The Ben Mulroney Show - Is Obama guilty of treason? At least Trump isn't talking about Ozzy!

Episode Date: July 23, 2025

- Alan Cross/Musicologist - Craig Baird If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠ Twitter: ⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠ TikTok: ⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠ Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. If you've been following the news, like really following it, you know how exhausting it can be. Politics, conflict, uncertainty, it's a lot to carry. And for many men, there's this expectation to stay calm, stay in control and not talk about how it's affecting you. But the truth is, you're allowed to feel overwhelmed.

You're allowed to say, I'm not okay right now. And trust me, I have been there. Whether it's the state of the world stress at home, or just feeling like you've got to have it all together and have all the answers, you don't have to hold it in. Better help is here to help with the world's largest network of licensed therapists. They've already supported over 5 million people, you can connect with a therapist online from wherever you are, no waitlist, no office visits. And if it's not the right fit you can switch any time it's time to put your mental health on the agenda. Talk it out with better help. Visit betterhelp.com slash Mulrooney today to get 10 percent off your first month.

That's better help. H e l p dot com slash Mulrooney. No frills delivers get groceries delivered to your door from no frills with PC Express shop online and get fifteen dollars in PC Optimum Points on your first five orders. Shop now at NoFrails.ca. Welcome to the Ben Mulroney show on this Wednesday, July 23rd. We're halfway through the week, Canada. Thank you so much. We're at the top of the mountain and now we're going to coast down until the weekend. And tomorrow after the show, I am taking my kids to go see Fantastic Four First Steps. So this is the end of the Triple Crown for us,

between Jurassic World, Superman, and now Fantastic Four. Those are the three big ones we want to see this summer. And so we'll have completed the Triple Crown. I will report back on Friday. By all accounts, this one is set to be a monster at the box office and very, very much a looking forward to it. So if you're going to go this weekend, get your tickets now because it's going to,

I they're saying it's going to make $200 million at the box office in its first weekend. Yesterday we talked about the scorched earth interview, the three hour interview that Hunter Biden gave to some outlet called Channel 5, where he had choice words for pretty much anybody who crossed his dad's path, anybody within the Democratic Party

who was not on team Biden. He had something to say and the hits just keep coming. We found another gem that we want to share with you. This one is Biden giving his take on the Donald Trump aide, Stephen Miller. Now you'll remember, Stephen Miller is an odd, he's an odd duck. He's an odd duck in the first administration.

He had this, well, everyone knew he was bald, and yet he had something that looked like hair or fuzz that kept moving on the top of his head. And finally, one day he just went fully bald. But he's an odd duck and he says weird things and he behaves like the way an alien would behave if they were trying to pretend to be human. That's the nicest way I can put it. Here's how Hunter Biden puts it. I don't know anyone personally that if you took Stephen Miller

isolated and you played a clip of the things that he says in his little physical demeanor, and not be able to say, there's something f***ed up about that motherf***er. However, how do you identify and change the mind of someone who is so ignorant that they cannot discern between a fact and an outright lie. Look, I've now watched enough of this stuff. And I saw Hunter was on a podcast, which just popped

up on my social media feed during the break. And he was going to town on George Clooney. And he claimed that the reason George Clooney decided to stand in opposition to Joe Biden running a second time was because George's wife was upset with Joe Biden over something to do with Benjamin Netanyahu. In other words, it wasn't on principle. It was because his wife was miffed. Anyway, all that to say, I've now watched enough of this guy. And I swear to God, if somebody gave him a podcast, I would be listening every week, every week,

just to see what his hot take is on X, Y or Z. I think it would be the most entertaining show out there. And also his liberal use of the F word. He knows how to use it. He uses it so efficiently. Some people use it and you're just like, okay, you're just swearing a little too much. It's just too much. He uses it very well.

Oh yeah. Like a surgeon, like surgically, like a scalpel. Yeah. He knows exactly when to drop an F bombbomb. Sometimes like a back-to-back F-bomb. All right, so that's one side of the political equation. That's the democratic side. Let's look at the Republican side. We have often said, and we're not the first to say it,

and we will certainly not be the last, but whenever there is a story out there that Donald Trump is not in control of, when there is a narrative that has gotten away from him and he feels that the headlines are not on his side, he will oftentimes create a new story for all of us to talk about. And right now he's living in a time

where he cannot wrest control of the Jeffrey Epstein story. The fact that the the all of the documents have not been released, even though he said they were going to be released. And he said that this was proof that this was the swamp incarnate. And he was going to he was going to let everybody know what was in these things. And it didn't matter whose names were in there. If those people had to go to jail, they were going to go to jail because that was the right thing to do well now there's nothing to see there and there are a lot of people especially within the MAGA camp very upset with him about that so what does he do well there's no proof of this but this is my contention

he is now creating a story that he can control and he is now claiming that President Obama committed treason. And according to him, according to Tulsi Gabbard, his who's she's the head of national intelligence. And she, she claimed, which is then repeated by Donald Trump, that they have proof that Obama orchestrated the entire, well, his words, not mine, Russia hoax.

And all of the documents are there for people to see. And Donald Trump is claiming that he's going to go after Obama for treason. Let's listen to the logic that exists only in Donald Trump's head. If you look at that, those papers, they have them stone cold and it was President Obama. It wasn't lots of people all over the place. It was them too. But the leader of the gang was President Obama, Barack Hussein Obama. Have you heard of him? And except for the fact that he gets shielded by the press for his entire life. That's the one they...

Look, he's guilty. It's not a question... You know, I like to say, let's give it time. It's there. He's guilty. This was treason. This was every word you can think of. They tried to steal the election. They tried to obfuscate the election. They did things that nobody's ever even imagined, even in other countries. You've seen some

pretty rough countries. This man has seen some pretty rough countries, but you've never seen anything like it. And we have all of the documents. And from what Tulsi told me, she's got thousands of additional documents coming. So President Obama, it was his concept, his idea, but he also got it from crooked Hillary Clinton crooked is a three dollar bill. All right, well, listen, listen, Mr. President, you know what to do. Show us the documents. Show us the receipts. Let us be the judge. We clearly are not allowed to be the judge on the Epstein files. Let us be the judge of this. Because otherwise, again, it's just you talking about documents we haven't seen. And that's not going to be good enough for a lot of people.

And look, yes, the Donald Trump administration is crazy town. I get that. We live it every single day. But I have to say, I was enjoying living in a world where that language and that parroted back accusation of the Russia hoax and the tried and they tried to steal the election. We haven't heard that in a long time. It's been a very long time since Donald Trump or anyone on his side has really

beat that drum. And I was, I was almost forgetting that that was part of the whole narrative and he brought it back and I'm getting a little bit of, I'm getting, I'm retraumatized is what it is. And he's has retraumatized me show us the documents or shut up. Like that should be the rule here, right? Show us the docs or shut up. But I don't want to have to deal with this parroting back of accusations again and again. And again,

a lot of people want to live in the alternate reality where Kamala Harris had won the election. Uh, Jeff Daniels, the great actor for both of Dumb and Dumber and of a number of other things, arachnophobia, that was a great one. He believes that in re-electing Donald Trump, we have lost our decency. We've lost decency, we've lost civility, we've lost respect for the rule of law. Lost it. We have normalized verbal abuse on the internet.

We've normalized bullying. I mean, nobody has great things to say about politicians. They never have. Go back to Mark Twain. But ideally, we're supposed to elect the best of us, not the worst of us. He's everything that's wrong with not just America, but with being a human being. Bullying is not the exclusive domain of Donald Trump. That's a fact. And yeah, look, that's his take. He's kind of right. He's not entirely right. But we'll leave it with you. By now, you've probably heard that rock legend Ozzy

Osborne has passed away. We'll talk about that next. Hey, we know you probably hit play to escape your business banking, not think about it. But what if we told you there was a way to skip over the pressures of banking? By matching with a TD Small Business Account Manager, you can get the proactive business banking advice and support your business needs. Ready to press play? Get up to $2,700 when you open select small business banking products. Yep, that's $2,700 to turn up your business.

Visit td.com slash small business match to learn more. Conditions apply. Welcome back to the Ben Mulrooney Show and that obviously was Ozzy Osbourne singing Mama I'm Coming Home and it was actually the final time that he ever sang that iconic song he passed yesterday after a life well well lived to be in my humble estimation a life very well lived here to talk about that life and the accomplishments and the music is Alan Cross the host of the ongoing history of new music Alan. Thank you so much for joining us You know what this this death is a has affected me more than I thought it would how so? Ozzy was one of those guys who was always there. We've known about black Sabbath since at least

1970 Ozzy has been a fixture for baby boomers, Gen Xers, millennials and Gen Zers through his work with Black Sabbath with his solo work, with his television show, with him just always being there. Yeah, yeah. And now he's not. Yeah, you're right. And somebody pointed out earlier today that his passing,

you're right, he means something very specifically to so many different generations. And it's very hard to find somebody else from his musical genre, from his era that you can say the same thing about. It's true. Ozzy was the godfather of metal. And without him, the world of music would be a lot different.

Of course, he had help with the guys in Black Sabbath, but he was the focal point of that band. And his craziness and his intensity and his wild antics were all part of this. I remember, and if you're old enough, you will, maybe hearing a song like Warpigs or Iron Man for the first time on the radio. And it's like, whoa, wait a second. This is scary. Yeah. This is terrifying. This is dark. It was like nothing else out there. Yeah. And for those people for whom their introduction to Ozzy Osbourne was the Osbour's TV show, which was a very wholesome take on on on family life inside the Osborne household. That is not the genesis of Ozzy Osborne's career. As you said, there were some

darkness there. There were some controversies there. Let's talk about those. Oh, God, there is so many. I mean, this is a guy who, he, okay, he ingested so much alcohol and so many drugs and did so many crazy things over the course of the first couple of decades of his life, um, in 19, well, sorry, minister of his career in the 1970s, 1980s. I mean, that's the fact that this guy isn't dead is shocking and I'll give you a true story. In about 15 years ago, he was going in for a colonoscopy or something and he was given sedatives to put him to sleep. Are you asleep, Mr. Osborne?

No. Are you asleep, Mr. Osborne? No. Are you asleep, Mr. Osborne? No. How are you still awake, Mr. Osborne? No. Are you asleep Mr. Osborne? No. Are you asleep Mr. Osborne? No. How are you still awake Mr. Osborne? So what happened was there was a serious scientific study. They actually sequenced Ozzie's genome to find out what was going on with this man and they found a genetic mutation that made him more tolerant to drugs and alcohol than the average human being. He was literally a mutant. Yeah. And that that paper again,

completely scientific and it was presented at a medical conference. Yeah. So you know, he was one of a kind, quite literally one of a kind. Yeah. Well, and I want to go back to the TV show, not because it's the most important part of his career, but because there were so many subplots and so many threads to pull from that, that impacted his career. You know, he was, he was, certain times on that show, you couldn't understand a word he said, they would have to subtitle him. There was some, there was some comedy. It was played for comedy, but there was underlying Parkinson's, but there was also, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember at one point there,

he and his wife discovered that he was on completely the wrong drug protocol, which was one of the reasons he was so incapable of speaking coherently. Yes. Now, uh, for the TV show, it all began with the success of the odds fest festival, which was an Aussie, uh, uh, headline thing that, uh, Sharon put together after Ozzy was refused to slot at Lollapalooza. The Sharon realized that there was an opportunity to bring on to a brand new generation and they're going to have to do it in the way the generation consumed media. And at the time that was watching MTV. So she struck this deal with MTV for this, I, this reality show. And remember this is 2001, 2002.

Yeah. He, it's, it's, uh, something, you know, it something, it's reality television. Nobody had ever done anything like this before. And they played it for what it was, a goofy, fun, dysfunctional family, the rock star Scion living in Beverly Hills. And this also coincided with a terrible ATV quad bike

accident that Ozzy had. He was going down a hill, hit a pothole. He fell off the bike. The bike went up in the air, landed on top of him. Lots and lots of injuries that would plague him for the rest of his life. And when you talk about the drug protocols that he was on, that's what caused it.

This early 2000s quad bike accident he had punctured lungs he had internal bleeding he had broken vertebrae he almost died yeah and and he was on painkillers for for the rest of his life now and i'm going to just go off on a riff here with those painkillers he was off them for the final show he had chronic pain for the last 25 years of his life. He was off those drugs so he could perform at that back at the beginning. Well, just listening to him, that was incredible to hear him sing so clearly. Not for nothing, there are a lot of great acts today who do not hit the notes that they hit in the studio when they're on stage, and he hit all the notes on stage. Well, here's, I don't know about that because-

Well, close enough though. I'll tell you why, yeah, close enough for sure. Now, for a lot of Ozzy's career, there was a guy behind the curtain and he would help Ozzy hit those high notes. What do you mean? There was a backup singer behind the curtain that would help Ozzy hit the- What?

Yes. No way. Yes. So he literally had a guy on a microphone backstage and when he couldn't hit the notes, this guy would come in and sing the note and he would what? Just open his mouth? This is the story. No way. Yes. But for the final show, there were talk, there were talk, there was talk about how are we going to help Ozzy with his vocals. And I don't know what the ultimate outcome was, but after watching what we saw, I think Ozzy did it all on his own. But there was, there may have been somebody there just to help out just in case. Let's finish up this conversation about

Ozzy Osbourne by looking at Ozzy Osbourne the man and Ozzy Osbourne the myth. There are certain things that we we know to be true about Ozzy that aren't necessarily true. Can you let can you let our listeners know that they may be believing something that isn't quite true? that they may be believing something that isn't quite true. Um, rephrase the question. Well, look, the bat thing, for example, what's the story about the bat thing? Okay, the bat thing actually happened. It was in Des Moines, Iowa, 17 year old kid

through this live bat on stage. Ozzy thought it was a toy, picked it up and bit off its head. And it wasn't until he felt the back, uh, head wriggling in his mouth that he realized, Oh, that wasn't the toy. He thought, he, he thought he was biting into a toy. Yes. And he bit into a live, I mean, he get, I mean, you can get diseases from that. Well for the rest of the tour, he took rabies shots. Uh, yeah.

But then again, he is a mutant and I'm sure that that rabies only made him stronger. Probably did. Oh my goodness. And was there a knock-on effect of that? Like he was, you know, he was the Prince of Darkness, right? There must have been some pearl-clutching Bible thumpers who took great issue with Ozzy Osbourne. Oh yes, he was central to the satanic panic of the early 1980s when everybody was looking at bands like Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest and Led Zeppelin, you know, incorporating satanic backwards messages in their records. And he was actually brought into court over a song called Suicide Solution. Oh right, I remember. Hey Alan, we're gonna leave it there, but thank you so much for helping us remember

him just a little more clearly and a little more dearly. Anytime. Think you know Canadian history? Think again. We're uncovering surprising little known moments that shaped the nation with Craig Baird next. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show and class is now in session. It's time for our National History lesson with the professor himself, Craig Baird, the host

of Canadian History X. Professor, welcome to the show. And I know you're not a real professor, but I keep calling you that. Thanks for having me. Alright, so today we're starting with a conversation about the most, one of the most famous intersections in Canada, Portage in Maine in Winnipeg. Yeah, this is a very famous intersection. People know it as being the coldest intersection in Canada, although that might not be true. But it has a long, really interesting history. It kind of began because of Red River ox carts way

back in the early 1800s. And they would leave ruts that would form the basis of paths that would eventually become portage in Maine. And it was in 1862 that Henry McKenney purchased land where those North, South, and East, West ox cart paths met. And he established a general store with his half brother. And it didn't take long for it to begin to prosper. And then people came into the area, and by 1869, you had about 50 buildings kind of dotting into the area and by 1869, you had about 50 buildings

kind of dotting around the area and 200 people living there. And then eventually Main Street and Portage were officially surveyed and they were made to be about 40 meters wide. And this was to provide ample space for groups of carts that were moving through the area and turning around there because they needed quite a bit of space to be able to do that because the ox carts didn't exactly turn on a dime or anything like that. And then eventually when Winnipeg was incorporated into the city, it was said that the first council meeting at Winnipeg's history took place at a building that was on the corner of Portage in Maine. Although some people say that might not have been, but over the next 125 years, Portage in Maine was really the focus of some of the most important events in the history of Winnipeg. Like what? Well, like the marchers for the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike, they marched through there.

Bobby Hull signed his contract with the WHA Winnipeg Jets in the early 1970s there. And then in 1981, Dale Howarchuck signed his contract at Portage in Maine. That was where they had the Save the Jets rallies to prevent the relocation of the team. And the Portage in Maine has been really ingrained in our culture as well. It's been referenced in music by Randy Bachman, Neil Young, Stan Rogers, Tom Connors. And it has a stamp. We've got to give our listeners a little bit of a picture of of Portage and Maine. I've only been a few times. And from what I remember, it's it's a it's

a very big space, right? It's not just an intersection. It's a very big space. And, and, and sort of at that intersection, I know, I remember there's a beautiful bank building. I know there's a beautiful hotel as well. And it was Winnipeg at a time to correct me if I'm wrong, but Winnipeg was going to be like all the masons who built up Chicago to be the beautiful city that it was once they were done with Chicago, they were making their way to Winnipeg and they were building it out with more modest ambitions. But there is some beautiful mason work in Winnipeg that came from the workers in Chicago. And so Portage and Main is a far broader street than sort of the size that

the city requires. Is that a fair thing to say? Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, Portage and Main is a six-lane street that goes through the center of the city. So it is much larger than you would see. And you're absolutely right with the fact that a lot of masons and such were coming to Winnipeg because it was going to be, it was foreseen to be the Chicago of Canada, the Chicago of the north. And that was one reason why you have these beautiful buildings that are surrounding what is the most important intersection in the city. But let's talk about some one most controversial parts of Portage in Maine

is the fact that all of the all of the foot traffic goes underground. It does. But I've actually I think it was this year that it's actually been opened for foot traffic above ground for the first time in 40 years. Oh, that's what a lot of people said on my on my post. Okay, that's really interesting that you say that because I remember the last time this came up, I was hosting a TV show at another network and the city voted against bringing people to the surface. And it boggled my mind that they wouldn't bring people up because I'd been under there and it's seedy

and it's dangerous and it's dark and it's dank and bad stuff happens in the shadows. And so the fact that they've now done what I think a lot of people wanted them to do is a great sign. So that is great to hear. Now let's talk now about your Canadian history X this week. The episode is about the National Film Board, which a lot of Canadians know of, but they

don't necessarily know. Yeah, the National Film Board had a pretty big impact on our history. And it was founded on May 2nd, 1939. Since that year, it's produced 43,000 productions that have won 5,000 awards. The studio has also earned nearly 70 Academy Award nominations and been honoured with 12 Oscars. That includes the first Oscar ever awarded for a documentary way back in 1941, which Churchill's Island, which was a National Film Board film won. And it's had a kind

of amazing people to come through. I mean, Sidney Newman, who co-created Doctor Woods, one of the presidents of the National Film Board for a time. You had Norman McLaren, who revolutionized animation. He joined the National Film Board in 1920 or 1942. Studio D was founded in 1974 in conjunction with International Women's Year. And this was the first government funded film studio dedicated specifically to female filmmakers. And before it shut down in 1996, it actually won three Oscars. So it was very influential through the 1970s and into the 1980s. What's the NFB's mandate? It's essentially, I think, to document Canada, whether it's through nonfiction or fiction films.

Now it took about till the 1960s before they started to make fiction films. Before that, it was always documentaries. And it really kind of gives a great glimpse of Canada's history, almost like a firsthand account. And one of the great things about the National Film Board is all of the films that they have are free to watch. You can watch it on your iPad or Apple TV or on their website or YouTube channel. And I can't tell you how many hours I've spent working and watching documentaries from like the 1950s of some small town that no one's ever heard of or something like that. Yeah, that's research for your show. But they don't have a profit motive, right? Like their goal is not to make money. Their goal is to tell stories. Absolutely. Yeah, it's not really a goal to make money of any sort. It is to tell stories. Absolutely. Yeah, it's not really a goal to make money of in any sort it is to tell stories. And it's had a big impact on our culture. I mean, two of our most famous films are

at least the our vignettes with the hockey sweater and the log drivers waltz those come from the National Film Board. And I think you know, every Canadian of a certain age can probably sing the log drivers waltz. And that was something that was created through the National Film Board. The ucky sweater. Hey, let's listen to a clip of the National Film Board. The NFB vignette was directed by John Weldon, who had won the Academy Award for best animated short film in 1979 for a special delivery. The Log Driver's Waltz celebrated the art of log driving,

which is the act of taking fell timber down rivers to be transported to sawmills. This was very common in the 1800s and into the 1900s. Lumberjacks would cut down the trees and transport the logs down the river and put them into the water. The river took the logs quickly and for no cost through the sawmill. To ensure the logs made the journey, workers walked and ran along the logs as they floated down the river. It often resembled dancing, hence the name, the Log Driver's Waltz.

In 1977, CBC's Children's Programming Department had contacted the NFB and requested they produce several short films that could be used between programming. The federal government was also in favor of this, wanting to promote national unity. For the next three years, 80 filmmakers from across the country began to make films but without a doubt the most famous is the Log Driver's Waltz. To this day the film is one of the most requested in the entire collection of the National Film Board. It's also been adapted into a children's book. All right and where can people find this? Find Canadian find Canadian History X, my friend.

You can listen to Canadian History X and it's EHX on all podcast platforms. And you can listen to it on the radio on the Chorus Radio Network every weekend. Just check your local listings. Craig Baird, you are a gem. You are a treasure. You are, you should be commemorated by the National Film Board. Maybe one day. Thank you, my friend. Have a great rest of your week. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's interesting. The National Film Board absolutely has a place. But I've talked to a number of producers in this country. And they say because it doesn't have a profit motive, it doesn't go out to look for movies that could become box

office successes. And therefore, they make a lot of movies that unfortunately, people don't end up seeing. And if they were searching for that romantic comedy that was written by a Canadian set in Canada, perhaps that is a story that would go far and wide. They come from Survivor, they come from Big Brother, they know what they're doing. These vets wrote the playbook and they have all had to earn their stripes. How did you win Survivor? Manipulating people, same thing I'm going to do here.

And now new threats will enter the game. Hungry to forge a new legacy. Once we train on it, it's gonna be hard to contain. This really truly is the most even matchup that I've seen in a long time. The Challenge. Vets and new threats. New season Wednesday, July 30th on Slice and Streamin' Stacked TV.