lot of people.
And to all of a sudden pull the plug, it's
a big, big deal. And not to mention just the
I mean, you know, the authoritarian nature of the demand

(23:49):
to start pulling the plug on all of these shows
that in any way arouse the ire of the leader.
I mean, it's just outrageous. And then leveraging the government
against those companies such that they have to pull the plug.
They did it with Colbert and then the shakedown with ABC.
I mean, it really is. It's the stuff of despotism.

(24:11):
So anyway, that's a to be continued. Smashed the like
button if you would on YouTube, Iron Rock, that helps
us in the world of YouTube. If you give us
a thumbs up, we're served into more feeds if we
reach some threshold of a thumbs up. I know it's crazy,
but that's the way it works.

Speaker 6 (24:28):
So yeah, but your iron rock.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
Smash it with your iron rod, and we continue. Mark Thompson,
I can't believe it. I can't believe it. For me,
it's like Christmas morning knowing that Sarah Kenzier is going
to be on. I think she's just a wonderful mind,
brilliant writer. You should pick up her books, you should

(24:51):
subscribe to her substack, as we do, and we'll actually
have links to both under this video. But the view
from Flyover Country Hiding in Plain Sight. They knew these
are brilliant books, as is the Last American road Trip.

(25:12):
I just boy, and the title is chilling given what's
happening with the country. So please welcome best selling author
and journalist Sarah Kenziere. Great to see you again.

Speaker 6 (25:24):
Yeah, I great to see you too. Thanks for having
me back.

Speaker 1 (25:27):
This is so so fun for me to be able
to talk to you. You know, I'm such a fan,
and I feel like we're at this moment. I feel
even as I say we're at this moment, like I
every month I could, I could speak about the moment
and say I feel we're at this moment. Things have
become so unspooled. We've seen all the worst impulses of

(25:50):
this president indulged not only by his party, which I
think i'd argue has been completely transformed, so it's essentially
a maga park, and his government has really been cowed
and bows to his wishes. Give me a state of
the state, and then I want to get into some
of the COMI stuff and some of the other things

(26:11):
that are happening. Specifically, I mean.

Speaker 7 (26:13):
The Republican Party has been a maga party since about
twenty seventeen twenty eighteen, especially when they took control of
the Supreme Court. In the beginning, there was some pushback.
People who are now as big as cheerleaders like Lindsay
Graham were working against him, but that went.

Speaker 6 (26:29):
Away very quickly.

Speaker 7 (26:31):
He used the same tactics that he used his whole life,
of blackmail, threats, threats of physical violence, bribery, threats of
excessive litigation, and they've been in line for a long time.
They broke briefly after January sixth, but I think when
they saw that the Biden doj was not going to
bring any consequences not only for January six but for

(26:52):
the rest of the crimes that Trump committed while in office,
they felt empowered by that, and now they're in this
position where, you know a lot of Republicans from previous
administrations have long left, people like Paul Ryan retired early,
you know, got out while they could.

Speaker 6 (27:09):
And it became more extreme in itself.

Speaker 7 (27:12):
It attracted extremists because it's people who know they can
get away with anything because Trump will let them as
long as they are loyal to him.

Speaker 6 (27:21):
That's the only quality that he demands.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
Yeah, it's kind of wild to see this billionaires boys
club of cabinet officials around him and these appointees. You know,
you've got people have never been handled, handled on negotiation
or know nothing about diplomacy, and is whiplock who's handling
everything from Middle East to Ukraine? I mean this is
this is a golfing buddy of Donald Trump's who just

(27:45):
happens to be a rich real estate entrepreneur and and
we've put him in charge of these, you know, highly
sensitive matters. It's as though they're playing government on some level.
And you know, Sarah, I could almost handle the baked
in corruption that I know. I get with Donald Trump,
the idea that he's all going to be about self enrichment.
Were there any level of competence about anything else going

(28:06):
on in government, and there just really isn't.

Speaker 7 (28:09):
Oh, I think they're very competent. Just you have to
ask what are they competent at?

Speaker 6 (28:14):
What is their goal?

Speaker 7 (28:14):
They're incredibly competent at crime, kleptocracy, shakedown, self enrichment, stripping
the country and selling.

Speaker 6 (28:21):
It for parts.

Speaker 7 (28:22):
That's what they've been doing, and that's been their explicit
goal since twenty sixteen. You know, this is something Trump
talked about openly himself in interviews at that time. It's
you know, Bannon was back in the fold then and
he said the goal was the deconstruction of the administrative state.
Project twenty twenty five, laid it out as a policy
platform plan. You know, in the twenty twenty four election,

(28:44):
there is a lot of opportunity to prepare for this moment.
And you know what he did this time is the
same as what he did or really it's his backers.

Speaker 6 (28:52):
I'm not sure he makes these decisions.

Speaker 7 (28:55):
You know, as the first term, where they they cast people,
I don't even think they hire, you know, just like
on reality TV, to lead the departments that they want
to dismantle. So you know, if it's the department of education,
you get someone who's against public of public education. If
it's the Department of the Interior, you get someone who
is against you know, national parks are preserving our lands

(29:19):
and so on and so forth. The problem now is
that this is the second run. They understand the system
in and out.

Speaker 6 (29:26):
They've gotten state secrets and all sorts of information about
the bureaucratic mechanisms of government that they didn't originally have
in the first term. They got it.

Speaker 7 (29:34):
Then they've had a long time to shift the political
culture of the US either hard to the right or
just to the point of mass disillusionment, merited disillusionment, in
my opinion, and that makes it easier for them to
get away with all of these kleptocratic goals.

Speaker 1 (29:51):
I want to get to a couple of things related
to some of what you've talked about, but I want
to kind of stay with the corruption for a second,
because we saw on display two things I think, at minimum,
with the revelations about Tom Holman taking fifty thousand dollars
in that bag, getting literally a bag of cash. Prior
to the Trump administration taking office, there was the implicit

(30:15):
promise I might have been an explicit promise I don't know.
He was an FBI sting that suggested that for this
cash a contractors again they were FBI agent for the
opposing as potential contractors would be awarded contracts under the
new policies instituted by the Trump administration and handled by
Tom Holman. So he takes fifty k in cash in

(30:38):
this bag, and the Justice Department looks the other way
on it says there's just no there there nothing to investigate.

Speaker 7 (30:46):
Yeah, I mean, that's how the Justice Department has been
behaving consistently for the last ten or more years. You know,
I don't think that this is unique to Trump. It's
just the manner in which it's expressed is different with Trump,
the flaunt it. You know, they're in incredibly brazen about it,
their forthright. You know that the dj and the FBI

(31:07):
is an apparatus of Trump and his network. You know,
it's not meant to represent the interests of the United States,
it's not meant to serve the public good. Under Biden,
we had this kind of pretense of Oh, it's this plotting,
slow mechanism that needs to be so carefully managed that
it can accomplish absolutely nothing. During the entire you know,

(31:27):
four times the four years that Biden and the Democrats
were in power in terms of holding criminal elites accountable,
and so you know, they kind of played an opposite song,
but you end up with a similar result.

Speaker 6 (31:40):
And in the first term of.

Speaker 7 (31:42):
Trump, you know, it was kind of a mixed bag
because you had the Molar probe, which at least kind
of spoke to the criminality that was happening, but of
course brought no real results in terms of containing the criminality.
And you know, I don't really care whether anybody is punished,
whether they go to prison, You know that That's not
my interest. It's can they harm the American people? Can

(32:04):
they harm you know, our freedom, our constitution, our basic rights.
Are they in a position to take them away? And
the answer is yes, they were left in the position
to do that. And that is why it's so dangerous.
It's not about punitive measures or revenge or anything like that.
It's about protecting innocent people from harm.

Speaker 1 (32:23):
You write so beautifully about this, You write in bloom.

Speaker 6 (32:30):
I think you cut out the.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
Elite created by the elite, and there too, uh am
I what happened there doing we Okay, what happened.

Speaker 5 (32:39):
To ed for a couple of seconds there.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
Okay, yeah, you right. Sorry. You write, you write about this,
You write bluntly about these institutions created by the elite
that then end up protecting the elite. And that's why
you Democrats and Republicans both, uh, the Merrick Garland slow
walk on everything when it came to holding Trump to account.
And so I think it's interesting that you reference it
in this case. And you're right, and this just seems

(33:04):
as though it's being done without any sleight of hand,
you know.

Speaker 6 (33:08):
Yeah, I mean they're very brazen. You know.

Speaker 7 (33:11):
They also have had a propaganda apparatus in place for
a long time to tell us different tales about the FBI.
The FBI has done that since the you know, the
days of Hoover where Hoover would say, oh, the mafia
doesn't exist, so I can't possibly prosecute it.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
You know.

Speaker 7 (33:25):
The Bid Invariant was basically the you know, crappiest version
ever of Poncho and Lefty, you know, where it's just
like we're just gonna let them go, you know, they're
they're just some of our old folks, are old gang
will get them eventually. I don't know, I mean, I
think I wrote an article called Servants of the Mafia
State where I laid out why Garland did what he did.
You know, I think it's mostly because he was mentored

(33:47):
by Jamie gray Leak, who is you know, associated with
a number of disasters of the twenty first century, but
most notably was Jared Kushner's quote unquote ethics lawyer, and
that's who got Merrik Garland into a position as an
AG under Clinton. And then you know, that was obviously
a disastrous thing to have happened under Biden.

Speaker 6 (34:07):
Biden was fully aware of that. But yeah, now with.

Speaker 7 (34:11):
Kash Fattel, you know, and the Trump administration, it's a
very fourth Right program of vengeance and vendettas and going
after people, you know at the whim, you know, in
a sort of show trial way. You know, I have
mixed feelings about this because I often feel like they're
targeting people who have in fact committed crimes, but they're

(34:34):
not targeting them for those crimes. You know, the biggest
crime that they think could possibly happen is, you know,
you have insulted the greatness of Donald Trump, and you
know you must be therefore punished. It doesn't matter if
say John Bolton committed war crimes. It doesn't matter if
you know, Komi had multiple ethics breeches and you know,
did a lot of stuff that quite honestly helped Donald Trump,

(34:56):
you know, and not just releasing you know, the warning
about Hillary Clint and right before the election that turned
out to be nothing, but doing things like taking the
head of the Russian mafia off of the FBI's top
ten most wanted list right around the time of the
election and replacing him with a bank robber. You know
that that was very beneficial to Trump because Trump had

(35:16):
to tie to that individual, de Semon moughal Avich. So,
you know, going after Komi, I'm not sure they're actually
going to do anything to any of these guys.

Speaker 6 (35:26):
I think it's kind.

Speaker 7 (35:27):
Of you know, throwing chum in the water or whatnot,
you know, given their base what they want. I do
wish that people were held accountable for the crimes that
they actually committed instead of being you know, persecuted for
things that they didn't do, or for sort of dictator
like moves on Trump's part.

Speaker 6 (35:44):
But unfortunately, that is the government we have at the moment.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
Yeah, I agree with you on the on the calming
stuff and all the rest, and these kind of feel
like rushback pitches or just you know, as you say,
it's a way to mollify the base or show the
base that you know there's stuff going on, but you
know they're real people involved in not talking about the comingies.
So there, well, I'm talking about the Justice Department people.
I'm talking about well meaning prosecutors. They go there, they
don't really make them money that they might make in

(36:08):
the in the in the private sector, and they go
there as public servants. I grew up in Washington, d C.
So I know a lot of people who work at
Justice and they're they're disgusted, they're leaving, They're they're but
they're leaving in this downcast way. I mean, these are people.
And it works the other way too, And this is
why it's so easy to leverage, as Trump passed, like
you do this or I will fire you. These are
people with families, with kids who are in preschool. But

(36:30):
I mean they have, you know, real lives, and so
I feel like there's a lot of screwing with people
that this administration does that out in the open that
I find it just loathsome on a human level.

Speaker 6 (36:44):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 7 (36:45):
And you know, this is another area where I have
mixed feelings because on one hand, I feel like the
FBI obviously did not do their job or Trump shouldn't
have been eligible to run in twenty sixteen because he
had had spent his life as a career criminal associate.
He had all sorts of ties, all sorts of illicit
foreign dealings that would make you know, a normal candidate

(37:06):
ineligible for office, and he should have been held accountable
long ago. And the fact that he wasn't, that he was,
you know, playing a celebrity game show host for a
decade gave Americans a feeling of safety that was really unmerited.
And it made it seem like the Democrats or other
people were lying about the dangers of Trump because they
would think, well, if he was really that, you know,

(37:27):
that serious a threat, the FBI would have done something
about him long ago, and they didn't.

Speaker 6 (37:32):
So clearly this is a witch hunt.

Speaker 7 (37:34):
You know, they would believe Trump on that, and while
they were incorrect, I understand the logic of it. At
the same time, you know, during Trump's first term, he
also went in a very personal way after individual FBI members,
notably those who had been studying transnational organized crime, in
particular the Russian mafia, and in particular a lot of

(37:55):
people who Trump had had illicit business relations. When you
would target someone like, you know, least a page or
so forth, like that was the impetus of that.

Speaker 6 (38:06):
It was to gut that agency.

Speaker 7 (38:08):
Of anyone who might be left actually trying to operate
in good faith and crack down on transnational organized crime. Later,
I think they made a move to try to get
rid of people who were cracking down on militias, on
white supremacist groups, on all these other groups that are
threats to the US.

Speaker 6 (38:28):
You know, I'm very critical of the FBI.

Speaker 7 (38:29):
I'm frustrated deeply with the FBI, especially how it behaved
under Biden, because that was a time where they really
should have cleaned house. They really should have reorganized and
tried to take these problems seriously.

Speaker 6 (38:40):
They did not.

Speaker 7 (38:42):
But at the same time, you know, we have terrorist threats,
mostly domestic terrorist threats. You know, we've seen multiple shootings,
a rise in political violence. If there's going to be
an agency that handles that, you know, I guess at
this point it is it is the FBI. There are
numerous government agencies that I think need either to be
gutted or just we're kind of beyond the problem of reform.

Speaker 8 (39:04):
You know.

Speaker 7 (39:04):
I put ICE and DHS in that category as well.
But at the same time, yeah, of course, there's no
excuse for a personal vendetta against a bureaucratic employee simply
because that employee is doing their job by looking into
state corruption and crime.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
Yeah, I mean, it takes people to do things like
look into the rise of white nationalism, and into the
Proud Boys, and into the three percenters, et cetera. These are,
of course now in a reimagined agency. In this case,
it's a dark nightmare of a reimagination because you have
the deletion essentially of white nationalism as an issue in America.

(39:42):
So when you look at growing violence in America, gun violence,
et cetera, you don't even look at, you know, this
hot bed of horror. When it comes to these things,
it's completely overlooked. I mean, I love the idea of reimagining,
but the reimagination that's going on through Project twenty twenty
five is just is nightmarish, particularly when it comes to
theronment and you it was on full display when you

(40:03):
saw the impulses of Donald Trump, which are associated with
like some kind of nineteen fifties view of the world
on display at the UN you know, where it's you know,
I don't know why you guys are doing this green
energy thing. I mean, listening to Donald Trump, it was
as though green energy and alternative energy were the greatest
threats to the globe, when the reality is that they
may they may save or at least extend the life

(40:23):
of the globe.

Speaker 7 (40:25):
Yeah, I mean I that speech. I didn't I honestly,
I didn't watch this speech. I sort of just saw
the highlights where it was like, we don't like biowarfare, okay, good,
we're also against saving the planet, you know.

Speaker 3 (40:37):
Bad.

Speaker 7 (40:38):
I mean, what he says in these speeches, I don't
think has as much relevance as what his network, both
his criminal network and his you know, bureaucratic network, are
actually doing in terms of policy. You know, A lot
of this is just sort of his blather. And this extends,
of course to his social media posts, you know, where

(40:59):
you get a lot of strange things, like recently he's
now completely switched his position on Ukraine in a post
that was very obviously not written by him, and so
I think there's just a lot of things going on
behind the scenes, and you know, folks who are kind
of shocked at the loss of decorum or whatever when
Trump comes to go present the UN You know, I'm

(41:20):
just sort of like we're all in a coma like
the last ten years. I mean, this is obviously what
you're going to get. And it really does remind me
of the end of the Soviet Union. It reminds me
of all those geriatric leaders they had right before Gorbachev,
you know, kind of one after another. That's a very
bad sign for us, you know that we're emulating this path.
I do not want this country to collapse, and I

(41:44):
certainly do not think people deserve to live under this
endless stream of half coherent, very corrupt individuals leading this country.

Speaker 1 (41:55):
I want to you mentioned social media. I just want
to I thought of you when they gave TikTok, and
I think it becomes official today to Larry Ellison, and
I thought of you again. Sort of see our earlier
remarks about the elite taking care of the elite. You know,
it is now a huge, huge entity that is handed
to Larry Ellison, who's very much of the Trump mind

(42:17):
or right wing mind, and his company also looking to
acquire a large chunk of Warner Brothers and Discovery, and
this will be a massive footprint from a media standpoint
and that kind of control over information and messaging. Sarah,
you know, it really takes us into a place that
I feel as though that groundwork was laid in the

(42:37):
nineties or even prior to that, and now we're sort
of sadly going to be exposed to it in a big,
big way.

Speaker 7 (42:44):
Yeah, I think this is one of the biggest turning
points that we faced in this administration. A lot of
it was kind of a repeat of the first administration,
just you know, accelerated and worse. There was not as
much of a crackdown on free speech and free media
during that first administration because the infrastructure behind it was
much more robust and allowed for a lot more criticism

(43:08):
of the government. And there are many ways you can
stop criticism of the government. It doesn't have to be
something dramatic like a repeal of the First Amendment. You
can simply shadow ban people, you know, so they're technically
there but no one can can hear them. You can
elevate other people through algorithms, you can selectively kick different
people off, you can stop certain topics from trending.

Speaker 6 (43:30):
And so these.

Speaker 7 (43:31):
Oligarchs who run these social media networks, or for that matter,
who have now taken over traditional print media like Jeff
Bezos and the Washington Post, they hold an enormous amount
of power. You know, there was always a gatekeeper aspect
to media that would keep stories out. You know, you
saw this with Iran Contra and basically anything that followed Watergate.

Speaker 6 (43:53):
You know, with Watergate, the.

Speaker 7 (43:54):
Kind of learned their lesson and they're like, let's make
sure that never happens again, and then never give power,
you know, back to the people, back to the journalists.
But then there is social media, there is the Internet,
There were bloggers. There is an ability for people to
break through and be able to tell the story. That
ability is decreasing rapidly. I'm also worried about substack and

(44:17):
the other newsletter platforms that have been where a lot
of these laid off journalists have gone. That seems like
a natural next target after you know now that they
do have TikTok.

Speaker 6 (44:28):
I also think a lot of the motivation to.

Speaker 7 (44:30):
Get TikTok is because TikTok Is where a lot of
young folks in particular have learned about the genocide in Gaza,
and this administration is extremely committed just suppressing information about that,
especially you know, heard directly from from Palestinians on the ground.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
Yeah, boy, that's a great that's a great, great point
as well. We're on the verge of a government shutdown
and the latest reporting is associated with a memo that
went out to agencies saying prepare for mass layoffs, not furloughs,
but these will be layoffs. So the gutting of government

(45:11):
has only really begun. This will be a at least
the potential for if this shutdown happens, a real trimming
of government on a level that Project twenty twenty five
is dreaming about. And it came this memo from OMB, which,
as you know, is this incredibly powerful agency that really
got very little focused before Russell Vote took over and

(45:32):
became this author of Project twenty twenty five. And so
he's running OMB that just sent this memo out saying guys,
we're not furlowing people, We're getting rid of people when
this government shut shutdown actually happens.

Speaker 7 (45:44):
Yeah, this is a very frightening prospect. I remember being
afraid when they did this, and I think it was
twenty eighteen through twenty nineteen there was a government shut
down under Trump. You know, there is also one in
twenty thirteen, and that was the first one in my
life where I really wondered, is the government going to
come back, because it seemed that it was in the

(46:04):
Republican self interest to not bring these institutions back, to
not provide basic goods and services to the public, to
not fulfill taxpayer demands. They've wanted a pretext to do
this for a long time, and so there's an enormous
risk in giving in to a shutdown because things like

(46:25):
you know, national parks, state parks, healthcare, public schools that
we need. They have decided that they are unnecessary, that
we are undeserving of them, and I think that they
would be content, you know, to just eliminate them entirely
by letting a shutdown kind of go on forever. It's
like when a television show announces hiatus and you kind

(46:47):
of you know what that really means. I think that's
kind of the template that that Trump sees, you know,
government functions and foundations, is you know it's actually cancelation
in his mind.

Speaker 5 (46:59):
I think Mark connection drop. So Kim, can you just
yeah tag in real quick?

Speaker 8 (47:05):
Hi?

Speaker 4 (47:05):
He Yeah, what's the set?

Speaker 1 (47:07):
Mark? Back up?

Speaker 3 (47:07):
Boy?

Speaker 4 (47:08):
We have some a lot of activity in the chat.

Speaker 6 (47:10):
Oh here's Mark.

Speaker 1 (47:11):
Only on the day. Yeah, of course it would happened
to day Sarah's here. I'm so related to be talking
to her and I get to knocked off at Yeah, exactly,
I want to pull investigation was a mistake, But I
gotta do this to me all the time. I don't
know what to do it. Thank you, No, But I
love what you were just saying, because it did happen

(47:34):
in twenty thirteen, and there were shutdowns in all of
these critical areas. When I say critical areas, I even
mean national parks and some of the things that you've
talked about that one doesn't even factor into perhaps being
affected by a shutdown. So please Yeah, I thought you
were making a very really good point. I'm sorry that
my connection was lost for an instant, But so the

(47:56):
dynamics of this really play into a crew that doesn't
value government. So if you don't value government, this shutdown
really plays right into your strategy.

Speaker 7 (48:06):
Yeah, I mean they value government as a tool to
harass citizens, to surveil us, to spy on us, to
create bureaucratic rules that curtail our freedom of speech, freedom
of assembly, you know, and other constitutional rights. But in
terms of providing services, whether basic services like you know,
the post office and the ability to mail things, including internationally,

(48:28):
or you know, the ability to have a funded public
school system, or as you said, national parks. And I
am very worried about this because in the last shutdown,
a lot of those parks faced a great deal of damage.

Speaker 6 (48:40):
You know, some of it permanent.

Speaker 7 (48:41):
You know, there was you know, trees that were being
pulled down that you know, had had taken hundreds and
max thousands of years to grow.

Speaker 1 (48:48):
You know, yeah, spread vandalism, that's right.

Speaker 7 (48:52):
Yeah, they don't repair themselves. And the parks are already
in danger because of defunding, understaffing and so forth, and
so they want to keep going with this. It's incredibly unpopular.
You know, we've seen this in polls that Trump is
I think it is all time low. This is just
going to increase this and they know that. And it

(49:14):
concerns me that they know that, because it's a sign
that they do not believe there's going to be a
free and fair election in the midterms. They think that,
you know, all of this is not going to affect them.
It doesn't matter how the public feels about it, because
they're just going to proceed in doing what they want.
They don't see any obligation of even pretending to serve

(49:35):
the public. That's the key difference. They would at least
put up a pretense before, you know, it was not sincere,
but they felt a kind of obligation to make it
seem like this was, you know, government as normal. They're
not bothering with that.

Speaker 3 (49:48):
Now.

Speaker 1 (49:49):
I want to ask you about something that relates to
the soul of America or the values of America or
as they.

Speaker 6 (50:01):
Oh here here we are again.

Speaker 4 (50:03):
No, oh no, what a bummer, because this is your
maiden voyage on your Mark Thompson's Show. Kind of not
that you haven't been on the show before, but your
Mark Thompson's Show debut, and I have to tell you
we're so excited to have you on as well as
Mark Reconnects again. Can we talk about a little bit

(50:25):
about what's happening at the White House today, which is
a leader of Turkey is coming to the White House.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
Oh, hi, Mark, no finish, it's a good question. Yeah.
One one dictator meets another, One.

Speaker 4 (50:37):
Dictator meets another, and the White House apparently the United
States is considering lifting the ban on F thirty five sales.
We have internationally with Russia. We have the United States
military scrambling fighter jets as Russia comes into our airspace.
We have these drone incursions over Poland and other countries

(51:01):
in Europe, and it's just it feels like militarily things
are heating up. Is there anything to say about that?

Speaker 6 (51:10):
Yeah, I mean I wasn't. Is it air Dowan that's coming?

Speaker 1 (51:13):
Is that?

Speaker 6 (51:14):
That's right?

Speaker 7 (51:15):
Yeah, you know, I didn't know about that. But Turkey
is an extremely seminal country at this moment, both in
terms of the war with Ukraine and the action of
NATO and Russia, and you know what's going to happen
with that in the future, but also in terms of
Israel and US support for Israel, and the fact that
Israel recently was threatening Turkey and did so after they

(51:37):
attacked Gutter, they attacked Yemen, they attacked Lebanon, they continue
to attack Gaza, and Turkey is really in the middle
of all of this in this you know, very pivotal,
you know, geostrategic spot and in terms of air Dowan,
you know, he's going to look out for what's best
for himself.

Speaker 6 (51:57):
You know.

Speaker 7 (51:57):
He makes me so sad because I used to live
in tur I lived in Turkey from two thousand and
three through two thousand and four, so twenty one years ago,
and he was the new president, and all these young folks,
you know, I taught high school, I taught English.

Speaker 6 (52:11):
You know, they were so excited about him.

Speaker 7 (52:13):
They really thought this was kind of a new era
of freedom and democracy. And not in any of our
wildest dreams did we think that he would be there
two decades later as this extreme oppressor, you know, which
really began in earnest I think around twenty thirteen with
a lot of the crackdowns on free speech and free assembly,

(52:33):
and so you know, they're two of a kind in
a way in that they shared these typical qualities of
the dictatorship. But I think Aradowan is looking out for Aridwan,
He's looking out for Turkey, and I don't think that
he's likely to be like bamboozled by Trump or something
like that. But I'm not quite clear you know, what
kind of arrangement they're going to make, because there's so

(52:54):
many different issues that they're kind of locked in the
center of.

Speaker 1 (52:57):
And Turkey was always thought of as a sort of
this triumph of secularism surrounded by a strong Muslim population,
I mean, a robust Islamic surrounding, but the government was secular.
It was always sort of thought of as a shining
light that way. And you're right, it's become sadly just
in the control of this guy who sort of has

(53:18):
the playbook the side, along the same way that Orbon
does for a sort of soft takeover, such that you know,
the public before they know it, are dealing with an authoritarian.

Speaker 7 (53:30):
Yeah, and that soft takeover was in twenty sixteen. You
had all these things happening at once. You had that,
you had Brexit, you had Orbon consolidating power. It's really
frightening how coordinated it was, and how you saw a
lot of the same operatives in the background, you know,
working in different spaces. But you know, Turkey is such

(53:50):
an example of a place where you know, everyone needs
to remember this, especially about the US, where the people
and the culture are very different from the government you know,
I loved living in Turkey. I love I would love
to be able to go back there, and it's just
such a shame. Uh you know, what's happened to such
a beautiful place when it's held under this kind of

(54:11):
repressive constraint.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
Well, there we go.

Speaker 4 (54:17):
What I was gonna say, as well as it's clearly
Mark having connection problems is all of these things are happening,
but then you have someone like Trump in charge of it,
and it's just making me more and more nervous because
I just don't trust his what his response to all
of this will be.

Speaker 6 (54:36):
I don't trust Trump.

Speaker 4 (54:38):
Imagine that jail with you, but I don't trust that.
I guess the last presidency, his last presidency, we kind
of saw this, I don't know, our place on the
world stage fall apart, and to have someone who's not
able to really handle an American response to I don't know,

(55:00):
dangers against democracy, against American ideals, and against potentially things
that could trigger some type of you know, third World
war type of thing. It's just the more we go on,
the scarier it gets.

Speaker 6 (55:16):
Oh yeah, No, I mean I'm afraid.

Speaker 7 (55:18):
I just it's the combination of everything, you know, all
of these different dictatorships, all of this instability, the fact
that their goal, you know, the idea of leverage changed.
You know, a traditional kind of dictatorship you used to
at least want to expand the country, strengthen the country.

(55:38):
That's actually the model that somebody like Iridawan or Putin
are operating on with Trump. It's really to collapse the
country and then be able to sell off the remains.
And so there's no sort of leverage in terms of
our self preservation in that equation.

Speaker 6 (55:55):
You know, that is a mafia state.

Speaker 7 (55:58):
Rule, and so we're in more danger than we would
be if they were following that twentieth century kind of
typical model.

Speaker 6 (56:05):
And I think also the role.

Speaker 7 (56:06):
Of digital media and all these tech tycoons lurking in
the background, you know, who have these transnational ties, who
have these ideas of you know, world digital currency. You know,
who use AI to replace human beings, who don't have
any regard for the sanctity of human life. You know,
those are the people whose decisions I think are dominating

(56:27):
the culture of this administration more than Trump himself. You know,
Trump is still the front man, he's not the ideologue.
But it's extremely frightening to have so many people, you know,
it's such kind of hatred for what makes us human,
you know, pulling the strings in the background.

Speaker 4 (56:47):
Well, we're almost out of time with you for this week,
and I'm so excited that I get to have you
back every week. Are we doing I don't know. We'll
figure it out, but now that we got rid of
that Mark Thompson, guy. Yeah, there was a story a
couple of days ago that the Pentagon is disbanding this
committee for the Increase of having Women in the Military

(57:08):
after seventy five years, And yesterday I saw the story
that RFK Junior is now launching an FDA review of
the abortion pill MIFA pristone, which is used in about
two thirds of abortions nationwide. And it feels rather like
an attack on women. Not that I should be surprised

(57:28):
about that, because it happened last time. Right, You have
this rhetoric with women are supposed to stay home and
obey and do all of these things. But now with
the you know, it's so blatant with this disbanding of
this seventy five year old committee to include women in
the military, and this clamp down on the availability of

(57:52):
abortion drugs possibly. I just wonder if you could speak
to that.

Speaker 7 (57:56):
Yeah, I mean, I think ever since the repeal of Roe,
we've been going down this path, you know. So I
don't see it as unique to the Trump administration, you know,
as someone who I live in Missouri, you know, and
one day I woke up and I had fewer rights
than my husband, fewer rights than my son. And that's
a really horrible feeling to have, you know, to just
have your bodily autonomy.

Speaker 6 (58:18):
Stripped away from you.

Speaker 7 (58:19):
And you know, almost all the states where this happened
fought back, you know, we did on a ballot initiative.
We got our reproductive rights at least temporarily restored.

Speaker 6 (58:29):
The same thing happened in Kansas and other states.

Speaker 7 (58:32):
This is not a popular position, and taking away birth
control is even less popular, you know, and it's really
not that controversial.

Speaker 3 (58:40):
You know.

Speaker 7 (58:41):
There's all these stereotypes about quote unquote red states. Red
states welcome birth control, and so yeah, you know, this
is really just a matter of power. They'll try to
frame it as a matter of health or sexuality or whatever,
but it's just a way of asserting that, you know,
if you are a woman you have less power than
a man, and that is the natural order of things,

(59:01):
and that is the way that it's going to be
for you. You know, women here are innovative, they figure
out ways around this, but it's just a shame. And
you know, one of the things that shocked me what
most was how few people kind of had empathy or
stood up for us when we were in this position.
You know, Missouri was the first state where this happened.
It had a trigger law, so it automatically happened with

(59:22):
the Supreme Court repeal, and we just got kind of like, well,
too bad for you from the Democratic Party. We just
kept getting hit with like fundraisers from Nancy Pelosi. I'm like,
this is not going to help get our rights. And
you're also not showing any respect for the true fear
that we have when there are things like you know,
bounty hunter laws announced in places like Texas. It's genuinely

(59:46):
a frightening situation, and I don't think that they really
addressed that with the proper respect that it deserves.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
Yeah, you're right about that. In your last amark and
road trip, as I recall, and the stripping away of
chimis a right. I mean you see it so on
display in a brazen way with hegsith in the military,
there's just this, you know, this troglodyte kind of attitude
toward everything when this military machine that had all these issues.

(01:00:15):
Of course, so the problem with sexual assault the military
is an absolute epidemic. It's a horror show. But you see,
putting that aside, that the military was trying it seemed
on some level, at least through I think a democratic
flex of sorts to get women in higher positions in
the military and to at least try to be responsive

(01:00:36):
to women's needs or women's voices. And maybe it was performative. Please,
please don't misunderstand me, but I guess what I'm trying
to say is that there is not even the artifice
of that anymore. It is all gone, and it is
really a war on women from this administration. And it's
really scary.

Speaker 6 (01:00:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:00:54):
Absolutely, And I think you're right that it was performative
to a large extent.

Speaker 6 (01:00:58):
I think we saw quite a lot to that.

Speaker 7 (01:01:00):
You know, around twenty nineteen, twenty twenty, a lot of
institutions pretending to care about civil rights, pretending to care
about women's rights, and then abandoning it when you know,
they thought it was convenient. You know, they treated it
like a trend that said. You know, this is another example,
like when I said Trump casts his administration, he doesn't hire.

Speaker 6 (01:01:21):
That's what he did with Hegseth.

Speaker 7 (01:01:22):
This is not someone who's qualified to lead you know,
this institution.

Speaker 6 (01:01:27):
But he is.

Speaker 7 (01:01:28):
You know, with Maddis back in the first administration, I
always thought he got in purely because he was nicknamed
mad Dog, and Trump thought that was cool, and so,
you know, we accidentally got a qualified person. I didn't
like him, you know, I want to be clear about that,
but he was qualified. He had the experience, he had
the understanding. We don't have that now, you know, and

(01:01:49):
of course we have despite Trump's claims that he's you know, solved,
I think I think he said he solved seven wars
or ended seven wars. You know, we are engaged by
association or through funding, and quite a lot of military
incursions around the world, you know, most notably funding Israel's genocide.
And these are not the folks who I want doing that,

(01:02:10):
you know. In addition to their crackdown on you know,
against women, against you know, gay and lesbian and trans people,
all of that within the military. You know, they also
are obsessed with the apocalypse. You know, they're obsessed with
the rapture, and they see a lot of these wars,
particularly in the Middle East, as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy.

(01:02:30):
They either sincerely see it this way or they see
how it's very useful to try to see it that
way and portray that kind of image, because then they
can get people to accept wars or invasions that they
normally would protest because they think it's all headed towards
some sort.

Speaker 6 (01:02:45):
Of glorious ending, which it really is not.

Speaker 7 (01:02:49):
It is kind of kind of making me reevaluate my
belief in the Antichrist, but you know, that's its own thing.

Speaker 6 (01:02:55):
So yeah, we're in a lot of trouble with these folks.

Speaker 7 (01:02:58):
No matter what, I guess we can all agree on that,
whether it's head in towards the rapture or just towards
a bureaucratic collapse.

Speaker 6 (01:03:05):
Who knows.

Speaker 1 (01:03:08):
I'm now way over time, but I did. I did
want to get this in if this connection the holds,
because the Charlie Kirk thing was really obviously a huge
thing culturally, politically, and one of the things that's been
birthed by the Charlie Kirk of violence and the murder

(01:03:28):
of Charlie Kirk. Is this declaration in Oklahoma? The Oklahoma
school head I had it here before. He wants to
force schools in Oklahoma to create Turning Point USA chapters
in all of the high schools in Oklahoma. I mean
it's a and of course he's casting and I was

(01:03:48):
watching something with him this morning. He's casting it. As
you know, this is to push back against the leftist
ideology that is built into all of the curricula at
the high school level.

Speaker 6 (01:04:02):
Yeah. I think this is a really bizarre turn.

Speaker 7 (01:04:05):
And this isn't part of because I've spent a lot
of time in Oklahoma. You go to Oklahoma, everything's named
after Will Rogers. Like everywhere you go, everything.

Speaker 6 (01:04:12):
Is Will Rogers.

Speaker 7 (01:04:13):
And Will Rogers was, you know, a very popular entertainer
from about one hundred years ago who also died very suddenly.
But he was you know, a part White, part Cherokee
kind of you know, all over personality, extremely popular and
beloved in his time.

Speaker 6 (01:04:29):
A lot of younger folks.

Speaker 7 (01:04:30):
Today have no idea who he was, but the idea
of kind of that was what struck me in my
mind was like, you're replacing Will Rogers with somebody with
no connection to the state, with no connection to the
state's indigenous people, you know, which is another thing to
remember about Oklahoma is that this is a state with
a very large number of Native tribes, and you're forcing

(01:04:51):
Charlie Kirk, you know, into the curriculum in a really
inorganic way. I mean, if they just want to create
a situation I guess, in in which people debate things
in schools, or they you know, try to make a
case through their argument, Like I think that that would
be fine, but it's very weird to glom onto him
and kind of exploit his murder in order to have

(01:05:14):
what is really, you know, a right wing takeover of
the schools framed as a memorial.

Speaker 6 (01:05:20):
I think that that is what they're doing.

Speaker 1 (01:05:22):
Yeah, yeah, it's just that. Thanks. Thanks for hanging out
with us. I appreciate it's hard for the technical screw ups. Kim.
Thank you for jumping on. And as usual, you know,
Kim can can rock this without me to begin with,
so very very cool and Sarah, I'm told and this
is like the best news again, like a kid on
Christmas morning that you'll come through again. I don't know

(01:05:43):
what the schedule is, but I will be back, all right.
I'll look forward to that. We have links to all
of your stuff again, your sub stack. We're paying members
and it's worth every penny. And of course your books
are wonderful. I talk about them all the time, even
when you're not here. So look forward to the next time.

(01:06:04):
All right, thank you very much, all the Sarah Kenzier
everybody right.

Speaker 2 (01:06:08):
On Mark Thompson Show.

Speaker 1 (01:06:11):
Yeah, well, we will have links to all of Sarah's stuff,
So you really should get into a book. You can
almost needle drop her books. They're that they're that good,
the narratives of both high profile figures, and then just
the way that the history of America and I'm talking
about a recent history of America has essentially set the

(01:06:33):
stage for a lot of what we're experiencing right now.
It's just all laid bare. So you know, again, definitely
get into it. If you haven't, it's weird. I don't
know what the technical thing is today.

Speaker 4 (01:06:45):
Albert such a bummer that it would happened with Sarah Kenzie.

Speaker 1 (01:06:48):
I'm so excited for her to be all right, I
don't know that it was anyone's fault.

Speaker 5 (01:06:55):
But it looks like your connection looks stable now of course.

Speaker 1 (01:07:00):
Yeah, of course she's not here anymore. So that's terrific.

Speaker 5 (01:07:03):
Uh Kim just getting in there, and.

Speaker 1 (01:07:07):
Yeah, Kim is Kim crushes, There's no question about it. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:07:12):
A lot of love for Sarah in the chat as well.
That's really nice.

Speaker 1 (01:07:15):
She's just she's the real thing I am. I was
looking for the salad shoemaker. Can we have a salad shoemaker?
Made a comment in the salad Shoemaker, little Kim. Great job,
says salad shoemakers job juggling everything today.

Speaker 4 (01:07:34):
So Joe Fish sala the shoemaker, Joe box and little Anthony.

Speaker 1 (01:07:39):
Little Anthony is not available. He's doing I think he's
doing seven to ten right now. And uh so really
like Sarah Kenzier, says Jeannette. She's a good speaker and
a good writer too. She is a brilliant writer writing.

Speaker 4 (01:07:56):
It's like, I take your breath away situation. I wish
I could write like She's amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:08:01):
Yeah, so I will tell you, I can tell everybody this.
The Kim is the Sarah whisperer. She interacts with Sarah.
I don't know about that, get it. And so you'll
you know, so as Ronda says Kim Rock, So if
you know, you'll tell us some girl, baby girl, don't

(01:08:23):
even play. Yeah, great interview, says Zero Sum. Yeah it
was a tag team interview today. All right, our Kats
is upcoming. I'd love to get up. What's that?

Speaker 4 (01:08:35):
John Watson says, I thought Mark was raptured there for
a while.

Speaker 1 (01:08:38):
Oh, that would have been. That would have been a story, man,
would have been a story.

Speaker 6 (01:08:45):
I thought you.

Speaker 4 (01:08:45):
Weren't going up. I thought you were. I thought you
were one of the folks staying behind in the rapture.

Speaker 1 (01:08:50):
I kind of wanted to stay behind. I know that
that's not a really popular position, but you know.

Speaker 5 (01:08:57):
Mark ran out of time to sell all his stuff,
like those people are doing TikTok yelling.

Speaker 1 (01:09:01):
You know, it's really been been a rough goil for me.
I haven't been able to.

Speaker 4 (01:09:04):
Imagine they're offloading all their worldly possessions.

Speaker 1 (01:09:07):
Yeah what Belvi Davis, thank you for mentioning her big
ee sixty one. So Belvi Davis is a true pioneer.
There was a piece in the chronicle yesterday she passed away.
Maybe you get a picture of her up there, Albert.
She was at KRON when I was there political reporter.

(01:09:31):
This is back a long time ago in a galaxy
far far away with a guy named Rolin Post. Both
of them really doing terrific political reporting. And Belvi Davis
was someone who had carved out this remarkable place for
herself and was a pioneer. She was a Bay Area

(01:09:53):
TV news icon.

Speaker 4 (01:09:55):
She was the first African American woman to be on
television news in the.

Speaker 1 (01:10:01):
And that's what I mean when I say pioneer. She worked.
I believe I know a KRON she also, she was
one for a long time.

Speaker 4 (01:10:16):
Yeah, she was really good. She passed away at the
age of ninety two.

Speaker 1 (01:10:22):
She opened doors that had long been closed, said, I
believe the Mayor of Oakland said this. Yeah. And she
proved through her talent and perseverance that our voices belonged
on the airwaves. She made it possible for a new
generation of journalists to see themselves in all forms of

(01:10:45):
media and to know they had a place in shaping
public conversation.

Speaker 2 (01:10:50):
And I got it wrong.

Speaker 4 (01:10:51):
She wasn't the first African American television journalist in the
Bay Area. She was the first on the West Coast.

Speaker 1 (01:10:58):
Yeah, how about that. I mean, it's hard to imagine
a time like that. But you know, again, it doesn't
feel as though it was so long ago, ninety two
years old. Belved Davis. I loved her, she was just terrific.
I mean I worked with her for years, worked for
there at kron and she had you know, she had
a cubicle like everybody else had a cubicle, and she

(01:11:20):
was so and you just because of the layout of
the newsroom, you'd walk past her all the time, her Rolin,
and you always felt like those were the super smart
people in the newsroom. You know who else worked there
right across in the cubicle adjacent to mine is Mara Liason,
the NPR reporter, and I think she's on Fox News Channel. Also,

(01:11:41):
marl Leyson was there, so she was a writer. So
it was quite the time. You know, there was still
a vibrant news organization that Belvid Davis was part of.
There was time for her to do her reporting on politics,
on California politics, on national politics. And now I feel
as though everything's been truncated. You know, everything is just
much shorter and more unforgiving. The newsrooms have all been

(01:12:06):
pared down. There's no money anymore. Now it's all you know,
can we make a TikTok video? But back then there
were hours and hours of TV news. It was really
populated by serious journalism. There were I mean literally Peaboddy
winners in that newsroom, and she was one of those
award winning journalists. So a real tribute to her, I'm

(01:12:32):
sure is being done in the Bay Area. The Chronicle
did a big piece on her San Francisco Chronicle and
again Belvedavis will be missed, but her legacy is substantial.
So ninety two years old, he let's want.

Speaker 8 (01:12:49):
To use Mark Thompson's Mark Thompson, Mark Thompson, I know
you're wondering, Mark, what is the coffee that you drink?

Speaker 1 (01:13:01):
Well it is. It's right there for you. I don't
like to hoard. It's a Coachello Valley coffee and I'm
drinking it out of our peacefully Resisted mug, which is
quite special has our logo on the back. If you
can get the mug at get Mark merch dot com.
But you get the coffee at Coachella Valleycoffee dot com

(01:13:21):
and you use our discount code Mark T at checkout,
and you too can enjoy the experience that your taste,
buds and your body will thank you for. It is
a magical experience. The Ocatillo espresso, the Sunrise Blend, the Elgato,

(01:13:42):
those are all blends that I always like. And but
the French roast is magnificent, the dark for Riach, Rickissimo feel.
They've got the cold brew, the Ethiopia, and of course
many teas and spices as well that are magnificent. You
hear Kim talk about the teas all the time, the

(01:14:03):
ginger mint, the turmeric blend, the mango tea. Yeah. Coachella
Valley Sumatra is a favorite of Ricky o'bert, who's an
og of the show. You too can dip your toe
into the water. Coachellovalleycoffee dot com. Mark Tea at checkout
for ten percent off. The Clarity Blend is I'm over

(01:14:25):
the moon for the Clarity Blend. That's the newest in
my kitchen. There's the Steak rub and as I mentioned,
there are some great spices. Coachella Valley. I'm halfway through
my large French press, says REVP. Yeah. It's uh. It's
enjoyed by everyone, and they're a great great company. Like,

(01:14:45):
they're a small business that you want to support, so
definitely give them a look. Coachella Valleycoffee dot Com a
little news story or two Turbo News and then David
Katz all right, smashed the like button, thanks again to
Sarah ken'sure. And I'm so bummed. Technical problems. God, i

(01:15:07):
was like being on a first date with my dream
girl and not being able to get the car started.
That's exactly what it was like. Yeah, my sister has
to come along and go, hey, I've got a car
that works. Okay, Yeah, I'll just be right here.

Speaker 4 (01:15:26):
Y'all just stay in the backseat. I'll take you.

Speaker 1 (01:15:28):
It's okay. Oh my god. All Right, Kim's News and
then cats next.

Speaker 2 (01:15:34):
The Mark Thompson Show.

Speaker 4 (01:15:42):
On The Mark Thompson Show, I'm Kim McAllister, and this
report is sponsored by Coachella Valleycoffee dot Com. Mark just
talked about it a little bit, but boy is it
the good stuff. Coachella Valleycoffee dot Com. NATO's Secretary General
is echoing President Trump's all for member countries to shoot
down Russian planes that violate their airspace. Secretary General Mark

(01:16:07):
Root sharing his stance during an interview, also though suggesting
the action should only be taken once all other options
have been exhausted. Root says there have been Russian incursions
into NATO air spaces for decades, and noted that the
US military has trained and prepared for this. The Secretary
General added member countries know how to accurately assess situations

(01:16:29):
to determine the proper course of action. Even that he
has to say anything about it, hmmm, it makes me
nervous the whole thing.

Speaker 1 (01:16:37):
I mean, it would be so easy to back into
a war, It really would be. I mean, I think
it's oftentimes forgotten how easy it is to back into
a military conflict. I mean, look at the origins of
World War One, if you want to see how accidentally
things can happen. That was a horrible, horrible war, and
look how it accidentally happened. So I think these guys

(01:17:01):
have to be these guys who are playing military and
you know, they're playing house with so much when it
comes to government and the military, everything is performative. And
you heard you know, Sarah Kens, you were talking about this.
You heard me talk about the fact that Trump cast everybody,
remember I used to talk about that how he cast
Pete Hegsith, how he cast Janine Piro, how he cast

(01:17:22):
these people. It wasn't based on competence. It's based on look.
It's based on the way in which they handle media.
That's why he took so many from Fox News Channel.
And it was when I heard her say it, I thought, wow.
I mean that, I felt almost buoyed by the fact
that she sees the same thing.

Speaker 2 (01:17:43):
We move on to.

Speaker 1 (01:17:45):
I mention that only sorry to interrupt again, but I
mentioned it only because you don't have people of competence
handling a situation that again could easily blow up.

Speaker 4 (01:17:52):
It's so scary. It appears TikTok will keep on running
in the United States. President Trump expected to sign a
deal later today allow for a sale of the popular
social platform after years of threatening to pull it because
it's owned by the Chinese. Under this deal, the app
US operations will be run by a new US based company.

(01:18:13):
TikTok's current owner, China's based Byte Dance, will hold under
twenty percent of the stock in this new company. Federal
prosecutors will reportedly seek to indict former FBI director James Coomy,
The Washington Post reporting the Justice Department will be asking
a grand jury to invite indict Komy, not invite him,

(01:18:34):
indict him on allegations that he lied to Congress on
his handling of the investigation into the Russia meddling of
the twenty sixteen presidential election. Komy has maintained his innocence,
and if a federal grand jury were to approve this case,
it would mark one of the highest profile indictments of
a political figure. President Trump putting the blame for the

(01:18:56):
deadly ice shooting this week a facility in Texas on
the shoulders of Democrats. There's a surprise, Trump telling reporters
at the White House today, the rhetoric from the left
causes bad things to happen. He said. The Democratic Party
is only energizing the right. One person died, two more
in critical condition after a shooter opened fire on that

(01:19:17):
ice facility. Oklahoma state superintendent who promoted Bibles and schools
is stepping down. Ryan Walters received national attention for his
push to incorporate teaching the Bible and display the Ten
Commandments in classrooms. He also recently said every high school
in the state would have a turning Point chapter. The
organization founded by Charlie Kirk. Wednesday, he announced he will

(01:19:41):
become the CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance. It's a
group that fights teachers unions.

Speaker 1 (01:19:49):
That fights teacher freedom. That's how it works. What's it
called Teacher Freedom Alive? Look, that means you fight teacher freedom.

Speaker 4 (01:19:55):
Yeah, exactly, that's that's what that means. It's opposite stay.
The Trump administration is pulling sixty five million dollars in
federal grants. Speaking of schools from New York Cities, Chicago
and Fairfax, Virginia Magnet schools, they're accused of violating civil
rights laws pertaining to transgender and diversity equity programs. School
districts in those cities were warned to overhaul their transgender,

(01:20:18):
non binary or DEI policies. When they didn't by today's deadline,
the Trump administration yanked that funding. NYC and Fairfax were
told to change their inclusive gender identity bathroom rules and
athletic program rules. Chicago was directed to eliminate its Black
Student Success plan because you know who needs black student success,

(01:20:39):
I guess in Chicago.

Speaker 1 (01:20:41):
Anything that's associated with lifting up minorities, you know, and
those who even let's leave aside minority status in any
kind of way associated with race or ethnicity. I mean
just in terms of socioeconomic status. Those who need a
lift up, that's all gone. That's just all going to
get erased.

Speaker 4 (01:21:00):
Electric vehicle purchases could slow down in California, and I
know David Cassis here, so I'll wrap it up. A
Governor Gavin Newsom has reversed his decision to reinstate the
state's tax credit for electric vehicles, opting instead to expand
charging infrastructure. Governor Newsom saying there are billions of dollars
in cap and trade investments for infrastructure through twenty twenty four,

(01:21:22):
but federal funding of direct subsidies were eliminated. There's a
Southern California senator taking aim at TV commercials that are
louder than normal programming. It's super annoying, isn't it. State
Senator Tom Umberg authoring a bill that would require streaming
services like Hulu and YouTube TV to reduce that ad volume.

Speaker 5 (01:21:45):
Thank you, oh, Prime, Prime is the worst. Prime is
the absolutely they just crank up the volume of the
commercials compared to the programs.

Speaker 4 (01:21:54):
Come on, man, the bill now on Governor Gavin Newsom's desk.
He has until October twelfth to sign it into law.
And lastly, because I love a good mistake, a spelling
error on a freeway sign in the Bay area here
in the Northern California area is a nice reminder to
always double check that spelling. You know, they don't have

(01:22:14):
spell check on sign. Somebody asked to look at it. Uh,
there's a sign on southbound.

Speaker 1 (01:22:19):
One oh one in Nevado.

Speaker 4 (01:22:21):
They had the exit's name as San Martin Drive or
San Martin Drive. The problem is that exodus San Marin.
There's no tea.

Speaker 1 (01:22:29):
Oh my god, that's great, that's great.

Speaker 4 (01:22:32):
The free yow. The freeway exitu is San Marin Drive.
Cal Trans officials said they and they put it up
on the side of the freeway.

Speaker 1 (01:22:39):
It's like, not only do they no one.

Speaker 4 (01:22:41):
Exit, they installed it as well.

Speaker 2 (01:22:43):
Come on.

Speaker 4 (01:22:44):
Cal Trans officials say they've been made aware of this mistake.
They call it a typo.

Speaker 1 (01:22:49):
There it is.

Speaker 4 (01:22:50):
They say the freeway sign will be replaced with one
with a correct spelling in the coming weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:22:55):
Yeah, my man, I'm sorry. It's a mistake.

Speaker 4 (01:22:59):
I mean, none of the people who put that up
were they like, did they not look at the sign
and go, hey, guys.

Speaker 1 (01:23:06):
That's what's so great about it, as you say, they
installed it.

Speaker 4 (01:23:09):
Like how many people looked at that and just said nothing.

Speaker 1 (01:23:11):
You know, there's a great commercial. I really enjoyed. I
feel like it's for Snickers or for Southwest Airlines, and
it's the person painting the team name in the end
zone for the Kansas City Chiefs. Have you seen this spot, commissioner,
I don't know if this I do, remember I do,
and and it's so the guy finishes and he stands

(01:23:35):
back and like with a sense of accomplishment, and he's
left the eye out of Chiefs who just says chefs
and a. I think it was as a it's a
player or somebody runs by and goes and he realizes it.
You know, this is something in the way the spot runs.
And the player goes, hey, you left it, and he goes, yeah,

(01:23:58):
I know, I know, like you don't have to tell me.
There it is. It's this is the same thing as
that marine sign, you know. Yeah, And I think that
the announcer comes and he goes, you know, you want
to get away, you know Southwest. You know it's really
pretty clever.

Speaker 4 (01:24:14):
Well in this case at least they could maybe salvage
some of the money they spent and put a little
accent over the eye. Cart that thing down to the
South Bay and put it up over the San Martin exit.

Speaker 1 (01:24:28):
I see, at least you have a backup. You've got
a plan B. Got a plan B.

Speaker 6 (01:24:32):
You don't have to.

Speaker 1 (01:24:32):
Throw it away.

Speaker 4 (01:24:34):
You know you can fix it, you can reduce, reuse, recycle.
It's all about that. Yeah. I just would like to
mention that if you're interested in Coachella Valley Coffee, which
is the best, please use our discount code mark T
tea isn't Thompson mark T alltogether no spaces. That'll get
you ten percent off at Coachella Valleycoffee dot com. I'm

(01:24:56):
Kim McAllister. This is the Mark Thompson Show.

Speaker 2 (01:25:01):
The Mark Thompson Show.

Speaker 1 (01:25:04):
I am seeing this in the chat. Thank you for
being here everyone. We're a live show. We're eleven to
one on the West coast, two to four on the
East coast, and you can check us out anytime. Most
people don't listen or watch live, they listen later, which
you are welcome to do. We're across all major podcast platforms, Spotify, iHeartRadio, etc.
Randy says, I see the Trump is announced. This is

(01:25:25):
exactly what I said was going to happen. Remember I've
said this over and over once the tariffs were hitting
the farmers. Randy says, I see the Trump has announced
he's going to take some of the tariff money collected
so far and give it to American farmers who have
been damaged by wait for it, Trump's tariffs. It's exactly

(01:25:47):
what happened in his first administration. It's a way he
can keep those farmers on his side. But the reality
is farmers don't want government checks. They want businesses that
were clacking along before these tariffs came in. So he's
going to offset the tariff damage with tariff money from
other things that he then will redistribute to those farmers.

(01:26:11):
And that's kind of a socialism in a sense. The
whole thing is so half baked. And there you see
that which we had talked about many times. All right,
thank you for that, Randy. I hadn't seen it, and
as I said, talked about it, anticipated it, but I
hadn't seen that it's actually going to happen. This is

(01:26:33):
someone who is one of the leading legal analysts in
the English speaking world. He's all over the place now
Fox News Channel, News Nation. Yeah, I'm seeing clips of
him everywhere. But this is the crown jewel of his appearances.
How about it? For a former federal prosecutor now defense

(01:26:55):
attorney David Katz, Hello.

Speaker 3 (01:26:58):
Sir, great to be with you, Mark. It really it
is the crown jewel of my appearances. If I can
throw in something, because I predicted that Jimmy Kimmel would
be back on the air, and within a week or
ten days, Fox has decided that I am a Fox
has decided that I am a soothsayer and handicapper. Uh,
and I'm on there all the time, including they really

(01:27:19):
wanted to be on in New York City, you know
where I'm from many moons ago. Uh, today at the
same time as your show, Mark, So it was it
was agonizing. Oh no, they pleaded, and so I was
just on Fox. And then right after your show, I'm
on News Nation. Because it looks like Giraldo and I
are going to be like a thing.

Speaker 1 (01:27:40):
Oh that's terrific. You're going to go on the road.

Speaker 3 (01:27:44):
To go on the road. You want me to shut
out al Capode's vault after all these years and empty
out the Capone vault. But yes, it's a.

Speaker 1 (01:27:54):
I love it. I love cats. You're hot, You're a
hot Well, I appreciate you slumming with us here. I
am very I'm very much wanting to get your take
on something that is happening at the Justice Department, and
is happening in relation to James Comy and to Adam
shiff and essentially the notion that it's more than a notion,

(01:28:18):
the idea that something has to be brought in terms
of charges against all of these people who are clearly
guilty in the view of the President of the United States.
Not sure of what they're guilty, but I know they're
guilty of something, is kind of his point. And if
you won't do it as a prosecutor, he's already gotten
rid of one, now hired another. I'll get another. And

(01:28:39):
if you won't do it, I'll get another. And the
newest prosecutor. I think David Katz has almost no experience
as a prosecutor. I think she was an attorney associated
with insurance.

Speaker 3 (01:28:51):
She was one of his attorneys down there in Florida.
And you know, for people who remember back that far
or you know, read about it, learned about it in school.
You know. There was the famous Saturday Night massacre where
the President Nixon wanted to end the Watergate investigation, so
he gave orders to his first Attorney General, who was

(01:29:12):
Archibald Cox, who went back to said no and went
back to teach at Harvard Law. And then the next
one was Elliott Richardson, who said no. He was the
deputy He said no, and he walked. And then Robert
Bork was third in line because he was the Solicitor General,
the attorney in the Justice Department who argues before the
US Supreme Court. And Bork said he'd do it, and

(01:29:33):
of course that was very controversial. But those were people
of gravitas. I mean, even Bork. This looks like really
the slap dash thing where Trump is throwing anybody in there.
The first US attorney that he had for the Eastern
District of Virginia, and they all have these strange names,
like the Central District of California. It's kind of hard

(01:29:54):
to figure out where they are. The Eastern District of
Virginia is the part of Virginia that's closest to wat Washington,
d C, Alexandria, Arlington, the Pentagon are in there. It's
a big time judicial district because it's right by Washington.

Speaker 2 (01:30:09):
D C.

Speaker 3 (01:30:10):
And this is a very esteemed Republican picked by Trump
to be the US attorney there. And he looked at
this case for months. He looked at the case against Komy,
and he looked at the case against the DA from
New York, and you might wonder, well, had they got
Comy because Comy lived there, how did they get the
lady from New York for this mortgage fraud thing? Because

(01:30:30):
she had helped her niece buy a house in the
Eastern District of Virginia. So there was venue for both
Comy and for the niece of the she's the Attorney
General of New York, Letitia James. He had a jurisdic
venue for both of them. This US attorney, at least
from the reporting, he thought it was a decent case

(01:30:52):
on Komy. This is the reporting. He thought it was
an absolutely made up, ridiculous case. The mortgage fraud. All
these mortgage frauds turned out to be absolutely not crimes.
I mean, they're not just not guilty, they're just not crimes.
They're nothing to indict. So I think when Trump saw
that he was going to not indict the attorney general
from New York. He got the vibe that this was

(01:31:14):
an independent, you know, Republican Trump appointed, but an independent minded,
serious US attorney. So he fired him. There's been back
and forth. Mark, he fired him. He fired him because
he wouldn't do his bidding, and having put this lady
in there without prosecutorial experience to do his bidding, it's
a terrible day for the rule of law, and it's
a bad day for James Comy because you have to

(01:31:35):
predict that he's going to get indicted in the next
few days because the statute of limitations runs on September thirty.
So that's why Trump keeps sending out tweets. The nime
is now. He's not encouraging anybody to do it, he thinks,
But he says, Kobe, the time is now.

Speaker 1 (01:31:53):
I mean, the reality is that the statue limitations that
you're talking about is related to what will likely be
the thing that they try to press on, which is
a perjury charge. And what's odd about that, David. And
this is why I'm so glad I'm talking to you.
I thought perjury to actually charge someone with perjury you'd

(01:32:14):
have to have the proof or at least the evidence
that would lead to prove before a jury that they
knew they were lying about something that it has to
be a knowing lie for it to be something that
someone's perjured themselves over right.

Speaker 3 (01:32:31):
Perjury is hard to sustain. I mean people think, well,
it's any kind of lying on the stand, but no,
it actually has elements it's difficult to prove. But again,
I think most people of good sense don't see this
as a question of whether they can meet all the
elements of perjury. Is nothing but this is nothing but vindictiveness.
This is a malicious prosecution.

Speaker 1 (01:32:54):
And by bringing the prosecution, David, I mean, you can
screw up somebody's life to kind of have to deal
with Isian court.

Speaker 3 (01:33:01):
Absolutely, and every conscientious prosecutor says, you know, I'm screwing
up someone's life if I'm wrong, Let's make absolutely sure
that I'm right. That's why prosecutors, not just by their
conscience but also by rules, can only proceed in a
case where they think that there's proof beyond a reasonable doubt,
even though the grand jury technically can indict just based

(01:33:21):
on probable cause. That's why it's so stunning when those
grand juries don't indict at all because they didn't even
find probable cause, even find it was more likely than
not that the person had committed a crime, and they
figured that out without any defense attorney. But I just
think that the grand jury, without someone there to tell
Comy's side of the story, I think that they will

(01:33:42):
make a presentation that the grand jurors won't go no
true Bill and run out of the grand jury room.
I think that they will buy a sufficient majority of
grand jurors return an indictment. I just think that that's
what's going to happen. They'll present a case that he
testified in Congress within the last five years. He gave
testimony that his previous testimony was still true. His previous

(01:34:05):
testimony is from even further back and had to do
with whether there were leaks during this investigation.

Speaker 1 (01:34:11):
During the fire the hurricane thing.

Speaker 3 (01:34:14):
Yeah, complicated what exactly his perjury is supposed to be.
But I see that it was something about the leaks.
There's a whole thing where he has a friend from
the US Attorney's office because he's had these huge jobs.
He got in the position to decide because the attorney
general under what is it Obama? Obama. She had to

(01:34:35):
recuse herself because she'd gone to the plane and chatted
with the Clinton. She was so excited to meet him,
so they said she should recuse herself. She was an
honorable person. I even Trumps attorney each other recused me. Schmoos,
I'm gonna do it anything. She accused herself, which led
Comy as the person to make the decision. That was

(01:34:56):
why Comy was in the position to announce that case
against Hillary Clinton or that ongoing investigation that investigated uptick
against Hillary Clinton like ten or twelve days before the election,
Hillary Clinton and Trump, which along with Putin's efforts and
the disinformation campaign from Russia, were the things that the

(01:35:16):
two things that really seemed to doom Hillary Clinton. Of course,
people say, well, why shouldn't Trump be grateful Toy Comy
did more to elect him in twenty sixty than any
other person in the pastor I think Putin except for Putin.
But of course, you know, Trump has a very short memory,
and now he's all pissed off at Komy and then
Comy has you know, has given back some He hasn't

(01:35:38):
just gone and you know, hidden off somewhere. You know,
he's participated in the public conversation as he has every
right to do, and Trump.

Speaker 1 (01:35:46):
Was in the same way that John Bolton has and
these people shift as a high profile pushback on Trump,
and as a result, he's targeted all of them. So
you think that he will actually be able to produce
an indictment against Comy flimsy though it might be.

Speaker 3 (01:36:04):
I think that's what's going to happen. I think Komy
will have to hire lawyers. He'll have the best, I mean,
what an honor to represent Comy. But even so, you know,
they they you know, they bring the motions. They're going
to argue selective prosecution. Now, selective prosecution you have to
prove that others in a similar situation to yours weren't charged,

(01:36:24):
And of course one of the hard things is to
show that the situation was that similar, you know what
I mean, the government's always got some story that they
weren't quite similar. And someone as high profile as him,
it's sort of imagine who's exactly similar to him? I mean,
there's Bolton, who looks like he's also being selectively prosecuted,
and I guess the you know, they.

Speaker 1 (01:36:46):
Well they're getting, but they're going Bolton. They're going to
go for the retention of documents that were not authorized.
You know, the this is their search warrant that they
executed at Home and office. Apparently the uncovered documents there.
This is again the stuff that's leaked out. So they're
going to go after different stuff with all these people,
but it would appear that their cases are thin at best,

(01:37:08):
and you end up with what is basically a nuisance prosecution,
but the nuisance can be significant. That's kind of what
I was getting at before when I was asking you
about it.

Speaker 3 (01:37:17):
Well, Trump's going to have two huge problems of his
own making. One in the record to fight Comey's motion
that he's being selectively prosecuted and picked out only because
of his political beliefs and his participation in the public discourse.
Trump would like to have no there are five Republicans

(01:37:39):
that are in the same situation, five of my allies
who are in the same situation. But of course there
are no allies of Trump's that are in the same situation.
For his own allies, it's been complete forgiveness. I start,
just if I can for a moment with Homan, the
head of Ice, the head of ICE. It is undisputed

(01:37:59):
to go bag with fifty thousand dollars cash in it.
This man is now the head of ICE, sicking all
of these unmasked people on poor groups of poor working
people all over the country. This maniac who says that
he won't follow court orders and all of the other
outrageous things that he says. You know, when Orbon and

(01:38:20):
Chavez in Venezuela and the Turkey, I think even some
of the famous fascists when they came to power, they
didn't make statements like this Homan did. They said, we're
going to go out of our way to obey the law.
We believe in the rule of law. You only have
the anomaly of this guy saying we don't care what
courts do. We're going to do what we want. It's
just unbelievable. Well, it turns out this good, talking, law abiding,

(01:38:44):
supposed guy. Back in September of twenty twenty four, the
FBI was running an investigation and some informant told them,
you know, we think that you might get somewhere approaching
Homan because we think Homan would take a bribe. So
the FBI set up a sting pretended to be businessmen,
and they offered a home and a fifty thousand dollars bribe,

(01:39:04):
which Homan took in a paper bag in cash money.
Now the administration isn't even defending that he didn't take
the bag. They aren't even defending that he didn't take
the fifty thousand dollars. This is rich. He was entrapped.
Now I have requiminal defense attorney. Okay, the surest way
to have the prosecutors who all their eyes is to
say that your client was a trapped But that's Trump's story.

(01:39:26):
This man was a trapped somehow, he was bamboozled, he
was induced by whatever it trappmant. That's his defense. No
dispute that this man took back in September a bag
with fifty thousand dollars as part of a sting about bribery,
and the aim of the bribery was allegedly that he
would get, you know, good contracts with the government to

(01:39:49):
hold detainees, people who were facing deportation. And of course
billions of dollars have been distributed since he and Trump
got in there, billions of dollars. Many of these prisons
are private prisons. They're making a huge profit off this
immense human suffering of the deep the would be deportees. Anyway,
we got the second day, mark, can I just come back? Took?

(01:40:12):
So the second thing that that Trump would like to
have besides some allies who find themselves in the same
situation as Bolton and Komi, so he could say, what
do you mean, it's just my enemies and public speech. No,
some of my allies are well, none of his allies
are having any trouble. Look at home and as exhibit
number one. And the second thing that he'd like to
have is a clean record where he hadn't made statements.

(01:40:34):
He'd say, I'm indifferent to what happens. Well, of course
Trump is not indifferent. You look at the process by
which this has happened. He's written tweaked. Can't he talk
to somebody? I mean, for a guy who's often compared
to a mafioso, didn't he learn that you don't put
it down it is tooth social He says, indict this guy,
this guy is terrible. This guy is a criminal. And

(01:40:56):
the people that he writes to, people in law enforcement
and iministration, that they're criminals, that they ought to be
indicted that they ought to be a jail lo and behold,
those are the people who are about to be a
search or worse search, like Bolton, and who unfortunately, I believe,
are about to be indicted like Comy. I don't think
it could have gotten on as a level if Komy

(01:41:16):
weren't about to get indicted.

Speaker 1 (01:41:18):
What it points up to me, what you've just talked
about in that whole run, is it points out that
you really need a cop on the beat. And if
all the cops on the beat have been corrupted and
they're all devoted loyalists to the king, then you don't
have a cop on the beat anymore. And so justice
isn't meet it out in any kind of fair way,

(01:41:40):
and you end up where we are. It's yes, and
I'm so glad you mentioned the private prisons. The private
detention facilities are run by private companies. That was what
this bribe was about. It was about contractors who again
they weren't real contractors, they were FBI agents, but paying

(01:42:00):
off Homan in this fifty thousand dollars cash bribe in
a bag at a Kava restaurant. And the idea is
that Homan had guaranteed that they'd get some contracts. And
now you look at these private facilities, these detention centers,
they're overrun, they're understaffed, they're handled in the same chaotic

(01:42:20):
way that everything's being handled in this administration in so
many ways, with an incompetence and disregard for health, for medicine.
And they lose a thirty nine year old who we
covered it in hour one, who died and in he's
a DACA recipient, been here since he was four years old, okay,
and he died, and it would very treatable condition he had,

(01:42:45):
but he ends up dying thirty nine. Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:42:48):
This is.

Speaker 1 (01:42:50):
Again a casualty literally of the disregard that Homan has
and so these private prison operators have for those who
were side.

Speaker 3 (01:43:01):
It's shameful that we didn't do something to at the
very least help the dreamers, the docer recipients. I told
you I had the first dreamer that the La Times
called him Tony's American Dream, and from Tony's American Dream
all the time it became the Dreamers. And so I've
been close to this issue for a long time, and
it's just really remarkable that the parties couldn't get together

(01:43:22):
and at least do this, that the Republicans wouldn't at
least do this with the Democrats.

Speaker 1 (01:43:26):
Yeah, the percentages of those who have gone on to
college who are really productive members of society among that
docer group overwhelming, overwhelming, I mean, far outpace anything with
the general population of those who are US citizens. I
want to ask you about the Tailanov thing, because the
Tailanoal thing. At the time, I thought, wow, they're making

(01:43:47):
this announcement. There's no data to back it up. And
Trump is even riffing about Cuba and the Amish, and
it was totally made up. It's completely without any fact.
And I said on the air here, I feel like
there's a legal exposure here, legal exposure that the government

(01:44:08):
may have because Thailand all may if they suffer any
damages as a result of this announcement. And then the
attendant and I'll get to in a moment lawsuits that
may follow, and there have been a bunch of them.
Now they may be able to clap back on the
government and say, hey, you guys made this announcement. It
caused us real damage, and there has to be some
kind of adjudication of a civil nature between US and

(01:44:32):
now Thailand. All the makers of Thailandol reportedly preparing for
this glut of lawsuits after this baseless warning about the
link to a seat of minifin and to autism. Can
you speak to the I'm glad we're speaking again, because
I'm curious about the legal side of it. Without any data,
they make a statement like this, what are the legal

(01:44:53):
exposures associated with it?

Speaker 3 (01:44:55):
Well, and you know, this reminds me a little bit
of the dominion voting and when you're talking about some
company that's had its brand tarnished this much, they're going
to keep pursuing it.

Speaker 2 (01:45:07):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:45:07):
Obviously politically and philosophically, so many people in America wanted
to be a calling to account, you know, and a
of what of what's happened just already in these nine
months of Trump, all the violations of the law, all
the things that need to be undone and remedied. But
when you're a huge corporation, you're definitely going to keep

(01:45:28):
fighting for a redress. Because their stock went down, then
I think Tylan old stock went back up. I think
the market generally thought this is bs. They thought this
is not even going to affect people taking Taylan Old.
Tylanl is such a well established brand, and you see
these clowns up there, and then I think afterwards doctor
Oz repudiated it or repudiated the research an announcement. This

(01:45:53):
is important. If you're a health official like doctor Oz
and you don't agree with this, with this charade that
just happened, you better resign. I mean, I assume doctor
Oz is playing to resign or they're going to twist
his arm and have him retract that statement. But so
I think that in the in the in the short term,
I think Tyland Old will have more problems. I mean,
the stock is certainly not going to boom. This is

(01:46:15):
not a great announcement. I think they'll do okay, but
the class action planers, the people who sue them, will
try to piggyback on this. You know, now the federal
government has come out. It's not just the President. They
had the f d A issue some statement which is consistent.
So now there's a promulgated FDA statement mark that says
this same.

Speaker 2 (01:46:35):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:46:36):
I think malarkey, bring a good expression back from Biden.
Bring this this old malarkey. Uh, you know, to the
four But that's not how it's going to be presented
by the class action planners. They're going to say, now
there's a directive, there's a promulgated rule if we want
to add to the class action.

Speaker 1 (01:46:53):
Uh, this and that.

Speaker 3 (01:46:55):
And Trump's position is based on a Harvard researcher. He's
the head of the Harvard.

Speaker 1 (01:47:04):
The Harvard School of Public Health, Dean andre A Baccarelli.
He got one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to testify
against Tilanal's manufacturer in twenty twenty three, two years before
he published the research used by the administration in that
announcement linking the drug to autism. It's crazy. I mean
it was bought and paid for research.

Speaker 3 (01:47:26):
Now let me just say this, okay. First of all,
Trump is being totally disingenuous because this was presented to
the district judge, the trial judge, who had what they
call multi district litigation. All these cases against tailandal making
this autism claim. You don't want to have them in
a one hundred different courtrooms, so cases like that could
consolidate in front of one judge. So the judge that

(01:47:47):
they were consolidated in front of she heard all of
this and she said, you didn't get the first base.
I'm granting summary judgment. You didn't get the first base.
That's not to say that what this professor said was false.
It's not to say that it was an expression use
with Komi perjury. I'm not saying it's perjury or that
it was false, but certainly you would think if you

(01:48:07):
were the president and you were going to rely on
it as being definitive, you might point out that the
district judge who heard this, had this presented, was not
persuaded that there was a causal link. You know, the
whole thing is is there really a causal link? And
there's so many different ways to explain. Let me just
give you one example. Maybe the women who are having
really difficult childbirth and having pain and are taking thailand all,

(01:48:31):
maybe it's something about why they're having difficulty right with
their pregnancy that correlates with autism. It doesn't correlate that
they took, you know, palliative, they took the pill right
that ease whatever was happening with them. You have to
look at what was happening to them. And then there's
a whole thing of genetics. Everyone knows that there's a

(01:48:52):
genetics link between you know, getting onto there's a genetic
reason for why many kids that get autism get autism.
So the idea there's a cause of link was not
established marked by any of this research. But they're going
to try to hang this around the head. The plane's
lawyers are around Tylandhal's head. Tyler HIL's got great lawyers.
They'll fight back. And yes, I think at some point

(01:49:15):
Tyland all will try to seek its remedy against the government.
But generally speaking, the fact that the government, you know,
think about it, that's what everybody would do in the
environmental field. Everybody in the environmental field that gets cost
a lot of money by a government pronouncement or EPA
announcement would love to sue the president and the EPA.
Your question raises, because there's such a dearth of evidence,

(01:49:36):
is that a basis for filing? And I always have
to see, I mean that I think has to play
out how how deep was the dearth of evidence, how
how little was the little they had? They appear to
have almost nothing. They seem to have that not accepted
by the court, That unpersuasive for court Harvard expert. The

(01:49:57):
very last thing is I want to clear the Harvard
expert just for a minute. This is what these guys do.
These guys do become expert witnesses. He got seven hundred
dollars an hour. You know, some of these lawyers are
running around charging fifteen hundred dollars an hour. Now you
know he's a Harvard you know, professor. He's getting seven
hundred dollars an hour. He had, however, many hours that
is to come up to one hundred and fifty thousand.

(01:50:18):
I'm sure the other side had experts to say the opposite,
and I'm sure they got well be mutivated to Mark.

Speaker 1 (01:50:24):
Yeah, I'll give you that that just because he's a
paid special witness, it doesn't mean that what he is
witnessing and what he's testifying to is fraud at all
or fraudulent. But when I was reading about these studies,
I guess they didn't correct for siblings, they didn't call
I mean, that's a very small group. I mean it's
like nine hundred people. Meantime, on the other side, you

(01:50:44):
have two and a half million people that they checked
out in terms of the correlative for a tailanol and autism,
and they can find no data to support this suspicious argument.
So I'm sorry. I mean, I've yet to see anything
that's can vincing in this way, and to just see Trump,
you know, hey, we've solved autition, We've shelved whole things.

(01:51:06):
I mean, that's kind of what he wants. He just
wants to make an announcement, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:51:10):
I think one thing they're going to look at is
whether Kennedy Junior, whether he has a financial stake in
a lot of these findings and so, and he may
end up getting sued personally, not just in his you know,
institutional capacity, but sued personally because I think their theory
may be that, you know, this is just another scam

(01:51:31):
and one of the great ways, I mean, every scammer's
dream would be to have a government job that they
could use to help perpetrate the scam. And I think
they're just going to come around to that kind of
a theory on him, and he's going to get sued left,
right and centered.

Speaker 1 (01:51:45):
Here it is a twenty twenty four study in the
Journal of the American Medical Associate involved two and a
half million children born in Sweden and controlled for compounds.
Across these millions of samples, The research determined that there
was no cause of relationship between a CID of minifin
consumption and autism. So I mean, again, that's in twenty
twenty four. It's not like an ancient study. And you

(01:52:06):
know autism is around in pre dated Thailand all by decades,
so it just it's so specious and yet it can
do so much damage too. I mean, I know so
many parents who have kids who are on the spectrum.
On the spectrum is one thing, but some are profoundly autistic,
you know, I mean, and that's it's heartbreaking, and they'd
like real research instead of this performative nonsense that these

(01:52:28):
guys are involved in.

Speaker 3 (01:52:30):
You pronounced that so well.

Speaker 1 (01:52:40):
So I will leave you with this, David, because we're
kind of out of time. But Democrats are going after
law firms that are doing free work for Trump, and
they're warning of law breaking. They may not get far
in their demands for details, but key Democrats are laying
the groundwork for full blown investigations when they're back in
the majority. In letters to three prominent law firms that

(01:53:03):
capitulated to Trump's threats earlier this year by agreeing to
provide him with pro bono services in exchange for him
not attacking their businesses. Democrats demand specifics on the scope
and duration of services that these firms are currently carrying
out for Trump's pet causes. Specifically, their letters are coming
in response to this New York Times report that Paul

(01:53:24):
Weiss and Kirkland Ellis, two huge firms, are providing free
legal services on a range of matters to the Commerce Department.
A third law firm, and this is wild Scaden Arps,
is also reporting work for the Commerce Department. It's unclear
whether this firm is being paid or is working for free.
And again it was I believe somebody, a Democrat, a

(01:53:47):
high profile Democrat, has said, you know, you could be
violating the law by providing legal services to the Commerce
Department without compensation. So maybe you can speak to this.
I mean, these are very high profile law firms, first
of all, aren't they, David.

Speaker 3 (01:54:02):
These are three of the law firms that made a
show of not fighting the government. These were three of
the ten largest law firms in America that kind of
rolled over and said we'll play ball and we'll give
you a lot of pro bono services. Paul Weiss was
this surprising one. Paul Weiss was sort of known as
a liberal law firm, you know, fight the establishment, and

(01:54:26):
of course they just rolled over to the establishment. Scanton
Arps was very, very famous. It was the takeover law
firm when one corporation would take over another, and they
got to be very famous in the seventies and eighties,
and then they just became a major law firm based
on these takeovers. And this Kirkland and Ellis I think
is one of the richest firms in the country, most
money per partner, I mean millions of dollars per partner.

(01:54:49):
A lot of people came to the administration from there.
That Jeffrey Clark, he was from Kirkland and Ellis the
one who was going to vault over the other the
other top officials in the Justice Department.

Speaker 1 (01:55:06):
I think some of the wall was going to become
Attorney general.

Speaker 2 (01:55:09):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:55:09):
Yeah, just issue the statement in my Republican Congress members
will take it from there.

Speaker 1 (01:55:13):
It doesn't actually have to be anything going on.

Speaker 3 (01:55:15):
And this Jeffrey Clark from you know, from Scanton art
if I'm not from because of me from Kirkland and Ellis,
I said that wrong. This Jeffrey Clark from Kirkland and
Ellis he's in trouble. Ironically, some of the lawyers that
he was vaulting over would have vaulted over, were also
from Kirkland and Ellis. It is a died in the
world Republican firm. And let me tell you another problem

(01:55:36):
besides what they call the Anti Deficiency Act, which is
why on Earth, you know the commresce departments billions of
dollars part of the government, Why does it need pro
bolal work It's got its own lawyers. Are they learning
secrets in there? What is the motivation really of those
firms to get involved in in that kind of commerce
of work. So that's certainly something to question. There may
be nothing untoward, but it's certainly something the question the

(01:55:58):
Democrats are But let me just be one more minute
on this pro bono thing. We have a case right
out here in Los Angeles brought by this Kirkland and Ellis,
and they have touted this, Oh, it's the biggest pro
bono thing in the world. Though they care about society
so much. They're helping society this pro bono thing. And
the case is against the schools out here, and of

(01:56:19):
course the schools are favorite target of right wiggers and
right wing law firms, and the argument is that they
didn't accommodate the pandemic. They didn't have the remote learning
done right. They have to have more tutoring, they have
to institute this program and that program. And you kind
of think to yourself, how does some hotshot millions of
dollars per partner law firm know anything about the public

(01:56:41):
education system? Do any of those partners send their kids
to the public education system? And so then this judge
threw the case out right, and then they went to
the Court of Appeals, this huge firm, and they got
the case reinstated. And now they've settled with the Board
of Education, whoever runs the schools out here, finally settled,
and some judges going to determine whether it's a fair settlement.

(01:57:03):
And that's down the road, and people get interested in
that case. You certainly might want to comment on whether
it's a fair settlement. The outcome of it is that
the taxpayers here in La right, we had to pay
millions and millions of dollars for that school district to
defend itself against Kirkland and Ellis and that huge law firm. Meanwhile,
Kirkland and Ellis says, Oh, well, we're not asking any

(01:57:24):
fees here, see the halo. We're not asking any fees
at all. It's pro bono. Is this one they're handing
to Trump? Is this part of the pro bono thing?
Is this the kind of pro bona that we're going
to get all over the country? Mark that they're going
to fight the schools, they're going to fight these institutions.
They said they were going to do three things. They
were going to help the vets. Certainly this case out here,

(01:57:45):
I don't know how they're helping the vets. They're going
to do something about anti semitism. I don't think that
is reared. It's ugly headed this case. So do they
try to have it reared. It's ugly head all over
the place, as far as they don't seem antisemitic. And
I forgot what the third one was. But we need
to go through carefully, and I think it's good that
the Democrats are starting to do that. There'll be a
huge calling to account because it's not just that they

(01:58:07):
didn't get disfavored, Mark, it's that what we're looking for
is how did they get favored? How did they get
sweetheart deals? How did their clients get to the head
of the line or get some benefit. And of course
the Democrats want to look at Kirkland and Ellis, Paul
Wise has scad arts. We'll hear a lot more about
all those sperms, I think down the road.

Speaker 1 (01:58:26):
It's really it's fascinating, and I'm just the you know,
extorting this kind of service from these legal institutions. It's
just of a kind. It's part of the strategy, you know,
between that shakedown of media and now really his own
justice department. It's an extraordinary thing. It's all of you know,
it's all of Project twenty twenty five. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:58:47):
Can you award me a Katsa damas one win for
Jimmy Kimmel Babert.

Speaker 1 (01:58:52):
How about the Katsa Damas. Yeah, I think it was impressive,
the declaration that Jimmy would better within a week, and
he was, and that.

Speaker 3 (01:59:03):
The Brooklyn show would go on. You can buy a ticket.
I think you may have to stand in line or
join something, but you can see him in Brooklyn next week.

Speaker 1 (01:59:11):
Yeah, Jimmy a second, there's a second cats Adamas caricature.

Speaker 3 (01:59:17):
I got it, but I don't want to. I don't
want to go over and clunkily put it in front.

Speaker 1 (01:59:22):
We'll, we'll, we'll, we'll make sure we get it that
we we keep it in the in the roster, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:59:29):
I sent it to you guys. And the very last
thing Mark is and we can do this one next week.
But I really want to talk about the Humphreys executor.
That's a preview cooming attractions. You're what a tease executor.
But that's the case, which is so in the news
right now and in people's minds. Everyone's talking about it.
At lunch the other day, was at lunch with some people.

(01:59:52):
Are they really going to rule that there are no
administrative agencies? Because that's where they could potentially go if
they allow Trump to remove the democrats on those commissions.
Even though Congress said there have to be democrats on
those commissions, the only justification, or the likely justification would
seemed to be because those commissions have no way to
exist at all.

Speaker 1 (02:00:11):
So you're talking about the firing of the FTC commissioner.
Is that part of that?

Speaker 3 (02:00:16):
There's three different ones. There's a merits Board one and uh,
I have a I said, sort of an interesting thought
on it. So let's hold that for now, all right, well.

Speaker 1 (02:00:24):
We'll put that. We'll hold it in abeyance, as you said. Uh, David,
thank you all. Look for you where you were.

Speaker 3 (02:00:30):
There's the one, There's the one.

Speaker 1 (02:00:34):
Friend.

Speaker 3 (02:00:34):
Isn't that fantastic?

Speaker 1 (02:00:35):
I love it. That's a great shot of cats and
doomas and in full prediction mode. Uh, where's your next
television appearance or radio appearance?

Speaker 3 (02:00:45):
News Nation in about a half an hour. This is great.
I used to think I used to think god Mark
works so hard in media. I'm having like a Mark tubbsid.

Speaker 1 (02:00:56):
Yeah, you're busier than I am. I love it. Everybody
wants you. This is the Rehearsal's over. Now the real
stuff on News Nation.

Speaker 3 (02:01:02):
Kim and Mark. It's not easy. It's not easy.

Speaker 1 (02:01:05):
It's not David. We'll see you next week. And thank
you David Kats, everybody.

Speaker 3 (02:01:09):
Anyone who gets News Nation. It's on in a half
an hour and it's meet me and.

Speaker 1 (02:01:15):
Wow, Yeah, look at you you and Heraldo. It's the thing.
Let's go on the road, David Katz and Heralda. Buy
David good stuff. Yeah, you want to peacefully Resist a
T shirt? You can find it at get Markmarch dot com,
alongside the Peacefully resist a mug which I really like,
really love this mug, and they're black ones and white

(02:01:37):
ones and they're all all the and born to peacefully resist.
There's another mug and the T shirt which there are
tons of these T shirts in there. They're really wonderful.
I'm gonna have one more sip of this show wonderful
coffee from this insanely cool mug and very very good.

(02:01:58):
David kats is pretty great, Thank you very much. David
Katz says Mobius nine eighty one News Nation is owned
by Next Star says Rick, Well, there you go. Next
Dour owns a lot. I mean, this is what happens
when you have, you know, basically only four media companies.
They're gonna own everything so you can't overlap. Yeah, it's

(02:02:19):
one of the reasons that these media mergers are so bad,
but bad for America. Jim Slayton says, rip belve Davis Barrier,
breaking barrier, you reporter, first black woman on the West Coast,
and TV news open doors for so many Jim Slayton
with a five dollars super chit. Yeah, really a tough loss,
but ninety two years old. Wow, I send you a

(02:02:43):
video about how autistic children are questioning their mothers about
tail and all, says West theory, Why do we need
to add more torture to people's lives. Yeah, as I say,
there's real heartbreak associated with this and so and there
are people on the autism spectrum who are fine. I mean,
you know, as I say, I've got so many friends
are on the spectrum, and they're wonderful. They even talk
with it. Oh, my autism makes me really good at

(02:03:05):
filling the blank. I mean, you know, keeping track of numbers,
researching stuff, you know, writing whatever it might be. But
then there are people who have children who are profoundly autistic,
and it's heartbreaking. And so that's why playing with this
crap in performative theatrical ways, it sickens me. Teacher Laurie

(02:03:26):
g who I apologize to at the beginning of the show,
you can check that apology out if you missed it.
Defense Secretary Heggs that disordered hundreds of US military generals
and admirals to gather on short notice and without stated reason,
that a Marine Corps base in Virginia next week, so
in confusion and alarm. Now I saw that story. We
just I think we I think news covered it. I

(02:03:48):
think Kim may have mentioned in her news well I.

Speaker 4 (02:03:51):
Had it in the show, but we had I don't
know if we'd mentioned it yet. But yeah, eight hundreds
generals and military officials are being called to this meeting
and no one knows why. What are they going to
talk about?

Speaker 1 (02:04:01):
What do they want?

Speaker 2 (02:04:02):
Weird?

Speaker 1 (02:04:04):
Yeah, I mean it's Look, everything with the Pentagon scares
me because it's in control of a guy who doesn't
know what he's doing, and then he does stuff like this.
A lot of this stuff, again is performative. I don't know.
Maybe this is more than performative. Maybe there's a loyalty test.
Maybe they're all going to take, you know, these light
detector tests in front of each other about their loyalty
and do you think I'm the greatest? And do you

(02:04:24):
think I mean, I don't mean, I know, I'm kind
of being on one level absurd about it, But on
the other level, I mean, nothing would surprise me.

Speaker 4 (02:04:32):
Their illustration is so weird. If you can think it,
it's a possibility.

Speaker 1 (02:04:36):
I mean, they're administering LA detector tests to the FBI
a lot to make sure that they're you know, they're
going to purge the FBI of anyone who's not loyal.
REVP says, we love the Sumatra Solstice Blend and the
English breakfast tea from Coachella Valley Coffee. Wow. Love hearing that, REVP.
Love that Sarah ken Zier is brilliant, So glad and

(02:04:58):
knowing she will visit regularly is really special. Ray M.
Hill with a five dollars Superjet. Thank you. No Stra
Damas Wow. No stra Damas is back with a five
dollars super chat Man. Big shout out to Thamas and
to everybody who entered our world of super chats and
superstickers today. Thanks for the support, Luis for the five

(02:05:19):
dollars superjet, says. The Stable Genia strikes again, helping his
arch enemy's ratings go from one point seven million viewers
to six point three million. Donald Trump gets the Wiley E.
Coyote Super Genius Award. Yeah, it didn't really work out
that way. I think Jimmy Kimmel would likely rather have just,
you know, not had the battle though. Call me is

(02:05:40):
a distraction from Epstein could be Scooby Doo says, Yeah,
I mean, wouldn't surprise me. Breaking news Tylanholl Research has
determine that there is a concerning link between Donald Trump
and Jeffrey Epstein. Yeah, I mean, there is no question
that a lot of this stuff is a distraction from Epstein.
But as I often say, it does two things. I mean,
it serves the purpose of going after his perceived enemies

(02:06:01):
while also being a distraction, so both can be true.

Speaker 4 (02:06:06):
We had a story that you've found about top GOP
and White House allies now working behind the scenes to
prevent this Epstein vote on the House floor because with
the the voting in of Grijalva, now they have the
votes they need to call for the Trump files to

(02:06:26):
be released to this special Oh sorry, was the tongue
the Trump hyphen Epstein file right?

Speaker 1 (02:06:35):
Right?

Speaker 4 (02:06:36):
And so now there's people at the White House and
the GOP, according to CNN, working behind the scenes so
that the vote won't ever even come to the floor.

Speaker 1 (02:06:44):
Uh yeah, this is a real push to prevent these
files from seeing the light of day. And this is
the thing that again some of MAGA has an issue
with this. I mean, you guys say you're so committed
to it, and now you're doing everything you can to
prevent their release. That was so that's how works in
the Trump administration, says John. There's no Epstein birthday letter.
They found it. There is an Epstein birthday letter, but

(02:07:06):
I didn't write it. That's my signature of it. I
didn't sign it. Yeah, exactly. Wow, the Steak Rub at
Coachella Valley Coffee is tasty. Yeah, Big E sixty one
it is. I've heard good things about the Steak Rub.
Good stuff. Well, we had a couple of things today

(02:07:27):
that were unprecedented. The loss of my signal during a
conversation with Sarah. That was very tough for me. It's
going to take me time to come down from that.
I feel like an edible may have to be in
my future. I'm really dumber.

Speaker 6 (02:07:45):
No control with.

Speaker 1 (02:07:46):
Right, Yeah, I no control of it.

Speaker 2 (02:07:47):
Really.

Speaker 1 (02:07:48):
Kim did rocket. I was very impressed. I heard a
little bit of it. And having Sarah on was great,
and having David on is great. I mean, that's a
pretty terrific will play combination on this Thursday. So thank
you everybody for hanging out with us and seeing us
get that organized. Tomorrow. I believe there's a guest tomorrow

(02:08:09):
in the first hour.

Speaker 2 (02:08:11):
Do you have it, Kim?

Speaker 1 (02:08:14):
That'll be another thing that we do. Kim will always
handle the coming up from now on. But today still scramble.

Speaker 4 (02:08:19):
We have Florida and Shore and Michael Shore and Michael Snyder.

Speaker 1 (02:08:24):
No, but more Mark, somebody else I throught, but maybe not.
I'm a shovel of Steven by the Mark Johnson Show.

Speaker 4 (02:08:31):
It's gonna be a great Friday show.

Speaker 1 (02:08:32):
Yeah, here will be a great Friday show.

Speaker 3 (02:08:34):
Out of time.

Speaker 1 (02:08:34):
Bye, out of time, Thank you all, Thank you Kim,
thank you everyone. Bye Byett.

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