The Mark Arum Show 6-19-26 HR 1

Happy Friday friends, happy June 10th, happy World Cup in Atlanta. It's an amazing setup for an amazing weekend here in the ATL. Mark Arams goes, going to take you all over the globe in just a second. We'll go up to the nation's capital, get the latest on the Iran War. 1035 political annals, Bill Crane's going to join us live. His reaction to the runoffs here and what we're going to see at the general election come November. And I've been told. I pinky swear that, yes, Gloria Estefan is going to join us live today. They were very, like, sorry yesterday. They just got a little mixed up with time, but yes, today should be fine. She was probably at the fan fest at the World Cup and forgot that she was supposed to join us. But I have been told Gloria Estefan is going to join us live at 1135. And Debra's got a pair of tickets to give away to see. Bob Dylan. So we've got a stack show for you. As I mentioned, we're going to kick off the show, though, in the nation's capital. Joining us live, Washington correspondent Scott McFarland. Scott, happy Friday, my friend. Mark, good morning. I'm going to stick around and listen for Gloria Estefan. You got me now for three hours. Oh, excellent. You're in the demo, too, which I love. Thank you for that, Scott. I want to start off with apparently a delay in the ongoing, the 60-day talks with Iran between the United States and Iran. What's the cause of delay and what are you hearing in D.C.? This thing is as fragile as a Faberje egg. I don't think anybody finds it to be sturdy, resilient, or guaranteed the last 60 days mark. Israel has resumed some type of strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon. And it's unclear if that breaches the deal, if that impacts the deal, but notwithstanding all that, Mark, the bigger problem for this 60-day memorandum of understanding might be the politics of it domestically. Republicans seem to hate this thing. And they found all kinds of ways to use the words, bad deal, in the Senate Republican conference over the last day or so. That doesn't bode well. for the sturdy after this time. Yeah, I pulled some audio of those GOP senators you mentioned. This is their reaction to that memorandum of understanding. Everything I've heard about it causes me concern. I do have concerns that certain aspects of this deal. might be a step in the wrong direction. I have to know where that money is coming from because I don't think my constituents are going to be really happy about it if that's all US taxpayer dollars. History demonstrates that giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us.

There are skeptics that we want to give Iran any benefit of the doubt or give them a try because they're an unstable, untrustworthy bunch. I think one of the most telling things we heard from the G7 and then the eventual signing at Versailles, was President Trump making reference to Herbert Hoover. And I think it's obvious that the off-ramp that the president decided to take was an economic one. Globally didn't want to. push the world into a global depression, which is obviously a huge point. But is that enough reason to give Iran all that we appear to be giving them? The Herbert Hooper reference really was something, wasn't it? I mean, talking about how this war could thrust the world into a depression, raises questions about the wisdom of waging the war. The president's been, you know, criticized as... Raging a war of choice, hasn't he? That this is something that didn't have to be done that the president pushed forward. If it's now pushed us to the break of depression, well, he's got another political problem back home. There are Democrats with whom I'm speaking, Mark, top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee who say, you know, we're going to have to figure out some way to get out of this thing. And yes, this terrible deal Trump's cutting components of this may have to stick. But it shows the folly of the entire enterprise that we thrust our economy and the world's economy into such danger in what is still being characterized as a war of choice. One of the possibilities of this memorandum of understanding just getting blown up or ripped up into bits is what we might hear from Iran, Iran state media. This from the economist this morning, Scott, Iran's Supreme Leader Kamani wrote in a statement that President Trump agreed to a deal, quote, out of desperation. And that's eventually going to get on the president's desk, and I'm sure he's not going to like reading that. Yeah, and the president's kind of pushing back on his social media platforms this morning with equally hyperbolic terms and tone towards the Iranians. That's not the best way to enter a peace negotiation with the histrionics of these statements. I think the odds are good this thing implodes. JD Vance's trip to Switzerland has already been pushed back for, quote, logistical reasons. I don't buy that. There's some tenuousness here, Mark. And I don't know that this memorandum of understanding, as it's been described to us and as we've been briefed about it. is going to survive the weekend. Something's going to have to change. While I have it, I'm sure Iran is the number one talking point right now on Capitol Hill. But the future of the DNI and Bill Pulte, we've seen a lot of movement there. Generally, what's the feeling of Bill Pulte? And it looks like he is going to, at least for some period of time, become the acting head of the DNI. According to the briefings I've gotten from the Senate, Bill Pulte could take over as early as Monday. as the director of national intelligence. So in the office, with the team, with the staff. It's a grave concern for Democrats who think that Bill Pulte is a purely political actor with zero intelligence and national security experience. You'd think you'd want that in your director of national intelligence.

Republicans haven't been championing it, Mark, they've been silent about it. And that's always notorious to me, but they're not there pushing hard on the president's nominees and the president's choices. There's some consternation on both sides. He's going to get the job, and it's leverage for the president. But one of the prerequisites of that job legally is to have some sort of background in intelligence, which Mr. Bill Pulte, despite his financial success in the real estate world, is lacking on his resume. I had one Republican senator tell me that we want outside thinkers, people who are change agents, and maybe somebody who's not from the intelligence world would do well to shake things up. I don't know if everybody wants a change agent looking at our national intelligence and having the keys to 18 different intelligence agencies, but that's the argument that's been made in support of Bill Pulte. President recognized at some point in the last week that this bill pulled the nomination gives him leverage over his own party, over Democrats, and why surrender that? But boy, it's a risk. And there are many people who remember the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, standing in Fulton County. watching that rate of the elections board. And you can't help but wonder what Bill Pulte. He was a purely political actor who is an election denier what he would do with these keys. I've seen reporting for multiple outlets that it seems that President Trump wants Bill Pulte in there to thin the herd and fire a lot of folks at DNI. I don't, why would the president want to get rid of so many folks from this department? There's actually been a pre-Trumpian argument that some of these intelligence agencies are too broad. They're redundant. They have too many people. They could use a good right sizing. That's the argument. It's the contrarian argument for this. The other issue is that Trump still believes there's a deep state. a deep-seated group of career civil servants who are somehow mechanizing their jobs against him. Maybe Bill Pulte can thin out some of the deep state. But that sounds like a bunch of conspiracy flat earth stuff to me. Day one, every day, I should say, first thing I do for show prep is read your substack newsletter. I highly recommend all the listeners subscribe, get the insight, get the info from Capitol Hill and your decades of experience. How can folks sign up for your newsletter, Scott? Go to substack.com. It's McFarland News. And yes, every morning in the 7 a.m. Eastern Time hour, we put out a note the thing they used to circulate inside of CBS News to the bosses. Here's all the stories I'm watching today that haven't quite made. The press releases of the calendar yet. Yeah, I mean, it's fantastic. I owe you a debt of gratitude. It gives me a good jumpstart on the show. Like, all right, what's making headlines up in the nation's capital? So Substack, Scott McFarland, it's M-A-C. Far Lane. Thank you. Yes, exactly. But you'll find it. And you're rising on the ranks of the newsletter charts. That's because my mom reads it a thousand times a day. It helps boost the numbers, dude. Well, as my mom, who listens every day, can agree that sometimes can help. Scott, great stuff, as always. Have a peaceful weekend and a good June 19th, my friend.

Enjoy the World Cup. There you go. Yes, the World Cup. We got to talk about the World Cup, Debra. Did you get to go to the game yesterday? The match. I'm sorry, the match. No, I was working. Oh, I don't know. I don't know where you go. I thought you, once you're out of here at noon. I'm just not out of here at noon. I'm just not in the studio at noon. I don't know where you go. I saw political analyst Stephen Lawson posted some. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he went there. We got to get you to a match. We got to get you to a match. 924 on the Mark Aaron show. Happy 64th birthday. Paula Abdul. Big fan. Big fan of my girlfriend in college favored Paula Abdul. 64. A lot of folks know her as American Idol judge. Vinny didn't, you didn't know. So I didn't know this song was by her. But I know the song, but you know how I know the song? Because Jay Cole sampled it. I was about to say Jaycoe sampled it. I love that song. Happy birthday, Paula Abdul. Welcome back to the Mark Aram show again. We're still efforting to get Deborah tickets to a World Cup match. Speaking of the World Cup, ISIS. Yeah, they're still a thing. They have issued a World Cup threat. Do we need to be worried here in Atlanta, Deborah? I mean, so I don't know if they're using social media or what, you know, a platform ISIS is using, but they're out there telling people that do support ISIS. If you're going to a World Cup match, we want you to create as much chaos as possible. you know, hurt people, encourage setting fires, encouraging stampedes. Yeah, really terrible things. So, of course, you know, the FBI is out there. All this increased security. And they have these robot dogs. I haven't seen one around here. But they've showed a couple videos of robot dogs walking around some of the stadiums. I don't know if it was the Benz or Dallas or Denver or whatever, trying to help out with that. So there's just even more security. What does the robot dog do? Is it like, can it attack? Someone? Well, it's, I mean, it's just another way to kind of monitor people up close where you don't have a static camera. It's like a camera, you know, it's like a guard dog. Yeah. Haven't you seen the security guard? No, but they can say like sick them and the- Well, it's run by a person, right? Like there's a person on the other side. I don't think it's just going to like run off and sick them. Interesting. All right. Yeah, listen, we had the FBI in studio last week, GBI. all the local law enforcement. I'm sure they're doing everything they can. So is this ISIS threat real? We don't know. I'll tell you what is real. Foreigners fascination with an American staple, some of you think. Ranch dressing. There are people from other countries come into the United States that have never experienced ranch dressing and they're losing their ever-loving minds so much so that the TSA has issued a warning when it comes to ranch. So this is real. I have friends in Europe that love ranch dressing. They just, I don't understand it. I don't like it at all, but they love it. I guess this is one of the only places that have it. Yeah, it's America. I call it American dressing. Well, it's everywhere. And so people from other countries are trying it for the first time and they love it. And they're trying to take bottles home with it.

Of course, you know, you're limited to how much liquid you can carry. So they're saying, you know, please, if you're going to take it, check it in your luggage. Some people are trying to drink it right there because I know, which is awful. There is a video that showed of someone drinking it because they didn't want to let it go and they didn't want to throw it away. But TSA is like, if you're going to take it, please check it in the luggage. I don't hate ranch dressing. Well, I do. It's just mediocre to me. I mean, if I'll eat it if that's the. But I don't love it. And it boggles my mind that foreigners are all over it. What's the, there's in Great Britain in England, there's something called salad cream. I always assumed that was something. I wouldn't have eaten that either. So I don't know. Where's Nick? Yeah, well, ask English Nick when he gets in. So, I mean, I love watching the foreigners that are here for the World Cup experience in American foods. Apparently they love Waffle House and Taco Bell. Yeah, and it's just a minute. There's a guy from Scotland up in Boston. He's been eating lobster rolls and pizza. It's very funny. I've been seeing one about Wingstop. Somebody tried Wingstop. Wait, listen, you want great food? Stuff you never had come to these United States of America. But I did not expect ranch to be the surprise hit from our foreign visitors. Speaking of foreign nations, escalation between Russia and Ukraine. We'll get the latest on that. And what's the future of that ice facility in Social Circle? Really big local story. We'll hit it next on the Mark Aram Show.

937 on the Mark Aram Show. Happy 63rd birthday, Simon Wright. Drummer for Dio and ACDC. ACDC, I can hear that on the river? Yes, and they will be in town at the end of the summer. They're playing the beds. Get out. We can call it the Benz again after the World Cup. Once it's not the World Cup, it's the Benz. I'm sorry, assume me. I'm still calling it the Benz during the World Cup. Welcome back to the Mark Aram show. A couple of big local stories I want to touch upon. First off the future of the ICE facility in Social Circle, the government bought a big warehouse. It was a big hullabaloo. What's the status with it, Deborah? Looks like that ice does not need that big warehouse anymore. They said they're going to offload about seven warehouses that they purchased for over $700 million. And they're either going to. to give them to other federal agencies or they're going to sell them. And social circle's not sad about this. They did not want that ice facility. And they're saying hopefully it'll be sold and it'll be something that generates tax revenue for the city. They were mostly worried about kind of like the data center thing where they were going to be using a lot of the resources, the water, the energy, and they didn't think the city could handle it. So they are not upset that ice will not be coming down to social circle. And listen, I'm not one to pat myself on the back or say I told you so, but Dagnappett, I called this. I told you this. The government buying all of these warehouses for ice facilities for the detainees, that was a short-sighted maneuver. Why, Mark, Aram? Well, let me tell you why, dear listener. Because eventually we're going to run out of detainees. Like we arrest them. We put them in the facility. Then we deport them. There's not an infinite number of illegals that we could arrest, detain, and then deport. It was so short-sighted. I knew it. If you weren't, if you guys weren't too busy doing stuff for me, I'd say pull the audio of when I talked about this because I said this is, and they're spending hundreds of millions of dollars. Sometimes like, remember, Deborah, like five times market value? That was the big story. Yeah. And so now. Now they're not going to use it. So hopefully. So they're going to give them to other government agencies. Which I don't know what that would be used. Or they're going to sell them, but they're going to take a loss because they paid five times market value. I should have bet that on Kalshi. Was that a thing I could bet on Kalshi? It is now. We saw the Kalshi billboards in New York City. Everywhere. Yeah, that was crazy. How about... The cab driver in New York City. So Deborah and I went. Which one? We land in LaGuardia. And I'm sitting, Vin. It's like a minivan cab because we have all, there's three of us, me, Deborah Ken and all our luggage. And so Debra and Ken sat in the backseat and I sat in the front seat. And the cab driver, I don't know what country was from. He was a nice guy. But he's got the voice activated GPS to take us to our hotel in Midtown Manhattan. And.

He just ignored it. Not paying attention at all. Ignored it. He'd be like, in a hundred feet, take a right turn. Nope. Nope. And I'm like, now you two kind of know your way around New York. I knew where we had to go. I do not. So I would be like, why didn't we turn? Where is he taking us? Is he going to skin me alive? Like what's happening? Like I was, he was following a proper route. Not the route I would have taken into Manhattan. He went in. And then both of you were like, why are we going this way? Yeah. But if you're not, if you're going to ignore the GPS, that's loud AF. Just turn it off, man. Literally. Yeah, it was like, oh, make a U-turn. You missed your turn. It was very frustrating. I digress. All right, back to Social Circle. So it's not going to happen there. And this isn't the only place. Four months after the Federal Homeland Security paid $129 million to buy a warehouse in Morris County, New Jersey to convert into an ICE detention center, they are now reportedly done with the plans. LeVon Putney has more. The New York Times was first to report Thursday. The Trump administration is looking to sell the Roxbury warehouse off Route 46, along with six other warehouses around the country, all bought for a total of $11 billion. The report also said Homeland Security would consider giving the properties to other federal agencies. Development of the Rocksbury site was already put on hold in May, pending an environmental review. That delay for the review? That came after the town and state filed lawsuits to stop the project. Governor Cheryl put out a statement Thursday. calling Homeland Security's decision a win for Roxbury and the state. I'm Levon Putney. Thank you, Levon Putney. That's a hell of a name. Again, it's rare when I'm good. Now, it's not even rare. I got a pretty good slugging percentage. I knew that was a bad idea. There was no need for it. And I wish we could be like, oh, it was a smart financial move because now we can flip the warehouses. Maybe sell them to Amazon and they make data centers out? I don't know. But I knew, I was like, this is very short-sighted. Very short-sighted. So that's a waste of money. This is, I think people are calling it a waste of money, but. I, to me, this is really not a big story. New problems with the reflecting pool in D.C. after a nearly $15 million renovation touted by the president, ABC's News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Carl. Workers with waiters and pool cleaning equipment are working overtime at Washington's iconic reflecting pool, battling the algae that has turned one of the president's prized projects from American flag blue. to green if you take a look not only is the green of the algae come back but look at that american flag blue in the paint it's actually starting to peel it's coming up that was not what the president had in mind for this project which was completed just last week here's why i don't think this is a big issue

And I, you know, that's our tax dollars, yes. But listen, making the reflecting pool, you've been there, Deborah, right? I have. I've been to the reflecting pool. I was there last spring. Beautiful. The ducks. That's where I'm worried about the ducks. They keep pouring chemicals in there. What about the poor duck? Here's why I'm not concerned about it. Let's say, Deborah, you say, huh, I want a pool in my backyard. Mm-hmm. You hire someone to build a pool in your backyard. Yeah. You seem like you probably grew up in an above ground pool neighborhood. No, actually, my neighbors had a below. Yeah, and they let us use it all the time. My neighbor had an above ground pool. That's the part of Connecticut. I grew up because we have winter, yeah. Above ground pool. And my neighbor used to let me use it. But I think the preferred pool is in ground. I don't know. I've never owned a pool. That's not true. I rented a house in Smyrna that had a pool. And it was open for two days before it broke. And the landlord's like, what do you want me to do? So we had two days of pool use. And then it just attracted rats. It was a big pool of rats that my dog Bazozzi used to hunt in the backyard. Anyway, I don't want to spoil your art. All right. So Deborah buys, I don't know what a pool costs. 50 grand. Probably a little bit more depending on the size. 100 grand. Deborah buys $100,000 below ground pool in her backyard. She's out there, chilling, drinking adult beverages, watching World Cup matches. And all of a sudden, the pool. starts peeling, like the bottom of it starts, like what's coming up in the reflecting pool right now, or there's a leak, or there's a crap, there's something that goes wrong with it. What do you do, Deborah, if your pool that you just purchased starts malfunctioning? Well, there should be a warranty, I'm assuming. Exactly. So you call the people that did it. There's usually at least a 60 day, if not a year warranty on something. I watch a lot of HGTV. Thank you. So for 15 million, this was a no big contract, by the way. Hell yeah, there's a warranty. Sorry, Mr. Pool Guy. Get back up here from West Palm Beach and fix this ish. That's why I'm not worried about it. Like, do the job until you get it right. And that's what I have faith is going to happen. Do the job until you get it right. There had to have been a warranty, right? I know Clark Howard says don't get a warranty, but if you're spending $15 million on a pool. Well, usually on an installation, there's some type of warranty. He might not have added on a warranty. I'm just worried about the ducks. I just, you and I do want to do in my backyard. One of my best friends growing up, E.J., his parents were old school hippies. They lived in like a house built in the 1700s. And in their front yard, they had a frog pond. What are you? They just don't smell that great. That's all. So it was a rectangular pond, like, I don't know, six feet deep, maybe eight feet by six feet. And there's lily pads in there. It was, we kind of screwed us up playing wiffle ball because you had to dodge. You know, if you're going for a fly ball, you could. I was like, oh, I want to put a frog pond. Would soba chase the frogs? Because my dog chased frogs. Yeah, she would. That's right. E.J. did not have it. He had cats. I don't think they chased. Anyway, what was I talking about? The reflecting pool, frog pond. Anyway, I don't know. I lost it. All right, one more local story. This is a weird. This is not a good story. The teacher out was in Douglas County, Deborah. She was...

accused of having inappropriate relationships with a couple of students. Inappropriate relationships with multiple students hooking up in the classroom and closets, even in a car. And now there's more evidence coming forward saying she was being blackmailed. These students were saying they wanted better grades. They found her only fans account. And they were blackmailing her to try to get better grades. Yeah. All right. So obviously, you know, just you don't do that. the relationships, the, you know, illegal underage relationships with your students. But if you're a teacher... Like, that's a career ender, I would imagine, having an OnlyFans base. I would, unless I don't know, I've never been on OnlyFans. I'll, I swear on a Bible. Technically, it's anything. Like, you could have a baseball card collecting OnlyFan, but the majority of it tends to lean towards adult content. What they say is, it's exclusive content. Or whatever that means. It's like it's premium right. There's an extra tier for that. So I don't know what her only fan channel was. But are these kids going to get charged for blackmail? Well, they're underage. But still, like, blackmail is a crime. Like, I'm not letting this teacher off the hook. I guess she has to prove the blackmail, right? That's a whole other child. That dad trial's going to come way after the other one. Yeah, she'll be in jail when that. But I don't think the kids are immune from prosecution. Like, blackmail's not a good thing. No, it depends on the Karen mom, right? No, I think it's up to the DA. Is the DA be like, hey, do you want to charge these kids? But they were victims of, I don't know. Anyway, general note, if you're a public school educator or private school educator, anything in the education realm, do not sign up for only fans.

Did you find the remix of the Cosby Show intro? What is this? Season one. They had like every season had a new intro. Yeah. Oh, I don't recognize this one. I don't recognize. I remember this one, yeah. Why we play in the Cosby Show theme. Felicia Rashad turned 78 today. Former wife of Ahmad Rashad, actress on the Cosby Show, sister of Debbie Allen. She was just in The Gilded Age, HBO show The Gilded Age. Oh, I didn't see that. She, I mean. She looks great still, doesn't she? She, and she's such a good actress. Has she ever been asked if she knew what was up with her co-star? I don't know if she's come out and said anything. I know some of the children have kind of said a little bit. Like they didn't know, like Rudy was asked, and I don't think she said she didn't know what was up. If Felicia Rashad was in studio and I'd love to interview, I wouldn't have the... the Cajones to ask her, hey, did you know what was up with her? I loved reruns of the Cosby show when I was a kid. But she was like, in my mind, she's still Mrs. Cosby, like the stern mom. Oh, yeah. She's Claire. Always. Yeah. She would scare the, yeah. But if you. So the Gilded Age is on HBO. Mine and I hate watch the first two seasons. Why'd you hate watch it? Because it's kind of a spin off of Downton Abbey. Oh, okay. All right. And you had Downton Abbey first. And yes. And I was like, well, it got better. I think the third season, it's picked up. But we hate, hate watched it for a while. So I'm not going to recommend it. But watch season three with Felicia Rashad. She's phenomenal in that. All right, Deborah, lit us update. You know, I've had fine experiences with Waymo's here in Metro Atlanta. Waymo in the news again. This time, a Waymo recall. What are they struggling with now? We know they can't handle standing water. Yeah, remember they got recalled or pulled off the streets because they were trying to drive in the flooded streets of Peachtree or whatever, so they pulled them off. Now they're being recalled because they don't recognize construction zone signs. So you know how they'll have roads blocked off? Like do not pass or local traffic only? Waymo don't care. Waymo's just going to go right through there. And obviously it's dangerous if there's equipment, if the road's not finished, so big metal plates that they put out. Waymo really can't handle it. So now they've had to... pull all those robo taxis off the road and try to get new. Before they put them on a road, they would have had their ish buttoned up tightly. No, they don't. They're just like, hey, these cars drive around. I thought I might get a Waymo yesterday after the show I had to drop my car off at Rocko's shocking. My car is having issues again. And that's where I've gotten Waymos before. Can you request a Waymo? I've never seen an option for that. It's just like it offers it to you. But it didn't offer. They're running around at 5 in the morning. Yeah, exactly. We see them all. I don't know if that's, I don't know if that's considered artificial intelligence or not, but it's rare. We have a really positive AI story. This one is great. Doctors were stumped on trying to diagnose these patients. They didn't know what they were doing. So they enlisted the help of AI. And AI figured out what disease these patients had. Yeah, Open AI was able to identify 18 new diagnosis for children that had these.

very rare illnesses and they tried all these things they could not solve it and they're all these genetic things trials whatever and finally they're just like you know what let's what can it hurt let's try AI AI was able to kind of analyze the genetic data and get and found not cures but you know yeah they diagnosed yeah this is what they are suffering from I I It's not often we get a good AI story, but that is a good AI story. Thank you, Deborah. All right, news weather and traffic in under three minutes when we come back. Escalation in Ukraine. The latest on the negotiations between the United States and Iran, and we will update our top local stories. Social media active through the program at Mark Airman at WSB Radio.