A WORLD GONE MAD

Latest News On Epstein Files, Zelensky’s Top Aide Resigns

• Jeff Alan Wolf • Season 2 • Episode 179

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You’ll hear the latest on the Epstein files and why this story still carries so much weight for people who have been waiting for a moment that feels like it should have already happened. 

It’s a topic that raises questions every time it comes back into the spotlight and this week it steps forward again as people continue watching for what it could reveal about the powerful and the protected.

From there the focus shifts overseas where Ukraine is facing a moment that could reshape its entire direction.

When someone at the very top of the negotiating table suddenly steps away the political ground gets unsteady fast.

This is not a minor bureaucratic departure.

This is a move that raises eyebrows in every capital city watching the war and sends shockwaves through conversations about stability leadership and the future of the conflict.

Back here at home the nation is still processing the heartbreaking targeted shooting that left one young National Guard member dead and another fighting to survive.

These are the moments that stop the air in a room and make the country confront the feeling that safety inside our own borders can shift in an instant.

As the grief settles the political reaction around it becomes its own story. One that is already affecting families workers and entire communities.

That reaction leads directly into the sweeping immigration shift rolled out immediately in response.

A new policy wave from Trump with consequences that reach nineteen countries and millions of lives.

It is the kind of government decision that lands with a thud and keeps echoing long after the cameras turn off because real people have to deal with its fallout the next morning when they wake up.

This episode also looks at what is happening in American retail, and the uneasy question surrounding a once dominant giant fighting for one final breath.

This story is bigger than the store itself.

It’s about what happens when a country that used to shop together in one place watches that symbol fade away and wonders what that disappearance actually says about the direction everything is headed.

Everything in this episode connects because everything in this week’s news feels strangely unstable.

The waiting the resigning the reacting, and the unraveling.

It all hits at once and none of it can be ignored.

So if you want the context, the breakdowns, and the story behind the headlines you heard but did not fully understand then this is the episode for you.


I’m putting together a holiday drive. If you’d like to help support this podcast financially with a small donation, here is the link: 

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https://ko-fi.com/aworldgonemad

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SPEAKER_01:

This is a world on mad. This is a world gone mad.

unknown:

Mad mad mad.

SPEAKER_00:

This is a world gone mad. I'm Jeff Allen Wolf. Welcome to the Friday edition. The part of the week where later in my podcast I share with you the stories that make you pause mid-coffee and say, You're making that up, Jeff. You know, they're so crazy, these stories, you would think that I made them up. The segment later on is called News from the Edge of Sanity. I try to put a smile on your face before you head into your weekend. So let's talk about the real news stories from the last 48 hours. Okay, here we go. This just in. I don't know if you caught this, Wolfpack listeners. This just in. Hey, did you hear the latest news? We're still waiting for the damn Epstein files. Where the hell are the files we were supposed to get? How long are we supposed to sit here waiting? I know they have 30 days, but come on. We've heard absolutely nothing. Not a whisper. We were told they were releasing them. Trump signed off on it. Everybody agreed. And now it's basically screw you, you're not getting a thing. And honestly, the silence is hilarious at this point. It's like someone promised to deliver a pizza and instead just vanished into the woods. You keep checking the door like an idiot, nothing. You refresh the newsfeed on your phone. Nothing. We're refreshing like maniacs, waiting for the big secrets of the powerful to fall out of the sky. Still nothing. If these files were any more delayed, they'd be an airline. This is the only countdown in America where the clock keeps ticking, but nobody is actually moving. Tick tock, tick tock, my ass. If the government moved any slower, it would be going backward. And while we're waiting for that circus to finally open, the next story rolls in from Ukraine, where the ground's shifting again. Zelensky's top aide has resigned. Not some mid-level staffer. This is the lead peace negotiator, the person in the room during critical talks to stop the war, or rather the invasion, from Russia. Gone in an instant after an anti-corruption raid at his home. This is the kind of thing that in any other country would set off alarm bells that shake the wallpaper. The guy negotiating peace walks out the door during a war because of a corruption raid. You can't script that. This is the political version of your surgeon walking out halfway through the operation because the IRS just showed up. Everything freezes, everyone panics, you can hear the beeps on the machine start speeding up. Ukraine already has enough on its plate. And now the peace negotiator is packing a suitcase. Perfect. Just what a war needs. A sudden leadership vacuum that always calms things down, right? If the battlefield didn't feel unstable enough, now the negotiating table is wobbling too. The timing couldn't be worse. In the middle of a war, in the middle of fragile negotiations, in the middle of trying to convince the world that Ukraine's got stability inside and outside. Confidence takes a hit when someone that high up suddenly steps down. The battlefield's already unpredictable, and now the political side looks shaky too. Back here in the United States, the country's still absorbing the tragic targeted shooting that took the life of the young lady, a National Guard member who is only 20 years old, while the other guardsman is still in critical condition. These are the moments that make the whole nation freeze. People who serve shouldn't have to worry about being targeted in their own country. Families are grieving, communities are shaken, and once again we're left with questions about safety and stability inside our own borders. And yes, Trump did express condolences, but right after that he shifted straight into full-blown political theater. His grief wasn't even cold before he launched into the immigration crackdown. He clearly wanted to push, using the moment to hit the policy button he was already holding and announcing a massive green card crackdown in direct response to this shooting. As all of that from the National Guard shooting unfolds, the administration announced a sweeping immigration review that affects 19 countries. Every green card from those countries will now be re-examined. Trump also announced he's permanently pausing immigration from those same 19 countries. Of course he did. Because why deal with the actual cause of a shooting when you could instead punish 19 entire countries? That's like someone spills coffee in your kitchen, and your solution is to burn down Starbucks worldwide. This isn't solving anything. It's just Trump using his kingly fake powers to do whatever he wants and grabbing any excuse he can to implement them. Millions of people who've lived here peacefully for years now get to live with fear and confusion because the president needed to look strong for 15 seconds on camera. A permanent pause from 19 countries. Do you understand how massive of a hammer that is? And Trump swung it like he was trying to kill a spider. This isn't small. This hits families. This hits workers. This hits longtime residents who've lived here for years without ever imagining their legal status, would suddenly be tossed back into uncertainty. Expect legal battles. Expect political fire. Expect this to dominate the national conversation because it touches real people and real communities on a massive scale. And then there's Sears. That's right, the department store Sears, an American giant that refuses to die, but might finally be taking its last breath. Another Black Friday's come and gone, and the numbers are horrible. The stores that remain are shells of what they used to be, the brands barely recognizable. And people keep asking the same question. Is this finally the last Black Friday for Sears? If not this year, then very soon. We're watching the slow fade out of a company that once shaped how America shopped. A reminder that nothing lasts if it refuses to evolve. And Sears is the perfect metaphor for everything else going on. A giant that waited too long to make changes, a brand that keeps pretending it was still 1987, while the world moved 10 miles ahead. You walk into a Sears department store now, and it feels like the retail version of a ghost story. Empty aisles, two employees' tops, lights flickering like they're being powered by a hamster on a wheel. This company used to own America. Now it couldn't own a lemonade stand. And honestly, watching Sears fade out is like watching the country's mall error take its final bow. It's nostalgia and sadness, and holy hell, how is this place still open? All rolled into one. This is the news cycle right now. One story hits, and before it can settle, another one arrives. Epstein files still sealed. A peace negotiator gone in Ukraine. A heartbreaking shooting in our own National Guard. A massive immigration shakeup. A retail department store giant barely hanging on. Every headline connects to the next because everything feels unstable at the same time. It's a constant stream of motion with no pause button. We keep watching, we keep questioning, we keep calling it out because the world's moving fast, and none of these stories can be ignored. Okay, Wolfpack listeners, it's time for news from the edge of sanity. These crazy, bizarre, offbeat stories exist in the world because why the hell not? Okay. So the Polk County Sheriff's Office in Florida gets an early call in the morning. Very early. You know, the kind of early where nobody should be outside except joggers, raccoons, people making terrible decisions. It's around six in the morning. It's still dark out. It's 36 degrees in Florida. Florida's not supposed to be 36 degrees, but here we are. Deputies start driving the stretch of road, looking for whatever the caller reported. They expect the usual stuff: a suspicious car, maybe someone sleeping on a bench, a drunk guy arguing with a mailbox, you know, Florida things. Then they spot movement on the side of the road, a person walking. The kind of walking that says this is someone who's out here for no good reason at all. So the deputies pull up, roll the window down, and that's when the morning really takes a turn. The police ask the guy, but the guy refuses to identify himself. He gives a fake name, not even a believable one. The deputies run it and it comes back as nothing. So they get out of the car to take a look, closer look at this guy. And that's when the entire situation shifts from routine call to what in the hell am I looking at before sunrise? Because the man's not wearing a jacket or a shirt or shoes or even pants. The man's wearing nothing. Absolutely nothing. He's standing in 36 degree weather in Florida with not a single piece of clothing on. He's shivering, he's fumbling, he's not making sense, and he doesn't even have a phone. Sheriff Grady, judge, summed it up perfectly. You're really naked when you don't even have your cell phone. So the deputies ask this man what's going on, and he tells the police officers the sentence that explains absolutely nothing, but somehow makes the whole thing even dumber. The man says it was a TikTok prank gone wrong. A TikTok prank at 6 in the morning in 36 degree weather with no clothes and no phone. That's not a prank. That's someone whose brain hit the snooze button and never woke up. The man's arrested. He's taken to jail. He's released on bond. And somewhere out there is a TikTok video that never got made because the star forgot to bring the one thing you need to film a prank. A phone. And that right there, listeners, is why news from the edge of sanity exists. Story number two, come on down. Every courtroom has its own personality. Some are strict, some are slow, some are so boring you start counting the ceiling tiles just to stay alive. But every now and then you hear about a courtroom that makes you stop and go, wait a minute, what exactly is happening in there? That's what people in St. Charles County, Missouri started asking. Because word had been floating out for a while that one particular judge was doing things a little differently in his courtroom. People would step into his courtroom, come out looking like they'd just seen a UFO. Everyone had the same expression: confused, amused, slightly traumatized. The kind of face you only make when something completely unexpected has just happened in a place where nothing unexpected is supposed to happen. And it started small, little hints that something was off, a few smiles from people in the gallery, a couple of attorneys looking around like they were trying to figure out if this was a prank show. Then the stories grew. Someone swore they heard music. Others whispered that the judge was talking about the king. Not the legal kind of king, definitely not Donald Trump the wannabe king, the other king. So the state's judicial conduct folks finally took a look. And that's when the entire picture snapped into focus. Because the rumors weren't rumors, they were real. The judge had been holding court while wearing an Elvis Presley wig on the bench, as in robe plus wig. He'd also been playing Elvis music during proceedings from his phone in the courtroom. While people stood there trying to have their legal matters handled, he even gave people the choice to be sworn into Elvis songs. Imagine standing there in front of a judge who's supposed to determine your fate and hearing Viva Las Vegas echo through the courtroom. Imagine trying to keep a straight face while the judge nods along like he's at a concert. This wasn't one incident. This was a pattern. So the Judicial Commission stepped in and said, This isn't decorum. This isn't how a courtroom is supposed to be run. And they reached an agreement. The judge will be suspended for six months without pay. After that, he'll return briefly to the bench and then step down from the bench entirely. A judge wearing an Elvis wig, playing Elvis music, turning the courtroom into a tribute act, and somehow the judge acting shocked that anyone had a problem with it. That's not justice, that's not order, that's someone turning the legal system into karaoke night. And you almost feel sorry for the judge. He loves Elvis, he committed to the bit, but if there's one thing you never do with a judge who thinks he's the king, you never step on his blue suede shoes. And this is exactly why news from the edge of sanity has a permanent place in the world. Because somewhere out there, there's someone always ready to prove that reality is stranger than anything you could ever make up. Hope you, the listener, got a smile or two out of these stories for your weekend. And don't forget, I'm doing a live stream show on TikTok. I know some of you hate TikTok. You don't use TikTok. You don't know what TikTok is, but I stream there live Sunday mornings, 9.30 a.m. to 1010 a.m. every Sunday. Tuesday nights and Thursday nights, 9.15 p.m. to 9.55 p.m. It's free. You just need to have the app on your phone or your computer. It's not these episodes of a World Gone Mad podcast. These are live shows of a World Gone Mad with people in the room interacting. I had several people write me and said they couldn't find my live stream. You have to use the letter A in the title when you're searching for me on TikTok. When you share to others, don't tell them to check out World Gone Mad. It's not that. It's A World Gone Mad. Please use the A. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, found a little joy and happiness among friends and family. And even if you were by yourself for the first time, I hope you did something special for yourself. And to the Wolfpack listeners, I still have my holiday fundraiser for my podcast to help offset some of the costs associated with doing this podcast for two years. This is optional. I have a goal of$50,000, but my initial goal is to raise only$1,500 before the holidays by the end of the year. To those of you that have already contributed to this, thank you. Those few dollars have helped. This is a World Gone Man. I'm Jeff Allen Wolf. I will be back Monday. Until then, Wolfback listeners, remain skeptical, keep focused, but most of all, stay hopeful.

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There is chaos in the world.

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Jeff Alan Wolf

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