Unable to Outrun Epstein Mess, Trump Pivots Straight Toward the Mob 11/17/25

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I am delighted to be hum thank you. I'm buoyed
and overwhelmed, humbled and encouraged by your recorded a plause.
Thank you everyone. It is a great Monday, and I
have such a big show. Overstuffed as it is, you

(00:21):
will like it. Gary Dietrich joins this bottom of the hour.
You have the iHeartRadio and CBS television political analyst and
the brilliant best selling author. And when it comes to
decoding Trump, and more than Trump, the institutions around Donald Trump,
around American society and international I'm going to suggest privileges

(00:47):
that are afforded to the wealthiest and the institutions they control.
There is really no She is almost without peer in
terms of the explained of it and the exposing of it.
The investigative journalist, best selling author Sarah kenzi Or joins
us an hour or two so, and I'm you're going

(01:12):
to get into Epstein. And I mentioned it in the
context of Sarah too, also because Sarah has written extensively
on the Epstein case and the Epstein When I say case,
I mean the situations and problems and attention around the

(01:32):
Jeffrey Epstein files. Who Epstein was, what Epstein was about
the interlocking parts associated with Jeffrey Epstein, the international trafficking
ring that accompanied Jeffrey Epstein, the international money laundering ring
that accompany Jeffrey Epstein. She's written extensively about these things,
and so when I talk about Jeffrey Epstein, maybe you

(01:54):
can even sense it in the relation of what Sarah
has written of. She puts it in a context that
extends even beyond the horror, which is the trafficking of
women around the world and perhaps young men as well.
But the human trafficking associated with Jeffrey Epstein is believe

(02:16):
it or not, as horrible as it is, only one
aspect of the entire Epstein case against the Epstein's situation.
And the reason it's particularly relevant, I mean it's sort
of like excruciatingly relevant now is because as the conversation
seems to have crested, I'm talking about the conversations on

(02:41):
Capitol Hill, the jihad to get these files released, the
information released. What is clear is that there is a
whole lot here that has nothing to do so much
with the horror, but it involve the way the horror
spills over onto very wealthy people and very well established

(03:06):
institutions internationally. So again that's the overview. Sarah will be here.
I'm really going to have her get into this because
she discusses it in huge, huge detail and really rich
explanation in one of her books, I believe, Hidden in
Plain Sight. I think there's a book. I remember reading

(03:27):
it and just going wow, this is unreal. And yet
it took years. I mean Hidden Findsight. I think she
wrote in twenty twenty two or twenty twenty and it's
taking years now to get to this moment. So we'll
get into you know, what this moment means, what this
moment is, and by the way, it's of course not
what it seems. Donald Trump, who's reversed Field on Epstein,

(03:50):
hasn't really reversed Field. I mean he has in terms
of what he said publicly. But there is a way
in which Trump is trying to con seal what can
be released by creating investigations at the Justice Department around
Epstein and Democrats that by definition would prevent the release

(04:12):
of certain information in an ongoing investigation. So I'm going
to get to all of this, okay, and I've got
Venezuela to talk about. I mean, is this guy really
going to create a land war, any kind of land
action in Venezuela. I don't think so. I get it.
He's moved a lot of hardware there. But we'll talk

(04:35):
more about this. I see a lot of what Trump
does as performative, even with the military. I know, it
seems incredible to say, what do you mean. I mean
he'd actually move these huge aircraft carriers and troops to
various parts of the world, and it's just saber rattling. Yeah,
that's exactly what I mean. He did it in his

(04:58):
first term, moving on all of those troops to the
southern border because of the caravan that was coming as
much of guys in jeans and T shirts just trying
to flee the horror south of the border. But he
has the American troops go down there at Christmas time
with a show of forse It's crazy, but that it's

(05:18):
very Trumpian. It has the additional virtue of being distracting
right from this conversation around what we were talking about Epstein.
So anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. But there's all
of that. Harry Magnan, welcome back, Moe Thompson, Moe Kelly,
thank you. Harry mo Kelly was great. Thank you very
much to all of you, remarkables everybody who finds himself

(05:40):
on this show as part of our community. We appreciate
you and the way in which you have become part
of this community. If you're new here, we are a
two hour live show two to four in the East,
eleven to one in the West. We are coming from
the United States of America, troubled as we are, and
as we watch our democracy and our liberties and our

(06:01):
freedoms and our justice system melt away. It's nice to
have you on board. Yes, it really is. And to
the extent this is what I was going to say,
that you were part of the community. I appreciate you
supporting our guest hosts and making life easier on them.
Richard Delamator says, welcome home, bro, you bring home my package.
I was in Colombia. Thank you, Richard, and a big

(06:23):
shout out to you, and I appreciate the super chat.
I was in Colombia for a wedding Courtney and I
went down there. I'd never been to Colombia before, and
they've got the reputation around I feel like the reputation
around cocaine maybe I'm naive, but I feel like that's
sort of the old rep of Columbia. But maybe it's
still you know, still a real thing in the drug

(06:45):
cartels in Mediine, and you know, the Mediane drug cartel was,
So I'm again maybe naiven thinking. You know, I didn't
hear any about drugs the whole time I was down there,
but I was expecting, you know, to be greeted by,
you know, one of those narco guys, you know, or
at least see one. No, I think you'd probably find

(07:06):
a bigger drug presence in a place like Mexico, to
be perfectly honest, I mean, like in some of those
narco gangs have taken over even tourist spots like Acapulco.
So anyway, we were there for a wedding, so there
was no there were no drugs being passed around. But
Tom says, thanks for not being kidnapped, Mark, welcome back.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
Did you feel when you were there?

Speaker 1 (07:31):
What's that?

Speaker 2 (07:32):
Did you feel safe when you were there?

Speaker 1 (07:34):
I did? I did? I mean, I think you feel
as safe as you do in like New York City,
you know what I mean? Or I didn't. Yeah, there
was no Now the problem of course, is how you
that you don't speak I speak Spanish, but my problem
is I speak with a very good accent, and so
people think I speak Spanish very well because the words

(07:54):
that come out of my mouth sound authentic, and then
they just blast like a ire hose this Spanish back.
I can't. We're being said, yeah, glad you made it
home with both kidneys and Texas to him, thank you,
thank you for the five dollars. I did send Tony
a couple of pictures before I get into the heavy stuff. Tony,

(08:16):
I think, although he may have dropped out, I think
he's had internet problems over the last Yeah, you know,
we've had a we had a weird thing. I was
watching from Colombia as best I could. Karen says, Akapolca
was about a long time ago. I remember decades ago
soldiers patrolling that. Yeah, it may not be so bad anymore.
So apologies to our Acapolco viewers and listeners, But I

(08:39):
think Tony's you know, internet might have gone off and
I was watching from Columbia and all of a sudden,
Tony would go away. So maybe that's the case. So
the good news for all of you is it spares
you pictures from my vacation. But uh, the but some
people had asked for it, That's why I put them together.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
Go ahead, kind a couple of your Instagram posts where
it looked like you're it was very festive, lots of music,
lots of dancing.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
Yeah, it was a it was a wedding, so yeah,
it was a very festive, really really beautiful and a
lot of fun and to reconnect with old friends. So
for me it was really quite special. I was very
happy to be able to, you know, go to this place.
I'd always wanted to go. The weather's sort of like Miami.

(09:25):
You know, it's very it's uh. You may wonder is
Colombia is it north or south of the Equator? I
ask you Americans, We're not. You know the thing about
being in America, we don't need to know anything, you know, man,
because we're America. You know what, dude, You guys have
to know something the rest of the world, But we're Americans.

(09:46):
The myth of American exceptionalism lives. So I ask you Americans,
Colombia is it north or south of the Equator? The
weather in Colombia was hot and humid. Is it north
or south of the equator, north, says Tom William says north.
In the chat they are saying northe says John Watson.

(10:11):
There is a shot from the Colombian wedding. Who said it?
Randy said both, and the answer is both.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
Colombia is both north and south of the equator. Yeah,
if you get a map out, the Colombia is one
of those places north and south. These are some shots
from the wedding. Yes, there were flowers. It looked like
a florist Sun was getting married. There were so many flowers.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
Flowers wow.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah, and it was really quite special. And so at
this wonderful hotel in Barankia, the Hotel El Prado, that
it sort of looked very much like a resort that
you might find in the late nineteen twenties or nineteen thirties.
It had kind of an old world style to it.
Really really cool is the that's Courtney with our bags

(11:02):
at the base of the stairway. I make her carry
all the bags. Yeah, you can just blast through these, Tony.
We were just blast through them like boom boom boom,
or maybe you can't because of the way they're configured,
but anyway, Yeah, that's my friends and myself, and this
is the isn't that cool? It's some of them just
that was the presentation at the hotel and they said, yeah,

(11:25):
some of the entertainment there in Columbia. That's in Cartagena.
We went on to Cartagena after the wedding in Barankia,
and those are the that's the where we stayed. I
guess these are all These are like vacation pictures. That's
the diarrhea medication that I was testing them, still having
that intravenously administered every few hours. These are all scrambled

(11:47):
from different played with that back in Barankia. That's the
that's again the hotel al Prado. I recommend it old
school a style and charm. And but again we're spending
way too long on these pictures. You can just bam
ambam hot dogs. Well yeah, yeah, I've took some pictures
for you. Okay, that's the groom. How about it for
the groom. That was pretty good. Brett, Yeah, Brett is

(12:09):
the groom. He's just wonderful. And this is the hotel. Again,
these are all scrambled. This is a hotel in Cartagena,
which is a super cool hotel. Also kind of a
boutique hotel with a and that is the Legata. It's
the the cat Yeah hm, that's also in Cartagena. So

(12:29):
these are all pictures anyway, great spot. That was the
pool in the courtyard. So cool. Man. There's a lot
of this where the hotel is built up around the pool.
That's the art district in Cartagena. You can see some
of the cool streets, the narrow streets there and the
bright colors all reflective of this art community. And it

(12:54):
was really a wonderful if you if there were no drugs,
you went to the wrong parties.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
So jim.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
So this is some of the live entertainment at the dinners.
It was really quite special anyway, very very cool. Oh
there's the bride Jessica at the top of the there
she was wonderful. Again, all of these pictures are scrambled.
This is in Cardagena. That's the picture of Colombian star
Sophia Virgara. Everybody, Yes, that's they have a statue. Look

(13:29):
at how big that statue is. That's for Sophia Vergara.
But it's just one of two statues. That is the
Susi about Shakira. Everyone. That's the Colombian singer Secure And
that's Courtney and myself there in front of the statues.
So and there we are at the Tiberon, which is
the shark. You can see kind of the shark go.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
Yeah that's cool.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
Yeah, that's great. Anyway, Uh, she's tall about Sekira, Yeah,
she's run much bigger in the make.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
You want to move your hips where you're like hipstones, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
Well my hips, my hips don't ry anymore. And that
is what happened. All right. Thank you again to mo
O Kelly for filling in, and thank you all for
the support smash the like button, which is the way
we have to do it in YouTube land.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
But your iron Rod.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
The President of the United States has changed his mind.
He's kind of seen the way the mob is running,
and he's seeing that he and those who are desperately
trying to prevent the release of information around the Epstein
case and Epstein investigation, he's seeing that they are losing

(14:44):
the public conversation. It's clear, right, feels a little to
me like the way Biden was brought to realize, Dude,
you're going to lose to this guy Trump. You ought
to drop out of the race or whatever. They told him,
and I think in this case, Trump doesn't need to
be told that he sees it. So he's doing something cleverly,

(15:06):
in my judgment, I mean, almost devilishly clever. He's saying
I want these files released, I want the Epstein investigation
materials released, while simultaneously saying I want my Justice Department
to investigate the connections of powerful Democrats to Jeffrey Epstein

(15:33):
and the horrors of the Jeffrey Epstein case. He doesn't
use the word horrors, of course, but I see the
beauty in that. From a Trump standpoint, you can seem
as though you're, oh, yeah, well, you know we've got
nothing to hide. Absolutely, you know what, We've got nothing
to hide. Yeah, you got nothing to hide. That's why

(15:54):
you have spent every bit of political capital trying to
keep this from being released. You've had Cash Bettel, Pam Bondi,
Dan Bongino, these are people who are all calling for
the release of the Epstein information. You have them all
reversing their initial and continued calls for the release of

(16:15):
that information, said that they're on the same page with
you now that you're in power, Donald Trump, and saying
everything from there is no there there to. I'm going
to review them. It's unclear. It doesn't we can't put
a case together. You have them doing all of this
to prevent the information release. But now you say, you

(16:40):
know what, We've got nothing to hide, so they will
again have to reverse field. But the devilishly clever part
is that by calling for the investigation of Democrats and
by BONDI saying, which, by the way, is a watershed
moment in American judicial history where the president says, literally,

(17:00):
investigate my enemies. Not literally did he say investigate democrats
and we know ergo, you know my enemies, investigate their
connection Bondy saying this is the watershed moment. Absolutely, sir,
I'll investigate, and by so doing, these ongoing investigations will

(17:24):
prevent the release of some of this information. Now, one
last thing and then I'll play a little bit of
them sound from over the weekend, et cetera. The last
thing is it is unclear what's there. It is likely

(17:46):
that we know that Trump is wrapped up in this,
but I think what we're going to find, to the
extent that we actually see these files released, is a
lot of stink on a lot of very powerful people
in addition to Donald Trump, and so you begin to

(18:06):
see I think how the institutions of government are trying
to cover for other international institutions of power and corruption.
Jeffrey Epstein's ties to Mossad, for example, Jeffrey Epstein's ties
to the Russians, Jeffrey Epstein's ties to an international money

(18:28):
laundering ring. So I think all of these things will
come to be revealed should we actually see this. But
I don't know that we actually will see a lot
of this because the very last thing is you'll remember
he pulled a thousand FBI agents to go over the

(18:50):
files and look for the Trump name and Trump references
these files. Again, I'm using the word generically. This, you know,
stuff has been dry cleaned of Donald Trump's name in
any kind of damning way. I'd suggest to you it's
been months. They have taken care of the cleanup job

(19:14):
they needed to do on this. These are people at
the Justice Department, Cash Bettel, Pam Bondy. They will do
anything Donald Trump asks. They will cover him to whatever
extent necessary. And what you're likely to see, to the
extent that we'll see anything, is these files dry cleaned

(19:35):
of any kind of wrongdoing by Trump. Now again there
could be reputational harm because he's going to get the
Epstein stink on him. But from a wrongdoing situation, I
don't know. I think the wrongdoing in addition, as I said,
to the horror that's associated with the victims, etc. Of

(19:58):
this awful predatory sex trafficking ring, I think the revelations
are associated with what Sarah Ken's yours written about, which
is that these are powerful elites all protecting each other.
But believe me, if it were just the elites being covered,

(20:19):
a Trump I don't think would be as dogged in
his determination. He's covering his own ass. That's the world
he lives in.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
I wonder even if the files have been you know,
gone through and doctored, as you say, if the Epstein
estate where the email batch just came from, if they
have all the undoctored evidence, I wonder if it's still
if it's still intact somewhere.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
Yeah, there certainly have been damaging, damning releases of information
from what you're talking about the Epstein estate. That's how
we know the back and forth. That's how we know
the quote from Epstein saying, you know, I've got the
goods on Trump. I could ruin him if I wanted to.
All of these things come from that. So yeah, there,

(21:12):
I'm not suggesting there won't be anything damaging and as
I say, potentially reputationally damaging to Trump. I don't it's
weird to me that this guy could, you know, be
behind the complete undermining of an election, the attempt to
overthrow the results of an election, the complete undermining of

(21:36):
the Justice Department, the persecution of his political enemies. You
know out in the open discussing that the utter grift
of this administration corruption on the highest levels, unprecedented corruption.
And you're now seeing, in addition to the two hundred
and thirty million dollars that Donald Trump wants to grab
from the Justice Department, the money grabs associated with crypto

(21:58):
that we're in the first few months of his administration.
I don't think many Americans really understand how crypto works.
Maybe so that may be the reason that it didn't know,
produce more of a reaction publicly. But it's a couple
of billion dollars that the Trump people have made just
in the first few months on the crypto deal, the
crypto side. In addition to that, you have the money

(22:21):
grab associated with all of those around Trump. Michael Flynn
may get a fifty million dollar payout from the government.
From you and me, Michael Flynn should have been fired
and his pension from the military should have been stripped
from him. This is what a mess and what a

(22:42):
horror Michael Flynn was. He was fired from the first
Trump administration, a matter you have to do to get fired.
But that's just one of the ways in which the
grift is on full parade. It starts at the top
and then it continues on down and the attempt to
cover up what happened on January sixth by now allowing
January sixth protesters pardoned as they are to sue the

(23:05):
US government for a wrongful persecution and a wrongful prosecution.
And on the persecution side, you have now legislators who
are seeking half a million dollars a piece. Did you
see this? They want five hundred thousand dollars apiece for

(23:28):
their phone records being taken in and a drag met
associated with January sixth and the investigation around January sixth. Remember,
they were looking to see you know who in the
Capitol was in touch with legislators from from who in
that legislative, grew inside the capitol, who was in touch
with and getting calls of one sort or another with

(23:49):
any of these agitators read proud boys, the three percenters,
et cetera. So they were it was just they weren't.
There were no names.

Speaker 3 (23:59):
It was.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
It was this anonymized kind of dragonet of information. But
that said, the legislators who show up in that they
now want money just for being part of that investigation,
and they are lucky to get it. But my point
in all of that is none of that cuts through.

(24:21):
What cuts through is Epstein because sex cuts through. That's
what this is about. Predatory sex, this pedophilia ring, human
trafficking ring. That's what cuts through. So f the democracy,
if all this other stuff, f this kleptocracy, if this
money grab what actually cuts through in the people's mind

(24:45):
is this sex trafficking ring. So it may be the
thing that does him real harm and damage.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
We seem to have an issue where your video is freezing.
I don't know if it's just for me or if
it's for everyone.

Speaker 4 (24:59):
And then Tony is my video It kind of came back,
so I wasn't going to say anything, But now it
seems to kind of be dying again.

Speaker 1 (25:05):
Whenever I get in a rant, let me leave and
come back a little bit, and then you can and
we'll bring on good right now, Yeah, there's an issue.
Uh sorry about that time. All right? Anyway, everyone, hopefully
your video is not blurring. Of course, we are an

(25:27):
audio presentation as well on iHeartRadio and on Spotify and
Apple podcasts, So wherever you take us in, if you're
on an audio platform, you don't have to worry about
my video freezing you, just as long as the audio
is all right. This guy is the and I'll get
to I know, don't pull all this video and we

(25:50):
haven't run any of it yet. This guy is the
political analyst for iHeart Radio and also across the CBS
television stations. Our former colleague from KJO Video has a
dutifully come over here with us to offer us perspectives
on an unprecedented time in American history. How about Gary Dietrich.
Everybody look at you.

Speaker 5 (26:11):
Well, I guess maybe dutifully Margret, I think your video.
You know, I've learned this be in the TV business
for decades. Your video is getting stressed out. Mark when
your rants go to a certain jestiblus.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
Well, it'll be going out a lot then, because this
is Rantville. What's happening right now? So uh play for
Gary Dietrich the latest and media reports on the President
of the United States changing his disposition on the Jeffrey
Epstein information.

Speaker 3 (26:39):
Here we go for a president known for his own predictability,
Donald Trump said Newton late last night, urging Republicans to
vote to release the Epstein files shouldn't be a surprise,
and yet it is posting on truth social The President
said it's time to move on from this Democrat hoax
perpetuated by radical left lunatic, going on to say nobody

(27:02):
cared about Jeffrey Epstein when he was alive, and if
the Democrats had anything, they would have released it before
our landslide election victory. Some members of the Republican Party
are being used, and we can't let that happen.

Speaker 6 (27:14):
Unfortunately, it has all come down to the Etsteeing files,
and that is shocking.

Speaker 3 (27:20):
One of the used Republican members he may be referring
to is his longtime ally turn critic Marjorie Taylor Green,
who he has called a traitor.

Speaker 6 (27:29):
I believe the country deserves transparency and these files, and
I don't believe that that reach. Powerful people should be
protected if they have if they have done anything wrong,
and so I'm standing with the women and I will
continue to do my small part to get the files released.

Speaker 3 (27:49):
The president has faced pressure from both outside and within
the Republican Party. Yesterday, the House Speakers said releasing the
files should help put to rest allegations that the President
had any connection to Epstein's abuse and trafficking of underage girls.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
He had nothing to do with it. President Trump has
queen hands. He's not worried about I talked to him
all the time. He has nothing to do with this.
He's frustrated that they're turning it into a political issue.

Speaker 6 (28:13):
And it's not surprising because the Democrats have nothing else
to talk about.

Speaker 3 (28:17):
The publication of more than twenty thousand pages of Epstein
emails just last week has only added more pressure to
release the remaining documents. Some of the emails mentioned the president.
In an email sent to Gleam Maxwell in twenty eleven,
the prolific sex offender Jeffrey Epstein said, I.

Speaker 4 (28:33):
Want you to realize that that dog that has embarked
as Trump spent hours at my house with him. He
has never once been mentioned, police chief, etc. I'm seventy
five percent there.

Speaker 3 (28:44):
The White House claimed the victim reference was prominent epstein
accuser of Virginia Jeffrey, who has said on numerous occasions
that President Trump was not involved in any wrongdering. In
another one of the exchanges published by the Democrats on
the House Oversight Committee, the journalist Michael Wolfe advised Epstein
to talk about his connection with Trump before a CNN
presidential debate in twenty fifteen.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
I hear CNN planning to ask Trump tonight about his
relationship with you, either on air or inscram.

Speaker 4 (29:12):
Afterwards, Epstein asked, if we were able to craft an
answer for him, what do you think it should be.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
I think you should let him hang himself, Wolfe replied.

Speaker 3 (29:20):
In a separate exchange, Epstein told wolf Trump knew about
the girls, though it was not clear what that phrase meant.
Donald Trump has denied any wrongdoing and said that he
fell out with Epstein years before they disgraced Financier's convictions,
but Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have said the
messages raised serious questions about Donald Trump and his knowledge
of Epstein's horrific crimes.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
That what followed actually is a really powerful clip of
the victim saying I was fourteen years old, I was
twelve years old, I was fifteen years It brings home
sort of the heinous nature of what was going on
under Jeffrey Epstein. But let's first take the Trump reversal,
and I'll let you start. Gary and I had some

(30:06):
thoughts also on how this is sort of a reversal publicly,
but actually he's working to make sure we don't get
information by opening these other investigations into everything. Go ahead.

Speaker 5 (30:16):
Yeah, well, first, Mark, I think it's really really important.
I mean, this thing has become so politicized, as you know,
for so long. I'm glad you're gonna perhaps talk more
later in the show about the actual victims themselves. I mean,
you know, it probably goes without saying, but I'm going
to say it. That's where the focus really needs to
be long term.

Speaker 7 (30:35):
These women.

Speaker 5 (30:37):
It's just remarkably horrific, the stories one after another, and
these women, many of them still suffering to this day
because of the abuse. So I think it's really important
to recognize that there are many some saying as many
as hundreds of victims in this thing.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
So, but just to interrupt, Gary, I mean, you don't
hear Trump talking about the victims. He doesn't. I mean,
this is absolutely you know it was a hoax, because
this is a democratic hoax that you know, he maintains.
That's what I'm just saying that.

Speaker 5 (31:05):
Yeah, I'm gonna I'm trying to depoliticize this moment. Okay,
we're gonna get to Trump at a moment right simply saying,
regardless of who is or isn't saying, I frank, you
don't care. You know, whether their credibility is zero or
one hundred, the women deserve to be heard. I mean,
and and that is absolutely unequivocally important. Now as far

(31:26):
as Trump's reversal, you know, this is pure politics one
oh one. It was obvious, you know, the votes. Once
we got to the middle of last week and it
was clear that there were votes in the House, as
you well know, both with the newly seated Democratic congresswoman
who put the vote count over the top, along with
a couple of Republicans. Then it became obvious to Mike Johnson,

(31:48):
the vote's gonna happen. Let's schedule it as soon as possible.
And then secondly, I think it became more and more
clear that there's an awful lot, as you know, Mark,
of Republican members of Congress who have been under tremendous
pressure in the last year to vote to release those
Epstein files.

Speaker 7 (32:06):
And so now that you have the.

Speaker 5 (32:08):
Tipping point, you know, the number of members required to
actually force the release of the files. Now, it was
widely expected there's going to be I mean, Massy himself.

Speaker 7 (32:18):
The congressman from I mean congressmen.

Speaker 5 (32:20):
From Texas, he's kind of been on the Republican charge
of this thing, said there could be as many as
one hundred Republican members of the House that vote in
favor of the release.

Speaker 7 (32:28):
I mean, the dam is broken.

Speaker 5 (32:29):
Mark is the point, and Johnson realized that he's a
smart vote counter.

Speaker 7 (32:33):
That's why they're going to hold this vote.

Speaker 5 (32:35):
It looks like tomorrow, and that's why last night kind
of twelve hour I'm sure Trump's advisors told them, Look,
it's going to be best for you politically and best
for our members of the House who have to run
next year. They've got to maintain the magabase. Who is
you know, is big on releasing the files. And in
these moderate districts they cannot vote against this. So that's

(32:59):
that's where you are. I mean, that's a pretty simple
raw political calculation.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
Yeah, that's kind of what I was saying in the
first half hour that it reminded me a bit of
the what I don't know what the conversation really was.
I've now read a bunch of different reporting on it,
with Joe Biden saying, hey, look, we've kind of the votes.
This is what's going it's going to this is how
it's going to go down, dude, So you know you
you don't you don't want to be part of this anymore.
I think that's kind I don't think anybody had to
have that conversation with Trump that way. But I mean

(33:25):
he's so you know, he's he's he's keen on which
way the wind is blowing. But I wonder if you
could just comment on the second part of what I
was saying, which is that Trump by calling for the investigations,
and by the way you can see, I think this
is something of a watershed moment where the president says,
I want you to investigate you know, democrats who are
connected to Epstein, and then the and then the Attorney general.

(33:45):
This is the watershed part, goes, yes, sir, I'm gonna
you know, we're going to investigate the connection between Democrats
and Jeffrey Epstein. So that's the the weird, as I say,
maybe watershed political part. But I'd also suggest to you
that there's something else going on there, which is by
opening investigations they are able to conceal the release of

(34:08):
certain information because it's under investigation. Isn't that right?

Speaker 7 (34:12):
Well, that's all yet to be sorted out, Mork.

Speaker 5 (34:14):
I think right now what's become clear is there's not
any any long term hiding of this epscene stuff. I mean,
I don't care who's spoken about. I mean, I don't
want a joke and say it could be the Pope. Okay,
I mean it's not all right, but I'm simply saying
it could be anybody. I mean, everybody, of course, is
waiting so called bated breath. Is Clinton going to be

(34:35):
mentioned by name? Right? Are there other heavyweight political figures
We already know about Prince Andrew and all of that
Shenanigan is going on, you know with the royals, But
what about major CEOs. I mean, there's a lot of
people you know who've been waiting who is actually going
to be named in these files. It's going to be
a problem for whoever it is. I don't care investigation

(34:58):
or not. You know what we know about this Mark
and we saw this last with the Democratic members who
real these certain emails related to Trump. But there's not
going to be any hiding any of this. I mean,
so much of it has already been exposed to the committee.
There's no doubt going to be leaks if things are
you know, if people try to put some of this
under a rock or under a rug, it's going to

(35:19):
come out. And I think that the smart people in
Congress have already sort of you know, counted the odds
of this and said, you know what, this damn is
already broken, maybe a year ago. Just get it all
out there now. And also in terms of smart politics,
be it Trump, Republicans, or even Democrats, better to do
it now a year before the midterms, you know, you
know how this goes. Let this runaway train go for

(35:42):
the next six months, because you don't want this coming
out thirty days before midterm.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
You know, it's funny, garyot stretch means you're speaking Congress
because you're talking about, you know, are the votes there,
and there is so much political calculus associated with, you know,
who's up for reelection, who's protecting what seats. The reality is,
you don't ness surely even need Congress to get these
Jeffrey Epstein files or the information around Jeffrey Epstein release
from the Justice Department. BONDI could do that, couldn't she.

Speaker 5 (36:09):
Well she could. You know, she's gonna feel constrained. You
make an important point, mark, she's going to feel constrained
and legally constrained to release things that could be related
to charges against a specific individual, right, not more generally,
but if there's somebody named, you know, and there's potential indictments,
you know for some of these people, even the defense

(36:33):
attorneys obviously wouldn't want anything released, right, they'd be the
first ones to crow and say, wait a minute, you
can't just put stuff about my client out there. If
you're going to charge them with something into the public domain,
let's see it, let's you know, put it, put it
in an indictment, you know, let it judge decide whether
it can be released or not. So that's where things
get really sticky in the legal arena. But my basic contention,

(36:56):
Mark is regardless of who is charged or not charged,
these documents now have a sort of almost defacto.

Speaker 7 (37:03):
Public domain to them. They're gonna come out.

Speaker 5 (37:06):
I mean, whether it's committee staff or whoever, whoever, whoever
that finally makes sure that every one of these pages
is released. I truly believe that that's going to happen.

Speaker 1 (37:16):
Yeah, we've seen some version of that with what we
were talking about, which is the Epstein of state releasing things.
So that's a really, really perhaps transcendental point that you're making.
I want to ask you about MEGA and then I
we got to Venezuela, and I'll let you go, but
I want to ask you about MAGA as a movement
and where they stand. There seems to be maybe some
fractures in what seemed a completely solid revolution that was

(37:40):
going on in America and the rise of Mega. Can
you give me a moment on that where you see
them perhaps losing faith in the chief executive in Trump.
Mega was sort of America first, right, and I know
there's been and again this might be a little too wonky.
I don't know how much of this is filtered down
to the MEGA movement. I don't even know what the

(38:01):
MEGA movement means. Maybe you can tell me, but I
know that they it's a coalition big enough to have
ascended as they did. But you know, when you talk
about the changing visa programs for example, that Trump has back,
when you talk about the influx of the Chinese students,
it all seems to in some way, and I know
among some MAGA faithfuls undermine a kind of notion that

(38:21):
they have about this is America first and Americans first,
mister President, and you're selling out the information to bailout
of Argentina. What are you doing with with the promise
of MAGA, speak to the movement and where that sits? Now?

Speaker 5 (38:36):
Yeah, well, Mark you maker, you used a word that
I think is exceptionally important and many people don't understand
about MEGA and is too infrequently mentioned.

Speaker 7 (38:46):
And that is coalition.

Speaker 5 (38:47):
You know, people see MAGA as a unified block where
everybody believes and wants the exact same priorities to the president.

Speaker 7 (38:56):
That's never the case in a political movement.

Speaker 5 (38:58):
This is where Baraco, for example, found himself struggling what
he was doing dealing with things like Guantanamo, and people
are like, wait a minute, what are you doing about that?
That's not what we write. I mean, there's there's always
over time and a political movement. People say that's not
what I thought MAGA was, or this is what MEGA
should be. And we're seeing the cracks in the in
the armor, if you will, the chinks in the armor,

(39:21):
the cracks in the wall about the MAGA movement because
to your point, Mark, these.

Speaker 7 (39:26):
Things start of chip away right a certain I mean.

Speaker 5 (39:29):
For some people the Epstein files have been everything right,
that is the litmus test.

Speaker 7 (39:35):
But for others it's book.

Speaker 5 (39:36):
We didn't want to support fill in the blank, right,
we don't want to give way to China on anything.
We don't necessarily want to be part of any coalition
in the Middle East, right, it's basically us in Israel
or the highway. I mean, you could get out a
long list of things where you know MAGA people say
it's the priority, but not all of them. And so

(39:57):
the president is dealing with some of that and some.
What we're seeing now is and people are citing this
reversal on Epstein.

Speaker 7 (40:04):
As this is the first time this president.

Speaker 5 (40:07):
Has been forced by his base and forced by members
of Congress.

Speaker 7 (40:12):
Witness Marjorie Taylor Green. I mean, who to thunk a
year ago.

Speaker 5 (40:16):
She would be a superstar on CNN right now because
of her standing up bull, you know, absolutely straight straight
as the rail against the president. So we're seeing mark
to the bottom line is we're seeing chinks and yarmoor.
We're seeing some of the coalition being chipped away. And
so for the long term, what does it mean?

Speaker 7 (40:33):
Who knows?

Speaker 5 (40:33):
I mean, by the time we get to a reelect
for you know, for a JD vance in terms of
the presidency, maybe in twenty eight MAGA could look substantially
different and not nearly as unified as it does now.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
Yeah, in that spirit, Tony, will you play for Gary
Trump getting off the plane last night from mar Lago.
You know, he doesn't want to hang on the weekend
at the White House because all that construction's going on.
You know, I want you to hear a little bit
of him talking about and this seguestion of the last

(41:08):
thing I wanted to ask you about, which is Venezuela.
He talks about Marjorie Taylor Green. He calls her Marjorie
Trader Green now and Tonya used to yeah, and then
so so and then he gets into Venezuela, and then
I want to comment on Venezuela. Go ahead, Tony, please,
I'd talk to anybody.

Speaker 8 (41:25):
We'll see what her life would be a danger because
of the rhetoric.

Speaker 1 (41:30):
Her life is in danger?

Speaker 9 (41:32):
Who's that, Harby Taylor Green? Because Marjorie Trader Green.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
I don't think her life is in danger.

Speaker 9 (41:39):
I don't think, Frankly, I don't think anybody cares about her. Okay,
what about you get your vote here?

Speaker 10 (41:45):
Are you negotiating? Are you negotiating with lawmakers.

Speaker 2 (41:49):
On healthcare ahead of a vote next month?

Speaker 9 (41:52):
Negotiating with lovemakers? And I've had personal talks with some Democrats.
I can't tell you who they are.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
I just don't want to do that praird of them.

Speaker 9 (42:01):
About paying large amounts of dollars back to the people.

Speaker 2 (42:06):
You know, this was my idea.

Speaker 9 (42:08):
It came up doing that. You know, oftentimes in time,
under times of stress like the shutdown, we come up
with great ideas that you wouldn't have thought of before.
The insurance companies are making a fortune. Their stock is
up over one thousand percent over a short period of time.
They are taking in hundreds of billions of dollars, and

(42:30):
they're not really putting it back, certainly, not like they should.
So when I see this, and when I've seen this
over the last pretty short period of time, I said,
why do why don't we just pay this money directly
to the people of our country and let them.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
Buy their own health insurance. And you know, I made
that statement, and.

Speaker 9 (42:49):
I made it a little bit cavalierly, but it sounded good,
and everybody has picked up, including Democrats, and we I
am talking to some Democrats right now about doing that.
People love it. We're gonna take the money, well, if
it gets approved, we're gonna.

Speaker 1 (43:05):
Take the money.

Speaker 9 (43:05):
We're gonna pay it back to the people of our
country to go out and buy health insurance, so they
can put it in a health account. We can do
it a lot of different ways, but they'd buy their
own health insurance. They can negotiate price, and it's it's
gonna be locked. So they can't go out and buy
a Cadillac. They can go out and buy health insurance.

Speaker 1 (43:28):
Okay, that wasn't venezuela, but it does get me to
in my judgment, that was a just a bucket of
a stream of consciousness. I'm trying. I'm struggling because I'm
being polite right now, but it's a it's an utterly
ridiculous word salad that was going on there. And to

(43:49):
be again, I don't mean to be disrespectful, especially to
you are a distinguished political commentator. So what I what
I mean by that is uh. He on one level,
if you really try to to decode it was talking
about the same thing that Obama had done with the
Affordable Care Act, that it is a negotiation right that
you have with these insurance companies in this marketplace. He

(44:11):
was also right. Trump is correct when he talks about
the fact that I mentioned this on the show many times,
that the huge scandal among the other scandals with healthcare
is that there are the insurance companies that are just
middlemen to everything that you're getting. So that's the reason
this system is so broken and so very expensive. But
there during his comments, he said, so we're going to

(44:31):
give you this money so that you can pay the
insurance companies. The insurance companies is the problem. Dude, You
just said the insurance companies were the issue. So you
can see how tough it is to really come up
with any kind of revolutionary change in the way there
can be an institutional change in American health care. So
there was a lot going on there. Comment on that
and then Venezuela, and then I'll ask you about Venezuela.

Speaker 7 (44:53):
Yeah, I'll do real quick out of that.

Speaker 5 (44:54):
First, I'll do assurance on a real quick comment about
Mary Taylor Green. So the insurance thing is really interesting
to me because here's our Republican president that you know,
famously in his first part of his second garmory has
taken on big farm as you know, in a big
way at least rhetorically.

Speaker 7 (45:10):
And now insurance. I mean, this is really this is
one of the.

Speaker 5 (45:13):
Most interesting components of Trump to people who have you know,
watched politics more broadly, is that you could have I mean,
some of that rhetoric you just heard from him could
come out of Bernie Sanders's mouth, right, And that is
the remarkable thing about Trump is that his populist instincts
when it comes to politics sometimes bleed over way out

(45:34):
of a traditional Republican lane into things.

Speaker 7 (45:37):
I mean, imagine them standing at.

Speaker 5 (45:39):
A podium with Bernie and who knows Elizabeth Warreners to see, Yeah,
we're going to stick it to the insurance companies. We're
going this route it might happen. I mean, let's see
where this thing goes. So as far as Marjorie Taylor
Green goes, this is a really interesting one to me
because now it's all of a sudden a Republican ally enemy.

Speaker 7 (45:57):
You know.

Speaker 5 (45:57):
Trump is pretty widely this and he realizes he's taken
some history his magabase, but he may have more to
gain in some purple district by taking on one of
the lightning rods of the Maga movement. You know, in
the long term, we'll see where that goes as well.

Speaker 1 (46:15):
The movement of major military hardware off the coast of Venezuela,
the conversations around Venezuela, and the idea somehow that Venezuela
is this key piece of some narcotics trafficking international ring
that continues to plague the US. It's a different flex

(46:39):
for Donald Trump. It's a dangerous flex in my judgment,
I think, in relation to what we were talking about
the magabase. They can't be happy that this peace president
is now again beginning to move the chess pieces in
place to attack Venezuela with some kind of land action.

(46:59):
But even before you get to that, having blown away
all of these boats, some of them were not narcotics related.
Where I was reading a long account today about families
looking for their you know, demanding actually retribution of some kind,
some kind of justice from the US because they've killed
the head of the family, the father of the family,

(47:19):
who was a fisherman. Some point though, let's you know,
take that out. Maga can't be happy with that. But
I'm wondering more to the point, how you see Venezuela
and this president acting in Venezuela and whether or not
it could literally just be moving this hardware offshore as
a kind of saber rattling and nothing actually moves beyond that.

Speaker 5 (47:40):
Yeah, Well, there is a larger geopolitical you could stay
very covert almost battle going on for the Americas, and
that is China's move into South America. And this is
something you may have heard about this in the last week.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
Mark.

Speaker 5 (47:57):
This is something that I think almost universally, every American
president has drawn a line not in the sand, but
in the oceans around the Americans, right, And there's been
this notion and it goes way back to the Cuban
missile crisis. Look, nobody is gonna mess with the Americans.
That's our part of the world right our part of
the hemisphere, and so this has a long presidential tradition,

(48:20):
you know of like, look, nobody's gonna mess around with us,
and so part of it is drugly I did, I
have no doubt about that. Do you need to send
the biggest aircraft carrier, the biggest worship in the world.
I mean, every defense expert says, look, come on, I
mean Venezuela. Yes, they have a military, Yes it's been upgraded.
They have a mishmash of actually former Soviet era fighters,

(48:44):
a few American ones they've got. So there's not any
real how do we say this military challenge to dealing
with Venezuela.

Speaker 7 (48:53):
That's not what it's about.

Speaker 5 (48:54):
If there was any conflict, it would end very shortly
with American military mind is overwhelming the Venezuelans. There's also
very clearly no appetite in the Pentagon, no appetite in
Congress for putting American boots on the ground in Venezuela.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
Well, a general resigned, just to your point, A general
resigned over this.

Speaker 7 (49:13):
I don't think.

Speaker 5 (49:14):
I don't think anybody has any sense that that is
really going to go anywhere. Even now, there's people really
raising questions about even any kind of an airstrike inside Venezuelan.
So bottom line mark to your point, I see this
more as chump to saym Look, if anybody thinks, either
as a nation state down there or certainly as China,

(49:36):
that you're going to start messing with, you know, with
anything within one thousand miles two thousand miles off our
coast line, that's not going to happen.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
I see. So this is a message that you're seeing
him sending. Is that what I see in the gate, Tony,
Is that Trump talking about Venezuela Or yeah, let's just
watch a second of it. Then I have a theory
to run past you on this. So I want to
get your thought. Go ahead, you.

Speaker 2 (49:59):
Athlete, venez Venezuela or all our actions.

Speaker 9 (50:02):
Still, yeah, we have great support because it's.

Speaker 1 (50:04):
All about drugs.

Speaker 9 (50:06):
Well, in Venezuela's case, it's about drugs, and it's also
about thousands, hundreds of thousands of people that they've released
into our country. And some are gang members from trend
de Ragua, some are many are drug dealers, some are murderers.
So in the case of Venezuela, it's about it's the
prison population. They're almost entire prison population was released into

(50:32):
the United States. You know what that means, Their prison
population was released into the United States, and we're getting
it out. We're doing an amazing job. We have a
strong border now, we have everything. Our country is doing
so well.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
Okay, So that is kind of a I feel like
that's a version of him playing the hits, like, you know,
they released all of these nasty people into our country.
So anyway, that was a bit of Trump. And you've
made it clear what you think maybe underlying all of this.
Let me just try one last theory on you and
just stay with me. Regime change in Venezuela is what

(51:09):
the Americans really want, Okay, is the way the theory
would go. And what's in Venezuela that the Americans want.
It ain't stopping the narcotics trade. It's oil, and that
this is about a regime friendly toward the Americans such
that the Americans have a connection now to the oil.
Can you speak to that theory?

Speaker 5 (51:31):
Yeah, Well, look, Venezuela is seen as you know, the
major oil typelines from South America, and they have vast resources.
Why do you think you know, Jia has been closing
up to Venezuela. Okay, it's not because he just can't
wait to have a you know, a vacation on the
northern coast of South America. You know, this is this
Venezuela is a major power player in this hemisphere, in

(51:53):
the South, and you know, both superpowers are well aware
of that. When Trump starts banging the drum again about
immigration and that is something that is you know more
does resonate with the Magabase, so that could bolster his
support from his base. Dealing with Venezuela. You know, it's
much like the Middle East when it comes to the
oil thing. Mark people always say when you talk about

(52:15):
the Middle East, insert as a middle name oil Middle
Oil East, right. I mean that, you know, for decades
that's been the two related to the Middle East. But increasingly,
you know, the reserves in places like Mexico and Venezuela,
you know, the whole energy production capacity possibilities in South America.

Speaker 7 (52:33):
To some degree Brazil.

Speaker 5 (52:34):
We don't have time to get into it today, but
gabaowsom touring Brazil that much. Many of the rainforests down
there have been negatively affected by oil production in Brazil
in the Amazon, so this has become more widely thought
of as a potential energy partner or resource. We always
looked at the Middle East, but not exclusively anymore.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
Yeah, I mean the biggest oil reserves are in Saudi
Arabia and Venezuela, So that just lets you know. Yeah, sorry,
but the against that backdrop all this is going on.
Maybe that's the best way to put it. Gary out
of time. Thank you so much. You're always generous with

(53:17):
your time. Thanks for joining us on Monday. So appreciate
you being here, my friend, have.

Speaker 7 (53:21):
A fantastic showd blease.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
Gary Dietrich, Everybody and Gary Dietrich. Segment is brought to
you by Bill Campbell at Remax Gold. If you're relocating
into or from northern California, you need a highly respected
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four seventy four. Call or text Bill five three oh

(53:44):
four four eight seventy four seventy four. It's Bill Campbell
at Remax.

Speaker 9 (53:48):
Go.

Speaker 1 (53:50):
Martin Thomson, I am delighted to segue as a true
professional that I am from one conversation to another. Before
I do, I ask you and implore you to smash
the like button. It's so weird thaying iron in the
world of YouTube. We came over from an award winning
radio show, you know, and we didn't have to do

(54:13):
this stuff where he say, you know, smash it like
a boss. But now we're on a YouTube show where
the algorithm actually responds to it. Tony explained it to
me one day we need the thumbs up, and then
you get served in different feeds. Then you normally would
be featured with your iron rod. That's another way to

(54:33):
put it. So thank you, everybody appreciate your Mark Thompson's show.
This person is a best selling author. I could talk
to her every day. She cannot get enough daylight on
the revelations that come out of her books. And wow,
this moment in Epstein history and political American history and

(54:54):
international history, it conforms perfectly with stuff she was talking
about in one of her books that came out five
years ago. She is just brilliant and she joins us
on Mondays, how about it for Sarah Kenzie or everyone?
Thank you for being here. Sarah. You know I'm a
huge fan, so it's always a treat for me to

(55:14):
speak with you.

Speaker 10 (55:15):
Oh, thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (55:17):
I want to talk about Hiding in Plain Sight, which
was one of your books, and you talk about Epstein there,
But it seems as though what's happening now truly overlays
what you were talking about in that book in a
almost block by block, molecule by molecule way. When you

(55:41):
talk about the institutions of power, you talk about the elites.
It's way beyond a Trump Epstein connection. It is so
remarkably encompassing of these strata of society that are so
very high. Can you spend a beat or two on
that here and gives folks a sense of that.

Speaker 8 (56:02):
Yeah, I mean, this is why the book that I
wrote after Hiding in Plain Sight was called They Knew,
because they knew. They knew all of this, all of
this crime, all of this abuse, all of this espionage,
all this elite criminal impunity. They knew this the whole time.
And obviously anybody with a library card could have taken
out my book and read today's use five years ago.

(56:25):
So while that's frustrating for me, the people who it's
worse for are the people who were abused by Epstein
and Maxwell and their operation. The victims who have been
trying to tell their story, you know, for well over
a decade. You know, one of whom tried to tell
it a week before the twenty sixteen election, only to
receive violent death threats or her lawyer did as well,

(56:46):
so they canceled a press conference. But you know, these
women have been speaking out for an extremely long time.
When Epstein allegedly died in twenty nineteen, there was this
sort of outpouring of revelations about what he and Maxwell
had been doing, about all of these elite actors implicated,
including you know, royalty politicians, academics, people in the entertainment

(57:10):
industry and so forth. And at that point I actually
had a little bit of hope that we might see justice,
that we might see more rigorous investigations, and you know,
these perpetrators would be taken down.

Speaker 10 (57:23):
I think a couple of things happened. You know, one ghost.

Speaker 8 (57:25):
COVID arrived right after that, and kind of there was
no other story but that. And then also, you know,
the Biden administration had no interest in pursuing any of
these allegations because it's not a part ofan issue.

Speaker 10 (57:38):
It never ever was.

Speaker 8 (57:39):
It is both parties, and it is the most wealthy
and powerful men in the world. And so they obviously
have a great deal of control over the story and always.

Speaker 1 (57:49):
Have well in fact, and they knew. You talk about
how Epstein was preceded by a bunch of others and
the institution, if you will, that protected from scandal, and
it's not just all at Epstein's feet.

Speaker 8 (58:06):
Oh yeah, I mean, I feel like the story is
much bigger than what I've been able to dig up.
You know, what I talked about and they knew was
mostly a man named Craig Spence who operated during the
nineteen eighties during the Reagan administration. You know, he seemed
to have contacts with you know, George Bush, the Vice
president then, and others. He was running a trafficking and

(58:29):
blackmail operation with a lot of the same tactics that
Epstein had.

Speaker 10 (58:33):
You know, he'd have these fancy parties.

Speaker 8 (58:35):
He would have underage you know, boys and girls that
he you know, solicit kidnapped. I'm not gonna beat around
this so that they could be raped and abused by
the powerful. Then it seems like he blackmailed these powerful
figures and then he died very mysteriously in an alleged
suicide with the strange note to made out to a chief,

(58:59):
and that was after he was finally beginning to be
seriously investigated and indicted for his crimes, and Congress is
beginning to look at those crimes. And also paralleling Epstein,
he used to be portrayed as a mysterious financier, socialite,
a center of the DC, you know, high power social scene,
same way as Epstein does, with his criminality completely played down.

(59:23):
And then, like Epstein, he dies in this mysterious way
and suddenly I'll talk of him just ceases. Because back
then it was print media, and if you simply stopped
printing the story, the story.

Speaker 10 (59:33):
Would die out. With Epstein, it was different. You know.

Speaker 8 (59:37):
They used to, you know, just cut stories in that way.
Now they have to drown them out with noise, with rumors,
making it inscrutable, making it impossible to discern what's actually happening.
And we went from having demands that were unmet for
information to having an enormous amount of information come out
very suddenly, all of these emails, and you know, with

(01:00:00):
more to come.

Speaker 10 (01:00:01):
I think that is a tactic that.

Speaker 8 (01:00:03):
Is meant to confuse people, meant to make people make
memes instead of, you know, demand justice and maybe even
get so fed up and repulsed by the story that
they abandoned pursuit of the truth and of justice altogether.

Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
That last point you make is so powerful, and you
write about this, you write about sort of the disinformation
machine and how even QAnon becomes part of this noise
and so that the facts and the essence of what's
going on gets obscured by all of this other stuff.

Speaker 8 (01:00:37):
Yeah, and they knew I wrote about q and on
and I stood up for QAnon, and you know, and
I don't regret that I stood up for the people
in QAnon who were telling the truth about Epstein and
Maxwell when the press would not, when Congress would not,
because that was the problem with QAnon is that they
were members of it. People who lined to it were
absolutely right about this story. And I would sometimes hear

(01:00:59):
from people in that group who read my books, and
then they would abandon Trump because they realized that there
is a rape case involving Epstein and Trump, and they
had no idea, you know, because the President covered it.
The unfortunate thing about QAnon is that they also believed
a lot of things that were preposterous, untrue, libelous, you know, smears,
you know, all sorts of irresponsible claims. So you had

(01:01:22):
a very important actual conspiracy drowning in all of these
lies and innuendo.

Speaker 10 (01:01:28):
And I felt bad for.

Speaker 8 (01:01:31):
A lot of folks who attached themselves to that movement
because I think some of them were drawn to it
out of genuine concern for the welfare of children.

Speaker 10 (01:01:39):
And I know there's probably people rolling.

Speaker 8 (01:01:40):
Their eyes as they say this, but you know, I
talked to them, and you know, not everybody was, you know,
some sort of giant Trump fan or you know, in
a partisan cause they really wanted children to not be abused.
And that's something I think almost all Americans have in common,
except for, of course, the Americans in our government and
in our powerful corporate classes, which is a very frightening thing.

Speaker 1 (01:02:04):
And I'm going to get to kind of where we
are in this moment politically and with the information coming
out in just a second, but I just want to
follow up because the QAnon thing, I think is intriguing
because what you've just said, essentially is that the conspiracy
culture obscures and you write about this this conspiracy culture
obscures unfortunately, some of the real bald faced facts associated

(01:02:29):
with this. So the essence of this again, the facts
are obscured by all this stuff that becomes distraction in
this conspiracy culture.

Speaker 8 (01:02:37):
Yes, and I think the clearest case of this was
so called Pizzagate. You know, there was beginning to be
a lot of demands for more information about Epstein's relationship
with Trump and with Bill Clinton around the time of
the twenty sixteen election, and shortly after that comes Pizzagate,
you know, which is a lie. It's this false claim
that Hillary Clinton was running a pedophile operation out of

(01:03:01):
a basement of a pizza parlor. And what happened was
because so few Americans knew about Epstein. When they would
hear this, when they would hear that there is this
decades long operation of blackmailing, you know, the wealthiest and
powerful men in the world who were raping children, they
thought it must be a lie, because clearly, if this

(01:03:21):
was true, somebody would have done something about it. They
didn't understand that the government and governmental institutions were in
fact compromised and protecting it. But a lot of times
when I would bring up Epstein, people would say, you know,
that sounds like pizza gate, Like that's pizzagate kind of nonsense.
And you know, they'd associated Pizzagate with like Alex Jones
and all these figures who have a reputation for lying

(01:03:42):
and for propaganda.

Speaker 10 (01:03:43):
And I think that there's an element in the.

Speaker 8 (01:03:45):
Media who is so obsessed with seeming respectable, you know,
seeming refined that they didn't even want to delve into
these stories even though what was at the heart of
them was abuse children and also national security, and these
are two things that everyone should be concerned with and
not afraid to investigate.

Speaker 10 (01:04:03):
But they thought it was beneath them.

Speaker 8 (01:04:06):
And I think that whoever designed Pizzagate as a propaganda strategy,
you know, and they knew I call it preemptive narrative inversion,
you know, getting ahead of the Epstein story before it
breaks into the mainstream, so that that's the first thing
that comes to people's minds if they've never heard about it.
Whoever did that, you know, really understood how the DC
and New York based press operated.

Speaker 1 (01:04:28):
Yeah, this is so very much of the moment because
now it looks as though there will be stuff coming out.
Stuff's coming out from the estate. We have emails from Epstein,
you have the Michael Wolfe statements that have taken on
a little altitude. The idea somehow that you need to
manage the narrative become super relevant. And you speak of this,

(01:04:49):
and really I think you're kind of a student of
this in a way that links it to institutions of media,
institutions of government. And I wonder if you could just
speak to that and institution, not formally an institution, but
the institution, if you will, of public consciousness, you know,
I wonder if you could just speak to sort of that.

Speaker 10 (01:05:09):
Well.

Speaker 8 (01:05:09):
I think it's very interesting that Epstein, you know, which
is this case many of us have been demanding answers
about for a decade, is suddenly being examined by Congress
with all this information released, when a few things have happened,
like basically all of our institutions have collapsed, The Institution
of Congress has you know, the DOJ is essentially a
worthless entity. That is just you know, Trump's storm troops

(01:05:32):
and stormtroopers. And before that you had the useless Merrick Garland.
The media has been drained. You know a lot of
the websites where I initially learned about Epstein and Maxwell
are gone, their archives are gone, things are paywalled, and
most crucially, AI has been introduced. So my suspicion about
what the most damning information and evidences regarding Epstein has

(01:05:55):
always been not that it is texts or emails, but
that it is probably video. And I think we're at
the point now where if video that is very damning
and very disturbing is released, the first reaction is going
to be is this AI? Is this a real thing?
Whereas just two years ago, certainly five or ten years ago,
it would have been impossible for a regular person without

(01:06:18):
technological expertise to create a realistic looking fake video. Now
it's very easy and anyone can do it.

Speaker 10 (01:06:25):
And so that takes.

Speaker 8 (01:06:26):
Away the ability to create, not create a narrative, but
simply to present the truth and have people understand what happened.
It allows for a lot of fakes, a lot of confusion,
a kind of you know, terminal doubt, and I do
worry that that's going to affect, you know, the understanding
of this case, and also who needs to be held responsible.

Speaker 1 (01:06:47):
And so cluttering the scene with some of this everything
from it's fake it's fake news, you know, running down
the media institutions with something that Trump has been doing
for a long time now. Ultimately, now there's been sort
of media capture, i'd suggest by the institutions that you
write about, you know, the wealthy, the elite. They are
being granted essentially entrance into this media sphere in a

(01:07:10):
way that is unprecedented. Although the scene was set for
that control and you write about this, you know for decades, right,
the slow takeover of media by a handful of powerful
people and by the elite. I mean, it's funny, Sarah
that Trump is this guy who wrote in a on

(01:07:31):
a wave of populism. You know, he kind of quacks
this populist message, but it's the billionaires boys club, and
he's allowing sort of a sacking of the treasury. It
leads with him to two hundred and thirty million dollar
money grab for the you know, the aggrieved party that
is Trump having been persecuted by the Justice Department during

(01:07:51):
his four years away and now people like Michael Flynn
getting fifty million dollars. I mean, that's the negotiation. He's
little Michael Flynn. This guy should have absolutely no place.
I believe he should have been stripped of his military pension,
and here he is, He's going to get fifty million
dollars from you and me. And that's just part of it. Now.
They're legislators who are part of that JA six investigation.

(01:08:13):
Their information was anonymized, Okay, they didn't even have their
names attached to with just phone numbers to see if
there was a call coming from literally inside the house
to some of these people who were marauding the capitol
on January sixth. So all of these things happened. They
are suing now they want half a million dollars apiece.
There is this incredible money grab. I guess to what
I'm saying is that these institutions, all of them, from

(01:08:36):
media to government, they are completely taken over by this
jihad that's going on right now.

Speaker 8 (01:08:43):
Yes, and this was the obvious thing that was going
to happen if the Biden DOJ and Congress did not
act during the four years that they had to. It
was very obvious that Trump was going to come back
and that he was going to do exactly this.

Speaker 10 (01:08:56):
And the same is true of his cohort.

Speaker 8 (01:08:59):
You know, you could tell that because he pardoned them
all at the end, like they were getting set for.

Speaker 10 (01:09:03):
A sequel, and with the sequel it is no holds barred.

Speaker 8 (01:09:06):
And you know that's why it was so urgent and
so important for Biden and Congress and Merrick Garland and
the rest to act within that you know, narrow window
of time where the whole country was unified on the
criminality Trump. I mean, Trump is a career mobster associate.
You know, That's what he did his whole life. He
played a tycoon on a reality show.

Speaker 10 (01:09:27):
But you know.

Speaker 8 (01:09:28):
He's associated with criminals and also criminal attorneys, people like
Roy Cone for his entire life. And he was never
part of like a you know, kind of ground up
populist movement. He was the type designed by publicists, by
places like Rubinstein pr you know, by people like Peggy Siegel.
You know, these are also the same people who managed

(01:09:48):
Jeffrey Epstein and Jared Kushner and Rupert Murdoch and all
of these other individuals. It is all, you know, basically
one group. You know, when I was writing Hiding in
Plain Sight, there were people who I want and to
mention who are in this that you know, I had
a very strict legal vetting that I was kind of
advised you know, don't put them in because they're going
to sue.

Speaker 10 (01:10:08):
But you know, I thought it was.

Speaker 8 (01:10:09):
Very interesting that, you know, Trump's one of Trump's publicists
at Rubinstein was Maggie Haverman from the New York Times,
the prime person covering Trump. You know, her mother was
handling Trump's publicity, and I was just thinking, well, that's
that's an.

Speaker 10 (01:10:22):
Obvious conflict of interest. She's also handling Kushner's.

Speaker 8 (01:10:25):
There's this very kind of incestuous group of politics, media
and the New York FBI that you know, worked in
tandem to protect a lot of extremely shady and corrupt individuals,
including Trump, Bepstein, and Giuliani.

Speaker 10 (01:10:41):
I mean, the list is quite long.

Speaker 8 (01:10:44):
And you know, one of the things I think that's
most damning is not just that there are so many perpetrators,
but that there were so many witnesses.

Speaker 10 (01:10:50):
That's the problem.

Speaker 8 (01:10:51):
That's why Congress never wanted to deal with this, because
no matter what administration you're dealing with, whether it's Biden, Trump, Bush, Obama,
they all knew about Epstein at the least, even if
they weren't part of it, they knew about it, and
they let it happen. And you know, they did nothing,
and they did nothing to help the victims. They just
sealed the cases and continue to make monetary deals with

(01:11:14):
Epstein and his core, you know, in many instances, and
that I mean to do that after the indictments, like
there's no possible excuse for that, And you know, I
hope that that is emphasized in the weeks to come.

Speaker 10 (01:11:28):
That level of complicity.

Speaker 1 (01:11:30):
There is a sense that the narrative is becoming less controllable.
So like the last thing you say there, when you
say I hope it comes out, I think are our
notion as to what will come out is a tough
one to nail down. And that's a good thing. I
see more and more of this now as just kind

(01:11:52):
of taking flight on its own, and it's and even
you can see Trump with his reversal, realized, I can't
you know, can't hold the dam back anymore. Their cracks
in my mega coalition. I'm seeing the people and I'm
even seeing politically the people turning on me. I'm going
to have to allow for this momentum to continue. And

(01:12:13):
so he's doing stuff like which is you know, devilishly clever.
I'm going to open up an investigation into democrats. I'm
going to have my Justice Department open up an investigation,
even though it was he called it a democratic hoax,
or he called it a Democrat hoax, and in so doing,
there'll be parts of this information that can't legally be
released by my Justice Department because of an investigation going on.

(01:12:37):
But still, Sarah, there is so much coming out from
the estate, et cetera. It doesn't seem as though the
narrative is truly controllable from anyone.

Speaker 10 (01:12:47):
Yeah, I mean, I think that's basically true.

Speaker 8 (01:12:49):
It reminds me though, of twenty nineteen, in this regard
of August twenty nineteen, you know, when there was such
a domination of Epstein in the news and then it
kind of came to a hall. I mean, I think
public interest is extremely high. I think it's much wider
than it was before. This has always been an issue
that all Americans were united on. You know, there wasn't
anyone rooting for Epstein and Maxwell versus others.

Speaker 10 (01:13:12):
If you knew.

Speaker 8 (01:13:12):
About it, you know, you were on the side of
the abuse. You were on the side of the victims.
And I wrote and they knew that.

Speaker 6 (01:13:18):
You know.

Speaker 8 (01:13:18):
It really says a lot about America, that this is
what's holding us together as a country. But what it
comes down to really is, you know, who wields power,
you know, and who wields power now is Trump. And
there has been very little effort from the Democrats, or
from the courts, or from anyone to go up against
him in a meaningful way, in part because he threatens

(01:13:40):
to kill people who go against him. You know, he
has a whole cohor of goons and also people who
you know, they threaten excessive litigation. You know, they attempt
to ruin your life. But still, like this is a
known entity. This is someone who was first investigated by
the DJ in nineteen seventy three. Like they've had over
half a century to get this done. Epstein was a
non entity as well, and you know, the connections. One

(01:14:03):
thing I find very interesting is that every administration seems
to have several people directly connected to Epstein in a
very personal way.

Speaker 10 (01:14:10):
In there.

Speaker 8 (01:14:11):
You know, you had Bill Barr, whose father hired Epstein
as a high school teacher and brought him into New
York high society.

Speaker 10 (01:14:17):
You had Tony Blinken, who was raised.

Speaker 8 (01:14:19):
By Robert Maxwell's best friend, you know, and also the
last person who saw Robert Maxwell died, Robert Maxwell being
Julane Maxwell's father, and also someone who is originally, you know,
part of this transnational crime operation. Like it's a very
odd thing to me that he becomes a Secretary of
State under Biden, like of all people, and you know
you had Alex Acosta also as the.

Speaker 10 (01:14:40):
Labor Secretary under Trump.

Speaker 8 (01:14:41):
I mean I could just go on and on and
find Epstein connected people like you could do six degrees
of Epstein and it's like, you know, the guy down
the hall, like you don't have to look very far.
And that's a disturbing thing. And I think that they
purposely chose those individuals because they knew those people would
never investigate Epstein because it would mean investigating their own
family members. They're friends, they're professional and social circles. Like

(01:15:05):
that was how they controlled the story.

Speaker 1 (01:15:07):
Yeah, and it's not all, as you've said, the sex part.
It's the connections to all the other stuff associated with Epstein. Tony,
play me a little bit of the victims just for
a second. I feel like I don't want to have
a conversation about this with her. This I thought this
was powerful. The uh, this is just a This is
a spot that came out and here's just a clip

(01:15:28):
from it. And you realize how young these foreteen years old.

Speaker 2 (01:15:31):
I was sixteen years old. I was sixteen seventeen, fourteen
years old.

Speaker 3 (01:15:35):
Beyond the politics, are Epstein's victims still seeking some form
of justice. Last night, some of them released this video
urging lawmakers to vote to release the files. Donald Trump
has weathered many political storms before, but this is a
story that won't go away. In giving the green light
to release the files, he's hoping it finally will, but

(01:15:56):
that of course depends on whether the files are quite
as bad as he claimed.

Speaker 1 (01:16:02):
There is quite a bit of there's there's quite a
bit of information that's already been released, as we've seen,
and it's pretty damning. But while the international network that
you describe in some of your writings, that is, uh,
that's the connective tissue that I feel still has to
be exposed.

Speaker 10 (01:16:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:16:23):
Absolutely, And you know, it's a network that spans many countries.

Speaker 10 (01:16:27):
The foremost countries it's you know.

Speaker 8 (01:16:29):
The US, the UK, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. And
I think it's particularly interesting that, you know, some have
been surprised about the Republicans, you know, the few of
them that have demanded that the Epstein information be fully released.
They're the same Republicans that are not taking money from
a PAK because Israel is really the elephant in the room.

(01:16:49):
It's you know, a primary funder of Congress through a PAK,
they wield an enormous amount of influence. And you know,
Epstein was closely working with Israel, and of course Robert
Maxwell was an operative for Israel. You know, he had
a grand state funeral after he died after mysteriously falling
off a yacht in nineteen ninety one, and you know,

(01:17:11):
they were they were thanking him for his service to
the country.

Speaker 10 (01:17:14):
And this is a career again, a career criminal.

Speaker 8 (01:17:16):
He was a published publishing magnet, but he was associated with,
you know, the Russian mafia. He was, you know, up
to all sorts of you know, dirty deeds and this
was this was known at the time. And so that's
the issue. When someone talks about Robert Maxwell and they
bring him into this conversation, I tend to think they're
an honest broker in discussing Maxwell and discussing Epstein if

(01:17:36):
they're leaving that whole history out, a history that really
seems to stem from Iran Contra and the circle surrounding
Iran Contra more than anything else than I tend to
think they're not particularly serious about this because you see
arms traders, people like non Koushogi, you know, this kind
of rotating series of characters, and then you see, of
course people who were murdered later, like Jamal Koshogi. You know,

(01:17:59):
it's same names, the same countries, and they're showing up
again and again. And you know, that's why I do
feel like there are a lot of different levels to
this story. But you know, when you're seeing so many
familiar places, like another example would be Deutsche Bank, you know,
being a financial entity used over and over, then you
know you need to examine that trail. And there's so

(01:18:20):
much of this that there's no way it could all
be in one book, you know, or one investigation, but
it's been buried for so long and that's the result.
But I think that trying to put those puzzle pieces
together and figuring out who really controls the US government
and who even controls this criminal operation, because I don't
think Epstein was the head of it, you know, I

(01:18:40):
think he was a major figure within it, but I
don't necessarily think he's the person running it. And I
wonder a lot about Russian mafia operations like the one
by Semyon Mogalevich, which is basically never brought up, even
though that is you know, who Robert Maxwell was working with.
And also a number of people worked for Molevich ended

(01:19:00):
up working side by side with Trump through Bayrock and
through other organizations. So that's awesome thing that should be covered.

Speaker 1 (01:19:07):
But peace well, I mean, and the money trail does
go back to Russia in addition to other places, and
the capture of major banking institutions through whatever way Epstein had,
was it blackmail or whatever, but they're they're huge banking executives,
as you know, are brought down in the scandal as well.
So yeah, this is way more to be told here,

(01:19:27):
but I'd suggest it was foretold in some measure, and
it was a laid bare in a couple of your books,
and we'll have links to them under this conversation. As always,
I'm out of time, really, but I didn't want the
entire conversation to go away without touching on what I
think is a huge winner politically. Should there ever be
another real election in America, should there ever really be

(01:19:50):
another shot at a change of power? And that is corruption.
I alluded to it earlier in this conversation in relation
to the power grab on the part of Donald Trump
a two hundred thirty million to fifty million from Flynn.
I thought it particularly grotesque when I saw the Swiss
who were trying to get out from under these withering
tariffs that Donald Trump again impulsively imposed upon the Swiss.

(01:20:15):
They brought him in the conversation and negotiation with them.
They brought him a gold bar with I think it
was inscribed in some maybe with his name, I forget.
I think it did have his name on it. There was,
I mean literal graft and grift going on in the
White House. And then the President removes the tariff from

(01:20:37):
the Swiss, the heavy tariff, so it's back down to
fifteen percent or whatever it was, off of the forty
percent it was prior to the conversation. The total corruption
of this administration on every level, from the Argentina bailout,
which is associated with Bessen's and the billionaire Boys Club
hedge funders who were buying in Argentina and needed a

(01:21:00):
prop up that government too, as I say, the graft
and grift associated with the Swiss gift. Give me a
moment on this. I feel like more should be made
of this. Somehow it's getting lost in the smoke.

Speaker 8 (01:21:11):
Yeah, I mean, I never understood why the Democrats didn't.

Speaker 10 (01:21:15):
Well I did understand, I guess.

Speaker 8 (01:21:16):
But the Democrats should have ran as an anti corruption
party first and foremost, and they couldn't because they themselves
are corrupt.

Speaker 10 (01:21:24):
That is why they are.

Speaker 8 (01:21:24):
Taking dirty money, dark money money from sanctioned Russian oligarchs
that are then given to proxies to make it legal
to deposit it into campaigns. Dirty money from Silicon Valley.
But you know, this is a kleptocracy. America is a kleptocracy,
and that means ruled by thieves. And that is something
that Americans, regardless of their political party, they will not

(01:21:45):
put up with.

Speaker 10 (01:21:46):
Nobody wants to be ruled by thieves.

Speaker 8 (01:21:47):
They'll allow bigotry, they'll allow just being a jackass, you know,
like all sorts of things can get by. No one
wants to be stolen from. No one wants to be
ripped off. No one wants to see the treasury looted.
No one wants to see disgusting child raping oligarchs being rewarded.
So yeah, this is a very unifying thing. But the
problem is there are very few in Congress who kind
of live up to their word have a sincere interest

(01:22:10):
in protecting the American people from this.

Speaker 6 (01:22:13):
You know.

Speaker 8 (01:22:13):
One final note, you know, there's a very interesting speech
by all people, Robert Muller, you know, called the Evolving
Organized Crime Threat, where he talked about organized crime and
kleptocracy as what was most likely to bring America down.
And he gave this speech in twenty eleven and then
proceeded to do basically nothing to stop it. But his
point is that high level elite kleptocracy affects the average

(01:22:37):
American person. It affects how much things cost, It affects
your ability to just you know, live your life unimpeded.
So it's not an abstract issue. It is what they
call the Democrats like to call a kitchen table issue.
So their avoidance of it for so long under that
excuse is just facetious. I mean, that is not a
legitimate reason to ignore elite you know, billionaire corruption.

Speaker 1 (01:23:02):
The only person I heard on the Democratic side this
is back in twenty fifteen, and I was so excited
that she was talking about this, and I really felt
like we had a chance with this conversation. The only
person I saw and heard mentioned corruption was Elizabeth Warren.
She she mentioned it in prominently. I mean I would
start and end every conversation with corruption. This is but

(01:23:22):
as you say, you know, nobody's got a clean account here,
which is the tough part. I mean, everyone's so compromised
who maybe blowing the whistle on corruption that you know
you end up just going with the oh, they're all corrupt,
the same way you lose track of the facts in
all the disinformation. But I'd love to talk to you
more about that, maybe for the next time or in

(01:23:43):
a future conversation. Links to all of Sarah's books under
this conversation. They're all gifts and you will just you
could almost needle drop them. Just open and enjoy, I mean,
and enjoy the ride through real facts and wonderful and
and stories really well told. Again, super treat to talk

(01:24:03):
to you always.

Speaker 10 (01:24:04):
Thank you, Sarah, Oh, thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:24:06):
Sarah Kensier, everybody right on. I'm a huge fan again.
Links to her books and you'll find what I'm talking
about and what she's talking about, which is essentially the
superstructure that allows this the you know, the the stuff

(01:24:28):
that's happening now so beautifully foretold by Sarah and detailed
by Sarah. So those who are interested in that stuff,
as you should be. She's fantastic, says Jane Buck. I agree,
it's fantastic. Yeah, that's exactly it, really truly fantastic. Yeah.

(01:24:49):
Man from the West four twenty says I love, this
is incredible. I'm going to sit down and finish my
cup of coffee right here. Thank you for the coffee reminder, man,
I'll tell you what I'm flying good coffee right now.
Put that coffee down. I'm sorry, and let me just
have a quick sip of the in my peacefully resist

(01:25:10):
a mug. I've got to get mark merch dot com
and I have to buy it just like the rest
of you, with the Mark Thompson logo a technical tastefully
on the backside. So I encourage you get Markmerchan dot com. Mary,
thank you Tony for putting it up there or Kim,
I don't know whoever's putting it up there. Thank you.
This is Tony. Look at that born to Peacefully Resist shirt.
That's the same one I'm wearing right now, pet Approved

(01:25:34):
Born to Peacefully Resist. I like the black with the
green and kind of the earth there at the center.
I think it's kind of a cool thing. And the
cats looking up those are not my cats, but they
are a real Mark Thompson Show viewer listeners cats. So
those are not props show business cats. Those are real.

(01:25:54):
This is a you know, I know with AI could
be anything anyway, get mark merch dot com. It's a
T shirt. So we have a cardigan sweater that I
will be wearing. I will be wearing it later this week.
There's a lot of fun stuff on there, and Courtney's
designing a bunch of it, and so she's really excited

(01:26:15):
about that. She likes to she likes to do that
kind of thing. I guess.

Speaker 2 (01:26:18):
Like the long sleeve shirts are in as well.

Speaker 1 (01:26:21):
The long sleeve shirts are in. Eh, you just yeah.
It is a real way to make an impression. Thanks
reminding me to smash the like button, says Karen Cooper.
Smash it like a bus. If you like, to Sarah
ken Zier, you want more conversations like that, You got
to let us know. Mark is back. Awesome, says Chaplain Fred. Wow,

(01:26:44):
or is it ai Mark? You're pixelating and a robotic
that was earlier? But yeah, yeah, by the way, I
am self deporting, says Chaplin Fred to can Kun this December.
It's a wild idea. But just like self dewarding, the
cancoon is not so bad, you know. I'm uh. Sarah

(01:27:08):
loved a road Trip on chapter three. Well written, says
Richard Delamator. Yeah, road trip is great. Last Last American
road Trip is really great one of Sarah's books. James
Blais for they what is it five?

Speaker 2 (01:27:22):
It's two dollars, but then it says five, So I
don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:27:25):
That's very clever. It's a yeah, no.

Speaker 2 (01:27:29):
Need so much, which he was just figuring it out,
because here's a five from Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:27:33):
Get some Money. That is the art district in Cartagena.
We're talking and he says Jamie James does get some money.
I love Cartagnya. And yes, every street vendor selling hats
or sunglasses is also selling blow. What it's not a myth?
He says, I did not know that. I didn't know

(01:27:55):
that there was blow being sold, never heard the that
would be still call it blow in the Epstein emails.
Epstein said that he could take Trump down, says Donna Miracle.
It looks like he is doing it from the grave.
Maybe maybe. I mean, as you know, I'm I'm skeptical

(01:28:18):
of anything taking down. I mean, he has control of everything.
Doald Trump? So tough to imagine a scenario by which
anything would take him down? Just to be honest, I mean,
tell me what institution in America is going to take
him down? I mean, I get you that this is

(01:28:41):
so gross. There's evidence that Trump was involved with a
you know, this age girl or that age girl, or
knew about it or you know, I get it. There's
evidence that he's corrupt from this standpoint or that standpoint,
and we detailed it all for you on the show.
And I always here from many of my friends on

(01:29:02):
the left to go this is the one though, right, dude,
like this, he cannot escape this? Right? Well, what do
you mean he can't escape it? I mean, are you
saying that it hurts him politically? Maybe he's not in
it to be re elected. He's making a fortune. He's
in it to enrich himself. I mean, there are parts

(01:29:23):
of this game that are just associated with money and
From that standpoint, these things don't hurt him. He has
more and more transactions every day. I just told you
about the Swiss. That's just one of them. Did you
see the deal he's making with Saudi Arabia. Got a
huge deal with Saudi Arabia. He's got a Saudi business person.

(01:29:48):
I'll talk about this tomorrow meeting while I really will
meeting with him, and it's all about a Trump development deal,
Trump properties in Saudi. And meantime, this Saudi, this Saudi
person normally wouldn't even get an audience with the president.
They're not an official diplomat, they're not an official office

(01:30:12):
holder in Saudi Arabia. They're just a deal maker. It's
a real estate deal. It's a payoff. That's what's going on.

Speaker 2 (01:30:20):
So Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed ben Solomon is set to
visit the White House tomorrow as a matter.

Speaker 1 (01:30:25):
Of that's there you go. And that's part of it,
that very meeting that Kim has just mentioned, and so
I mentioned it because when you talk about, oh, this
is the thing that's going to bring Trump down, nothing's
going to bring Trump down nothing. Okay, he controls all
the instruments of power he has the Justice Department. Congress

(01:30:48):
is gone, okay, and I understand, but you see how
Congress is asking for an investigation and they're losing steam
and he's going to lose the House. Don't get me wrong,
these things will exist. But Trump's essential protections are well
in place. So I feel we should call all this

(01:31:08):
stuff out. We should call out his corruption that which
we know about. We should call out the overreach associated
with his power. There's plenty of that. When it comes
to ice immigration, the horror that is this immigration policy,
it is horrifying. It should be called out here and

(01:31:29):
I'm a voice calling it out, and there are many,
much much bigger voices calling it out. But when you
talk about will this be the thing to bring him down,
I'd suggest to you he is bulletproof from that standpoint.
Depressed Canadian with a twenty dollars superchat says, if Democrats
get back in the White House, I worry they will
turn the page like Obama did with Bush and Biden

(01:31:52):
did with Trump and not properly prosecute anyone from this administration. Well,
the Democrats are famous for that, right. They're the institutionalists,
They're the ones that protect the institutions of power, the
governmental institutions of power, don't want to call Trump out.
They don't want to call out Trump's acolytes and functionaries.

(01:32:17):
And now, of course, with presidential immunity, i'd suggest to
you that you know, Trump really is essentially bulletproof. You know,
there's not a thing you can offer up legally or
in any other way to have him account now. And
this is what the concern is from Bannon who articulated
it last week? Was it he articulated the worry that

(01:32:39):
he might be and others might actually go to prison
for some of the decisions and actions taken under the
Trump administration. That's a real worry because they're not protected
by any kind of immunity. But that said, I don't
know that the Democrats are reascending to power again. All
the institutions of power are controlled by Trump. Trump declared

(01:33:05):
an emergency in American cities and nationalized the UH or
federalized I should say, the National Guard. He would think
nothing of messing with the elections, in my judgment, nothing,
And in fact, I think they're already beginning that. I mean,
this disenfranchisement of voters. We've talked about that. That's a

(01:33:26):
high art in some of these places. The ability to
manipulate the next election, I think lies completely with Trump
and his functionaries, and they will exercise that to the max.
There is no action that is beneath Trump to protect
this base and this political power that has now marshaled

(01:33:50):
all of these institutions in Washington and beyond. And so
I would again suggest that we need to call this
stuff out. But if you're looking for the one thing,
the smoking gun, I think he can escape all of it.
Even Jeffrey Epstein omark, what do you mean? I mean again,
there's video of hip. Video can be manipulated. AI. It's

(01:34:13):
a democratic hoax, it's a democratic controlled it's George Soros.
And then they all fall into line with the talking points.
Remember there's no there there. That was the talking point
for a long first. The first talking point was we
want to get these released. We've got to get these released.
Want them out, want them out, want them out. Joe Biden,
he's his FBI, his Justice de Bartment. Why isn't more

(01:34:35):
being talked about? Why are they concealing it? Then it
was oh, there's no there there. We're all in power. Gosh,
we you know, there's just nothing to report, there's nothing actionable. Now,
it's whatever it needs to be. Yes, voter fraud already
being planned by the GOP. Hawaii legislator is going to
consider stopping mail and voting that was started in twenty

(01:34:57):
twenty and very successful in increasing the vote, says Karen Cooper. Yeah,
I mean, I think that's just one of the one
of the things. You're ignoring the power of the voters. Yeah,
Gregory says that I'm ignoring the power of the voters. No, Gregory,
you're ignoring the power of the counting of the vote.
You do have power, We have power. But I'm just

(01:35:19):
suggesting that, with recent history as a guide, that power
can be undermined by those in power. Now, MAGO is
always going to be the biggest threat to Trump when
they fully realize that they've been used and discarded. I mean,
Trump is beginning to take on water. So I'm not
suggesting that you can't delight in this guy who is

(01:35:42):
completely corrupt and has an agenda that is a brutal,
awful agenda. It's brutal and awful for Americans. I mean,
I think the ice raids are grotesque and horrifying on
a level I never have seen. Or you're throwing people
who are really innocence to the ground, zip tying them

(01:36:05):
kids in Chicago. We showed you that rate in Chicago.
Their zip What is that they're dropping out of those
black Hawk helicopters on those not ZIP lines. But you know,
I mean it was just a show of force. It
was a flex down the street from me, the car wash.
They rate it. All these guys get out of these

(01:36:27):
whatever their private cars. It looks like these SUVs masked.
They're just thugs.

Speaker 2 (01:36:37):
Did you see the video that was put out over
the weekend of the You know, there's a new ice
crackdown in Charlotte and this woman had hired some workers
to put holiday lights up and ice came and was
questioning the workers in her yard. We have video of it.

Speaker 1 (01:36:57):
It's great. And she she confronts them and he kind
of chases them away.

Speaker 2 (01:37:01):
Yeah, she runs them that they back into their minivan,
and she's got pictures of the license plate numbers, Like
I guess maybe because they were on her private property
that this was something that she could do. And then
she then protects the the men. I don't know if
they were undocumented or what. But she says someone needs
to follow them basically to make sure they're you know,
they're safe, that we need to keep filming, that we

(01:37:23):
need to make sure they're all right. What an amazing
I mean, it just shows you that we that people
do have power.

Speaker 1 (01:37:30):
Yeah, it is true that we I'm not suggesting we
don't have power at all. I'm suggesting when I talk
about Trump, that you're not going to dislodge him with
one moment or one revelatory story, because there have been
revelatory story after revelatory story. I mean the Katari jet,

(01:37:54):
the grab of two hundred and thirty million, where all
that has to happen is Todd Blanche's former personal defense
attorney and Pam BONDI have to sign off on him
getting two hundred and thirty million dollars. That's exactly what's
going to happen that because he was reaching a settlement
for the US government for investigating him and for prosecuting

(01:38:15):
him for everything from the document case to the other
cases they brought against him, or at least had in
the pipeline to bring against him. So as the aggrieved party,
he picks two hundred and thirty million and then he
approves that money. This is utter corruption. But as I suggested,
these revelations are just, you know, one right after the other,

(01:38:36):
depressed Canadian says, if and that is a big if
the Democrats win power, A possible compromise could be to
have a Truth and Reconciliation commission to allow some transparency
for what has happened in the last decade. Not likely,
but an idea. I completely agree, and it may be
that that is the only way to at least get

(01:38:58):
the story out. I would also suggest that, sadly, there
may be a lot more. You're only in the first
year of this guy's presidency. There's going to be a
lot more. You want a truth and reconciliation I think
you're going to have to, you know, just add all
of these things to a stockpile of stories, illegalities, and

(01:39:22):
abridgment of civil rights that we're seeing on a level
unprecedented in American history. So all right, I have a
but I want to change the mood quickly and then
I'll get to maybe a little news from Kim. But
I got a quick little mood changer for you, the Mark. Thus,
I want you to smash the like button. If you

(01:39:43):
would hit the like button for me. It's to do
it for me. And the great thing about subscribing to
the show. If you subscribe to the show, you share
this show. It's free. You increase the show's footprint, but
you bring yourself a lifetime of happiness. So if you

(01:40:07):
care about a lifetime of happiness, you will subscribe to
the show and share the show. It may be the
segment with Sarah Kenzie or Tony beautifully and elegantly puts
these segments out, these videos out. We now have special
interviews that'll be dropping on the weekend. Share them, subscribe

(01:40:28):
and enjoy your lifetime of happiness and freedom. Now I
know no one knows it. I'm someone who just saw it,
and I'm going to ask you about it. Tony Kim, Yes, everyone. Napoleon, Napoleon.

(01:40:52):
Are you familiar with Napoleon?

Speaker 2 (01:40:54):
Yeah, that would be the dictator, the emperor.

Speaker 1 (01:40:57):
He lost, yes, very good, lost a hastily fled battle.
You may have heard of it. Battle of anybody, it's
my When you're defeated, you go, it's my. Napoleon waterloo
was the answery you want? It's my waterloo. Yeah, as

(01:41:19):
he fled the battle of Watervloo. It was eighteen fifteen.
He lost a diamond brooch.

Speaker 2 (01:41:29):
That's right, nice that you wear that to battle, because
you have to sparkle as you're on the horse.

Speaker 1 (01:41:34):
Gotta bring your you gotta bring the ice. What is
it called? Is that they call it ice? The kids
still anymore or not different kind of ice, so they
As it turns out, this circular jewel made with early
nineteenth century features a thirteen carrot oval diamond surrounded by

(01:41:55):
smaller diamonds. Just a little something Napoleon slapped on. He
wore it as a ornament, which is the way to
wear that kind of thing. Yeah, there it is. Johny's
got a picture for those on YouTube. So as of
French forces fled, their carriages were slowed by muddy roads.
The Prussian army captured at least two of the carriages

(01:42:16):
that held Napoleon's personal items. Well, Napoleon's captured hat and
sword were presented to the Prussian King, Frederick William the
third you remember for Oh, yes, there it is. And
one of the officers took the brooch and indeed presented

(01:42:40):
it to the king three days after the battle. Well,
that brooch found its way through the many decades to
soth of Bey's auction, and that soth Ofby's auction in
Geneva last week it sold. How much did that jewel
golf ball? How much did Napoleon's broach dropped at the

(01:43:02):
Battle of Waterloo? How much did that go for? I
want only legitimate guesses in dollars, please US dollars. Twenty million,
says Champagne. Wishes fifty million, says Jeff Moses. Cousin earl
with fifteen million, twenty six million says m Oak. Half

(01:43:27):
a billion says nancyv A lot wow. One billion Canadian
says the Press. Canadian C c Ryder says fifteen million.
Napoleon's broach dropped at Waterloo. It sells at Sotheby auction
four four point four million dollars four point four million.

(01:43:51):
Everybody's a little high in their guesses. Yeah, but kind
of big news. I didn't realize that those historic artifacts
could be uh sold like that.

Speaker 2 (01:44:02):
You know, I didn't realize he was so bejeweled in battle.

Speaker 1 (01:44:07):
I mean he kind of brought the you know, he
brought more than his toiletry kit to the overnight battles.

Speaker 2 (01:44:15):
I know, it's different times. And everything, but you'd still
think you'd want to blend in, not stand out giant
fourteen carrot diamond glistening in the sun on your head.

Speaker 1 (01:44:26):
Yes, commend I mean with all the respect and maybe
as a little over the top with the jewel on
the hat, maybe a little too much. I'm just all right,
Kim will give us a few headlines on the way
out here, and we will and we'll wrap up around
here and handle some comments as well. All right. Mark

(01:44:47):
Thompson shows.

Speaker 2 (01:44:57):
On the Mark Thompson Show. I'm Kim McAllister. Welcome back,
Mark Thompson. This report concert by Coachella Valleycoffee dot Com.
A bill to compel the release of the government's Jeffrey
Epstein files is expected to be brought to the House
floor tomorrow. President Trump now urging House Republicans to vote
for the release. Trump announcing his sudden reversal on truth

(01:45:19):
social Sunday, saying there is nothing to hide and that
it's time to move on from what he called a
quote Democrat hoax. Now measure passes, it will go to
the Senate, where it faces an uncertain future. Meanwhile, Congressman
Thomas Massey is raising concerns about the new probe into
Jeffrey Epstein, suggesting the investigation could actually interfere with the

(01:45:42):
effort to bring about the full release of those files.

Speaker 1 (01:45:46):
Yeah, we talked about that on the show today.

Speaker 2 (01:45:48):
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Ben Solomon, as you already mentioned,
is set to visit the White House Tuesday for talks
with President Trump. The two are expected to discuss a
number of issues, from AI chips, to new technology to
the potential normalization of ties with Israel. Trump also confirmed
recently he is considering a possible weapons deal with Saudi

(01:46:09):
Arabia that would send F thirty five fighter jets to
that kingdom.

Speaker 1 (01:46:13):
And send a billion dollars to him personally. Probably, I'm
to there is no transaction that doesn't have a Trump
grift associated with it. This is the grift and graft crew.

Speaker 2 (01:46:24):
Can I get a Saudi Arabia pace cash? Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:46:26):
They do get Slaudi Arabia pays cash. Thanks right, thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:46:29):
Airligns ramping up the service after the FAA lifted its
flight reduction order at airports nationwide just in time for
Mark to be home. A reduction in flights at dozens
of major Airports began a week ago to help address
a shortage of air traffic controllers during the government shutdown,
finding the acting director of FEMA stepping down that According

(01:46:50):
to multiple reports, David Richardson was selected to head the
agency following former acting administrator Cam Hamilton's firing. In May,
President Trump to pull his support from Indiana Republicans opposed
to redistricting efforts. The President took the Truth social saying
I will be strongly endorsing against any state senator or
House member who doesn't support redistricting for congressional seats. Trump

(01:47:16):
has lashed out at Indiana State Senator Gary Good and
State Senate President Roderick Bray for opposing the redistricting efforts
in that state.

Speaker 1 (01:47:25):
Trump is afraid of losing the House. I mean, it's true,
I think that he wants those additional seats. But and
this is again, it speaks to what we've been talking
about today. Now everybody's on board with the Trump plan anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:47:37):
Democratic lawmakers are calling for the Trump administration to immediately
stop any plans to sell or transfer responsibility of the
government student loan portfolio to the private market. More than
forty Democrats, being led by Senator Elizabeth Warren, issuing a
letter warning the sale would amount to a giveaway to
wealthy insiders at the expense of working class borrowers and

(01:47:59):
tax looks like more President, It looks more looking more
like President Trump will sit down with New York City
mayor elect Zorin Mamdami. The President said he'll work something
out to meet with the Democratic Socialists set to take
over as mayor in New York City on January first.
Trump sent spent much of the campaign from Mondami's campaign

(01:48:21):
trading political barbs, with the state assemblyman threatening to withhold
any extra federal funds allotted to New York if he won.

Speaker 1 (01:48:29):
Well, I mean, first of all, Trump has a lot
of real estate in New York, as everybody is well aware.
I also would suggest that, you know, Mondani is a
powerful political figure. He has a Trumpian populist kind of message,
only he really believes it. I mean, Trump's just you know,
slinging the crap until he gets in, you know, and
then he's going to do just take everything, yeah, take

(01:48:53):
everything off the wall that he can stuff into his pockets,
you know what I mean. He's just he's a total grifter.

Speaker 2 (01:48:57):
But Mark, what about all the gold he's left behind the.

Speaker 1 (01:49:02):
Exactly anyway, I think it's no surprise that he said
talking to on Donnie.

Speaker 2 (01:49:07):
A judge is ordering the Department of Justice to turn
over grand jury materials related to former FBI Director James Comy.
The order comes after a US magistrate found that Lindsay Halligan,
who President Trump appointed to lead the case, may have
made significant legal errors in presenting evidence. According to the judge,
the record points to a disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps,

(01:49:31):
missteps that led an FBI agent and prosecutor to potentially
undermine the integrity of the grand jury proceeding. Comy is
fleading not guilty to charges of making false statements and
obstructing a congressional investigation. NBA staffers from numerous teams, including
the Lakers, have been asked to turn in their cell
phones and other property as part of this illegal gambling investigation.

(01:49:55):
The Athletic reports the NBA hired an outside law firm
to conduct an inn internal review, which includes requesting documents
and phones and records from select team employees. According to
the report, investigators are expected to request materials from at
least ten Lakers employees after federal charges were filed against
Damon Jones, a former NBA player and associate of Lebron

(01:50:18):
James who worked informally with the team.

Speaker 1 (01:50:21):
I mean, this is you know, I know Moe Kelly
was talking about this because I feel like he knew
more about this, maybe than I know. But his general
disposition what I got in watching the show last week
was that there is a lot here that we don't
know and that's going to come out. That's what most
seemed to indicate, and he seemed to sort of have
a window on it that was pretty solid, so I

(01:50:42):
wouldn't be surprised. Now, this is interesting. One quick comment
about the NBA. One of the mini scandals of the NBA,
and it's been revealed in conversations with their referees and
one in particular. But in some of these referee oriented
expose as I'll use that word, they end up talking

(01:51:03):
about the fact that they oftentimes don't call fouls on
their stars in the NBA the way they do on
some of the other players on the floor that aren't
the superstars or stars. And that's a scandal in it self, right,
I mean, that affects the outcome and it means that
the stars can get away with more. But you're already
talking about I guess, is my point a league that

(01:51:24):
compromises itself in a way so as to prop up
the NBA stars. So I'll be interested to know when
you say they've hired this outside firm and they're doing
an investigation, whether or not if this firm reveals anything
about their stars, or even about other players, maybe a
large number of players. How much we'll actually find out

(01:51:46):
and what will actually happen. Now, the very last thing
I'll say about this is, if you're a star in
the NBA in a way, I can't understand why you'd
be part of any kind of NBA corruption. You're making
millions of dollars, So do you care about somebodyho says, hey,
i'll give you a couple hundred thousand if you miss
a jump shot. I mean, that just seems like it's
bad math. I don't understand why you'd sacrifice your jillion

(01:52:10):
dollar contract for a three hundred thousand dollars payoff from
the mob. It just doesn't pencil out. But you know,
the mob can be pretty convincing sometimes, so maybe there's
more here than meets the eye well, and.

Speaker 2 (01:52:24):
Once they have you, don't they just have They can
manipulate you in all different ways, like you make one
misstep and all of a sudden you're in it right.

Speaker 1 (01:52:30):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:52:32):
The Department of Health and Human Services is planning to
release new dietary guidelines next month. HHS Secretary Robert F.
Kennedy Junior shared plans for ending the war on saturated
fats in this country, as well as incentivizing the reduction
in petroleum based food dies and increasing oversight into infant formula.
Can I say you love your country?

Speaker 1 (01:52:53):
Yeah? This is a country built on what was the
fatty fatty What was the first part, fatty saturated fats? Yeah,
saturated fat I mean click around, dude. We built this
country on that. It's Unamerican that you would suggest that
we get rid of that. You cannot say you love
your country exactly. Rfk Junior go home.

Speaker 2 (01:53:09):
Kennedy says the guidelines are going to stress the importance
of protein and saturated fats, and he believes it will
really revolutionize the food system. Kennedy is pushed for a
so called carnivore diet, which encourages the consumption of only meat, poultry, eggs, seafood, fish,
dairy products and water.

Speaker 1 (01:53:29):
Oh wow, well Americans, Yeah, you do not know what
you are talking Yeah, you don't know what you're talking about. Yeah,
then you can. You can ride that meat diet right
over to a Cedar Sinai hospital where they'll have to
you know, what is the road or root or your arteries?

Speaker 2 (01:53:49):
Speaking of meat. A twenty two year old man is
in critical condition in Greece after attempting to swallow a
hamburger hole. The ambitious eater, whose name has not been released,
made the attempt during a meal with friends on Thursday,
and has since been placed on a ventilator. The man
reportedly stopped breathing for two minutes and his airways were obstructed,

(01:54:10):
leading to severe complications affecting his brain, kidneys, and other
organs because he tried to swallow a hamburger hole. Local
police are investigating the incident. They're seeking footage from the
restaurant to determine if anyone encouraged the man to attempt
the stunt.

Speaker 1 (01:54:25):
Who does that diet tony where you're supposed to drink,
you're supposed to eat the hamburger's hole? Is that a
new client? I guess TikTok. Yeah, this is just this
is social media both under the dumb dumb. Yeah, under
the auspices though of doctor Emil Love show pausing. Yeah,

(01:54:48):
he's just.

Speaker 2 (01:54:48):
On the RFK Junior diet mark.

Speaker 1 (01:54:50):
I mean, yeah, let's adjacent to Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:54:53):
This report sponsored by Coachella Valleycoffee dot Com comparison Test.
When you're in Columbia drinking Columbian coffee, are you wishing
for your Coachella?

Speaker 1 (01:55:03):
I will tell you. I told Courtney this. I said,
this is like truly not in the same universe as
Coachella Valley Coffee. It really isn't. I mean, And look,
maybe there's some clembing coffee I didn't taste the right
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Ocatillo Espresso, and I love that Sunrise Blend. A couple
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(01:55:47):
dot com, anything on their website, load it all up, Tease, coffee, spices,
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Put that coffee down.

Speaker 2 (01:56:07):
I'm Kid McCallister. This is the Mark Thompson Show.

Speaker 1 (01:56:10):
Right on the Mark Thompson Show, I am wrapping up,
and I didn't want to completely leave the show without
recognizing the loss of our dear friend Jim Avola, who
I loved. He was an amazing journalist, incredible professional, called

(01:56:42):
out by name during the Trump during the Obama administration
as he covered the White House for close to a decade.
He was the senior ABC News correspondent There at ABC,
he held so many positions, use the World News, tonight
anchor on weekends. He would on ABC's twenty twenty. You
see this picture now of him on the twenty twenty set.

(01:57:03):
He was a real thing, like he was really the
guy who knew politics. Okay, there he is with Obama.
He really understood so much about journalism too. He was,
you know, old school from that standpoint. He he actually
reported from theaters of war. He wasn't afraid of taking

(01:57:26):
on big stories. He made his name in Chicago and
was so terrific in Chicago that he was hired by
NBC in Los Angeles and then covered the OJ Simpson
mess that was the chase, the trial, the daily stuff

(01:57:48):
of OJ Simpson, and the network ABC saw his work
on that story, saw the way he broke stories, saw
the way he covered stories, saw the way he told stories,
and they hired him at ABC News to then be
this guy who he was. I think that is a
shot of him, Yeah, probably in Los Angeles, just hitting

(01:58:10):
from the hair. Yeah, he was a reporter's reporter. You
oftentimes hear that, but he really was widely respected by
so many in the industry and had been sick for
a long time, and it was a big part of
our show. As you know, his drop will live on
and a won marks madness. There's always been in this

(01:58:31):
country five percent idiots, you know. And I would challenge
Jim because I have a grim view of the American public,
and Jim sort of had a sense that was more
informed by an optimism about the vote among women, among
those who didn't show up in the last election, and

(01:58:53):
the numbers that we thought, meaning Jim thought they might.
I was always more skeptical, so we would go back
and forth on that. But his reporting from the border
of the US border. He moved to San Diego and
reported there doing heading up the investigative team there in
the San Diego area for the ABC station there. They

(01:59:14):
did a great report and O bit on him. There's
been some great obits. World News tonight did a big
oh bit on him. The number of the New York Times,
Washington Post, the La Times, the Chronicle, et cetera. They
wrote about him because he's that big and it's a
weird thing. I'll tell you what I told some friends.

(01:59:37):
Because he's such a dear friend, I lose track of
what a big deal he is. Right.

Speaker 2 (01:59:43):
It's easy to do that when and then all of
a sudden it's everywhere and you remember, oh, yeah, he
he was a big deal.

Speaker 1 (01:59:49):
Right, exactly exactly so so sad he battled kidney disease.
He got a kidney transplant from his jay, and he
seemed to be doing well for a while, and then
it's just been a sad erosion of his health and

(02:00:11):
he I went and visited him not that long ago,
and we were so lucky that he came onto the
show on Fridays the way he did, and it was
tough to see him diminished, but I think he went
out the way he wanted to go. And I know
him through mutual friends. That's a good question. How do

(02:00:33):
I know him? I know him through Josh Mankowitz. I
think it's probably who is my friend growing up in Washington, DC,
And I think I met Jim originally that way, so
I've known him for decades, but probably that was the
way I know him.

Speaker 2 (02:00:49):
Truly, such a great friendship, and it felt like because
when he was on this show with you, it felt
like we were all in on it and we became
friends with you guys.

Speaker 1 (02:01:01):
Yeah, yeah, really a wonderful guy with the reporter chops
that were just done real. So Debbie says, I had
a crush on Jim. I felt so honored when he
took my question on a meetup and tried to talk
me quote off the ledge. He seemed like just a
regular guy. Yeah, he came to our meetups. I forgot
in fact, you know we have another meetup coming, did I.

(02:01:25):
I'll get to that in a second. I didn't mention it,
but he was great to come to the meetups. You know,
was never compensated for this. He would always remind me
of that, and I I'll miss him desperately. So, Jim Avela,
I so enjoyed Avla on the show. Always look forward
to hearing him here, says Rain. Yeah, there he is
with his mama. His mom just a wonderful lady as well.

(02:01:49):
So thank you, Jim Avela, gone way way way too.
It's Mark Thompson show.

Speaker 2 (02:02:06):
There's always been in this country.

Speaker 1 (02:02:09):
Idiots. Yeah, those numbers may have to be revised. I
come to think you let me get into a couple
of comments on the way out, but I did want
to mention this. For those who have hung out on
the show this long, you need to know this. There
is a meetup planned. It is our big holiday hoe down.

(02:02:32):
This is a live all air event December first at
six o'clock Pacific nine o'clock Eastern time, Holiday hoe Down Throwdown.
If you've never been part of this kind of holiday
ho down, throwdown meetup thing before, you're in for a
treat it's two hours unfiltered. We have a lot of

(02:02:52):
people passing through, some of our regular guests, and most
of all you who want to be part of it.
So if you want to join us again, it's off
the air and no part of it ever ends up
on the air. So we can say some things and
do some things that we wouldn't do on the air.
Two hours of hoeing down. A fifty dollars donation to
get in. That's a fundraiser for the show via PayPal.

(02:03:14):
Our PayPal link is under this video and all our videos,
and then send an email to confirm that you did
the PayPal move. Send it to mtsmeetup at gmail dot com.
So again with the fifty dollars donation on PayPal, just
note HH or holiday hodown or hoe down or throw
down or something just to let us know that's what

(02:03:36):
it's for, and then send the email to confirm that
you've done it. Mtsmeetup at gmail dot com. The Holiday
hoe down throw down two hours of hoeing down.

Speaker 2 (02:03:47):
Six Western are required or six.

Speaker 1 (02:03:51):
O'clock a Pacific time, that is nine o'clock in these
what's that? On December first?

Speaker 2 (02:03:55):
Westernware required? Do we have to get the happening.

Speaker 1 (02:03:58):
Now, you know hoe downs are You're right, they're kind
of associated with the square dance kind of, you know,
but in this case it's some more. What am I
trying to say, Cosmo holoitin holdown anyway, December one, wear

(02:04:18):
your boots if you want, and we'd love to have
all of you join us. The holiday Hodown throw Down
is December first at six pm Pacific, nine pm on
the East Coast. So that's now there's a oh you've
got hoe down there a social gathering at which lively folk,

(02:04:39):
at which lively folk dancing takes place. So that's the
official definition, Tony, So we have to have dancing. I
guess Kim will have to folk dance, which will be
a I don't know who is having that. Honest wasn't
having it. Tony put up the maybe Tony'll do it.
He just wants an excuse to dance. Tony does b

(02:05:01):
oh missed you Mark getting in late. So I look
forward to catching up on this episode and hearing all
your stories from overseas. I just wanted to say great
to have you back. Even though Mo did a great job. Ye,
Moe was really terrific at least the stuff that I saw.
And thank you Boh for twenty five dollars in the
super chat. Big shout out to you. Yeah, trying to

(02:05:23):
make ends meet. It's nice to get a little support.
Thank you. And Jeff Moses, thank you for a two
dollars supersticker. Big shout out to you, Jeff, shout out. Yeah.
And that's the story, is that everybody that I need
to welcome back.

Speaker 2 (02:05:39):
Mark.

Speaker 1 (02:05:39):
We missed you, says Louise, So glad you survived South America.
Jim Avelo will always be an MPT show hho effort
and his drop will forever bring us a smile. It
is true. He is truly Hall of Fame. Thank you, Louise,
Amy b with a three dollars supersticker, Thank you, Amy.
Shout out to you, big shout out. Jeff Moses. I

(02:06:01):
just did. And Sylvia says I heard it that if
a president starts a war, he can't be voted out
until it's over. And did you hear that? Yeah? I
don't know where you heard it, but it's total bs.
Are you kidding? America? We had a war in Afghanisty
and lasted twenty years. They were plenty of presidents during
that time Vietnam War. They I mean, we can go

(02:06:22):
through all the wars, all the American wars, and trust me,
you can replace a president. Pet says, Trump is following
the old adage, if you were being run out of town,
get out in front of the mob and make it
look like you're leading a parade. Also, Pam BONDI probably
told Trump the evidence is gone that Maybe that's what
I was saying before that. You know, much of this

(02:06:43):
may be dry clean by FBI and Justice Department. So
we will see. But I will tell you that the
narrative is not completely manageable at this point. I'd see,
I'd suggest that there are just some aspects to this
of our feet enough to kind of contain. But tomorrow,
Kim will tell you what's on the show. What's on

(02:07:05):
the show tomorrow?

Speaker 2 (02:07:06):
Oh, tomorrow, that's a big one.

Speaker 10 (02:07:07):
We've got David K.

Speaker 2 (02:07:08):
Johnston coming up on the show and Jessica Denison.

Speaker 1 (02:07:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:07:12):
Well, Graham, it's gonna be a good good.

Speaker 10 (02:07:15):
Mark coming the show.

Speaker 1 (02:07:17):
Wow. Yeah, a lot of stuff going on tomorrow on
the show. I'm looking forward to it. So, guys, thank
you for supporting the show. Thank you for the waves
that you do support us. Many of you are on
PayPal or Patreon. Appreciate that you can find both at
the Mark Thompson Show dot com and as I say,
under all our videos there are links to Patreon and

(02:07:38):
to PayPal. So appreciate all of you. And now the
magnificent Shadow I'm self of Stevens for the Mark Johnson Show.
Bye ba, we are out of time. Kim does an
after party though, so all the time, Bye bye, check
that out until tomorrow. Thank you Tony, thank you Kim,
thank you everybody. Bye bye

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