TX House Dems Under Threat of Arrest By Gov. Greg Abbott & GOP Colleagues, David Cay Johnston 8/5:25

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And hello East coast, West coast, all the places in
between and beyond. We are on the air a live
show two hours Monday through Friday. So glad that you
could join us. As was a radio show, and we
brought it to YouTube and now we are enjoying a
community here in YouTube that we never even dreamed we'd

(00:24):
be able to enjoy at the levels and with the
sort of depth that we have bonded to this community.
It is a Kim who you see there in the
smaller box, and you may say, why why do you
put her in the smaller box? I mean, I think
that's a reasonable question. And the truth is I wanted
an even smaller box. But now I know that's the

(00:49):
real reason. She does not want to be She does
not want to be on video at all. Actually, so
this is about the best we could get it. You
probably my fault somehow. Tony is here. He is the
wonderful technical wizard who puts it all together. Today, what
a show the developments in the Epstein case. Donald Trump
speaks and we learn that he doesn't know what he's

(01:11):
talking about, and David Kate Johnston an hour or two today. Yeah,
really excited about the Pulitzer Prize Winny of course, Jefferson
Graham Tech Tuesdays, and Stephen Hassen, who is the noted professor,
a renowned expert in cults. He joins us bottom of

(01:32):
the hour. He wrote the book The Cult of Trump,
and he is a remarkable story himself. He's a friend
of the show and has been on before. And you
may find his story, I mean, even before he gets
to Trump and he gets to cults, you may find
his story riveting, which will take a quick beat to

(01:55):
establish when he joins us at bottom of this hour,
and then we'll get into a bit of what's happening
with Donald Trump and the cult of Maga, which I
believe extends beyond Trump. But clearly Trump is a transformative
figure to produce this. And we're not all Trump all
the time. But let's face it, he's the president and
he's wrecking the country, so you have to, you know,

(02:18):
I think, to ignore it is Look, that's my opinion.
You may feel as though he's liberating the country from
those evil democrats. That's cool too. You're allowed here, You're
allowed to clap back at me. It's it's just it's
my disposition that there's some real damage being done in
the first six months here. I did want to acknowledge

(02:40):
early on, because he wrote me several emails explaining his
altered state. Over the weekend. I've received a lot of
positive letters. Richard delemat who is our resident. He's a deadhead,
He's like a traditional I kind of view him as
a tradition deadhead flower child of the sixties and seventies,

(03:06):
and here he is my people. He says yes in
capital letters with a twenty dollars super chat. I did LSD.
But what the media took out of context was that
I was at Golden Gate Park with Dead and Company
and I was trying to psychically bring Mark and Courtney
into the tree hugger party. I see what, all right,

(03:27):
love me, don't mock me, he says, all right, we
love our Richard Delevator. He is our designated stoner, and
I don't know where we'd be without Where are my
smokers at? Well? He is leading the parade bong in
both hands. It's not like I got high and started
texting Mark. He sent me about seven emails over the weekend.

(03:52):
That might be maybe it was six.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
It was.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
It was pretty funny. I enjoyed it. Actually, I've received
a lot of pause. You can reach us at the
Mark Thompson Show at gmail dot com, and you do
not need to be in an altered state to do it.
Richard is the Hunter S. Thompson of the Mark Thompson Show.
Better You're right, Jim Shields. That's it. He is the
Hunter S. Thompson of the d elliet first into the

(04:16):
chat to reference comments made by the President of the
United States on CNBC this morning, he said the Republicans
are entitled to more seats in Texas because he won
here so big than d says, what a croc. Yeah.
I will get to the story of what's happening in Texas.
I will get to the latest developments in the Epstein trial,

(04:37):
all of that still to come. I think at this
time in American history there are almost too many bouncing
balls to follow, So we'll get right into it. I'm
going to start what do we say we're going to
start with Kim we say we're going to start with
law and disorder in the Epstein trial, or do we
want to start with what's happening in Texas. I'm going

(04:59):
to leave it to you. What would you like to
do Texas, Texas. All right, Texas, come on say it again, Lovewood.

Speaker 3 (05:08):
We're threatening to arrest democratically elected lawmakers.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Yeah yeah, Thomson, Alright, let's get into it. This is
the story in Texas. It is an escalating clash between
Democrats and Republicans. As Kim said, arrests have been threatened.
It's all over the expansion of the congressional representation based

(05:33):
on this already severely gerrymandered state becoming more severely gerrymandered,
and the inventive, creative way in which they have additionally
redrawn districts again, done it in several ways. You could
suggest unorthodox would be a kind way to put it. Typically,

(05:54):
redistricting happens every ten years in relation to the new
demography that's revealed in the census. That kind of thing
they read district and a lot of the redistricting. Historically,
the gerrymandering has gone on almost since the beginning of
our nation. That said, Texas is really leading the parade
on how to do it super creatively, and it's quite

(06:16):
a creative parade, so to say that is really something.
But anyway, they responded to the call from Donald Trump.
You wanted five more seats there in Texas, and they
have found those seats. But this special session that was
called by Greg Abbott, and you remember the special session
was called because the Texas tragedy, the flooding, So originally
I think that was the reason they had the special session.

(06:39):
At least that was the idea. And really what it's
been about, in larger measure is the vote on the
redistricting and those additional five seats, and the Democrats have
walked out and now you have the whole country watching
what is a showdown in Texas that is about jerrymandering.

(07:03):
But the antie has been upped because there's so much
buy in from the Crrent administration. What do we have?
First the take me to what video do you like most?
I like the Yeah, thank you, Tony. That's the one,
the one in the gate. Right now, let's show a
little bit of this. This is short and it kind

(07:24):
of sets the table.

Speaker 4 (07:25):
I remember when Trump called Georgia, he called the Secretary
of State. He told them I need to just find
eight votes. What did Georgia say, No, Well, Donald Trump
called our governor and he said, I just need a
small change. I just need you to send me five

(07:48):
congressional members. What did our governor say, sure, give me
a minute, coming right up.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
So there you have the public leader. She's not wrong.
I mean, that's exactly what's happened.

Speaker 3 (08:04):
The governor of Texas threatening to send law enforcement to
arrest these people, which is illegal because Texas law enforcement
officers have no jurisdiction in other states where these Democrats
have fled.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
This is a mess. Yeah, So, as Kim says, they've
fled to Illinois, and the idea is, and we talked
about this yesterday obviously, but just to reiterate, the idea
is that the session isn't full. There's not a quorum
with the Democrats all gone, and so there's no way
to vote in these new districts. The problem with that

(08:41):
strategy long term is that there is no long term
strategy there because you can't remain absent from the legislature
for you know, the balance of Governor Abbot's term, et cetera.
In other words, this is going to the special session
is going to expire I think in thirty days. Okay,
you can stay away for thirty days, but he can

(09:02):
call another special session right away. So the thing I
like about it is that it shows the country what's happening,
and that's really what the idea is. To bring a
lot of attention to this and it brings to a
higher profile this whole issue of screwing with the people's voice,

(09:23):
which is really what the vote is right. But to
Kim's point, these Texas Democrats now out of the legislature
are being threatened with the rest and they've been quite
open about what they're doing. There was a sit down
with them. I think CBS sat down with a few
of them, and let's run a little bit of that

(09:43):
and you'll get a sense for what they're thinking.

Speaker 5 (09:47):
You know, special sessions in Texas are meant for emergencies,
and we had an emergency in Texas. We had a
cabin full of eight year old girls get washed away
in the middle of the night. We had families calling
nine to one one begging for help, only to be
by operators that no help was coming. Ultimately, one hundred
and thirty seven Texans lost their lives. That's an emergency
worthy of our time, our attention, and our action. You know,

(10:09):
Greg Abbott is prioritizing Donald Trump with this special session
instead of taking action to help the flood victims of
Central Texas. He is prioritizing trying to steal five congressional
seats from the people of Texas. This isn't just a
Texas fight, This is an American fight. The unpack all
of us. So Texas Democrats ran into the fight by
coming to Illinois to stand up for the people of
our state.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
So that is I think a great summary of where
they are and how frustrated those legislators are with the
situation and Greg Abbott's leadership. I mean that that guy's
not wrong. I mean, you have a real crisis in Texas.

(10:51):
It seems like Texas GOP more concerned with heading to
Cancun when you know he gets called and the grid fails.
They're more concerned with serving up to Donald Trump whatever
his demands are for re drawn districts than they are
with actually addressing the needs of the people in Texas. Again,

(11:13):
we're not in Texas. Most of us aren't in Texas.
We have listeners and viewers in Texas, and to you
it's quite relevant, but to all of us, it's a
reflection of what's happening in America. There is a cult
of service to Donald Trump and his demands that is
being very much reflected in what's happening in the Texas legislature. Meantime,

(11:38):
the calls for the arrests, Kim, they can't do it.
As you said, there's no way that this is anything
more than performative on the part of Greg Abbott as well.

Speaker 3 (11:49):
I mean, I suppose if Illinois said, you know, their
law enforcement said yeah, come on in, we will allow
you to come in and arrest people in our state.
But as of now, they have no jurisdiction to arrest
people and places that are out of their territory.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
Yeah, you have the is it Mike Nellis who was
on X that you see that? They're the Mike Nellis
video that Kim has in there about He was a
senior advisor to the campaign for Kamala Harris, and he

(12:28):
kind of explains the way that Republicans are running scared.
Did we find that or that video or did I
pass on that I may have passed on it? Sorry
about that? No anyway, Okay, is this on hello? Okay?

(12:50):
Sorry trying to cue it up. Yeah, no, no, No,
That's what I just didn't know if I should keep
calling for it, if I should just move on Yeah,
we're knocking around because there's so many facets to this
Texas thing. As they say, it reflects a national trend,
and it reflects some power grab. Right, you all get

(13:10):
that this is a political power grab. So with a
slim majority in the House, Trump doesn't want to risk
the fact that that majority may evaporate in the midterms.
So he's found creative ways to ensure that he'll continue
to have that majority and five seats in the Texas
Legislat in the in Congress from Texas. If the Texas

(13:34):
Legislature redraws this way, that's going to get him to
the finish line. Go ahead, Tony, Texas Democrats.

Speaker 4 (13:42):
As a political guy, it's smart for all the headlines
to come out.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
And say Democrats ran away from the job.

Speaker 6 (13:53):
Well, let's take a step back from that for a second.
Do you think it's a good headline for all the
headlines say that Republicans are so worried about losing the
midterms decided to rig the maps.

Speaker 7 (14:02):
They're supposed to do it.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
I haven't seen those head lines, and I do know
that both sides redistrict and it's not the end of
the world. But to run away from work I mean
most Americans they look at that and they're like, they
don't like that.

Speaker 1 (14:13):
You get that.

Speaker 6 (14:13):
Right, Well, most Americans don't like politicians drawing up their
own maps. They don't like the fact that Republicans are
scared they're going to lose the midterms, so they're trying
to rig the game like they always do. Look, Texas,
Republicans could be right now trying to do something to
help the American people, help the people of Texas with floods.

Speaker 3 (14:29):
They're not doing that right now.

Speaker 6 (14:30):
The Republicans in Congress, they're on recess right now, they're
not doing anything to help people.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
Well, they're always on resoss. I don't compassying golf. Like Mike,
you and I agree, Congress is always on recess. And sometimes,
you know what, and sometimes that's a good thing, the
less damage they can do.

Speaker 1 (14:44):
Last quick, Yeah, you know, there is a First of all,
nels is very strong in there. But secondly, there's something
going on there that is really dangerous. And it's the
general perception that's then reinforced, which is, well, it's a
good thing that Congress isn't there. It's a good thing that,
let's face it, they do a lot of damage I'm
glad when they're on vacation. It's a good thing for everybody.

(15:05):
I mean, it's a glib treatment of what's happening in
Washington and a general notion that all politicians are corrupt,
everybody's corrupt, the system's broken, everybody's broken the same way.
That's not true. I think you can say the American
political system is corrupt because of this. It's a wash

(15:28):
in money. This infusion of money has by definition corrupted
American politics. But there are degrees of corruption. There is
a contribution, a legal contribution to a political campaign, and
you can say a huge contribution to a political campaign

(15:49):
is already corrupting the system because there's a quid pro
quo implied. There is a this for that already implied.
But when you take a palatial plane from the Kataris
and you spend a billion dollars of taxpayer money to
upgrade it, that's a different kind of corruption. I'd suggest

(16:12):
when you take a million dollars from each and every
tech bro who shows up your inauguration, that's a different
kind of corruption the kind of corruption we're seeing in
Washington with a huge mean coin purchase. So Trump and
his family have made billions of dollars billions with a

(16:32):
b already. That's a different kind of corruption. Their degrees
of corruption, just as there are degrees of cruelty, their
degrees of humanity. Life is a series of degrees of
all of these things. And so the glib treatment of well,
it's just good, you know, they're all corrupt. Let's face it,

(16:55):
all politicians, they all fall into the No, they're not.
The system is corrupted, I agree, but they're not all
the same. The lack of humanity associated with, for example,
the immigration program right now, the immigration policies Christine Nome

(17:15):
Miller Abbott, these are all people who are operating on
a scale of inhumanity and incompetence that is far greater
than that which you might find further down the way,
even though there might be in humanity and incompetence elsewhere
in the administration.

Speaker 3 (17:35):
There was a time when that wasn't okay. There was
a time when we wouldn't tolerate that. But the current
political climate is seems to be the higher the degree
of cruelty, the better.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
There is a deliberate aspect to the cruelty. You're right,
you're absolutely right about that. That's the situation in Texas.
We'll continue to watch it for you. And as I say,
I think it's a great way to raise the profile
of what's happening, which was the idea, but it's not
a long term strategy. And the clap back from Texas,

(18:11):
clap back from California to Texas, also New York to Texas.
There are other states blue states that will try the
same thing. That may be the only way to effectively
fight fire with fires. Smash the like button for me
if you would. It's a thing on YouTube. I know
it's crazy. The thing about the like button is that

(18:33):
when you put the thumbs up it, if it reaches
a certain threshold, we show up in people's feeds where
we otherwise would not show up. I have Epstein News,
I have doctor Hassen at the bottom of the hour,
the Cult Expert. Before I get to my guest, doctor Hassen,
I'd like to get to the Epstein News and some

(18:56):
law and disorder. We'll give you a dash of Epstein
law and disorder. Discuss Epstein in greater detail with Donald
Trump with the with David K. Johnson, who who will
discuss the Donald Trump nexus of Epstein and Trump right
now here we go. This is law and disorder.

Speaker 7 (19:19):
In the criminal justice system.

Speaker 8 (19:21):
The people, hemps, addicts, thieves, bums, linels, girls who can't
keep on address, and men who don't care are represented
by two separate and equally important groups. A copper, flat foot,
a bullet dick John Law, You're the fuzz, the heat,
You're poison, your trouble, your bad news.

Speaker 1 (19:34):
These are their stories. Trump administration is debating releasing the
transcript of the Gallaine Maxwell interview with the Department of Justice.
According to sources, there's an audio recording of the interview
that was conducted with Jeffrey Epstein, associate Gallaine Maxwell, and

(19:57):
the administration is considering releasing a transc of that interview publicly.
Now we didn't know that there was a recording that's
now just been revealed from three sources within the Justice Department,
and they're discussing, supposedly within the administration, the actual release

(20:22):
of this audio recording a transcript of it. They have
been transcribing and digitizing the recording. Portions of the transcript
that could reveal sensitive details like victim names would be redacted,
according to sources, but they haven't made a final decision

(20:44):
on this, according to these same sources, And this is
a developing story. I'd suggest that will never happen. Todd Blanche,
the Trump attorney, went down to talk to Gallaine Maxwell.
Already a ridiculously unprecedented, an obvious move to make a
deal to keep Trump out of the Epstein narrative. And

(21:08):
so obvious was that deal that they move Gallainne Maxwell
to a comfy jail from the already fairly comfy jail
where she was serving time. So already, you see, there's
no sleight of hand here. Everything's being done openly. But
back to the transcript they discussed, even if they discussed

(21:32):
around it, they discussed without question what Glainne Maxwell would
say and even maybe implied the likely pardon that will
come at the end of the Trump term. So there's
no chance that they'll release those transcripts. In less, they

(21:52):
do it in some way as to try to take
a w on releasing something, and then they redact so
much it's almost worthless. The Trump administration, though, does has
a they have a fresh excuse for transferring Gallaine Maxwell
to that jail. I described the prison camp. It's there's yoga,

(22:15):
there is pickleball, pilates, pilates. I mean, they put together
quite the spa scene there in this this new setup
that Glaine has found. But she is and I'll remind you,
a convicted sex trafficker. She is not someone who's just
been charged convicted by a jury, and she was in

(22:38):
Tallahassee in a federal prison. Sex traffickers are not permitted
in this club fed as it's often called. But the
Trump administration and the Justice Department have made a notable
exception in the case of Gallainne Maxwell. And they say that,
and here's their new excuse that after Todd Blanche, the

(23:02):
Deputy Attorney General, spent two days questioning Maxwell about Epstein's
high profile connections, that there were threats on Epstein, well,
the Epstein hench person's life, Maxwell's life.

Speaker 7 (23:18):
And.

Speaker 1 (23:20):
It was thought that for her to serve that twenty
year sentence for her role in the child sex trafficking operation,
she might face specific threats that they felt were so
great and credible that they wanted to move her to
a different location. The reason, as usual, this is such

(23:42):
a lame excuse for starters, is that the idea of
this new location is that the security is much more lax.
So this prison may not even have any real walls
around it. I think Tony might have the pictures of it,
but if he doesn't, the idea is that this is

(24:02):
a It almost does have a sort of summer camp
feel to it. You know, only your summer is going
to go on for twenty years. And the idea is
that Papa Razzi now are taking pictures of her. I mean,
if you were really concerned about her safety, you wouldn't
put her in a place where an assassin's bullet could
reach her so quickly. So it's again another piece of

(24:26):
what I think is just sort of flimsy rationale for
something that is openly reflecting a deal between Maxwell and
the DOJ, even if this is an implicit deal. So
and finally, in Law and Disorder, ex Trump prosecutor Jack
Smith is now under Special Counsel investigation. They are looking

(24:49):
at this guy who, as you know, was involved in
the prosecution and potential investigation of Donald Trump. Two criminal
cases he brought before the election essentially wiped it all away.

(25:09):
The Office of Special Council confirming it is investigating Jack
Smith on allegations that he engaged in political activity because
of his inquiries into Trump. Smith of course was named
special counsel by then Attorney General Merrick Garland, and so
his work there at the DOJ was assigned by Garland.

(25:35):
The whole thing again is absurd, but it takes taxpayer dollars,
it takes time, and the administration I think hopes it
takes headlines. And that's the idea behind now putting Jack
Smith under a special council investigation.

Speaker 3 (25:53):
So, you know this, Calvin makes a really good point
weaponizing the Justice Department. He says Trump is guilty. Wasn't
it Trump who was crying over the Biden administration allegedly
weaponizing the Justice Department? And here it is that you
want to talk who's weaponizing the Justice Department?

Speaker 1 (26:11):
Well, stealing the election that was accused, and that's what
Trump tied to try to do, weaponizing the Justice Department
that he accused, that's what he's actually doing. I mean,
it's all projection. Finally, Trump allied Jeffrey Clark should be
disbarred over the twenty twenty election efforts, speaking of stealing
the election. A Washington panel recommending the disbardment of Jeffrey Clark,

(26:32):
the former Justice Department official who tried to help President
Trump in overturning the results of the twenty twenty election.
That was the coordination of fake electors, the out and
out fraud associated with the undermining of the result of
the election. And now the DC Board of Professional Responsibilities

(26:53):
recommendation will go to the DC Court of Appeals for
a final decision. And again, Jeffrey Clark, who is clearly
corrupt to his eyebrows. He may face disbarment as a
result of his role in trying to steal and undermine
the twenty twenty election. And that is law and disorder.

Speaker 7 (27:17):
Tune in again next time for more law and disorder.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
I'm a Mark Thompson Show.

Speaker 9 (27:22):
All right, that's it.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
Let's roll.

Speaker 8 (27:24):
Hey, let's speak careful out there, feel it in your soul.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
The Mark Thompson Show. All right, let's get a real
smart guy in here. Enough of this. I know, I
know you have seen him, perhaps read his work. He
is a mental health professional expert in the undue influence
tactics used by authoritarian leaders and destructive cults. While he's

(27:55):
met his moment, hasn't he. His expertise includes a harmful
influencing cases of destructive religious and political cults of a
human trafficking, extremist and terrorist groups, one on one relationships, families,
parental alienation, mini cults, therapy and self improvement groups. I mean,
it's incredible the work he does, his work as an author,

(28:19):
and his work generally discussing the situation that America has
found itself in. Many would say sort of in the
thrall of Donald Trump and the maga nation that's resulted,
has real reflections of his work as a psychiatrist and
his work with the Cambridge College is a doctorate in

(28:43):
Organizational Development and Change from a Field and Graduate University
School of Leadership. God, I'm just reading this, you know.
It's when reading someone's CV would take up the balance
of the show. You know, you have a wildly qualified
person to speak with. And most of all, I would
recommend his book The Cult of Trump. That's perhaps where

(29:08):
we find ourselves most intrigued by his latest work. How
about it for professor doctor Stephen hasseen everyone?

Speaker 2 (29:18):
Hey, Mark, good to see you again. And just a quick.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
Correction, I yes, I there must be.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
What is an MD. I'm not a psychiatrist, not a
psych for the promotion.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
But so the Zoloft I want from you at the
end of this interview forgetting Yeah, I can't.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
Prescribe, Sorry about that, but just to remind your viewers,
because it's been a bit since we were together last.
I got interested in this weird subject because of my
recruitment into the Moonie's Cult at Queen's College in nineteen
seventy four, the same month Patty Hurst was abducted by

(29:55):
the Symbionese Liberation Army and was literal really in the
room with Sun Young Moon when he said that democracy
was satanic and we had to infiltrate the government and
when we took power in America, we would amend the
constitution and drum roll, we would make it a capital
offense for people to break our rules. And as a fanatic,

(30:20):
brainwashed cult member, I thought it was a great idea.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
Yeah, it's funny I mentioning you were coming on. I
was saying that I really wanted to remind everyone what
your history is because I think it's intriguing in itself,
and you've just done it.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
I mean, yeah, nobody thinks it could happen to them
until it happens to them, and you know, everybody's walking
around thinking that I'm too smart, I'm too educated. I
come from a good family, I have religious background, and
I had a good family, good education, and I was
just deceived and manipulated and hypnotized and brainwashed.

Speaker 1 (30:55):
I remember that in your story there was something that
was because we've talked about this before, and you've written,
of course at length about this, there were a few
things that did sort of surprise you, Like when you
really got into it, you were sort of thinking like, oh,
this isn't really exactly what I thought it was going
to be, but you kind of blew past that. That's
my recollection of that is there is there something of

(31:16):
that or not.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
So much really, But I do want to say I
grew up one point three miles from Donald Trump in Queens,
New York, so as a New Yorker, and most people
who are from Queens in New York know that he
was an asshole. You know, this was a very understood
He was a playboy, he always you know, didn't pay

(31:40):
his employees. He was just a dick. Yeah, no, you're right, dollar,
but you know he was an asshole and a liar
and a narcissist. And when my agent said, you know,
I want you to do the Cult of Trump. I said, no,
I don't do politics. He said, come on, Steve, you're

(32:02):
the expert.

Speaker 7 (32:03):
You know.

Speaker 2 (32:03):
If you don't do it, who's going to do it?
And I thought long and hard about it because I
grew up post Holocaust knowing about the Nazis and knowing
about Chinese communist brainwashing. And I'm glad I did it,
even though it's gotten me largely blacklisted in the mainstream
media because all the big players don't want the public

(32:26):
to be educated about psychology and the techniques that are
being used on all of us to manipulate us and
indoctrinate us. And the Cult of Trump has been validated
in its fullness. And I'll just add it was re
released with a short forward by George Conway who said, Yep,

(32:47):
the GOP is a cult. And you know it's no
they're no longer conservatives. They're just kissing the ring and
doing what the cult leader tells them or else.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
So this is kind of a where I need a distinction.
And maybe it's a distinction that isn't important, but maybe
it's a distinction that is important. Like I can hear
people going, I get it, guys, everybody likes Donald Trump.
Everybody who voted for Donald Trump's in a cult. I mean,
I don't see where it's a cult. I see that
they sparked to this populist rhetoric. They thought, Hey, I

(33:21):
don't love my life. I don't feel like the system
has helped me. I don't think it's going to help me.
And this guy's saying he's going to help me. So
he's singing from a hymnal that I like. And how
is that a cult? That's just a message that I'm
sparking to. So can you speak to that distinction? And
is there a distinction? I'm glad you asked.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
This is what I've spent forty nine years in doing
five books and four TEDx talks on the subject. First,
I would just say go to my website freedomomind dot com.
You can download this for free, the Influence Continuum and understand.
And I think there are cults that are ethical and

(34:03):
healthy and like fans and sports teams and even political
junkies who are into being a Republican or into being
a Democrat. But you have informed consent. There's no lying.
You have respect for conscience, critical thinking. You're not told
you can't talk to ex members or critics or read

(34:26):
bad literature that doesn't agree. This is a healthy group.
This is what we strive for in a democracy. What
I criticize authoritarian mind control cults. And my dissertation for
my doctor is on my byte model, which looks at
behavior control, information control, thought control, and emotional control to

(34:51):
make over somebody in the image of the cult leader,
or the doctrine where you can't doubt, where you can't check, challenge,
where you have phobias that if you leave, terrible things
are going to happen to you, and very quickly mark.
My thesis for the Cult of Trump book was that

(35:12):
a Donald Trump manifests malignant narcissism, which is the stereotypical
profile of all destructive cult leaders and dictators. It was
developed by Eric from based on Hitler. The narcissism plus
thinking you're above the law, the pathological lying, the sadistic stuff,

(35:33):
the threats, the revenge, the paranoia. There's a whole list
in chapter three and I compare Trump with Jim Jones
and Moon and Hubbard of scientology. But what I want
the public to understand is that there are actual authoritarian
cults that comprise the cult of Trump. That's where the

(35:54):
public doesn't understand. And I want to explain in particular
one branch of the authoritarian cults. It's called new Apostolic Reformation.
Have you ever heard that term? Mark, No, they aren't.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
No, I know what those words mean, but I've never
heard the term.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
So the media has mischaracterized his base as Christian evangelicals,
and Christian evangelicals say those are cults. This is not
following Jesus. These are self proclaimed prophets or apostles who
say I speak to God and God told me that
Docald Trump won the twenty twenty election. And many of

(36:36):
them speak in tongues that is known as glossilelia and
I can do it if you want me to demonstrate it,
but it's just something that is garbled's speech. And then
they claim they can do cast out demons and do
faith healings, but they manipulate all of these variable sleep clothing, language,

(36:59):
the list of the bite model, and people are leaving
these groups now. They're especially the people who had orientation
to real Christianity where Jesus said stay out of politics.
You know, all these Christian nationalists dominionists naar people. They
have an agenda and it isn't about democracy, separate separation

(37:23):
of church and states, respect for the constitution, respect for
the rule of law. And they all were like, God
is using Trump, like King Cyrus. King Cyrus was a sinner,
but He's was God sinner and that kind of rationalization.
But I want to emphasize with you, Mark, because I

(37:46):
know that you want people, you know, to support human
rights and rule of law and checks and balances. And
I want people to start realizing we need to shift
the messaging to the and not just talk to ourselves
who already know Trump is bad and bad news and

(38:07):
destroying our country. Because there are a lot of doubts,
and in particular the Epstein files, which is where I
came in late. I apologize I had camera issues, but
I was listening to the Glene Maxwell discussion you were
doing before I came on. He wants it to go away,

(38:28):
So he's trying to think, what can I do to
give the illusion that we're doing something that we aren't
the deep state, that we aren't the pedophiles and the
traffickers ourselves. In the meantime, he's lifting up traffickers and
pedophiles regularly, not to mention all the pictures, all of

(38:49):
Michael Wolfe's one hundred hours of interviews with Epstein. But
the thing that the public is missing is the Russian connection,
because they did a very thorough job brainwashing a lot
of Americans to think that there was no Russian collusion
in twenty sixteen, or in twenty twenty or in twenty

(39:12):
twenty four. But there absolutely was and is, and many
Russian experts and former KGP officials have said so, and
I wrote about it in my twenty nineteen version of
the Cult of Trump. Understand the techniques that are being used,
and they lose their power. And what Trump does is

(39:35):
he wants to distract you from the bad thing that
he's doing. So he just fired the statistics person, saying,
you know, they were in the Biden administration, but no,
they were doing their job. And it's his bad tariffs
and his bad policies that's causing the slowdown and development

(40:00):
of AI, where a lot of a lot of big
techo laying off people because hey, you don't have to
pay humans and it can work twenty four or seven. Right,
So there. But I really think that we, unlike people
who grew up in the Soviet Union or China, we
are dna is for freedom, like we don't we don't

(40:23):
fall for this like this is we know this isn't kosher,
like this is not okay. But the question is, are
the doers and shakers going to realize we need a
strategy and a plan to deprogram tens of millions of people?
And I've been volunteering. I've only been doing this for

(40:45):
forty nine years.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
So what what what would that look like? And I'll
just remind you that there is a propaganda machine that
is really dominant, and that's Fox News Channel and other
right wing media. Most of the radio that's talk radio
that people listen to EE and those are voters, seniors,
older people tend to listen to talk radio. That not explicitly,
but I'm just saying that's a demographic that does show

(41:07):
up at the poll sort of the extent that we'll
have free and fair elections. I don't know what you
know really is going to happen in that regard, but
those people are part of that brainwashing if you want
to call it that or that that that.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
I call it washing. I've stayed away from the term,
but people like it just like people like the term deprogramming,
which I never liked. But yeah, no, I know that
the radicalization or repersonalizing.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
Radicalization is a real good one. So but my point is, then,
so you're you're up against that propaganda machine on some level.
What what is the what is the Stephen Hassen approach
to getting to what you're talking about? The MAGA core?
The only thing that seems to rock maga uh, Stephen
Hassen is the Epstein revelations, the regulations that we're not

(41:52):
going to see anything on Epstein. That Trump is as
big a buy in on keeping it quiet and covering
it up as anyone.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
So understand, there was an ecosystem of right wing media,
but specific influencers started questioning him and the Joe Rogans,
et cetera. And Mark this device is the modern mind

(42:22):
control mechanism because big tech BJ Fog at the Stanford
Persuasive Lab developed the strategy for how to addict people
to social media to get their attention, to get their
data in order to now use profiles of data on

(42:42):
us to manipulate us. If we think we're going to
get the truth by being on a platform or a source,
it's not going to happen. So I tell people real
life is where it's at and following experts and following
sources that care about the fact that things are factual.

(43:05):
And by the way, there's no such thing as alternate facts.
They call lies or propaganda. And they're trying to do
the matrix. They're trying to do a flip and say, oh,
the Democrats are doing the coup when Trump was doing
the coup. It's everything's reaching.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
First, all projection that way. I'm getting some in the
chat is lighting up asking me, I know you had
a some kind of your path cross with Ginny Thomas,
the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Can you
speak to that relationship her A clear I suggest she's

(43:44):
almost a standard bearer for this cult that you're talking about.
But describe if you would. A lot of people in
the chat are saying, please ask the professor about the
relationship with Genny Thomas and what went on there.

Speaker 2 (43:58):
So I met Ginny Thomas a long time ago when
she got out of Life Spring, which was a large
group awareness training cult. She read my first book Combating
Cult mind Control. She was a fan of mine. She
asked me to do a Congressional briefing. She even brought

(44:18):
Clarence to a counter cult or a meeting that I attended,
and I shook his hand prior to him going on
the Supreme Court. And then she and he got radicalized
and she went deep into the q andon a rabbit hole.
So we dug up a video of me running an

(44:43):
ex member support group which Jenny had just gotten out
of Life Spring. It went viral, and all I can
say is it can happen to an educated there's a
picture of her at the time. Happened to edge cadd
intelligent people from good families, and they can flip. And

(45:08):
a lot of people in the culture Trump grew up
in the Mormons and left it, or the Catholic Church
and left it, or the scientology or the Mooni's or
Jehovah's witnesses, because people don't have clarity. And that's what
I'm trying to say in my work. There's clarity in

(45:28):
looking at the Byte model and deciding for yourself. Can
I can I listen to critics and former members with
an open mind, look at the facts, reflect on my
own experiences, and understand you want to follow a leader
that's trustworthy. You know and when they think Biden lied too, Mark,

(45:53):
I say Biden led maybe one hundred times and Donald
Trump forty thousand doc documented times. Not to try to
make an equivalence, but to just say, like this whole
claim that they're going to release the transcript, I'm with you,
I'm like, this.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
Is that will never happen.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
Of course, this is manipulation.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
This is interesting, Leslie says. People like discipline and look
to be disciplined. Is there a sense that the strong
men like this generally flourish because of a tendency within
all of us psychologically to want to follow strong figures.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
So let me explain my perspective because I've been studying
psychology for almost five decades. Healthy families, I'm going to
use this again forgive me. Healthy parents understand children. Their
job with their children is to steward them to adulthood,

(46:52):
to think for themselves, to have their own decision making capabilities,
and to find their own belief systems that work for them.
So healthy parents do developmentally appropriate parenting aimed at encouraging exploration, play, making, mistakes, learning. However,

(47:17):
if you're grow up in an authoritarian family or religion
or country and you're corporately punished to obey the authority figure. Yes,
you're trained to be disciplined to be obedient to an
external authority figure. And you don't grow up to think
for yourself unless you exit that mindset and go to

(47:41):
college and start realizing the world's a lot bigger than
what my family and my religion told me. And that's
the good part of the Internet. Are so many ex
members are being public And if I may get back
to your question, what would we do to have a
strategy and try try to get this information to the

(48:02):
Biden administration When they were in the White House, I said,
declare a public health emergency. We have a mind control virus.
We need to develop inoculation programs. We need to train
media educators, clinicians, politicians on understanding the difference between ethical

(48:26):
influence and ethical and we need to distigmatize people leaving
so they're not shamed. Because people will stay in a
cult even though they've already gotten disillusion but they don't
want their family and friends to say, I told you so,
how come you didn't listen to me. I told you
he was an asshole, or I told you it was

(48:46):
a cult and it happened to me when I got
out of the Moonies. I knew it was very not
helpful to my recovery to be shamed and blamed instead
of what I advise people to say is, look, we're
all all human. We all can trust the wrong people
and get deceived by something You did the best you
could at the time with the information you have. Now

(49:09):
you have more information, time to move on everybody. Yeah,
and I would mobilize tens of millions of ex members
to talk share their stories, because hearing someone else's cult
story turns the light bulbs on, as opposed to attacking
the cult leader, doctrine or policy head on, which just

(49:32):
shuts the cult identity down and sees you as the enemy.

Speaker 1 (49:37):
I really think these statements from former Trump loyalists, from
MAGA members, those who were real devotees of everything MAGA
rally attendees, et cetera. Those are powerful. Those do punch through.
I mean, we can go round and round about this,
and you're the qualified guy, and I'm not the qualified guy,
but I'm used to debating qualified people, and I would

(49:59):
push back. Here's the problem with your plan for Biden.
It would have been viewed as its own kind of
mind control. Why do you view the opposition as a cult?
Why do you view the opposition? You can say, well,
because there are no facts underpinning a lot of it,
and you would have even more. You bring more to
the party, I understand from a psychological standpoint, and you

(50:22):
can justify it. I'm not suggesting what you're saying isn't true,
and it's kind of it's water under the bridge. That
doesn't really matter. But under the Biden administration, I was
going to just getting to the point. I think that's
a tough lift given the way America is, which is, hey,
they have the freedom of thought, they have the freedom
of media, and they can say all of these things
about Joe Biden, and I would throw this last thing in,

(50:44):
and I think it maybe should be the first thing.
Joe Biden came across as infirm. Joe Biden came across
as weak. Joe Biden was a very bad spokesperson for
his own wonderful legislative record. In my judgment, now it
wasn't everything, but I felt he sadly couldn't rep his

(51:07):
record the way Trump does. Trump is just the opposite,
horrible legislative record full of toxicity for the American people,
dismantling all of government. It's an absolute hornet's nest of horror.
And yet he reps it in this very strong way,
which gets to you the cult expert and the cult
of Trump. Maybe that's all you need is a really

(51:28):
strong frontman.

Speaker 2 (51:30):
Well so, I said in the book that he was
demonstrating a knowledge of NLP, or neuro linguistic programming, which
is based on Milton ericson a psychiatrist. Tony Robbins takes
some credit for teaching Donald Trump how to use language
and to manipulate people. But you know, it's a matter

(51:54):
of form that elicits emotional states versus you know, policies
and content that requires frontal cortex thinking about things, and
when people are feeling very scared and uncertain.

Speaker 1 (52:12):
I know more than the generals.

Speaker 7 (52:15):
I know more than the economists.

Speaker 1 (52:17):
You can trust me. I've got this made.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
And if you repeat it over and over again, we
now know from neuroscience the brain starts acting as if
it's true even though it's the big lie. And Hitler
demonstrated the big lie. And I see you have up
David K. Johnston next, and I just want to credit David,
because when I was researching the cult to Trump, I

(52:42):
was reading his books like he is the man, so
like is.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
The blessing that I've been given on the show.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
He's been tracking Trump longer than anyone. I'll just say quickly,
David literally went to Trump during his gambling casino thing
with a cant with. Someone was filming him and he said,
I'm going to ask him questions that anyone who runs
casinos would actually know the answers to, to see if
he could pick up that they you know, the questions

(53:12):
were rigged.

Speaker 7 (53:13):
He bullshitted and.

Speaker 2 (53:15):
Davidmon care right, what's beautiful David.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
David comes with the math always. Hey, Stephen, so appreciate
our time together. Let's do it again, maybe next month
or something. I'd love to make these conversations.

Speaker 2 (53:27):
I'm dedicated to active resistance and I really believe in
the human spirit and love.

Speaker 1 (53:37):
This is the book Culture of Trump, and there's a
link to the book, the latest edition under this video.
And Steven wish you all the best. Really grateful again.
Stephen Hassen's website is Freedom of Mind dot com and it's.

Speaker 2 (53:53):
Your mind and only you should control it.

Speaker 7 (53:56):
Mark.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
That's good. Thank you. Thank you, Doctor Hassen. So long,
talk soon, Yeah, Mark Thompson show. Wow. I know a
couple of very smart people in the same show. This guy,
you know, he's a Pulitzer Prize winner, multiple best selling author,
and when it comes to Donald Trump, he's without peer.

(54:18):
Has been reporting doing the heavy investigative journalism about Trump
for many, many years. Also his writings about the tax
code and the legal systems and the favoritism essentially that
the system has been historically set up to give the wealthy.
Those books are worth cracking as well. Really great stuff

(54:39):
from our distinguished guest and regular visitor David K. Johnston. Everyone.

Speaker 10 (54:44):
Hello, Mark. Yes, I'm familiar with doctor Hasson's work, and interestingly,
I've written a fair amount about cults over my career.
The story I left The La Times over was an
expose of the cult in Hollywood, the MSIA pronounced Messiah,

(55:06):
run by a cult leader who claimed that he knew
what everyone on the planet was thinking and doing at
all times, and had a number of Hollywood stars among
others following him. And his threats of litigation intimidated one
of my editors, and that's when I said I'd had
enough left the paper after twelve years and went to
Atlantic City for the Philadelphia Inquirer, where I immediately ran

(55:29):
into the very earliest inklings of the Trump cult of Trump.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
You know David his you know his BS machine. Then
that goes back to you know, the earliest days and
that you ran into an Atlantic city for the first
time and then you followed so closely. I mean, there
is a strength to that BS, the repetition of the BS.
Just to kind of continue with the conversation we we're
having with doctor Hassen, and I sadly see how effective

(55:57):
it is.

Speaker 10 (55:58):
It's it is absolutely very effect and it's very hard
to break through with people. Imagine trying to talk to
har Christian member at the Lax Airport when they were
ubiquitous at one time. You couldn't go to the airport
without running into them. It's almost impossible to break through.

(56:18):
And if you do, the break is, as George Lakeoff,
the cognitive scientist that you see Berkeley has shown, just
tremendous if it's a father figure rather than a mother
figure you're breaking with. But we shouldn't surprise us, frankly,
that there are so many people who believe in Trump
because for almost fifty years the conditions of the bottom

(56:41):
ninety percent and absolutely the bottom half have worsened in
this country. The Republicans of egdamon the Democrats, as my
late brother said, you know what are the Democrats done
for me? All they do is give in to the Republicans.
At the core of this are is economics. The fact

(57:05):
is that if you're in the second half of the Boomers,
so born after nineteen fifty seven, you almost certainly haven't
done as well anybody born from then till now, as
my group, the early boomers or parents before us, who
lived through the depression of World War two and then
went through this great period of prosperity from the end

(57:27):
of World War Two until the mid nineteen seventies. And
it's government policy, as the Rand Corporation showed after I
wrote my trilogy about the economy that you referenced, and
they weren't doing this based on my book. It just followed.
Fifty trillion dollars over a period of about forty five

(57:48):
years was quietly taken from the pockets of you and
me and everybody listening to this show and transferred through
government policies to people at the very top of the economy,
and of course people are alarmed and upset and angry,
and they don't understand why and how this happened. If

(58:08):
they don't have the intellectual tools to assess what happened,
or they because of their upbringing, can't accept what actually happened,
then Donald, by saying I alone can save you, offers
them a quick and easy explanation. Just do whatever Donald
says and things will be okay. And by the way,

(58:29):
we're already beginning to see now in the data, they're
not okay. Job growth has essentially stopped. I won't be
surprised if it reverses soon. The economy is growing very slowly,
and trade both in and out of the country is
not improving. Fewer manufacturing jobs, a growing number of people

(58:50):
reporting distress economically, and as a survey out this morning,
sixty percent of Americans are worried about affording groceries. That
is not what Donald Trump promised. And the question is
how far does it have to get before a significant
number of people who they're not necessarily hardcore Trumpers, but

(59:11):
they chose Trump over Harris, realized they were sold to Billy.

Speaker 1 (59:15):
Goods, right, And that group that you speak about is
probably the first group that turns or you know, doesn't
show up. It becomes disaffected even more than they are.
I mean, you're right, and you speak about it so beautifully.
That backdrop against which Trump's rise exists is economic, and

(59:36):
it's interesting to see the distraction machine kind of go
into effect because every manner of distraction is being offered.
And I'd suggest also legit vengeance like this twenty sixty
looking into the twenty sixteen election, Pam Bondi turns the
Justice Department on this grand jury probe of the Obama
administration election review. In other words, they're trying to disprove

(59:59):
the Russian connection that was pointed to in twenty sixteen.
And doing that, I thought David really first to appease
the president who wants this vengeful Justice Department, and then
also maybe is a distraction. I mean that on some
level Maga nation wants to see Obama, Clinton, Biden all

(01:00:21):
brought down.

Speaker 10 (01:00:22):
So just there are three simple things to remember about
the actual Russia circumstance. Number One, right after Trump announced
in twenty fifteen, a Russian emissary sent an email saying
that the Kremlin wants to help you beat Hillary Clinton
and Donald Trump Junior Lydon toned about it.

Speaker 7 (01:00:41):
For a year.

Speaker 10 (01:00:42):
Leiden denied about the meeting held between an entourage of
Russians closely connected to Putin and the Kremlin and Don Junior,
Ivanka's husband, Jared Kushner, and Paul Maniford, who had effectively
been on the Russian payroll for tens of millions of dollars,
who was at the time the unpaid campaign manager, even

(01:01:04):
though he was in financial trouble. We know that happened.
Two Robert Muller testified in his second round of testimony
to Congress that he was not investigating what we thought
he was about the Russian interference, that he had been
blocked from all of that by Bill Barr. And that
tells you they did like the Epstein files, they didn't

(01:01:27):
want to know. And then the third is, of course,
in twenty seventeen or eighteen as president. On twenty seventeen,
as president, Donald Trump invited the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov,
Ambassador Kissleak, and a quote unquote news photographer from Tasks
into the Oval Office unannounced and gave away sources and

(01:01:51):
methods the most sensitive secrets we have, which is how
did we get this information? Who did we get it from?
And shortly after that, russ state television showed a meeting
in the Kremlin with a bunch of men in suits
when suddenly the door flies open, big burly guys come in.

(01:02:13):
They throw a bag over the head of the guy
at the head of the table. He's never heard from again,
and various intelligence sources have said Trump effectively said to
the Russians, Hey, I know what's going on in the Kremlin.
We've got a source. If that's true, that alone would

(01:02:33):
have been grounds to remove Trump. The problem is he's
in control of the data. And unfortunately Biden did not
go after this when he was in the White House.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
Well yeah, I mean Biden really such an institutionalist, just
really didn't want to.

Speaker 10 (01:02:50):
You want to be, I wrote, guy, and this is
not a HYERODT if I can mark before I posted
something today on my best guy account, my thread's account,
and I think I did at Facebook. Jennifer and I
spent a week going to the SHOCKWA Institution to learn
about authoritarianism and why it's on the ride. There were
thousands of people who go there every week during the summer.

(01:03:11):
To what I call Disneyland for intelectricals. And the night
before we went, we were having breakfast at a Hilton
hotel when I suddenly realized there was this gathering of
racists at the adjoining tables, the conversation they were having,
in the marks they had, and I thought, you know,
there's a herd of cows, a school of fish. What

(01:03:32):
do you call a gathering of racists? So I posted
these today. What do you call a gathering of pedophiles,
a groping child, rapists, a trump vask ice agents, a
cowardice racists, hatred, Oh good, it's up on the screen, Mega,

(01:03:53):
a fool of biblical literalists, a cherry pick of and
finally pro lifers, an abortion of pro lifers.

Speaker 1 (01:04:03):
Oh my god.

Speaker 10 (01:04:05):
I just think we should be a little more creative,
have some fun with all of this because.

Speaker 1 (01:04:10):
He can and call it what it is, right, yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:04:12):
Yeah, And I think a hatred of racist. That's what
came to my mind is we were having breakfast and
listening to these people who were just scum, hatred of
their fellow Americans if their skin wasn't white, and these
guys didn't look like anybody to write home.

Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
About, right, right, well, that's and it's from that group
that you get some of the most intense hate. And
I go back to what you were first saying, which
is those are oftentimes people who've been left behind economically,
and they're looking to see that hate, you know, consciously
or unconsciously reinforced by their circumstance. You know, those people

(01:04:49):
are benefiting. If it weren't for those people, I'd be
doing better. And you know, it's interesting now to see
you reference polling. In polling about immigration, Trump is losing
the nation. Trump wins on the border, but on the
general immigration policy day to day, Trump doesn't win any longer.
The Americans, from a polling standpoint anyway, have turned on him.

(01:05:12):
His approval rating on these other issues, including the economy,
is really beginning to show real signs of problems.

Speaker 10 (01:05:20):
Well, this goes to some degree to I think what
may be the greatest insight of Gandhi, who, after all,
without violence, without a revolution, got the British to walk
out of India after two hundred years. Gandhi said that
there is something in the human heart that is repelled

(01:05:40):
and paraphrasing, but that is repulsed by violence against people
who've done nothing to warrant that violence when they did
the march on the salt works, and for a whole
day people step forward knowing they were going to be
beaten by British authorities and locals who were hired on
their behalf to enforce. The whole world was revolsed by this.

(01:06:07):
Any decent biography of Gandhi will recount this story and
how people around the world went, what are we doing here?
And so, you know, pulling mothers from their little children
and leaving them alone in the backseat of the car
as you haul them off to who knows where, refusing
to provide access to lawyers, to people at Alligator, Alcatraz

(01:06:30):
and presumably elsewhere, by asserting you have no rights. There
are some videos out there of people who you can
see ICE agents saying when they want to stop you,
you have no rights. That's exactly what we revolted against
the British over and it wasn't no rights. The British
in fact acknowledged rights, just not what we thought was
a full suite of rights at the time, and which

(01:06:52):
we've expanded ever since. I'm going to talk tonight in
Geneseo about a half an hour se of Rochester at
the Riviera Theater at seven o'clock about how to save
our democracy. This will be the third or fourth time
I've given a talk on this in recent months, and
I've got several other invitations that are pending. But there

(01:07:13):
are things we can do. So I think it's very important.
Do not lose heart. That's number one. Just do not.

Speaker 7 (01:07:19):
I know it's overwhelming.

Speaker 10 (01:07:21):
There are times when I feel like there's a tsunami
coming and I'm standing there with my hand up. But
we got to do what we can do, and so
don't lose heart. Don't ever voluntarily obey. As a professor
Timothy Snyder, who was at Yale and left the country

(01:07:41):
with two other professors to the University of Toronto, teachers
get people registered and then crucially make sure they vote.
And if you live in southern California where your vote's
not going to change anything in the next presidential election,
and there are only a couple of districts that might

(01:08:02):
change something, then if you can afford to do it's
arranged now to go to Nevada or Oregon or Utah
or somewhere a day or two before the fall twenty
six elections to get people to the polls. You can
also do it by phone from wherever you live if
you're part of an organized group. But if you can

(01:08:22):
you and a second person. You need to have two
people to do this. Can drive people to the polls
to make sure they actually go. That's just crucial. You know,
three point three fewer three point three million fewer votes
in twenty twenty four than in twenty twenty and with

(01:08:43):
population growth they should have been at least six million
more votes, maybe seven million more votes. We've got to
get people to the polls. And some of the people
you want to recruit are not going to vote the
way you want. That's okay. Better to get people to
the polls. We have a larger number if we're going
to save our democracy, and it's not at all clear

(01:09:03):
at this point that we will be successful. It's not
we don't have to lose it, but if we're not
vigilant and resolute.

Speaker 7 (01:09:12):
We will.

Speaker 1 (01:09:14):
I first of all, you know your lectures on how
to say the democracy. I think it's you know, that's
a gift. Really, that's the plan. We need different strategies.
Yours may not be the only one.

Speaker 10 (01:09:31):
Well, there are many other strategies.

Speaker 1 (01:09:32):
Exactly, I think. But I think some broad based way
in which a strategy can and series of strategies can
be put together is definitely what's needed. Obviously, lying down,
becoming so dejected that we do nothing is not a
strategy at all. And to be fair, the rise of Pallanteer,
the rise of the data scrape that went on with

(01:09:54):
the infiltration of all of these institutions of government, when
Elon Musk went in with his tech bros. Who had
no background clearance whatsoever and they scraped all these I
worry about the damage done, But nonetheless there will be
another chapter written, and we have to be part of
that writing. So one of the things that's punched through

(01:10:15):
David K. Johnson, it's a you know, I understand it's
a salacious story, and I understand that it's a story
that involves a big money and powerful people at the
Epstein story, and it's relevance I think is immense because
of the political damage is doing to Trump. I mean,
this guy who seems to be able to just slide

(01:10:37):
through everything these moments that would KAO anybody else, he
seems to really be hobbled by Epstein and his oversteering
to try to keep it quiet, pretend like he's releasing
things all the rest that's not helping him. Tony, don't
we have something on Do we have something on Epstein?

(01:10:57):
Why don't you? Oh, I have something on Trump speaking.
But first give me a note and then I'll let
you listen to Donald Trump, who just gave an interview
to Day on CNBC. Give me your thoughts on this
and as we do the as we pencil it out,
give me your sense of how this is damaging Trump
and how it might actually affect his political viability going forward.

Speaker 10 (01:11:20):
Well, there is just billowing mark smoke coming out of
the White House about this issue, as I reported in
the Making of Donald Trump, and I think I may
have also said in my nineteen ninety two book that's
about half about Trump Temples of Chance. He had twelve, thirteen,
and fourteen year old children gambling in his casinos. He
had to be twenty one years old. Nobody mistakes a

(01:11:42):
twelve year old for a twenty one year old nineteen,
you know, eighteen balled up a guy or gal. I
get that it can happen. Twelve year old's absolutely not.
They were given limousine rides and hotel rooms and credit.
Although that may have been at Caesar's Casino, were kids
who had money to gamble. And when I asked Donald
about that, He's dismissed it, say I had to have

(01:12:04):
fine because there's no moral core inside this man. He
If you go on the internet and do a Google
image search and just put in Trump Ivanka Parrot, start
looking at all the photos that come up of Donald
with his arms around his daughter starting at about age ten,

(01:12:25):
particularly the photo in the door of his Ferrari sports car,
and ask yourself if that looks the least bit appropriate
for a father and his daughter. I mean, I've shown
these pictures to women, a select group because they were
highly educated, because they were in my social circle, and
they tend to be highly educated people. That picture right there.

(01:12:48):
The first time I was shown that picture, I was
on a plane flight sitting next to a psychiatrist who
was a woman who was on our way to testify
in a trial about child sexual abuse. And she had
ever so slightly photoshopped the so you couldn't tell who
it was. And she said to me, this is like
a Worshock test. What do you see in that picture?
And I said, oh, that's some college freshman sophomore girl

(01:13:12):
exploring her sexuality and giving it up to her professor,
and she swipes and you see this photo and I go,
oh my god. And there are lots of other photos
like this. Donald talked about on the Howard Stern Show
that twelve year olds were too young for him. Twelve

(01:13:33):
year olds, So thirteen year olds, they're okay. And lo
and behold what we have testimony and complaints from numerous
young women telling about themselves and other young women who
were thirteen and fourteen, one of them giving a very graphic,
detailed description of the right way to get Donald Trump

(01:13:55):
off with your hand. I mean, there's an enormous amount
of evidence that Donald Trump can serve saying nonsense. He can survive,
claiming he has made these trade deals that are nonsense.
He can survive, lying he can survive, Stormy Daniels. I
do not believe he has a snowball chance in hell

(01:14:15):
of surviving clear evidence that he is a repeat child rapist.
You got to be really way over into far out
quote Christian theology land. Where we should be marrying off
ten year olds is if they have their first period

(01:14:35):
at that age. To find this acceptable and that's why
they're keeping these files secret because clearly there are things
in there that will be damning to Donald Trump.

Speaker 1 (01:14:47):
Well, the victims, the victims' families are saying, David, we'd
like to see these with appropriate reactions, these files released.
This whole idea that you're protecting us is just bogus.
We want to see this in for right.

Speaker 10 (01:15:01):
And the lawyer for a number of the young women
was on Lawrence o' donald the other night making exactly
this point what we're seeing. And by the way, they
go and have the number three guy in the Justice Department,
Todd Blanche, who was Donald Trump's lawyer at his criminal
trial where he was convicted, go to meet twice with

(01:15:22):
Gallaine Maxwell and giving her transactional immunity, that's whatever she
said in the meeting couldn't be used against her. And
then they move her against regulations, from a high security
prison to a minimum security prison, which I would argue
puts other women in that prison at risk from this
sexual predator who continues to maintain I'm innocent, I did nothing.

(01:15:44):
It's all lies, which is ridiculous. She got and Donald
you know, has indicated she didn't get a fair trial.
There was a rush judgment that turn on Newsmax and
these other right wing fake news organizations and they will
tell you all the was this rush to judgment. They
didn't have anything, They just needed a scapegoat. Now, he

(01:16:08):
was the procureur and she participated in the rapes of
these children.

Speaker 1 (01:16:14):
And by the way, the victims say this, what W. K.
Johnson is saying is absolutely born out in victim testimony.

Speaker 10 (01:16:21):
Yeah, so why would an administration do that? Well, for
the same reason, Donald has pardoned a whole bunch of
major drug dealers, as I report in the Making of
Donald Trump, and I'd reported earlier. Uh, Donald Trump for
a decade was intimately involved up to his eyeballs in
business with one of the biggest cocaine traffickers in America.

(01:16:44):
He did extraordinary favors for him, which is a casino owner,
especially where you're not to associate with criminals, makes absolutely
no sense. But if Donald Trump was in the cocaine
business with Joseph Wexelbaum, every single thing he did makes
per sense. And this is all public record. The failure

(01:17:05):
of every major news organization to report on this. I've
offered copies of all the documents to my former editors
at the New York Times, to editors at the Washington Post,
to people I know at Bloomberg and AP and elsewhere,
and nobody wants them. Is one of the most damning
things you can say about the business I spent my

(01:17:26):
career in journalism. There's lots about Donald that people don't know,
and trust me, I only tell you things I can
prove so he can't touch me. There are much much
more horrible things that I am internally convinced Donald Trump
has done that should really scare you, But I can't

(01:17:48):
prove them to the point where I can be assured
he can't sue me for them.

Speaker 1 (01:17:53):
You know, David, If you look across YouTube, you can
find any number of interviews with women who in the
constellation of people around Jeffrey Epstein, and they speak to
the setup. They speak to the fact that these were
young models, all under eighteen effectively in many different instances,
and some in instances in which there were parties, there

(01:18:14):
were a bunch under eighteen, and then there were a
bunch handful over eighteen, and there was definitely a youth
movement in the Epstein world. And they speak quite distinctly
and quite starkly might be the word i'd use about
the fact that if you didn't play ball with these
older guys who were there, I mean it was all

(01:18:36):
guys in their older upper thirties and forties, is what
I heard one model say, They wouldn't get you bookings.
Your agency wouldn't get you bookings.

Speaker 10 (01:18:45):
I mean the worst than that mark a couple some
of the young women have said they went along when
them in a sixty minutes interview because they were told,
if you know you don't cooperate, we'll have you killed. Now,
I don't think they were going to kill people. Maybe
they were, I doubt it, but it was an intimidation factor,
and they found young women who were homeless, or they

(01:19:05):
had been abused previously or otherwise. I mean, these were
not from a healthy, functional homes. And you know what
America is full of young women like that. I mean,
the level of parental sibling and especially stepfather or stepbrother
incest in this country is a lot higher than you
want to think about.

Speaker 1 (01:19:25):
Yeah, that you're describing was the Epstein strategy. They looked
for women. The women who worked there as massage people
in Epstein's orbit, they were from those homes that you describe,
but you can see these women, many of whom at
these parties and pictures that Tony's showing. They're all under eighteen.

(01:19:45):
And again there was an implied and sometimes explicit understanding
that you know, you don't have to do this, but
if you don't, you're likely not going to get these
model bookings, and your career as a model is really
going to be threatened.

Speaker 10 (01:20:00):
And when you turned eighteen, you suddenly were thrown out
because now you're too old. Jeffrey, I think I'm pronouncing
her their name right, who committed suicide earlier this year
because he just couldn't live with what had happened to
her anymore. She has told that exact story, and Julie
Brown Miami Harold, formerly a philadelph Inquirer reporter. Like me,

(01:20:24):
Julie Brown has done the most extraordinary work for years
pursuing this. I mean, you want to read all of
her work, Take out a short term subscription for the
Miami Herald and go through their archive. It is you
will find an incredibly deeply disturbing what was going on here. Now,

(01:20:44):
this is not like it's something that's new. Older men
in positions of power and very young girls.

Speaker 4 (01:20:53):
This goes on all over the world.

Speaker 7 (01:20:56):
There's a whole.

Speaker 10 (01:20:56):
Business in Thailand built on the model. But Donald Trump's
the president of the United States, and he is he
is not only just a convicted criminal thirty four felon accounts,
and he would have been convicted in the other cases
had they gone to trial, but he's someone who sets

(01:21:19):
a tone for a lot of people about conduct, and
the tone that he's setting is absolutely anathema to individual
liberty and freedom. He is He's a disaster that we've
got to stop. But it's going to be very hard
so long as he has his cult like hold.

Speaker 1 (01:21:39):
Sure, but that's why I think this conversation around Epstein
is worth a beat or two, because it is the
one thing that seems to be penetrating this impermeable wall
that is around Donald Trump. And so as he does
all of these things, you could say that his tarists
are lawless. They're completely illegal, and they maybe ruled illegal

(01:22:00):
by a court, as you're you know, as you've talked about.
But the idea somehow that he can do these things
that are really outside of his legal right, none of
that seems to be punching through but Epstein, Wow, people
really have whipped their heads around on this. And I
know I get it young girls, not well, not women,
I get it, but were we make the point that

(01:22:21):
it's women under eighteen girls exactly, and it's it's a
as I say, it's the thing that maybe the cornerstone
of building a case against Donald Trump continuing and and
he is losing support before I lose you, although it's
already too late, isn't it. I wanted to play h
okay on immigration, play me a little bit of that

(01:22:44):
cut for David and Trump on immigration. Here's a here's
a little something. And the President was on the squawk
Box on CNBC today, go ahead.

Speaker 9 (01:22:54):
Up to their country with a pass back in legally,
and we're doing things that are that are very difficult
to do and very complex, but it works really well.
We're sending them back and then they're schooling, they're learning,
they're coming in, they're coming in legally. We have a
lot of that going on. But we're taking care of
our farmers. We can't let our farmers not have anybody.

(01:23:16):
You know, these are very these people that you can't
replace them very easily. You know, people that live in
the inner city are not doing that work. They're just
not doing that work. And they've tried, We've tried, everybody tried.
They don't do it. These people do it naturally, naturally.
I said, what happens if they get it to a
farmer the other day? What happens if they get a

(01:23:38):
bad back? He said, they don't get a bad back, sir,
because if they get a bad back, they die. He said,
that's interesting, isn't it. You know, these are very you know,
in many ways, they're very very special people. Okay, go ahead.

Speaker 1 (01:23:52):
Yeah. What you realize there is that he has a
view of the immigrant community as sort of you know,
they're not people there.

Speaker 10 (01:24:00):
They're subhuman.

Speaker 7 (01:24:01):
I mean, that's a fundamental element.

Speaker 10 (01:24:03):
The courses that Jennifer and I sat through about fascism, authoritarianism,
how you start a genocide, which they are in about
the fourth of the ten stages of the genocide in
this administration, are well studied and well known about what happens.
Donald's language there is consistent with his description of Epstein

(01:24:27):
taking his underage SPA assistant, presumably Miss Jeffrey, away from him,
you know, like it's his property. You'll recall in the
twenty sixteen campaign. He pointed to a black man in
the crowd who was a supporter and said, that's my Negro,
or words to that effect. No, you're not a human

(01:24:48):
being to Donald.

Speaker 1 (01:24:49):
No.

Speaker 10 (01:24:49):
One is, not even his family. We're just we're objects.
And you're seeing here how he's trying to rewrite the story.
That's a crucial element because he doesn't know what he's doing.

Speaker 7 (01:25:00):
He has no idea.

Speaker 10 (01:25:01):
He's getting kicked back now from states where farming is important,
particularly the eight Midwest states. In California, she doesn't care
about it at all. And the need for farm workers
to harvest crops. You know, oh, we're going to send
them back and again an education, they're going to come back.
You don't need education to you know, pick Lettuce. It's

(01:25:22):
not how it works. He's just trying to come up
with some way to obscure and justify. So, you know,
don't folks, don't don't lose heart, don't stop paying attention.
Don't demand perfection from the people who are trying to
deal with Trump. I see everything every day. I see

(01:25:43):
things and I go, gosh, Senator, that's not the way
to ask that question. Okay, that's fine, at least you
ask the question. I support your efforts to get at
the truth of this. Don't make the as the old
saying goes, don't make the perfect the enemy of the good,
and recognize this isn't going to get fixed overnight. We
have to stick to it. And when if we are

(01:26:03):
successful in stopping all of this, that's not the end.
I'm reminded the day the Los Angeles City Council finally
passed a law to address all the spying by the
LAPD that I had been exposing in the La Times,
and one of the key players and it turned to
me in the City council chamber and said, well, at

(01:26:23):
last it's over, And I said, no, it's not. It'll
never be over. We need police intelligence functions and we
need to control them. In ten thousand years from now,
the Los Angeles City Council is going to be debating
what's the appropriate level of intelligence gathering by the LAPD.
It's part of the human condition. As soon as we succeed,

(01:26:45):
and we're going to succeed. If we're resolute, then we
have to start working on the unenforceable provisions of the constitution,
the rules that Donald was able to get around and
manipulate to his benefit. The Supreme Court that has made
itself by its own choice very political and Trumpian, and
how to have a more perfect union. That work never

(01:27:10):
ends if you want to live in a free society.
It is part of your life's work.

Speaker 1 (01:27:15):
And the work on the other side never ends. So
the pushback is important on everything all the time. David,
thanks for a standing out of late with us. Really
always appreciate you, David K. Johnson, everywhere so long the
Mark Thompson Show, it was great.

Speaker 2 (01:27:35):
I love it.

Speaker 9 (01:27:37):
How would you hand this?

Speaker 7 (01:27:39):
We could try ignoring you or.

Speaker 3 (01:27:43):
You cannot say you love your country?

Speaker 1 (01:27:45):
Where am I weed?

Speaker 4 (01:27:46):
Smokers at stay at home and get baked.

Speaker 1 (01:27:49):
Right on everyone? Alifidian says Joseph Smith's calt didn't end
when he died, Neither will Trump's cult when he dies. Yeah,
well I'm not you know, I'm not looking for it
to end. I mean, I'd love for her to end.
I don't think it will. But I just if you
could turn down the effects, I'd be very happy. Yeah,
I'd really be quite delighted by that. Kim. I've got

(01:28:13):
a chance to even have a cup of my Coachella
Valley coffee today so good. You heard Gary Dietrich talking
about it yesterday, and the tea is wildly popular.

Speaker 3 (01:28:28):
Coffee my tea turmeric Chai which has the Lion's main
in it, and I love just looking at it and
smelling it and then it's good. I had my mom
drink it last night, little SIPs of it because it's
supposed to offer benefits to brain health. So this is
a good thing. I'm thinking, I love it. I'm got

(01:28:52):
a little fist to it, but it's good.

Speaker 1 (01:28:57):
Loving it. Well, you can get it all. Try that
clarity blend. And by the way, as there's a tea,
these refreshing teas that help with mental clarity, according to
much of the literature. I just like the way they taste.
Coachello Valley Coffee dot Com is where you find it,
and this is the best coffee on earth. It's a

(01:29:19):
boutique roastery and all of the coffee is hand roasted.
It's sourced from women owned businesses that are seeded with money.
They do tremendous outreach and they have now for years
to help women lift up their communities and grow and
these crops oftentimes make up the beans that you find

(01:29:42):
at Coachella Valley Coffee so hand roasted delivered to you.
Coachella Valleycoffee dot Com. Again not just coffee, tea, spices,
wonderful offerings, tasting notes and profiles, tasting profiles underneath everything.
So go to their website. But this is the important part.
Load up your cart anything you want. Definitely use our

(01:30:03):
discount code mark t at checkout. You'll get ten percent off.
All right, Coachella Valley Coffee dot Com, mark t at
checkout ten percent off. So proud that they're our sponsor
of the show and love our relationship with Coachello Valley Coffee.
Wait a minute, ladies and gentleman, I'm Shadow, Steve the
Shadow always wanted Mark thumps yourself. I love my shadow.

(01:30:27):
All right, I am. I'm reminded that right around this
time on Tuesdays we visit with our pal. He is
the former tech writer at USA Today. Got rid of
that after years writing about technology for USA Today, went
out on his own. Now he's got that big money

(01:30:49):
YouTube deal going with Photo Walks TV. How about it
for Jefferson Grant? Hello, Mark, Jeff changing the vibe. We've
been doing a lot of politics and you know, all
that stuff away from all the mess is your world
of technology? What do you have for us today? Sure?

Speaker 7 (01:31:08):
Well, first I sent some pictures to augment what I'm
going to tell you about to Tony, but I wasn't sure.
Is Tony there today? We have here, Okay, so he's
got what I what I said. Google sent out a
release today about how you could use Gemini AI. Gemini
is the name of Google's AI program. You could use

(01:31:29):
it to create a ten page storybook. They'll make up
a little story for you and draw all these pictures
and how cute it will be. But in typical Google,
they announced something but you can't get it. They announce
it and say they say it's rolling out. It's rolling out,

(01:31:49):
So it's going to eventually, hopefully soon come to our
Gemini apps. I know, Mark, I know you've got the
Gemini app on your phone and you use.

Speaker 1 (01:31:58):
It all the time, right, I will by the time
they roll it out.

Speaker 7 (01:32:01):
And by the time they roll it out, what I did,
what I was able to create a little story. That's
what I sent to Tony. They wouldn't do a story
book for me, but I did a little story about
this guy that sat in his garage all week long,
and he never spoke. He doesn't speak to anybody. He

(01:32:22):
keeps his mouth shut until Tuesdays at twelve forty. It's
the only time he opens his mouth. What the special
day finally arrived. The man sat down at his small
desk and carefully arranged his microphone and headset. He opened
his computer, and with a single click, his silent world

(01:32:42):
was ready to connect with the bustling energy of the
Mark Thompson Show.

Speaker 2 (01:32:47):
Oh my god, it's fantastic.

Speaker 1 (01:32:50):
I A wow.

Speaker 7 (01:32:56):
So maybe we'll get it in color soon.

Speaker 1 (01:33:00):
That is really cool.

Speaker 7 (01:33:03):
Yeah, go ahead, Mark.

Speaker 1 (01:33:04):
No, no, I was just you know, I'm really astounded
by the power of AI and it's being used in
so many ways. It's everything that they said it would be.
And it's funny when you come on, you do remind
us that it's sort of not ready for prime time
all the time, in every iteration that they've offered, not
all the time.

Speaker 7 (01:33:21):
They resh these releases out and then they it takes
a while to they get to the consumer. And I
use chat GPT every day. It's replaced Google for me.
It's just easier. You get more information, you don't have
to go back and forth and I'm amazed at how
good it is and they certainly know a lot about me.
If I mentioned any any community, any town to ask

(01:33:43):
a question for, they'd say that would make a great
episode of photo Woks TV boy. What is.

Speaker 1 (01:33:54):
What is happening to all that information that you're talking
about when we ask chat, GPT or whatever it might be,
and as you say, it knows more about me? It
is great? I mean, can be this enthusiasm about the
results you're getting, but should it be matched with any
anxiety about all the information that it has and maybe sharing.

Speaker 7 (01:34:15):
There is a school of thought that says you shouldn't
use it at all that the minute you put something
in there, they're going to learn that little part about
you and they know it forever it's up there. The
impression I got from when I ask questions is they're
just doing a better round of searching of the Internet
than Google is, and that's where all the information is coming.

Speaker 1 (01:34:36):
I also would say maybe to add on to this,
and I don't know. I mean that's why I ask you.
I think when you enter something into a Google search,
that information is known and they, as we know, build
a picture of who you are what they can market
to you and all the other things associated with your
Google searches through time, So you're probably giving up all

(01:34:58):
that information on some level anyway, right.

Speaker 7 (01:35:01):
Yeah, I think for the twenty dollars they're not trying.
I pay twenty dollars a month for Chat GPT for
the premium access, you can ask more questions. I don't
feel sold to. So when you're doing this stuff on Google,
you're getting sold now speaking of chat GPT, well.

Speaker 1 (01:35:20):
Yeah, go ahead, yeah, no, I was in the chat
in lay says Grock blows chat GPT away musk or no, no,
musk Grock four do you know?

Speaker 7 (01:35:32):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:35:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:35:33):
Grock is the Twitter AI tool that has pro Nazi
stuff all the time.

Speaker 1 (01:35:40):
So if I would it was probably the thing you want, though,
wouldn't you say?

Speaker 7 (01:35:44):
Yeah? And it's basing all of it's information based on
the hate that's on the former Twitter, So I would
stick away. I would not be going there.

Speaker 1 (01:35:53):
But unless you're what, unless you're a Nazi is what
you're telling. Yeah, all right, I don't know. I don't know.
I don't use it.

Speaker 7 (01:36:01):
So I was just going to say that now that
GPT announced that they're adding a new tool in there,
suggesting that you might take a break. You've been using
it for too long. Why don't you stand up and
walk around the house a little bit?

Speaker 1 (01:36:15):
There? Are you kidding?

Speaker 7 (01:36:17):
No, I'm not.

Speaker 1 (01:36:19):
They're actually adding a tool that evaluates how long you've
been on it will recommend stepping away from the platform. Yeah,
that's wild.

Speaker 7 (01:36:27):
Yeah, I think that's one of their post social look
at how great we are things. Apple is introduced is
working on a streamlined version of chet GPT to introduce
at some point in our future. As you know, it
was June of twenty twenty four that they announced all
these great AI features that would be coming to the iPhone,
and most of them never got done because they just,

(01:36:50):
for whatever reason, the world's richest company couldn't get it
together to hire enough people to make it work.

Speaker 1 (01:36:55):
And the Apple acquisition of other AI technologies, word is
that stand.

Speaker 7 (01:37:01):
I don't think they've acquired.

Speaker 1 (01:37:04):
Shouldn't that be their plan?

Speaker 7 (01:37:05):
That should But I mean, I'm not going to tell
them how to run a company, because I think they're
doing something right. They announced the other day they have
sold their three billionth iPhone since two thousand and seven,
and that is really the reason that the company is
doing so well, is they just market to that base.
One thing on their earnings report that they announced, which

(01:37:26):
I thought was really interesting, so they had the biggest
earnings of all time, even in this world, this economy,
and they said the reason was that people were rushing
out to buy Apple devices before the tariffs came in.
So we have talked a bunch here on the show
about how I expected the new iPhones to be more expensive.

(01:37:48):
They just said it right there. It was right there
in the earnings report.

Speaker 1 (01:37:52):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it was the rush that we
all were part of, like what do I need to
get before the tariffs kick in? And so there it is.
Now they'll be I would suggest a corresponding downfall on
the other end with tariffs in place. And I just
wonder to what extent Apple I was reading that Apple
and some of these tech companies do get brakes along

(01:38:12):
the way, and that there are some loopholes. So I
don't know how that all shakes out. And when it
comes to tech purchases, how big a bullet will people take?
You know, Jeff, it seems like some of these tech
companies are going to try to swallow some of the
tariffs and then at some point, it has to be
passed along to the consumer.

Speaker 7 (01:38:33):
No, I think most of the companies are passing it
on to the consumer because they have to please the shareholders.
The thing that the tariffs is, how much is it?
I mean, it doesn't change every day. That we just
don't know. But you can assume it's at least ten percent.
It's at least the new iPhone will be hundred dollars more,

(01:38:53):
that's right, right, at least one hundred dollars more. But
cars are more expensive consumer goods and more expensive. I
bought a chocolate bar at the airport last week, my friend.
It was a Hershey bar. Any idea what I spent
for that? Mark?

Speaker 1 (01:39:09):
Oh, that's a great question. Jefferson Graham bought a Hershey
bar at the airport last week. How much was it?
I'm going to I'll start us off. If nobody else
will speak up, I will start us off. I'm going
to say it's nine dollars. Oh no, I did not

(01:39:31):
spend nine dollars.

Speaker 7 (01:39:32):
I spent five dollars and seventy five cents, which to
me was the most expensive Hershey bar it'd ever bought
in my life.

Speaker 1 (01:39:38):
All right, Well, as I off say you're not paying
for the hershey bar. You're paying for the ability to
buy the hershey bar. They're at Gate B seventeen, that's right. Yeah,
you're paying for it being there, and they know they
have you hostage, and you're going to pay because because

(01:40:00):
you want that hershey Bar.

Speaker 7 (01:40:01):
It's also a shareable hershey bar because it's the bigger
hershey bar. But I will say Mark, I will say
I was in the seven eleven off premises, wasn't at
the seventh, wasn't at the airport, and it was in
the five dollars range.

Speaker 1 (01:40:16):
Oh really, so anyhow it's offering you. But I would
have thought, honestly, I really would have thought nine bucks.
I mean the water you buy is like seven fifty
or something like that.

Speaker 7 (01:40:26):
You know, really show and the magazines that used to
be three dollars in out twenty have you noticed that?
And they're not really magazines, they're really biographies? Have you
noticed that?

Speaker 1 (01:40:41):
I hadn't noticed that. I had to notice that.

Speaker 7 (01:40:44):
Yeah, like Rolling Stone will have a Fleetwood Mac issue
and an Eagles issue with every interview they'd ever done,
and time and people will do it on celebrities. There's
probably Elannie Anderson Bio People magazine edition out already.

Speaker 1 (01:41:00):
You never wrote about rock and roll or about entertainment
rock and roll. I would see you as a music guy.
You never wrote about rock and roll or music I did.
You did, Yeah that I can totally see. Yeah, yeah,
But but tech is really the thing that sparked well.
I also did TV when I started my career. I
did fifteen years of TV coverage. Oh yeah, I mean
I see you shows like there was this great announcer

(01:41:23):
on the showed to Love. Greed was a great story.
I did the announce on Greed. It was something like,
you know from Los Angeles, the greatest game show in history.
Ladies and gentlemen get ready for Greed. It was that
kind of open and it was Dick Clark. And Dick
Clark didn't pay any money. He's the company is notoriously frugal, cheap,

(01:41:47):
some might say. And I said, I just don't want
to do it. My agent call me with it, and
I said, just it's not enough. I feel like they're
taking advantage of me. And so the Dick Clark people
called me, and I met Dick Clark. He was charming
in love and everybody at the Clark is so nice.
I mean, they were really cool. Anyway, they said, we'll
make this deal, do the pilot episodes of Greed for

(01:42:10):
this very little money, and if it gets picked up
and goes to series, then we'll pay you your rate.
And so that's what we did and it went on
the air, was on for three seasons. I think it
was a big, big success. So yeah, thank you. And
the announce was the thing.

Speaker 7 (01:42:25):
That really got It was all for that voice.

Speaker 1 (01:42:28):
It was all for that and gentlemen, get Ready for Greed.

Speaker 7 (01:42:32):
Was the top prize a million dollars?

Speaker 1 (01:42:36):
Yeah, that is my top price?

Speaker 7 (01:42:41):
No, no, not yours. No for the contestant.

Speaker 1 (01:42:43):
Oh no, I think it was a million. And yeah,
I think you're right the top there it is. It
was a good show. I liked Greed. Of these to
neuro films, I'm just looking at what which were the first?
Oh I missed it. Yeah, there is, Tony's got the
that's that was the announce caming over the beginning from

(01:43:04):
Los Angeles, the greatest game show and television and history.
Ladies and gentlemen, get Ready for Greed, strap in, sit down,
get the games.

Speaker 7 (01:43:20):
Mark? Did you do other games? You said, it's Greed.

Speaker 1 (01:43:23):
Oh I did, Oh yeah, I did. Who was Who's
smarter than a fifth grader? That was? That was a
great little run. That was like a different kind of
announced though. It was like Who's smarter than a fifth
you know, it was like that kind of fun announce
And of course I did an American idol. But there's
Chuck Woolery who was the host of Greed. I think
he became like a real right winger just because he did.

Speaker 9 (01:43:45):
So.

Speaker 1 (01:43:46):
Oh, Deal of the Century was great. You're right, Deal
of the century. Champagne wishes those were I love game shows,
love them. So Greed was good. Rick says, yeah, Greed
was good. Here all right, Jeff, love you, Thank you.
Bock out Jeff on YouTube photo Walks TV. He shows
you why you need a selfie stick, He shows you

(01:44:06):
how to shoot with your drone. He shows you all
the wonderful nooks and crannies of this great country. And
he is ours and now he is yours photo Walks TV.
Thanks Jeff, Thanks Lark all right, my friend. Good to
see you, sir, Good to see you. NOI Marie says,

(01:44:31):
Congress isn't there because Republicans fled the vote. Congress isn't
there because Republicans fled the vote. That's exactly right, Congress,
the US Congress isn't there because Republicans fled the vote
on the Epstein files. That is a reference to two things.

(01:44:53):
One the fact that Democrats fled Texas because they didn't
want to vote in a legislature that would clearly rubber
stamp the new Gerrymander District in Texas. And that's a
reference to the Epstein files and the cover up that
is so intense that the Washington Republicans all left. They

(01:45:16):
closed Congress down early so as to not have to
vote on the release or vote against the release of
those Epstein files. What are Mark Thompson cult members called?
Asks Trevor Starr in Hollywood? Marky's Tompsonians. Now, I like

(01:45:37):
the way you're thinking. Trevor Marquis sounds a little.

Speaker 3 (01:45:46):
I don't know, Uh, Marky sounds like the latest Roofie.

Speaker 2 (01:45:52):
Did you get a Markie in your cup?

Speaker 9 (01:45:54):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:45:56):
I don't know, But I like how you're thinking. Where's
my cult? Yeah? Yeah, we have a name for it,
for my cult of goodness and niceness. How come we
can't come up with that? Richard Delamator for two dollars.
He is our official stoner and as someone pointed out,
Hunter S. Thompson. And when it comes to mind expanding drugs,

(01:46:20):
Richard Delamator is the guy. Has mark ever done LSD yes?

Speaker 2 (01:46:26):
Or No?

Speaker 1 (01:46:26):
No, I have not, and it always has scared me
a little bit. But the more I read about it
through the years, and you know, of course it was
used as a psychiatric treatment. If you watch the documentaries
I believe on Carry Grant and on some pretty notable
celebrities who are struggling with various psychiatric issues, you see

(01:46:48):
how LSD. Maybe isn't the demonic chemical that everyone or
chemical concoction that everyone's talking about. I don't know, but
the answer is no, I've never done it. I'm kind
of have a you know, too much of a guy
worry about losing my mind. Richard Delamator says, also, but
it's a big Richard Delamator day.

Speaker 4 (01:47:08):
It is.

Speaker 7 (01:47:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:47:09):
Clarity blend of Coachella Valley Coffee has mushrooms in it.
I'm in. I don't taste the mushrooms. I'm drinking it
right now.

Speaker 2 (01:47:23):
On the mushroom tea.

Speaker 3 (01:47:26):
The I like it cold better than hot, it tastes
better cold.

Speaker 1 (01:47:31):
I like my tea served cold, like my Revenge twenty
one says Mark just finished Teacher of Auschwitz. Great read.
Thank you we had the writer, the author of Teacher
of Auschwitz on. It's a true story and it's a
remarkable story. And thank you d D twenty one for

(01:47:54):
noting it. Teacher of Auschwitz. If you haven't heard that interview,
that conversation, you can find it. Just google it here
and meaning you know, look in YouTube on the channel
and you'll find googling.

Speaker 3 (01:48:07):
The author Wendy Holden.

Speaker 1 (01:48:09):
So talented, and she's written about a lot of things
and written novels, et cetera. But this is a this
is a real showstopper. So so glad you found it,
and so glad you enjoyed it. There it is. Tony's
got the cover up. Now in a place of death,
he taught children how to live, the Teacher of Auschwitz,
And by Wendy Holden, you may wonder how you could teach,

(01:48:32):
how you could even live, How could there be any
natural back and forth with kids in a death camp
like Auschwitz. Read the book and you'll understand why. It's
pretty amazing. That story Janny says on the uh Carrie
Grant LSD thing carry Grant talked too fast earlier he

(01:48:57):
had to be on speed or something. Hitler and putin
used uppers. It is said, says Jenny. Oh, there's a
rich history of drugs being used by awful people. I
used Terry Grant as an example because he's clearly not
an awful guy and was such a good actor and

(01:49:19):
Hollywood icon.

Speaker 3 (01:49:20):
So we had sam On who talked about who wrote
a book about all the famous people through history, not all,
but many of them who use drugs and that you
wouldn't think or no, it's.

Speaker 1 (01:49:35):
It's a thing, man, it's a thing. And I have
to say just because we're talking about drugs, and I
helped me into all roads lead back to our Lord
and savior, Donald Trump. But Trump is threatening pharma tariffs
of up to two hundred and fifty percent because you're
not paying enough for prescription drugs already everyone, So now

(01:49:57):
he is threatening this just happened today, who impose tariffs
of up to two hundred and fifty percent. That's the
highest rate he's discussed to date. He just in this
CNBC interview will run a lot of that CNBC interview tomorrow.
He says, in one year, one and a half years, max,
it's going to go to one hundred and fifty percent.

(01:50:17):
Then it's going to go to two hundred and fifty
percent because we want pharmaceuticals made in our country. Yeah,
and while those plants are being built, not really, of course,
they won't be. Americans will be breaking themselves over drug prices.
If that really happens. Marx cult should be called remarkables.

(01:50:40):
I like them that way. Looking I'm in.

Speaker 4 (01:50:45):
It's a wild idea, but it just might.

Speaker 1 (01:50:47):
It might, it might. That's very good. That is gone fishing.
Please make a note, gonefishing gets extra points for the day.
So now tomorrow I will run pieces of the Donald
Trump interview on CNBC. I also have news of Bernie

(01:51:09):
Sanders and Occassio Cortes. I have an additional law and disorder.
I'll update the Epstein revolutions as they come in today
and more. I'm I'm a remarkable says in the moment

(01:51:30):
with Paul Sissler the second, Well, that's the start, and
that's how movements begin, my friends, they start with Paul
Sisler the second. That's right. All great movements in America.
Start with Paul Sissler the second and I'm excited.

Speaker 3 (01:51:48):
John Roffman is off tomorrow, but we have David Katz
coming in a day early and Belinda Weymouth will be
here as well.

Speaker 1 (01:51:54):
Oh that's right, thank you, Kim. Because of a scheduling
thing on Katz's calendar, the brilliant former federal prosecutor and
amazing genius legal analyst, David Katz comes in tomorrow instead
of his normal Thursday spot. He'll be here in place
of John Rothman and Belinda Weymouth with It's the planet Scud. Wow,

(01:52:17):
what a day man that days are really going by quickly. Tony,
thank you for all your help today. You've been great
with all the place, all the stuff you manage. And
Kim Jim, how are you appreciate you as well? Thanks everyone,
and now show Stevens for the Mark Johnson Show. Bye bye.
They have to party live as being prepared even as
we speak. Time bye bye all the time, Bye bye,

(01:52:40):
Thank you, bye Kim, bye everyone, Bye bye

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